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Topic: 70mm projection staffing when introduced

Bob Koch
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 183
From: williams ca
Registered: Nov 2001

posted 01-11-2009 02:36 PM

Worked 3 proj cinerama[How the West was Won],whatever year that was at the Esquire[now Imax]in Sacramento and we had lifts for the reels by each proj. Had a 4 man crew, one on each proj,one on the sound transport. Center proj guy was the "leadman". Also worked "My Fair Lady"70mm changeover at the old Alhambra Theatre and there were two of us. Worked there over a year or more every Sat&Sun nite same print and we did a good job. You changed over into your machine and didnt leave it`s side untill the next c.o.

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Mark Lensenmayer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1605
From: Upper Arlington, OH
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 01-11-2009 05:30 PM

Roland Lataille's CINERAMA HISTORY site has a picture of the reel elevator system, which was originally in the July 8, 1963 issue of BOXOFFICE.

3 Strip Cinerama Reel Elevators

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Dick Prather
Master Film Handler

Posts: 259
From: Portland, OR, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 01-11-2009 06:21 PM

I think each city was different based on union contracts. In Portland, OR 70mm was 2 man from the start (1955 Oklahoma at the Broadway Theatre)until the early 70's when the contract was changed to 1 man for all size films. 3 strip Cinerama was always 4 man.
Dick

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 01-11-2009 08:43 PM

Great pictures, Mark. The Seattle Cinerama still has reel hoists. Don't know if they're original though. The current Cinerama projectors aren't.

In it's original configuration, the curtain traveled through those front exit alcoves, and accumulated into a compartment on the other side. The theatre had to post staff members at those exits whenever the full screen was opened.

Dick, maybe my recollection is wrong about 5 operators. That's how I remember it, but '63 was a few years ago! [Smile]

I sure would have liked to see how much of a challenge it might have been to keep 3 arc lamps matched up through the entire reel.

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Caleb Johnstone-Cowan
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 593
From: London, UK
Registered: Mar 2006

posted 01-11-2009 11:13 PM

This is from here, sorry to drift the thread:

Over a dozen technicians were required to run the early Cinerama showings but the crew came down to a maximum of six as the system was refined. The crew consisted of three projectionists operating the Able, Baker, and Charlie projectors, an operator in charge of the sound dubber, a control engineer that monitored the show and directed the four operators to make adjustments as necessary though the system had become rugged enough that minimal adjustments were required once the show was up and running.

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Warren Smyth
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 158
From: Auckland ,New Zealand
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 01-12-2009 05:27 AM

I have never heard of the term "stacked",until mention of it here. All the 70mm features I ran had fairly loaded reels such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Alamo, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Camelot, Is Paris Burning, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Oliver, Sweet Charity, Funny Girl, Waterloo, Cromwell, and others, but only Battle of the Bulge was on smaller reels.

This was a 70mm Cinerama print and I got an urgent message from Warners 20 minutes before the start on the opening day, to remove the Cinerama title. We only had a Todd AO type, slight curve, in the screen and naturally, no Cinerama lens. Warners obviously didn't want the Cinerama name associated with our presentation for good reason. The result was pretty awful with the tanks bending away at the sides of the screen as they passed.

Very interesing to see the photo of the 10,000 foot 35mm reel lifter. These reels were pretty heavy too with the same size shaft. The trick with large reels was to fix your eyes on the end of the shaft as you lifted the reel which would then obstruct your view of the shaft, engauging it with the centre bore of the reel first time. If you missed, it was easier to bring it down to the floor and have another go until you struck it dead centre. If you missed and wriggled it round, invariably the hinged end of the shaft would flip over. There was a hinge for the 70mm length of shaft and another one at 90 degrees for 35mm length so you had a great chance of failure. By that time you had fatigue wobbles with the heavy weight of a loaded reel. You had no choice but to bring it down to the floor, take a few deep breaths and have another go and hope that the out going reel on the sreen didn't run out before you had completed your mission.

They were great days though. Isn't it strange how you can remember the make and model of projectors, where you were, the year and events that were happening in your life, by the title of the films you ran?

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 01-12-2009 06:53 AM

The 70mm reel was designed around Todd-AO at 30fps. Its dimensions were a 22" flange with an 8" hub. As such, with the exception of Oklahoma! and Around The World in 80 Days, most every other feature was at 24fps.

Furthermore, most 70mm features made before 1980 had their reels balanced to work with 35mm magnetic acetate on their 15" house reels. Therefore, a typical 70mm feature would have a reel that appeared very un-full.

I would never tolerate building up the reels. With magnetic sound, splicing reels together always telegraphed the reel change since the splice would hit the soundhead first. The human brain is very well conditioned for sound to occur after image, but not vice-versa. That is why sound preceding image lip-sync is much more noticable than sound laging after image on lip-sync.

By and large, most every 70mm feature I handled (and there were a GREAT many of them), the reels were typically 1/2-2/3rds full with some even less so, depending how editing went after the initial reel balancing.

