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Can anyone match my pastiche of gear though. Westar projectors with Peerless Magna arc lamphouses with brand new reverse scanners (thanks component engineering) into CP65 wont talk about the amps and speakers you all laugh at me more .

Been there since June 2000, but worked as projectionist from Dec 1996 at UCI Milton Keynes 10 screen multiplex(The United Kingdoms 1st Multi screen cinema opened Nov 1985)

I work at Hollywood Hits discount theater, a 7 screener where I am a slave to the movie gods (in other words, a manager). They have 2nd run "normal" films and 1st run art films. Yes, 2 different prices!

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SSC student - Pharmacy Tech.
Gloucester MA
2000 for student 1998 for Rx Tech

in the fall of 2000, i became a student in the college of engineering and technology at bradley university in peoria, IL. my major is electrical engineering. i hope to work in an architectural firm doing project design after grad school.

im now working part time at the willow knolls 14 in peoria along with many hours of school. i take an active intrest in projection and its associated technologies.

I started in theater long before I got involved with movie theatres. Always on the technical side though. At age 10 I worked a follow-spot at the local live theater in Glen Echo Park in Glen Echo, MD...called Adventure Theatre. I was certainly the youngest in the tech-crew by nearly a decade!

So I guess that is where I got my sense of "showmanship." Also I learned just what one can do with a minimum of supplies! It was a non-profit org so money was tight but technically we were quite good (even though Adventure Theatre catered to children's shows).

Upon getting my driver's license, I started to get about more and met my best friend that happened to be a projectionist for a local theatre chain. That was in 1980 (I can't believe that was over 21 years ago now). Anyway. In those days, platters were starting to take hold but there was a pretty good mix of changeover and platter booths. I liked what I saw in the old theatres and applied as a projectionist. With my friend's recommendation, I got the job.

I remember my first day on the job...it was at the K-B MacArthur (you film buffs can look it up as the World Premier theatre for STAR TREK - The Motion Picture). K-B started all new operators there since it was carbon arc and reel-to-reel plus the operator was quite good (David Rothgeb was his name). The theory being that if you could handle that, then you could certainly handle a platter and automated booth. Also, in a single with reels you could be very well supervised and have the time to learn. Anyway...the first thing my new mentor said to me was..."when I started, I wasn't paid to train...nowadays you guys are so I'm gonna work your ass off!" "Today is cleaning day (once a week) and the booth must be kept spotless so there is the broom and dust pan" Now I thought the booth looked pretty clean already but I gave it a go. After spending about an hour cleaning...he looked at my pile..."not big enough...it should be this big (showing the size with this hands)"...and off I went again... and sure enough that pile could be obtained...it wasn't too big...wouldn't completely fill a good sized dust pan but that is what was expected (cleanlinesswise) since we had booth inspections back then! I don't recall even threading up that first day...we only had two shows (no twilights back then) and I spent my time cleaning and listening and learning. After the floor came the dusting of the equipment and I mean tops, bottoms, sides, you name it. Again, it looked great before and after I touched it (that is, it was obviously kept up already) but the thing was that it instilled the idea that the booth is to be kept clean and the films will stay clean and the equipment was to be kept clean..clean, clean, clean...cleaning is a part of the job.

I was to spend my first week under David. The equipment was Norelco AAIIs with Futura II lamphouses (11mm pos, 9mm neg trims) and a combination of the good ol Simplex mag/optical tube systems and a K-B portable SVA interface for that new fangled SVA sound.

I was later to find that about 50% of new applicants washed out at the MacArthur and 75% before they became regular operators. From there K-B had you go about the chain to learn the various pieces of equipment so you spent part of your next week at the K-B Langley for Simplex and platter training. After that only a day or two was spent working in Century booths (those were the only three projectors in the K-B chain with Simplex being the predominant).

