Mine had to be when The Fugitive came out, which was one of the first polyester
prints. It ran fine most of the time. This was back when I was just an assistant
manager, before being "promoted" to full-time projectionist. I was sitting in my
office late one night doing closing stuff when I heard a knock at the door. It was a
patron, and she informed me that The Fugitive had "melted" and been that way for
about 15 minutes. I run upstairs and the last 20 or so minutes of the film was on
the floor, and the rest of the print was hoola-hooping around the still spinning
platter. Refunds for everyone! It took a couple of hours to fix, but we did it,
however the print never looked very good after that. I was not prepared for the
polyester experience.

Another time was with the print "Boogie Nights". One of the theatres in our circuit
was transferring the film to another, and the print fell apart while they were
carrying it, dropping out from the middle and continuing until the whole film was
on the parking lot ground. The manager chopped it up into about 18 pieces and
loaded it up onto 2000 foot reels and brought it down to my theatre for me to
help reassemble! We got it in linear order and I helped him load it back up back
at his theatre. I bet that print was missing about 20 minutes of footage! And the
remaining footage looked unwatchable I imagine, but I didn't stick around for that.

Worst disaster I've ever heard of? I heard a Cinemark theater up north had a
brain wrap on Natural Born Killers (polyestar print) and it actually pulled the
platter over on it's side!
 

Bringing Titanic from the screening for the owner of the chain, two guys were
carrying the print up the outside stairs. (Titanic was a large print and the clamps
weren't large enough). Anyway, the center ring fell out and you know the rest. It
took about 6 hours to wind back up. I did not hear about the condition of the
print afterwards though.
 

Just how bad is an explosion of a xenon bulb? I had always imagined a kind of loud "pop" that would require the reflector to be re-silvered, but nothing like what you describe. You make it sound like a pound of C-4; is it really that bad? I'd hate to be around if one of those 15k lamps in IMAX booths blew.
 

First one was a brand new Osram XBO 3000 I replaced on a Friday night (yep, violated Rule III.) About 5 min. into running, it exploded, sounding just like a shotgun blast. I was talking to a guy who was leaning on the lamphouse; he almost leaped through the ceiling. Very little glass got out, but totaled the reflector. And yes indeedy, no matter how often we vacuumed that thing, you'd always see bits of glass in corners. At least I didn't violate Rule II.
 

BTW, almost none of "The Fugitive" prints in the USA were on Kodak film. I remember helping quite a few theatres deal with the problems, even though it was not Kodak film.

------------------
John Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Professional Motion Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester, NY 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243

Not as bad, but, this was my fault. I was sick as a dog, hopped up on Nyquil trying to get the print plattered so I could go home and die, when I forgot to add reel 4 of The Bachelor. The funny thing is, no one noticed until saturday afternoon that something was missing. The movie was so horrible that no one complained or noticed 20 minutes missing from the movie.
 

What stock was those Fugitive prints on? That had to be the all time worst print run for many reasons. I don't think I ever looked at the prints to check myself.

------------------

 

Anyway, all the old dears are in watching the lovely scenery of Florence in 'Room' when the changeover occurs and there in all it's glory was a shot of Syd Viscious biting the head off a rat.

Many Gin and Tonics handed out after that.

I had a loop of trailers (not on a reel, just looped) in my hand (I was moving them from the print on #2 to the new makeup), and was just heading down to the far end of the booth to #3 to get started. I heard a light dripping noise, and thought to myself "Jeez, the toilet must be overflowing up here. That'll be a beast to clean up". I turned around to look in the bathroom (right beside #2), and the dripping got VERY VERY loud. I hadn't even taken one step towards it when the ceiling over #1 gave way, and a huge torrent of water came pouring out.

I have never moved so fast in my life.

