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Author Topic: I get to see a carbon arc setup! Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 08-20-2006 12:43 PM                       quote: Charles Greenlee I'd love to see it work, especially if he lets me run a show. Charles, there's a two-year apprenticeship to learn the craft; the first 6 months of which you're only allowed to rewind.  |  IP: Logged Charles Greenlee Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 801 From: Savannah, Ga, U.S. Registered: Jun 2006 posted 08-20-2006 11:03 PM                        You're kidding? I can already rewind just fine. I takes that long to learn how to work with the carbon arc lamp?  |  IP: Logged David Buckley Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 525 From: Oxford, N. Canterbury, New Zealand Registered: Aug 2004 posted 08-21-2006 04:18 AM                        I get to do my next carbon show this saturday. Its not carbons that make the booth fun per se, its changeovers, and as was mentioned above, changeovers are all about rhythm, get it right the night just hums along and you get to see nearly half the movie. Get it wrong, you do build up a sweat and a small pile of unrewound reels... We almost universally show movies only once, so a big reel or platter arrangement would be a waste of time, far less hassle to do changeovers than to make up / break down a print, so "going xenon" doesnt feature on our horizon, until carbons become unobtainable. No breakdowns also means that on a good night the last reel is rewound (twice) and back in the box and the box taped up and me out the door about ten minutes after the titles end. I consider myself to be very lucky. I get to do the fun bits of being a "proper" projectionist, in the way that the old-timers talk about the good old days. However, I'm still very much a beginner...  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 08-21-2006 05:38 AM                     quote: It takes that long to learn how to work with the carbon arc lamp? I have a few friends whos fathers showed them how to run a carbon arc setup when they were still in grade school and have to stand on stools to arc up the lamps.. took me two days to get the "rhythm" of arcing a lamphouse up without spitting too much soot on the mirror shield. Where after a while, it was a good "flick of the wrist" to rotate the negative feed knob to just make contact with the positive and then "snap the wrist" to retract the negative (course, the cheating way is to have the arcs no more that a quarter of an inch apart so the wrist action was very short and quick when striking..), especially when dealing with big rotator carbons.. ..why Ashcrafts and Peerless lamphouses (and we can't forget the Strong Moguls) were easy to learn on. Enarcs and the Strong Utilities were a bit more challenging to learn carbon striking skills. ..and given the Strongs with the crank handles, one had to learn how much crank to use to bring that negative up to the positive.. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Mark Ogden Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 943 From: Little Falls, N.J. Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-21-2006 12:47 PM                     Tim, being an old old hand like myself, is (I think) referring to the days when if you wanted to get into the projection game in a union shop you got what was called an apprentice card. This was typically a two-year unpaid deal, where you learned the craft under the head projectionist while doing some menial duties. Usually you were the rewind boy, the carbon rod box opener-and-putter-in-the-drawer person, the floor sweeper and (in my case), the “hey kid, run down to the corner and get me a bottle of Canadian Club” person. Only after a while, and if the guy liked you, did you graduate to threading and changeovers. This is how I came in way back in '69, but in my local there was enough retirement and guys passing away to get me off card and working on check-off after only six months, thank God.  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 08-21-2006 02:17 PM                     quote: Charles Greenlee Well I'll have to visit someone on here that runs a carbon arc one of these days. I'd love to see it work, especially if he lets me run a show. Unfortunatly I can't afford to travel much, so it may be a while. I wouldn't leave it to long if you want to see one Charles; there aren't many left, and they're disappearing fast. Just a few years ago I knew of about ten here in the UK; now they're near enough extinct, there may stil be one place left, I don't know if it's converted yet.  |  IP: Logged Charles Greenlee Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 801 From: Savannah, Ga, U.S. Registered: Jun 2006 posted 08-21-2006 06:26 PM                        Not really my choice, I can't afford to travel that much. I'm still a chain run multiplex, platter, projectionist. I think there was an apporpriate derragatory term for them. Platter monkey's or something. I'm trying my best to rise above it, but till I get some certifications, and a few raises, that's about it for my situation.  |  IP: Logged

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