After the two weeks of heavily supervised training, you went back to the MacArthur for a final check out...if you could run the show to David's satisfaction, you were put in the pool of relief operators. And it was a pool, kinda like a union but exclusively to K-B. You listed your availability and what theatres you could work (some were restricted due to transportation). This is what would be called the Journeyman's stage. An operator that wanted to make money and get their own theatre would be best served by learning as many booths (not too hard since K-B tried to standardize on as few equipment as possible so mostly it was learning where the theatre was, were the breakers were and any little neuance about the booth). You had to go when the main oeprator was working so he/she could approve of you for relief. Mostly you just had to prove you weren't an idiot and could keep the booth running since they normally didn't want you doing anything to change the booth or help.

I spent my journeyman's phase trying to work as many theatres as I could and see how many different ways operators had of doing things, different techniques different ideas.

I was in HS at the time too. It is amazing how it affected my grades. I was never what one would consider a "good student". In fact, my grades were quite horrible before becoming a projectionist. Within a semester of becoming a projectionist, my grades shot up quite a bit. Plenty of time to study and show films in a projection booth. Also there were no outside distractions by friends. I bascially had 4 hours a night to study.

After a year or so of relief, I got my first theatre...the K-B Silver in Silver Spring, MD. A pair of Simplex XLs and a Drive-In platter. The Silver was built in the '30s and sat about 980 people and it still was selling out in the early '80s with films like REDS. The theatre eventually closed but will be receiving a new life and will be fully restored as the new AFI theatre for the DC area.

When I graduated High School (1983), I wasn't much interested in college. K-B promoted me to Asst. Supervisor for projection. That is where I started getting in on the technical side of projection (design, installation and service) as well as the administrative/management side (employees). I remained at that level for several years. K-B sent me to "Dolby School" a couple of times. First when Clyde McKinney and Sam Chavez were the cinema guys...later, when the CP-55 came out, I went to another one. The industry was going through another boom in the 80s so it was a busy time...the chain was moving away from singles, twins and triples (which is all there was when I started) and towards the larger plexes though still less than 10. 70mm was also flourishing.

Eventually, my boss left the theatre biz and moved on...I was promoted to Supervisor. This was to be my last promotion since at that point in the chain's history, I reported to the owners directly and I wasn't in line to make owner!

In 1987 I decided that enough time had passed since I graduated high school that I was interested again and wanted to go to college (much to my father's surprise, he figured I never would go). So in the fall of 1987, I give K-B my 4-weeks notice, found a replacement to fill my job and started my college career at the local Junior College (Montgomery College, Rockville Campus). I left K-B with a decent bank account, a Corvette (which I still have and cherrish) and a ton of experience and great memories. I really enjoyed just about my entire time with K-B Theatres. K-B theatre was to eventually get swallowed up when the chains moved into town and the medium regional/local sized chains like K-B (screen count in the mid 70s) got bought up. Some of the theatres got bought what didn't get bought was renamed Apex theatres and continued to operate until all but one of those got bought by Crown Theatres. The sole remaining theatre of my time still operated by the owners of K-B is the Apex Calvert and my wife is the manager there!

While in college, I worked for Circle theatres (also based in the DC area that operated under the Circle theatre and Showcase theatre banners, not to be confused with Showcase Cinemas by National Amusements). When Cineplex Odeon bought Circle theatres, I joined IATSE local #224. The projection union for the DC area. So you can see, I have worked both the union and non-union side of the fence in both employee and administrative levels. Part of my duties at Circle included assisting the Director of Operations. I also was the sole "employee" in the "Sound Department" Which only had the one other person, the "manager" of the "Sound Department." One thing that always impressed me about the owners of Circle theatres, the Pedas' was that they hand signed each and every pay check for all the employees of the chain (also about 70 some odd screens) and they KNEW your name when they came to a theatre!!! If they came in the booth, they would talk to you, especially if they saw some aspect of the show they didn't like!!

So I was batting two-for-two...with the local chains I liked them both.

When Cineplex took over, I moved more into the union (and into studies). As I progressed at school, my available time decreased so it was a happy situation. I transfered to the University of Maryland at College Park majoring in Electrical Engineering (which explains my poor spelling!) for my Junior and Senior time. I was also was elected eventually to the executive board of Local 224 as the Financial Secretary. I held that for two or three terms.

While active in the union, I put much of my efforts in the training classes for new operators. I worked as much as school would permit with school taking the priority here.