I tossed the trailers onto the platter of #2 (hoping they'd stay wound correctly, but the least of my worries at that point), and sprinted over to #1. The ceiling tiles over the amp and the sound unit (no clue what it's called -- has the DTS, the volume control, switcher from non-sync to optical, etc) were sagging down, and water was pouring out. And did I mention the CD player for the non-sync was right under the flow as well?

I swear, I nearly threw up. Images of cancelling all our shows in #1 (our biggest and only DTS-equipped theatre) for weeks danced through my head. I didn't actually vomit, but I think I may have invented some new expletives.

Long story short, we cleaned up all the water, put a bucket on top of the amp to catch the drips (which eventually slowed to a trickle), and called a roofer. All the equipment is (miraculously) unharmed, with the only casualty being a red switch that no longer lights up.

Later that same day (which was a very rainy one), we developed a leak in the roof over #2 which not only dripped into the booth, but ran down the wall in the back of the auditorium, and an old leak by #3 re-opened.
It turns out they had re-sealed around our 3 A/C units, to avoid any leaks like the one we had a while ago in #3. I think they may have forgotten a vital step in the process, which is to say actually putting down any sealant.

I managed to get that print made up in time for the first show, and the trailers I had tossed landed without unraveling. Unbelieveable.

Anyway, that really took the cake as my worst booth experience, and that includes things like breaking down a 30 reel movie onto plastic cores without a split reel, dropping a 4-reel canister on my foot (used some of those new expletives for that one), sound drum falling off, etc, etc, etc.

 

Weeks prior to opening, the local tech. walked into the booth and discovered that bandits had completely stripped the booth of copper wire. That was the end and the DI never reopened.

Incidentally, there were no signs of forced entry and no other vandalism. I'll always be convinced the local District Manager gave a set of keys to some recyclers to ensure the headache DI would no reopen.
 

Film continued to pile up on floor to the sound rack on one side and to the platters on the other. by the scene when "Jack Ryan" confronts the president film had piled so high that it began to to get sucked into the lower continuous feed sprocket. As more film got sucked into the Christie p35 it worked open the pad roller a little at a time until it was all the way open and would no longer rotate.

Seeing the film melta patronthought there was a fire in the booth and called 911. They showed no alarm, called the mall where the theatre is located. They had nothing on their board and called the theatre where the manager shut everything down, and called for the calvary. It took until 6 in the morning to wind the film up, and for the better part of that week (until a replacement reel(s) arrived) it cut from the 1st third of the speech to Harrison Ford entering Congress.
 

The last few reels were staticcy and the platter tried to throw the print, but it was held on by the brain. Half of the loop of the remaining reels was pushed past the platter wheel of the ORC platter system. I eased the rest through and saw that the film was basically intact. I went down to the auditorium where the manager was handing out re-admits and and said that if the patrons were willing to miss about 4 minutes of the film that they could see the end of the movie.

I had an usher help me move what had run through to a different platter system, pulled the 3 minutes of film that had spiralled up the feed out to the tree off, and threaded the intact remainder of the film to a new core ring.

By the time the film ended, I had the mess wound up on the begining of the movie, rewound the end to a house reel and then re-attached it to the film. I got out of there only about 20 minutes later than I would have otherwise.
 

Anyway, he goes out of this booth to the next one to thread and start another house..

Meanwhile the takeup platter stops running and film dumps onto the still damp floor...

Luckily, we lost that print 2 days later, but it always stopped once on reel 1...

 

Sorry it took me so long to reply, but yes, the explosion was that bad. I wasn't exaggerating at all, as you can probably tell from others' stories.

I treat bulbs with a great deal of respect - I don't touch them. I leave that fun stuff to the techs.
 

-Mike
 

We had 'twined' a theater, and installed new (natural gas powered) roof top combo heat/air conditioners. (The place was originally bulit in 1949, with a big old ammonia AC system, but they never included a vent for it in the booth.) The rear of one auditourium and the booth was shared by one new AC unit. The controlling thermostat was installed in the back of the auditourium, and had a cheap plastic 'lock box' on it.