Steve

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Robert Throop
Master Film Handler

Posts: 412
From: Vernon, NY USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-12-2009 07:59 AM

quote: Tim Reed
Well, back in the nitrate days, the reason they wanted an operator for each machine was so there'd always be a man stationed beside the projector, who could quickly shut it down in case of a film break. That was the reason the union gave, at least. Maybe the 70mm practice was some kind of holdover?

In upstate NY (Syracuse, Utica, Albany,and Rochester) 35mm was two man until about 1960. Buffalo still had two man booths in the downtown houses and drive ins till the late sixties. I think that when the one man shift was negotiated for 35mm the exhibitors agreed to its continuation for 70 as an incentive.
70mm was one man every where by the early seventies.
Bob

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 01-12-2009 09:05 AM

I've never ran 70mm but apparently the movie Elizabeth was the last movie shot and released in it and it had a total of 20 reels, though some of them were 5-7 minutes long.

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Mark Lensenmayer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1605
From: Upper Arlington, OH
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 01-12-2009 09:41 AM

Chris, I believe the film you are thinking of is Kenneth Branaugh's HAMLET from late 1996.

Scott Marshall has some video of the Paris theatre running this film here.

As for CINERAMA, I think some of the later installations (with 1 booth) only used 3 operators without a control engineer.

Many of the late 70's & 80's 70mm films locally were run by one operator. At one fabled location, the 70mm projector and platter were set open in the lobby for all to see. The 70mm film made a nice dust magnet to attract dirt and smoke from the lobby. Not the best way to run 70mm, but this theatre had more 70mm screenings than any other in the area.

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 01-12-2009 12:49 PM

Dick might recall the old Moyer house in his area, which had its projectors mounted on a catwalk above the concessions. The machines shot over the heads of lobby patrons, and through large windows at the back of each auditorium. I always wondered if concession activities below contributed to any problems above.

At least one of the Star Trek or Star Wars films was shown in 70mm there. Not sure which... it was back in the early '80s.

Trying to remember... was that the "Rose Moyer"?

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Tony Bandiera Jr
Film God

Posts: 3067
From: Moreland Idaho
Registered: Apr 2004

posted 01-12-2009 01:54 PM

quote: Bill Gabel
When the AVCO was a triplex it had two operators, one in the downstairs booth. Which was equipped with two V-8's and large Cinerama size style reels. For 35mm we put the whole feature on one large reel, for 70MM we broke the feature into two parts because of the weight. All three rooms had the Pec-1000 (I think that was the model number). The upstairs booths was one large booth long booth. They were equipped with two V-8's projectors in both theatres and did auto changeovers with CP-200's in all booths. The reels were large 6K size reels.

Bill, thanks for the corrections..it was over 20 years ago when I made my last visit to the Avco (first run of "Top Gun") and I do seem to get dyslexic memory as the years go on...

One thing I do question though..are you sure about the two operators/shift? I only recall dealing with Ivan on all my visits there and don't remember ever seeing a second projectionist there.....

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Bill Gabel
Film God

Posts: 3873
From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 01-12-2009 03:23 PM

Tony, the two men was when the theatre opened long time ago. But one man operated both booths when I was around there. I remember Ivan , Paul , Paul and OJ (no not that one). The last Local 150 guys in there was OJ and Jerry. (he is the reason for using platters on all screenings there)

You said First Run of "Top Gun", that opened over at National in 70MM (May 16-July 1) and moved over to Regent (July 2) and back to the National (Aug. 8) and then to the Bruin (Sept. 26).

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 01-12-2009 04:14 PM

Mark's link to the Paris Theatre's showing of Kenneth Bragnah's HAMLET in 70mm was interesting. There was also a link on Utube on London's Odeon Hammersmith theatre operation in their projection booth that made me regret not watching a movie there last year when I was in the UK.

Regarding theatre staffing, a 70mm showing of Tim Burton's BATMAN made front page news when the Honolulu Advertiser reported the accidental trashing of a considerable amount of footage at the Waikiki #3 when a projectionist working alone was careless. A backup 35mm print was put into service and played in that format for one week until Warner Brothers decided to send a 70mm replacement reel. I am glad they did this because I have not seen the movie in 70mm yet. I was not so lucky when it happened again at the Kapiolani when a 70mm print of WHO FRAMMED ROGER RABBIT was badly damaged during the third week run of the film and I had not seen it yet. When I did, I was forced to see it in 35mm and I was pissed!

-Claude:

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Dick Prather
Master Film Handler

Posts: 259
From: Portland, OR, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 01-12-2009 05:11 PM

Jack, that was the "Rose Moyer". I always thought that was bad for the film. I think it was built to be easily converted to a wherehouse if the theatre didn't work out. They did run a early "Star Trek". "Starwars" ran at the "Westgate". I think both in 70mm. Portland had, at least 10 - 15 houses equipped for 70mm in the 70's.

The Portland "Fox" ran "Sound of Music" in 70mm for 2 1/2 years with the same print. They used Century JJ2 projectors. Most Portland area theatres used Norelco machines.

Dick

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