At Maryland, your "general education" classes must have a definable "Theme" mixed in there. To have a "theme" you had to have lower level (1st/2nd year) and upper level (3rd/4th year) classes in the same category. I had two "themes" actually. One was "Performing Arts." Both stage and screen (the other was consumer economics). One of my upper level classes was Film appreciation. Imagine that, I got graded on watching movies! What a great class. The professor, was a grad-student (as is too much the case in Maryland and other big gun schools) and he was great!!! He chose really great films that were a mix of popular and little known but very good films. They were very diverse and from all over the globe. As an aside, he went to work for the Library of Congress in their film program...the company I work for now has the Library of Congress as a customer and we bumped into each other again...small world.

Most of my college work, when I could, would somehow convolve cinema with whatever I was doing in college. For instance, I took 400 level Physics class and wrote a program (in Mathematica) and paper on how to curve a screen for maximum reflectance back into the audience. I got an A on the paper and program so he must have agreeded with my findings and position. I still use that program today though I doubt I could repeat my work without a lot of studying...growing old sucks!

In 1992, I graduated with a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering. The EE field was falling on hard times right then. IBM was, for the first time in their history, laying off engineers. Most of the companies that were hiring were demanding 5-years experience since all the lay-offs were suppplying plenty of those. Most of the people in my class were trying to get into grad school to wait out the poor job hunt.

I was getting burned out on school again...remember, I'm not really a student, in the classroom sense, at heart.

So I looked around at trying to combine Electrical Engineering and cinema. That is how I came to Cardinal Sound & Motion Picture Systems, Inc. They offered me a job (something I needed) and the opportunity to design stuff too. I remember when I first started, I said I wanted to design a computer based automation. That is a system where a mere PC could control an entire complex, keep track of times or prints being moved about and such. At each screen would be a "dumb" automation that could, if it lost contact with the mother computer could run your basic show (previews, feature, credits, end) so that it could be sold as a stand alone economy automation.

Unfortunately, the computer automation project never got off the ground since other things always came up. The first being the roll around digital soundracks so theatres could roll any of the digital processors to any of our customer's theatres. The first theatre wanted DTS and Dolby digital, they had 2-projector on one screen, platter on the remaining four and had a mix of Dolby CP-55s, CP-50s and Kintek KT-700s. That was where the 506T CP-50 digital interface board came from that some have heard me mention in other threads.

My most prolific product was the SCI (versions 1 and 2) that properly interface the Sony SDDS 2000 system for changeover operation. There are over 300 units now sold world wide.

That pretty much brings me up to date. I still work for Cardinal. Still design gizmos when needed. Mostly I design, install and service special venue theatre installations in 16, 35 and 70mm plus video. I still operate one day a week at the Uptown theatre in Washington DC (Saturdays). I'm still a member of IATSE Local 224 though not very active anymore (I'm also a member of Local 815 and the IEEE)

I am a member of the SMPTE and actively participate on the P-3 projection technology committee with fellow Film-Tech members like John Pytlak (who was the chairman of the committee once) and Gordon McLeod. Those inch markings on the current 35-PA target were my contribution.

After these two+ decades of being in the biz I still love it and I still love movies as my favorite form of entertainment. I still find reel-to-reel to be the best way to show the film (single or plex) and with rare exception the only way I will operate a booth now.

Well, there is my long-winded history...you can WAKE UP NOW.

Steve

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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"

Brian J Hogan has lived in columbus, ohio, usa his entire life. he is now 22 and has been with AMC theatres for nearly 6 years. he started at a 6-plex as a concessionist and then when into projection 5 months later. he stayed in projection for over 2 years before moving into management. as manager he has worked at the 6-plex, the 8-plex across the street, the 18-plex (25 miles from his house) and, most very recently, the 24-plex on OSU campus.

Chief projectionist for Classic Cinemas and 20th Century Fox. Freelance projection including Columbia Theatre, London (70mm). In 1972 for 18 years with television news on projection, dubbing, telecine, and later VT multi format transfer. During this time in 1978 I purchased the Regal Cinema in Cranleigh, Surrey which I have been running with wife for the last 24 years.

.....Thanks!