There was a summer heat wave, and the cleaners must've decided they wanted to be cool while cleaning up. They used a screwdriver to reach into the lock box and push the thermostat "TEMP" lever down. Except they forced the lever so hard, they busted up the thermostat.

I came in the next day at about 5:00pm, and it was so cold, I could see my breath (no, from condensation you wise guys!) There was a temp gauge on the wall; it read 28'F. There was frost on the outside of the window. My fingers were getting numb from touching anything metal. There was surface ice in the circulator, which would'nt hurt anything, but residual water had frozen in the gate, blocking it. It took a few tries to ingite the lamp, and the projector motor had to really work. The film seemed to do OK (acetate,) but the splices made a loud sound when going through.
 

------------------

Scott

 

On a particular Friday morning at about 8am, he went in to break down the 2 films that had finished late the previous evening, so that they could be returned in the afternoon. Being unable to properly engage the centre-ring pins in their respective holes on the platter when breaking down the second film, he decided to carry on regardless, at a slower speed (just in case!). When he saw that the first reel came off with no problems, he got smart and proceeded to up the speed of the make-up table to FULL...... The film, an 8-reeler, didn't hold for long and soon let go from the platter, ending up at the other side of the room, via the guy's wrist which was broken in about 3 places. Needless to say, he was fired later that afternoon from the comfort of his hospital chair.

 

------------------
Rob

 

------------------

 

------------------

 

This story was told to me by a projectionist (now retired).

Projection booth washrooms, in those days, featured a relatviely small sink (with an inevitable slow-running tap), O.K. for washing one's hands, but far too small to fit an electric kettle into for making coffee. Projectionists, being a rather inventive lot, solved the problem with a small piece of garden hose clamped to the side of the sink. One simply fit the upper end of the hose under the tap, and the bottom end into the kettle on the floor.

Just as he was involved in this proceedure, the reel-end alarm rang. He made the change-over, and, being ship-out night, secured the band around the reel. His attention diverted, he left the theatre at the end of the show - and forgot about the tap.

At 6:00 A.M., the next morning, the phone rang.
"DID YOU LEAVE A TAP RUNNING LAST NIGHT?" screamed the manager.
With a sinking feeling in his stomach, the projectionist replied that he did.
"WE'LL GET THE F**K DOWN HERE", the manager demanded.

The projectionist got dressed and drove to the theatre. As he turned right onto Lindsay's main street, his car spun around twice - on the ice. When the car came to rest, he looked up to see the entire street leading up to the theatre at the top of a hill, covered in ice.

Fortunately, not much property damage was done, but it was somewhat embarassing.

As I was spinning on a reel I heard a small electrical sparking sound and to my horror looked over to see both the take up and feed out platters for Othello slowly spin to a stop while the projector continued to run. Since the reel I was working on was still spinning I couldn't just drop everything and shut off the projector so I had to quickly stop the reel I was building up and then run over and turn off the projector before the brain wrap got too serious and more film ended up on the floor.

You would think that everything would be fine at that point, but it only got worse. One of the other projectionists came up to see what the problem was and having a "The Show Must Go On" attitude decided that we would restart the movie while I would manually spin both platters until he fixed the problem.

Being a "junior" projectionist at the time I said sure and proceeded to spin the platters. This was not an easy thing to do since the feed out platter was on the top and take up platter was on the bottom. I had to stand in kind of a hunched position and keep one eye on the feed out to avoid a brain wrap and another on the take up to keep tension on the film while spinning both platters at different speeds at the same time.

I continued to do this for about 20 minutes until the other projectionist finally figured out that the fuse had blown on the platter and he changed it. By the end I was truely exhausted and to this day I never work on a movie while another is running on the same platter system.

Colin Wiseley
Lyric Theatre
Blacksburg VA

 

The thing you really have to guard against is the shrapnel. Make no mistake about it, the glass (loose term) can really fly and do some damage!

