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Author
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Topic: Who the HECK are you??
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Pete Naples
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1565
From: Dunfermline, Scotland
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 05-14-2001 12:41 PM
Well seeing as you asked....That's me on the left! I started in this business ten years ago, I had a part time projectionist position at the local three screener (now closed), at the same time I was working for a TV production company, learning camera, sound lighting etc etc. Went on to University to study Film & TV, and did work at a list of cinemas too long to mention (suffice to say most of them are shut now). I eventually ended up at The Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh, and I liked it so much I stayed there after I left Uni, right up until three years ago when my current job came along. I'm a field service engineer, covering Scotland and Northern England, with trips to the rest of Englad, Wales, Ireland or wherever on the globe I might be needed. We work mainly for the arthouse and independent cinemas, but we do out bit for the multiplexes too. Day to day I see all makes of projection gear, so it's never a dull job! I can work on multiplex Century/Simplex/Cinemecannica/Kinoton one day, and be deep in the works of a DP70 or a Fedi XT the following day. In my time as a projectionist I've worked all the common types of kit in the UK, with one oddity, I've never ran a show on a platter! I learned a lot as an operator,I've learned a hell of a lot as an engineer and I continue to learn new things on a daily basis. I hope that continues for a long time.
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Geoffrey Weiss
Film Handler

Posts: 68
From: Lexington, KY, USA
Registered: May 2001
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posted 06-13-2001 12:17 PM
Hi from Kentucky!Right now I'm a graduate student getting a dissertation in film at the University of Kentucky (which is something I'm about to start a new thread on, 'cause I need all of your opinions about Clint Eastwood, the subject of my dissertation. But more on that later.) I've also recently acquired a Super Simplex projector with an SH-1000 sound head and Peerless Magnarc lamphouse. That's ART, BABY!! Now I doubt I'd ever use those carbon arcs on a regular basis, but I would like the experience of striking an arc just once in my life. I think video of it would impress the Hell out of my students (if I didn't fry myself). In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out how to adapt the lamphouses to something that will draw a little less current and be fine for the shorter throw of a home screening room. I'll take lots of pictures. I pretty much grew up at the Vogue Theatre in Louisville, KY, a single-screen neighborhood movie theatre that was running art, foreign and midnight films by the time I got there in the late 70s. It was my privilege to do all the menial tasks--sell tickets, usher, concession--and to run the projectors in the last six months of my 7-year on and off stint. Management was simply too much responsibility, and remember that I'm getting a PhD in film so I'm simply not as smart as veteran managers like Bob Maar, et. al. As I rebuild my projectors and set up a home screening room, I'll be devouring your wisdom. I also need to start another thread having to do with the history of single-screen neighborhood theatres--the subject of my next book. I've just bought a bunch of booth supplies on Ebay, and my first project after setting up the rewind bench will be to FILM GUARD MY DATERS AND TRAILERS NOW. So thanks, Brad, for the forum, and thanks to everyone for sharing so much valuable knowledge for free.
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Christopher Duvall
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 500
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 06-13-2001 03:40 PM
Doesn't seem to be any Regal people on this thread...are you guys chicken??? Anyhoo, I'm Chris and I have in this business since 1986 starting as an usher at an AMC in Virginia Beach, VA. 2 months later I was mistakenly put in the booth...oops (thanks Ed Moyer if you out there). After a year I proclaimed myself as the head booth guy, talk about ego. Eventually, I jumped ship and got degrees in CS and Engineering (associates) and got a job programming. Hated that and jumped on with Regal in 1995 as and assistant manager and booth manager in Chesapeake, VA. I got a taste for management and forged forward into a GM spot and ran Soutpark Mall 6 in 1997 (outside Richmond, VA), opened Harrisonburg 14 in 1999 (Harrisonburg, VA), transferred to Rockville 13 in 2000 (Rockville, MD) and then to where I am at now in Las Vegas, the Colonnade 14. I am a slave for Regal and secretly love it even with all the turmoil that the industry is going through. Now, I would like to see some other Regal types type something up now. I know I have seen our Technical VP here...I would actually love to read your story.  Is there any other Vegas people here as well?? BTW, that is me on the left,DUH?! (Thnx Brad!) ------------------ Chris Duvall General Manager Regal Cinemas Colonnade14 Las Vegas, NV
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Gordon Hedges III
Jealous of everyone not me

Posts: 212
From: Severn, MD
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 06-13-2001 05:16 PM
