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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Topic: Rewind table with no speed control
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 12-13-2009 05:24 AM
quote:
There is no 'adjacent room' at our place. Small, little booth (I can get measurements tonight), small lobby/concession stand and then the 65-seat auditorium. The space was a regular storefront that was converted to a theatre. Even the bathroom is in a crazy place...down front to the right of the screen...in the auditorium! In that respect, it is probably good that we have an intermission!
Celine, you've got me beat by 3; the place where I used to project occasionally until quite recently was a single screen with 68 seats. It is part of an arts centre in an old library, with the new library built alongside. Projection rooms are often squeezed into awkward spaces in these sort of places. This one stretched the full width of the auditorium, but was only just over two metres deep. As you came in the door on the left there was space for storage of film boxes, 35mm machine No.1, port for video or slide projector with drop-down flap for it to stand on, a 16 mm machine was also sometimes used here, 35mm machine No.2, then a digital projector, then sound rack, then projectionist's desk. On the other side, working back towards the door, there was a large hole in the floor, about a metre square, with a ladder going down to serve as the fire escape, powered rewind bench, hand rewind bench, mounted on a cupboard which held various spares, staff lockers, and space for storing the 16mm machine. There was just room to squeeze through between the backs of the lamphouses and rectifiers on one side, and the rewind benches on the other. I never did manage to get a decent picture of the place, even with a wide angle lens while standing on the ladder.
Many small independant cinemas in the UK run film on towers, which are similar to the thing Scott posted a picture of, but with one spool mounted above the other; they don't take a lot of floor space, but are limited to about 2 1/4 hours of film, maybe a bit more with polyester. A common way of working is to run the adverts and trailers on a small spool on the projector while the adverts and features are rewinding on the tower. It's possible to rewind a feature in about 15 minutes, but I prefer to do it more slowly, at about half this speed.
I've projected in a number of cinemas over the years, but I've never run film on a platter, or even in a cinema which had one, they don't seem to be very common in independent, art-house type places over here. I'd say 95% of the shows I've run have been changeovers, with the others on towers, plus a few on one machine with 6k spools as you are now doing, while one machine had broken down, and was awaiting parts.
This page:
web page
from the Kinoton shows both side by side and upright versions. This is the German version of the site, but the pictures are the same. The upright type is the most common in the UK, mainly versions by Westrex and Cinemeccanica the side by side type is sometimes used for portable(ish) temporary installations.
The upright type takes up less floor space, as you don't space on both sides of it, but the upright type involves lifting full spools onto the upper spindle, and they are heavy. Many cinemas now do not allow a single person to lift spools onto the tower on their own, so you have to find somebody else to help you. Not too much of a problem if you're running the same feature all week, but a pain if its a different one for each show. This is obviously an advantage with the side by side type. There are also upright type towers which are double sided; the whole tower can be rotated after the show, to allow the next film to be run from the other side, while the previous one is rewinding.
Westrex tower
Shows a double sided Westrex tower. The picture is by Bernard Tonks, and the website by Hugh McCullough, both of whom are members here.
I've even seen a tower which was able to take 70mm, though it was only being used for 35mm. I wouldn't want to lift a 70mm print onto it.
The Phoenix, East Finchley, has a gents toilet next to the screen, but on the left, the ladies is in the foyer, and another gents up a few steps of a staircase which used to lead to the auditorium, but since the last refurbishment leads only to the office, and then to the projection room. I don't know why there are two gents facilities, it's useful now for disabled access, but I doubt that such things were considered when this place was built in 1910, or in 1938 when the auditorium was turned round the other way; maybe that's why the gents is at the front.
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Celine Negrete
Film Handler
Posts: 70
From: Nevada City, CA
Registered: Nov 2009
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posted 12-13-2009 01:34 PM
The double mut and ideas like that might work, but there is a chance we may be moving locations sometime in the future (a year from now or so). So, making an large investment in equipment like that that may not be the best choice considering there may be a new location in our future. That is why I would like to find the 'easiest' solution for the rewind table for now.
Though, if we were to buy a different table we could always make use of it...even in a new location. So, that might be a good investment.
Thanks for posting the pictures of all the cool options. And, just so everyone knows, the way it works now is that there is only ONE person staffing the theatre at a time. We open, pop the popcorn, sell the tickets, sell the concessions, run the booth (including changing reels at intermission and then going out to see if anyone needs more concession items), rewind the film, thread the projector for the next night, clean, close up shop! Kind of fun!
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 12-22-2009 02:32 PM
Demetris,
Celine is not running a changeover house; she only has one projector, that's why she has to have an intermission at present. As I understand it, the reason for not installing a platter is that there is not room for one. Towers take considerably less floor space than a platter; I've seen them squeezed into some very projection rooms, often with one 35mm machine, and a 16mm or digital where the other one used to be.
Celine,
Most places make up the print onto two 6k spools on the bench first, and then join the two 6k parts together on the tower. You obviously need a rewind bench with the same size shaft as the tower, normally 1/2" here, I don't know if yours are the same. Cinemeccanica plastic spools have interchangeable centres, which can be useful for this. Doing it this way makes it easier to inspect the print during make-up.
I have seen a few places, generally multi-purpose venues which only run film occasionally which have no rewind bench, and make up the print directly on the tower. Our prints arrive on cores, and so this simply requires a split spool to hold 2000 feet of film, made to fit the shafts of the tower. How it would be done over there with your 5/16" transit reels I don't know. Presumably either one of the tower shafts is replaced by a 5/16" one during make-up and break-down, or a separate 5/16 shaft is mounted somewhere on the tower for this purpose.
Between shows the print is rewound on the tower itself. You can run adverts, trailers and other shorts on the projector spools while the feature is rewinding on the tower.
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