I know two people who have been standing next to an operating machine when bulbs have blown, one had the lamphouse door open. Neither was wearing protective gear and they weren't injured. This isn't to say safety masks/suits are not needed, only that it didn't happen in these cases.

But to allay any fears, the glass flies (which is dangerous enough), it makes a big noise and that's about it. Other than anti-xenon scare stories, I know of no instance where a projectile has been lauched. I would think there'd have to be a mortar or gun barrel around the bulb to develop enough force to snap a DC cable, launch an electrode, and penetrate heavy gauge steel.

I've destroyed xenon lamps outdoors in the dead of winter, and not heard anything but a faint "poof", which left the bulb in two or three big chunks. In the summer, it's a different story and they sound like gunshots, especially the 1K sizes. The smaller bulbs seem to make bigger pops.

Bulbs have went off, sitting on the shelf; and I've seen a bulb hit the floor and bounce.

The moral of the story: because their behavior is unpredictable in this respect, assume the worst and exercise caution in the handling of xenon bulbs.

 

Joshua Waaland
 

A projectionist at the big new fancy South Keys cinema in Ottawa had to change a bulb. He did it, closed the door to the lamphouse, and turned everything on to focus the bulb.

He forgot to take the plastic casing off the bulb.

He realized (by the smell, I assume) that things weren't right, shut everything down, and opened up the lamphouse to see what he'd done. The plastic casing was melted all over the place. He thought he could fix it and save the bulb, and started trying to pick all the plastic off. Would anyone like to guess what happened next? You got it, the bulb exploded.

Anyway, rumor has it that the lamphouse turned out okay -- didn't need a new reflector or anything. That's one lucky-ass projectionist. Not to mention stupid-ass.
 

My first xenon to go bang? I started with style, as an assistant projectionist I was next to the Cinemeccanica Vic 8 when the 5,000 watt lamp let go half way through a spool of 70mm. Like a cannon going off! I can STILL hear it to this day and it happened 18 years ago!
 

My first xenon to go bang? I started with style, as an assistant projectionist I was next to the Cinemeccanica Vic 8 when the 5,000 watt lamp let go half way through a spool of 70mm. Like a cannon going off! I can STILL hear it to this day and it happened 18 years ago!
 

oh, and someone dropped Titanic while moving it before i worked there. i don't imagine that was a quick fix....
 

I think they dropped it in 1912, in fact. And no, it wasn't a quick fix. Took them about 73 years to just find it.

Sorry. I had to.

But seriously, seems to me a lot of people have dropped a print of "Titanic" one time or another. Some colleagues at a local multiplex here did that. Apparently it took them most of the night to fix it.
 

>>"But seriously, seems to me a lot of people have dropped a print of "Titanic" one time or another. Some colleagues at a local multiplex here did that. Apparently it took them most of the night to fix it."<<

Another of my colleagues at said multiplex says that the above is incorrect. The film was not dropped, it was thrown off a platter...

I worked extra at this multiplex when Titanic had finally left the theatre. There was still evidence of it, though: I found a few frames of it stuck behind the gate of a Victoria 5. They still haven't told me how that happened.

------------------
"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most."

 

Loved the movie, but I had all sorts of trouble with it. Mostly coincidence, really.

Our old failsafes were either not connected or would stick in the up position. Not even one of them worked properly. The old booths are separated so you can't be in the booth at all times; lots of walking.

Anyway, it was quite common to walk in and meet film all over the floor. My brother (manager) and I became experts at untangling film - he had an advantage because he was already quite good at untangling fishing lines...he says it's similar.

Actually, it's wrong to just blame the failsafes...I should clarify that the source of the trouble was with old ORC platters. I hate hate hate them!

When we got TITANIC the owners agreed to leave the print in the big theatre for the entire 4-week booking. The movie stayed there for 6-months, sold out every show days in advance. I'm sorry to hear about people dropping their prints of this movie. I can only imagine what that must have been like.

