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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Getting into projection
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 01-06-2018 07:27 PM
To someone who would be challenged by connecting their iPad to a (DHCP-enabled) wifi router, we would qualify as IT gurus. To someone who manages the servers in a Google datacenter, we're newbies. It's all relative.
The traditional projectionist's job description essentially consisted of film handling, plus basic to intermediate level mechanics and electronics in dealing with maintenance issues. None of the essential pieces of equipment in a 35mm booth were essentially PCs with dedicated hardware attached to the motherboard, in the way that DCP servers (for example) are. There were significant variations within that: in the megachains, the projectionist tended not to do higher level maintenance and repairs, but (s)he did in the smaller chains and indies, especially those in remote locations.
There is far less (in my experience, at least) of the mechanics and electronics in a typical d-cinema tech's job description. Fault finding is done by reading computer-generated logs, based on the output of sensors, and then replacing the entire component when you've identified what has gone bad (liquid cooling pump, ICP board, RAID drive, whatever). We're not expected to fault find down to component level on a board (which an advanced projectionist in the film days was), but we are expected to read and make sense of automated log data (which a projectionist never was).
I think the amount of maintenance that digital cinema installations need has taken the industry somewhat by surprise; though it wouldn't surprise anyone with a background in IT. Theater owners were sold on the idea that once installed, the projectors and servers would sit, minding their own business for years on end, until finally they'd be thrown out and replaced. In fact, it's only the film handling aspect that has gone away: routine to intermediate level maintenance and repair is still needed, but most theaters now do not have someone working permanently on the site who is capable of doing it.
Jobs that a generation ago, would have been done by the chief projectionist, now have to be done by a visiting tech. James's arrangement sounds interesting: it looks like his theater has realized this, and is trying to bring some of these skills back in house.
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 01-07-2018 04:41 PM
As one who has worked full-time in IT for many years, I can say that the IT side of D-cinema is pretty basic, and should be able to be understood by anyone who is familar with a typical small-business office network. The troubleshooting skills and process (reduce the problem to the minimum number of components and then test each component in sequence) is similar as well. That said, the office job comes with regular hours and a fixed work location. Higher-end IT jobs tend to be more interesting than this and have greater growth potential, too. (Obviously, cinema service requires other skills, besides IT knowledge. It has always been a multi-disciplined profession.)
My work in cinema exhibition has always been part-time (for twenty years, as of April!). I love movies and wouldn't give it up, but, at the moment, I am only really doing the occasional "film" festival and special event screenings. I think that I have shown more 70mm last year than 35mm and D-cinema combined. This is a job that has never required more knowledge or been more difficult to do well, but it still pays poorly, and the work is irregular. All of the old formats and equipment are still with us, but DCPs need to be presented properly, too. This is a job that really can only be done for the love of it, at this point. No one would be crazy enough to get into it for money or growth potential. And lots of talented operators with the requisite skills are under-employed at the moment.
One function that I strongly believe needs to be served somewhere is education of "film"-makers on how to make their work ready for big-screen exhibition (typically at festivals). Many of these people are able to shoot and edit their material well and produce a decently watchable movie, but have trouble getting it into an acceptable exhibition format (35mm, videotape, or DCP) that can be shown by cinemas without problems. Just because something plays fine on a laptop with cheap computer speakers does not mean that it will look and sound good in a theatre with a large screen and proper sound system. Unfortunately, the people who need this service the most tend to have no money, so I am not sure how one would go about making a business out of this ("post-production consultant"? "exhibition consultant"?). Someone should try, though, because I am sick of getting festival material that does not play properly without significant fixes.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 01-07-2018 10:02 PM
I now do a bit of this for some of the fests I used to project in my last job, and you're right: I don't think anyone could make a viable living serving that market alone and with no other source of income. The "microbudget" and student content creators who submit a ProRes file, or "My DCP" on a drive that violates all the ISDCF formatting rules to a fest, cannot afford to have their content prepared for digital cinema exhibition by a dedicated lab or post house. If they could have, they would have. I do it for a lot less (around the minimum wage, once the cost of my time, depreciation of hardware and software, and all the other overheads are factored in), as and when downtime from my day job allows, and with disclaimers to the effect that I cannot offer the same extent of support and backup that paying a post house four figures would buy.
Given that the technology needed to do this is well within the grasp of this sort of content creator (a range of decent DCP rendering plugins for FCP and Adobe Premiere are available for $200-500, and if you're willing to do a two-stage process - output from your NLE to TIFF or DPX frames, then DCP-o-Matic to render the DCP - you don't have to spend a penny on software), I find it surprising that few if any "film" schools teach their students anything about digital cinema exhibition. I've met literally dozens of their students and recent graduates who hadn't heard the term DCP until a fest they wanted to submit to asked them for one.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 01-08-2018 12:47 PM
All the DCPs I make are for people I already know, or who are referred to me by people I already know; and I make it clear to all of them that I am charging them something like 10-15% of what Indie DCP or FotoKem would, because they don't get the answering calls at 2am service, or test ingestions and screenings before delivery being done, that they would if they hired a full service post house. I don't advertise or go looking for DCP-making work, because I have neither the time nor the infrastructure needed to compete with the dedicated labs and post houses that do it.
My customers are people who don't have the money to hire a full service lab or post house, but aren't in a position to make their own DCPs, either. I find it a bit puzzling that so many people in this position seem to exist, but the fact that few if any film schools teach their students anything about digital cinema distribution and exhibition must surely explain it to some extent. This is a change - a generation ago, these kids would at least have graduated having threaded a 16mm portable once or twice.
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