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Author Topic: List some dumb things you have seen projectionists do Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 05-02-2006 12:32 AM                     quote: Frank Angel With the good ole Magnarcs .. when your negative is too short for the run, I'd shove a new rod BEHIND the short one by very gradually opening up the jaws with the lock arm - not to loose arc connection, then suddenly and quickly dump the knife switch, shove that old stub through with the new rod, roll the negative unit back with one turn (knowing that one turn is a good 2 inches of negative feed), snap down the lock arm, throw the knife switch and do a hurry up strike..all in 10 seconds..or less.. Ah..once again, the fun stuff as a "projectionist of yore" -Monte  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-02-2006 12:48 AM                     Gosh, I really do hate the hassle of xenons running out of life and platters running the reels in the wrong order!  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-02-2006 12:59 AM                        Yeah, but if I run a reel out of order, I can fix it in about 45 seconds. Try doing THAT with a reel spliced out of order on a platter!  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-02-2006 01:34 AM                        quote: Monte L Fullmer Now, what's bad is when you do the changeover and you've forgotten to check for positive carbon length and the rod is way too short for the duration of the reel. I did that a time or three. Probably the dumbest thing I ever did in my changeover days was, I was running the first show of a new movie and somehow I got it in my head it was a 5-reel print. So I thread up reel 5 and it's running, and I'm relaxing and just sort of watching the end of the movie...only it's not ending. "This is going to be the most abrupt ending in the history of cinema," I'm thinking, when finally with about a minute or 90 seconds of film left to play in reel 5, I happened to glance at the can...and there was reel 6, still with paper band in place! And this was back in the days when most everything arrived tails up, so there I was frantically hand-winding that thing as fast as I could when reel 5 ran out....then the owner came busting into the room and chewed me out good. Needless to say I was better about verifying the # of reels after that. Can't remember the movie title but I do remember it had Brian Keith in it.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 05-02-2006 03:21 PM                     This is heaven - what a "real" projectionist does:  |  IP: Logged Rick Raskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1100 From: Manassas Virginia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 05-02-2006 04:20 PM                     Notice a real projectionist who doesn't let the film touch the floor. My goof was once when I was working at the old Penn Theatre in DC. The regular operator had spliced trailers to the head of reel 1 which overflowed the reel by about an inch. Likewise Reel 5, a short reel, had been spliced onto reel 4 and overflowed by the same amount. When I changed over to reel 4, trailers hit the screen. I raced to thread up the correct reel on the outbound machine, trimmed carbon and made another changeover back to the correct reel as the trailer ended. Never a complaint. I guess the audience thought it was just a commercial.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 05-03-2006 12:15 AM                     quote: Mike Blakesley ....then the owner came busting into the room and chewed me out good. Needless to say I was better about verifying the # of reels after that. ..wait until you hit that so-called last reel since it's your first night on shift and another operator worked the opening film date. You hit that so-called last reel,and as Mike mentioned, that "last" reel was coming up and you suddenly realize that wasn't the last reel...but, where in the frik was that last reel? You looked in the cabinet and you're certain that you pulled that last reel out since the next bin was empty. Then, I started to panic: I went through each bin and found a reel of film ..unrewound and it was the last reel. Previous kid operator placed that reel in the wrong bin-he was too lazy to rewind that last reel at the end of the night and just placed it in the wrong bin ..way down at the end of the cabinet set so he can get out of there in a quick. So, as what Mike did, cranked my arm off rewinding that reel - and just in time since the reel alarm went off while I was cranking away like mad, and we had a good two minute delay from alarm to first cue to be seen on the screen, thus, even though I missed the first cues when I was done, I only allowed the "4" and "3" to hit the screen when I punched the dowser and sound changeover. I told this to the chief projectionist and he immediately took that lazy idiot out of the booth immediately. That kid was the assistant manager's brother who needed a job. Only the STRONG MUTS can rewind a reel faster than cranking your arm off on those Neumade crank assemblies. I became the chief projectionist at this theatre 4 yrs later due to the retirement of the previous chief projectionist. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-03-2006 01:50 AM                        OK, but you guys actually HAD the last reel and you cranked and you got it on the screen. I had a situation that didn't have that happy ending. The museum where I freelance was also breaking in another freelancer and asked me if I would show him the oddities of the booth. As it turns out, he had only worked platters so I was walking him thru the oddities of the booth and the changeover operation. The museum programming is very eclectic and they book all kinds of odd stuff, so when I went found a single can in the booth with four reels in it, I figured, OK, another one of those artsy-fartsy films and thank you that it's short. And of course they never schedule a preshow run, so it's hand inspect and on the screen she goes. Only this day I was distracted by my new coworker. No excuse, but there it is. Now I run the show and all is fine, perfect changeovers (he's very impressed) and as I am blathering away I am hearing the dialogue out of one ear while trying to answer his questions at the same time I am looking at the 5 minutes of the "last reel." Seems those characters on the screen are talking about going into town to do something that sounds to me like a setup for a sequel, because by god they are not going to get it done by the end of this reel. It dawns on me we are wadding up to our noses in it and we are about to go under. I ask him, "Uhh, Jason, is there another can somewhere?" He senses my urgency. "Why?" "Well, this reel here is about to end and it's not the end of the movie." He turns white....I swear, even in the darkened booth with blue show lights, it is as if someone just sucked all the blood out of him. He tries to ask a question, but can't even formulate it. Then he almost whispers, but in a high, almost girlie voice, "But that's the cue." I taught him well. "Yes, Jason, now we bring up the lights." He is shaking. "Now what are you going to do?" he asks. And I swear, this is exactly how I said it, "Oh, I am not going to do anything....YOU are going to go out and tell the people that we don't have the last two reels of the film." I saw that he was so terrified that I had to help out or he could have fainted right then and there. I said, not to worry that I would go out and tell them. Which I did and they took it very nicely. I said we were very sorry, they could get refunds, etc., and I thought I was going to get away scott free until one guy asked the question that I almost ducked -- "Well, how come you didn't know this wasn't the last reel before you started showing it." I knew that in my defense I couldn't tell him that there actually was a fade out at the end of the reel and that I was gabbing away and distracted by the new guy on the block, maybe soon to be the only guy on the block. I just mumbled something to the effect that I was sorry and slunk away back into the booth, where, BTW, there was no escape because the entire front wall is glass -- Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide!! Jason and I became great friends but both of us only talk about that day when know one else is around and then only in hushed tones. But we do get a great laugh out of it.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 05-03-2006 03:58 AM                     ..Frank - That's a good one. Ever find that other can of film that should have been with the other 4reel can, or just a shipping goofup and only one can was shipped? Went to one of my theatres that I take care of (back when Matrix 2 came out) to watch the movie for a pre screening. Danged if I didn't see reel 4 being played back to back. ETS had shipped out two, reel 4's, and no reel 5 in the one can and the 'booth clown' at this theatre didn't catch this goofup when building. Might say, that the first two showings were cancelled until that missing reel 5 was shipped in the next day. I've told, told and told these idiots to check the prints immediately when they get arrive at the theatres, so if there is a goofup, the depots can be called immediately to order the proper print correction so that the corrected delivery can arrive early on Friday. But, do you think that they listen, at least one percent of the time? - thx Monte  |  IP: Logged Christopher Meredith Expert Film Handler Posts: 126 From: Jackson, MS, USA Registered: Apr 2006 posted 05-03-2006 07:10 PM                        I'm sure this is not the best place for my first post, but I will admit the dumbest thing I've ever done. Within the first few weeks of my "promotion" to the booth, I was in a situation where I had threaded a movie up in the wrong house. So what did I do? I attempted to move the print (White Chicks) by myself... with no ring in the middle. I cranked something like 8 film clamps on it and slid it into my arms. I waddled over to the right house and dumped the thing on the platter, taking off the clamps and forming it into the best circle I could. I managed to get it threaded back up and started right on time. Of course, I did have to manually spin the platter the whole time cause we have Strong platters with motors which have been rebuilt a half dozen times. They tend to backwrap a little, then "catch up" real fast, which would certainly have sent my messy print off the platter.  |  IP: Logged William Collins Film Handler Posts: 18 From: Porirua, Wellington, New Zealand Registered: May 2006 posted 05-03-2006 07:33 PM                     I got a good one. Whilst I was working for a 6 screen cinema in the UK, there was a young girl employed who decided to just 'have a go' at being a projectionist. she was trained up to do the simplest of things, and she was asked to plate off a film. At the time she was on her own in the booth and she set everything up but couldnt find a spare ring to put in the centre of the film. so she thought that she would try doing it with out a ring but slowly! she started it going slowly, and left it for a few seconds. then woosh, the whole print came flaying off the platter and onto the floor in a giant ball of film. The silly girl then tried to rectify this on her own with out telling anyone and spent about 4 hours winding the film from the tangled mess on the floor onto spools manually! Least to say when I re-made the print and played it to check the damage, it was, ruined. she later removed herself from the booth and back to making popcorn!  |  IP: Logged Paul Burt Film Handler Posts: 46 From: San Francisco, CA, United States Registered: Apr 2006 posted 05-06-2006 05:54 PM                     I had a screening of "Fight Club" for some academy members back when the film was under consideration. The print arrived shortly before screen time, and since we do changeovers, I just checked the heads of the reels. All seemed fine: the leaders were double spliced on all reels, and properly labeled. Since it was a US release print, I assumed the cue marks & such were normal, as they always are, especially since the print had come from the studio. Midway through reel two there was a splice, in the middle of a scene. The picture reversed, and the soundtrack showed up on the right side of the screen. Frantically, I unthreaded the machine, reversed the splice, and started up again. A few minutes later the film reversed again, at another obviously deliberate splice. I was beginning to suspect that the last operator had taken the antics of the character Tyler Durden to heart. At the changover to reel 5, the film came up upside down and backward. The leaders were spliced on that way, at both ends (both of which were very dark scenes & hard to make out). And as a final bit of fun, the last operator had glued a piece of felt to the middle of reel 6, so the film lost the loop going through the gate. And in case anyone missed the point, he had spliced selected frames OUT of the film. All in all, the worst evening in the booth, and the nastiest trashing of a film I've seen.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 05-07-2006 05:44 AM                        My first 'solo' screening at a London arthouse was the Thursday afternoon old folks' matinee, which that week was Brief Encounter. The chief projectionist was generally pissed off at life, the world and everything (and me, who he thought had been brought in as part of a plan to ease him out). He'd made up the print and left it on six 2k running spools in the rack. As builders were in the following morning, there was to be no time for a rehearsal screening, but he'd assured me that he'd checked the print and that it would run OK. I found out the hard way that he'd removed reel 4, put it in his locker and substituted it for a reel of a hard core gay porn film called No Skin Off My Ass. So I did a seemless changeover from Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard whispering discreetly to each other on the railway station, to two skinheads having oral sex! What made it worse was that I knew the changeover shutter on the outgoing machine to be a bit sticky, so immediately after the changeover I dashed over to close the douser, and didn't actually realise what was on the screen until, I'd guess, around 20 seconds of it. The incident made the local paper, and it's a wonder there weren't any heart attacks in the audience.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 05-07-2006 01:56 PM                     I was running a movie about the Andes plane crash of 1972, called "Survive" .. in late 1976. Up in the booth, we had a PA system to make announcements through the sound system. Dummy here made an announcement that the snakbar was closing when it was time .AND...when the survivors of this crash were doing the cannibalistic duty to survive. BAD TIMING!! ... talk about the roar of laughter coming from the audience..and the manager came up to the booth, screaming at me for my horrible bad timing...but we laughed about it afterwards when we left the theatre that night... I learned from then on to pay more attention when I do announcements - to find a segment that has nothing to do with food sales,.or eating. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Kara J. McVay Film Handler Posts: 95 From: Delaware, OH Registered: May 2002 posted 05-07-2006 05:18 PM                        This is one we still laugh about, we still had 2 booths that were both reel to reel carbon booths on 2 different levels. We usually had just one of us running both booths, so it was a constant back and forth thing. Anyway if both movies were lets say 5 reels, we would build up to 6K reels like: 3 & 2 and the other booth 2 & 3. We had had a movie for a while running in booth #2 that WAS for weeks in a 2 & 3 format, but we got in another movie and made it 3 & 2. I can't rember why, but it worked out better for the changeover. We were training a new girl Bobbi to do changeovers, she only worked on the weekends, so she didn't know we switched the reels. So she came in to work, we forgot to tell her and all of a sudden she sees the changover scene approaching, she panics and tries to light the carbons on the #2 projector too fast and shoved them so hard together that they were standing straight up in the air. She came running up to the other booth in a panic that she was going to miss the changeover, we went back down and pointed to the 6K reel with 20 min. of film left. 20 years later we still giggle about that. Carbons, oh how I miss you......  |  IP: Logged

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