I have not been around during a Xenon explosion and I hope I never will be.

------------------
And, hey! Let's be careful out there.

~Manny.
 

Speaking of Apollo 13, it's going to get the IMAX treatment.
 

[edited: never mind, steve...a google search did the trick]

...And is this a new trend...IMAX blowups of 35mm films? In the case of APOLLO 13, it sounds like a good idea but if Disney ever gets around to doing a special IMAX edition of OLIVER & COMPANY then we might have some problems.

About the ORCON platters: what happened most often is that the return platter would just stop spinning and the film would pile onto the floor (no thanks to those evil failsafes). In our case, the prints were not being thrown.

------------------
And, hey! Let's be careful out there.

~Manny.

I don't hav any of the suction cup things, so we usually end up surrounding the print with cores and old trailers and taping them down. Occasioanlly, the print will still manage to work its way out of a gap and toss, or if there is quite a bit of film left, sometimes it just takes the cores/trailers out with it..
 

What kind of platter are you using? I know in some platters (CFS, and the older Potts) if the ballast resistor is burned out (the resistor that shunts the points/micro-switch) that machine will have a very nasty whipping and hunting problem.

With Christie platters, tucking the tail usually works fine on films 6 reels or fewer in length. I usually use the Teco pucks (sorry, no Bevan-poos around here) on longer prints and have never had a thrown print or brainwrap. Maybe I'm just lucky that I haven't dealt with other brands of platters. (Of course, the odd new print will sometimes have static issues in a reel or two and will need to be babysat for the first few shows).
 

So do Torus screens. Suction cups might be your only chance to swap spit with a cute female projectioneer!

A platter ought to be designed with some sort of adjustable retainers that move in slots and tighten with thumbscrews. Also, how about some concentric circles printed on the deck surface to help operators precisely center a print that has somehow gotten off kilter?
 

Careful what you wish for Steve. One day you and Guttag may end up working a platter booth together, and I don't think you want to be swapping spit with him!

"Suction cups suck!"

No they don't (but yes I do get the joke). This is why you simply MUST tape these things down! Never ever rely on those things actually sticking to the platter by the time the show gets halfway through, much less into the previews.

Still, a simple tail tuck works fine and dandy provided the platters are properly maintained by either the tech or projectionist. On alternating double-ups I routinely splice both features together on one platter and all we do to secure the tail is tuck it. Never had a problem, even when there is only about 2 inches from the edge.

They only suck for the first 30 minutes or so. I can picture some projectionist "Hauling up a big green loogie" and deposit it on the suction cup. Just by that idea alone, there is no way I would lick a suction cup. Ewwwww.....!!

In most electrical supply houses, there is a stuffing tube compound that is very cohesive, but it still has enough adhesive qualities with the weight involved to stay on the platter without too much problem. It seems to work quite well, even on the platters that have a severe "hunting" chacteristic.

Personally, I do not believe in tail tucks, and I never use that method.

The AW3 platters, being smooth in nature, rarely toss the tail.

In my experience when moistened they'd stick for days.

>Just by that idea alone, there is no way I would lick a suction cup.
>Ewwwww.....!!

Nor I. You can moisten them with a spritzer bottle or even spit *on* them but lick? No way, excepting perhaps new out of the box and then only if you want to get intimate with some anonymous denizen of Fisher, IL.

