posted 06-22-2009 10:26 AM                    

quote: Trey Allensworth

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I went to an AAFES theater in GeiBen Germany. The B stands for double s. I just don't have the right character on my keyboard.

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posted 07-04-2009 01:59 PM                    

quote: Aaron Sisemore

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With a few 'specialty-venue' exceptions, practically all AAFES theatres were based on the exact same floor plan and the dimensions were simply altered to adjust the physical size of the facility.

All were equipped with 2 Simplex XL projectors on RCA soundheads set up for 2000' reel changeovers with 2000W LP & Associates or 1600W ORC lamphouses, had mono sound (some have upgraded to stereo or digital in the past 10 years) with JBL or Altec speakers and a curved screen.

Movies were usually shown on weeknights, the auditorium being available during the day for military assemblies and meetings, and on the weekends there was sometimes a full matinee/evening schedule. The auditorium is also used for performing arts activities such as talent contests and USAF 'Tops In Blue' shows ...

A typical film program at an AAFES facility consisted of the following:

National Anthem trailer (you are required to stand when the anthem plays in an on-base theatre)
3-4 preview trailers
AAFES policy trailer
Feature film

Double features are rare at base theatres.

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Aaron has it spot-on. At Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson we had the set up as he said, with some notable changes:

The original lamps were Peerless Magnarcs which had a 1kw Xenon conversion kit installed, powered by Strong Suitcase magnetic rectifiers. I helped to install the LP 2k lamps a few months before I left the base..the real fun was scavenging up the Federal Pacific circuit breakers to power the rectifiers since the original Strongs were single-phase.

Sound was Altec mono, with Crown D150 amp for all sound, with a relay that turned on two speakers in the proscenium arch for non-sync. After months of complaints about dialogue intelligibility I discovered that the relay was bypassed and all three speakers were playing during the film. Since the Altec cinema speaker was about 15 feet behind the arch, one can see (hear) what the problem was.

We had the Altec faders attached to each projector, with a "Film/Music" switch on each box. For music (and films when all three speakers were hot) we'd run the fader at 3-4. When I corrected the problem with the relay, we had to run films at 7. Hmmmmm, wonder where Dolby got the standard from now?

The reason the problem went on for so long was simple: In AAFES, the projectionist wasn't allowed to tamper with the equipment, other that cleaning and minor repairs. Once I figured out the relay issue I had to get permission from the regional Engineer to fix it.

After that fix and helping with the LP install, the engineer gave me carte blanche to do whatever I was able to do to make repairs.

We were also responsible for other maintenance of the theatre, including concession equipment.

I have to expand the show sequence, it went like this, (remember NO automation at all)

Start Natl. Anthem trailer (it started with a voiceover and black screen);
Open curtain to time out as just fully opened when image hits screen, while fading house (and foot) lights down;
End of N.A., close curtain and raise house lights to half;
Re-open curtain on corny "AAFES Previews Of Coming Attractions" snipe;
Play trailers;
Curtains closed at end of trailers;
Re-open curtain and drop house lights out for "Feature Presentation" snipe;
Continue opening curtain to full for any scope movie.

Most AAFES theatres had NO maskings, you used the grand drape as masking.

For the film "The Right Stuff" I had to rehearse a busy curtain call: 1.85 for the trailers and snipes, then 1.37 for the opening sequence of the movie, then scope at the explosion. It looked super cool!