I would like to say that I am the guy on the left... But my pic has not been posted yet.  Name: Gordon Hedges III Position in Company: Assistant Manager and Booth Manager of Crown Annapolis Mall XI. Location: Glen Burnie, MD (just south of Baltimore, MD) I work in Annapolis, MD (just south of Glen Burnie) History: I moved to Maryland in 1992 from Colorado. My first job out here was at the Loew's Crofton Cinemas (now a Gold's Gym) as an employee. When the assistant manager started to decrease my hours (for what reasons? I do not know), the general manager gave me my first booth job. Sweeping and mopping. I accidentally unplugged two platter towers while doing so. I would like to thank George Merritt for giving me the chance to really know what "HEAVEN" is like.  I moved onto Apex Cinemas in Annapolis as an assistant manager and worked for them until 1997. Returned in 1998 to find out the Crown Theatres bought most of the Apex Cinemas. Have been working for Crown theatres since. Personal history? I am a fan of movies. But my true hobby is pool. I have been in a slump for the past year, but hopefully I can get more practice in during the summer. I am crazy-in-the-head, but I think it goes with the territory. If everything was so strict, then I would never have fun in the booth.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 06-14-2001 01:42 AM
That's me on the left. The colorful background is not a Photoshopped Kai's Power Tools effect. It is actually part of a storm before it uprooted another large tree in my backyard. Just a part of life here in Tornado Alley.My day job is Senior Designer for Arrow Sign Company, Inc. here in Lawton, OK. It has been a while since I had a chance to do more work on our fairly nice looking website: http://www.arrowsign.com. I've been a little more busy handling lots of sign design chores from storm damage. We got hit good on Memorial Day. Some day, if business ever slows down to enough of a crawl, I'll get to work on that long promised Flash version. I have all sorts of interests ranging from electric guitars and guitar amplifiers the size of a refrigerator to more refined topics like juggling and industrial architecture. My brain is full of useless trivia to the point where I have been known to win Trivial Pursuit games in a single turn. Folks, that does more to piss off your friends than impress them. So once in a while, fake a wrong answer. You'll catch up anyway. Better yet, let them win once in awhile. Anyway, one of my favorite interests is being an admitted film fan tech-head. I like stuff about film presentation formats and the hardware that runs them. I got spoiled rotten on 70mm shows while living in New York and attending School of Visual Arts. I was an illustration major there and earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (it is up in the attic someplace), but I took a lot of film courses as minor credits. The dawn of digital sound formats happened when I lived in New York, so that got me even more spoiled to good film presentations. In recent years, I've made friends with a few really good theater managers in this region and found some places where I could be pretty secure in seeing a good quality film presentation. I have spent more than a decade following a lot of this film tech-head stuff, compiling lists and even going to the trouble of vector-digitizing lots of cool film and sound format logos into a fairly impressive collection. Typically, I can tell people what digital audio format just about any particular film used in its North American release. My friends usually don't respond to that with a "wow." Usually it is "why?" Pretty sad. To them, it goes into the same category of weirdness as being able to list all the Interstate Highways of any American city they bother to name. Yeesh!
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Alan Plester
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 209
From: great yarmouth england
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 06-15-2001 05:11 AM
Hi My interest in film & the bits & pieces that go with it, started when I was about 8 or 9 when I used to go to saturday morning films at one of the cinemas we had in Banbury.I used to look up at the " box " & say to myself, " one day, Ill be up in that room " although at the time, I had no idea what went on up there,it was just sheer fascination. I left college and went straight to the only cinema we had left, and asked about jobs, sadly I was told that I had to be 18, at the time I was 16, so my first work in the world was with a large slot machine company, I was with them for 4 years, when an advert appeared in the local paper, that a trainee projectionist was required for the twin cinema. That very same day was my day off, & I rang to make an appointment & was seen that afternoon. The next day the phone rang,& I was told to go back for a chat, the following week,I started my new life, and was with them for 14 years. I worked other cinemas on my days off, in the Oxford area, I WAS HOOKED. Have worked with B T H. Century. Westrex,& for a while I was sent to Blackpool for 12 weeks and had great fun running Magnarc carbon arcs, sheeeer joy. Sadly, now out of the game, but hopeing to get back in it, as Banbury is embarking on a new 7 screener, operated by Cinemark I think.
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Jason A. Forno
Film Handler
Posts: 8
From: Ormond Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 06-21-2001 05:47 AM
Hello, My name is Jason Forno. I am the head projectionist and one of the Relief Managers for the Eastern Federal Corporation Port Orange Six, in lovely Daytona Beach, Florida. PO6 for those in the know. I have a rather checkered past with the larger corporate theaters i.e. UA and Regal. I couldn't handle their lack of creativity and pention for treating the projectionist as a cast extra from Ben-Hur or Schindler's List. I have been with EFC since March 19, 1999... two months shy of the release of Episode I. I never did get a poster! I try my best to deal with my Ex-Navy A**hole boss and the idiot, slob assistant. Lord knows they need all the help they can get. I try my best to make real life connections with the employees, but when they ask me who Stanley Tucci, David Mammet and Ralph Finnes are... it makes want to weep. I work for a company that doesn't take presentation very seriously. This really bugs me. Sometimes I feel like I am held up in a military outpost somewhere in the Sudan or worse Florida with little to no rations left, and only a .30 with one magazine left. One day I'll be like Tyler, strong enough to walk downstairs and piss in the popcorn and start plugging the customers who ask which auditorium is it in? Get back to work, man-animal!
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