 

They're nicknamed 'Bevan-Poos'®

click on 'Reviews' for more info, and 'Manuals' for the manual for one

-Aaron

Second desaster was running a 1944 dance musical from Nazi-Germany for a friend. A beloved piece of dance and music featuring the UFA film orchestra with its 6 grand pianos, 3 harp, 40+ violins, in a rare film clip. The friend and I checked, just the smell of rotten cardbox. No campfer. So, beeing lazy I deceided not to use the Bauer U2, but the modern U4 (safety film only) projector. You could imagine the rest of the story, the film broke, (and I would have loved to have filmed my face during that incident) and I saw the gate flame. F---- it's NOT safety.
The reel caught fire, and at that time the professional engineer came through. 6-8 kWh of heat dissipated in 20+ seconds, 20" concrete ceiling above and 2ft walls, designed for nitrate zoperation. About 2500 cbft booth, and an opebn door should mean clean burnup. Use of carbon dioxide extinguisher might save some frames, but definitvely enters the lamphouse and endangours my bulb and mirror.
I was right, the firm clearly burnt with hot flame, leaving a brown spot on the ceiling, which after wiping off now is a white spot on an otherwise grey ceiling. And 3 hours of vacuuming and cleaning the projector. All demage were 2 plastic rollers on the SDDS 2k reader, and the camera cover now lookes melted.
With spoll box the demage would have been bigger, as the oxigen supply is definitively worse. I would have lost the gloss painted, untampered U 2 spoolbox, and probably more.
Conclusion: No more nitrate, and if really required to screen unknown film, use a projector built for that purpose.
 

It would make a great addition to the nitrate fire video library if someone would set up in the middle of an open field, a complete machine with everything by the book: Enclosed magazines, all doors covers, latches, and magazine windows in place, and nitrate era fire-trap rollers. Thread a up a junk reel of nitrate with part of the roll in the take-up. Then, from a safe distance using a remote starter, ignite the film and record the results.
 

Plus the three videos of nitrate film burning in the Film-Tech "Videos" section.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion
 

Because nitrate generates its own oxygen while burning it's pointless trying to smother the fire - an airtight spoolbox full of nitrate stock is to all intents and purposes a bomb.

There I am 2/3 way through reel 8 (of 9)and look down to see film piling up around the soun constant feed sprocket. Open door and film for miles. The take-up reel clutch has thrown a wobbly. Stop program AGAIN. Tidy mess, have to take pad roller of to get wrap out of bottom end. Give clutch a tighten, re-thread back a bit from where I stopped. Yes, yes I know not the best for the print, by know am sweating buckets, the air has turned blue and demons are appearing everytime I open my mouth.
Restart, with hand on take up reel to act as spare drive, all seems good, but I leave take reel door open in case.
Check to see how carbons are burning look down to see take up has spat the dummy, but the print seems to be quite happy piling up neat on the floor. With only a few minutes reel left, fuck-it I say let it go I'll deal to it at next reel.
Do change over , movie ends no problems.

If you have read so far I might have some idear of therr mood I was in when I started this post. Feeling better now.
Final Thought.
Film client brought associate who is partner in Cinema in Aukland to my booth. Had a look at my old Westars (English Westrex)and Peerless Magnarc lamp houses. We talked about the history of the machines (yay Film-tech I can now talk accurate BS). Finished conversation sying how machines were reliable and reasonably well maintained.
Moral of story. DO NOT BE PROUD OF YOUR GEAR WHEN SHOWING IT TO SOMEONE, JUST PRIOR TO USING IT. IT IS SURE TO GO ALL HORRIBLY, DISASTARALLY, SINCERELY, OBVIOUSLY BLOODY WRONG.

rant off.
Away to enjoy the rest of my evening and Day off, will return to kick....oops peaceful thoughts, peaceful thoughts

I am not a projectionist so I do not have any horror stories to share with everyone but I have two questions for you. How was the quality of that IB 35mm print of one of my favorite films, "AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS" that you presented on a 60 foot Todd-AO screen for your guests? Was it a four track mag or was it optical? If it was mag, how was the stereo sound quality?

-Claude
 

------------------
Mike
Drive-In Records
www.driveinrecords.com
 

I've seen the same thing happen with rewind benches without some form of auto-stop. Come back later and the film is shredded in pieces on the floor!

It has been 610 days since the last post.