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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: 70mm projection staffing when introduced
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Paul H. Rayton
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 210
From: Los Angeles, CA , USA
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 01-19-2009 10:51 PM
From one of the Pauls that Bill Gabel mentioned in his post earlier, about the Avco -- a few final (?) reminiscences from the good ol' days of the AVCO in Westwood:
It was a "two man house" from the earliest days of operation (opened in, approx. '72 or '73 or so), one man downstairs for the big theatre, and one man upstairs for the twins.
The first time I ever worked there was in about 1977, on a relief basis, running "The Turning Point". At that time, it was two man operation, and I was downstairs.
When I started working there full time, which was in January, 1984, it had gone one man, and one guy did everything, upstairs and downstairs. I made the joke that working there (running up and down the two flights of stairs) must be equivalent to "dog lives", in that our lifespan would be shortened by the occasional panic runs up and down the steps. But now, in retrospect, maybe that stairway extended our lives, rather that shortening them.
We had a wonderful long run of "Out of Africa" (1985, into 1986), and that one was long enough that we had 3 reels of 70mm downstairs, necessitating a change-out of reels to complete the movie. We'd leave built-up reel #1 tails out, put on the smaller, shorter reel #3, and then rewind both during the intermission, to end up with reel #1 ready to thread for the next show. There was no lift, so removing a full reel from the upper (feed) spindle was completely impossible.
The PEC-1000 automation (and, more particularly, the cue pickup for it) was problematic. I hated it. It was a major accomplishment to get the cue sensor into precisely the "right" position so it would reliably catch the foil cue (which, in 70mm, moves a bit faster than 35mm) for the changeover. And every now and then it missed. Damn! As often as we could, we'd try to be downstairs for the changes, but sometimes scheduling just didn't allow for it, and of course **THAT** would be the time the cue failed to trigger the changeover. Loverly.
As for Bill's comments on the sound equipment, he's right, but that was a bit later on. When I first started there, it was a li'l ol' CP-50 upstairs there in Cinema 2, as it was known at the time -- the smallest of the theatres there. Later upgraded to the CP-200.
I've got photos of some of these things, esp. the colossal reels for 70mm in the big theatre (Cinema 1), and one of these days I'll have time to dig them out and post them...
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