This is topic Life after Digital Projection. in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-28-1999, 04:52 PM:
It is inevitable that digital projection will become a reality sooner than most people realize. This will, of course, force most projectionists completely out of work, except for the tech who gets to run around changing xenons, adjusting the picture, and dealing with the sound EQ.What will YOU do after digital projection? Taco Bell? McDonalds? I imagine that I will be one of those guys running around changing xenons, etc...
Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 06-28-1999, 05:55 PM:
Hey Joe! After film becomes history you can get a job with the museum of film that will open in every metropolis. You can be one of those old projectionists like you remember from when MANN had union projectionists. You can get fat, lose your teeth and start every sentence with the words, “When I was young…”No, I suspect you will be the one running around changing Xenon’s and adjusting the sound. I do have bad news for you. Changing the lamp in the Digital Projection 5GV was the easiest lamp change I have ever done. It is even easier than changing the lamp in a Kodak Ektagraphic slide projector. Dolby will probably invent the self-equalizing cinema processor, so that will screw you out of another potential moneymaking job.
I know the potential for an ignoramus theatre manager to mess up is absolute, however I wouldn’t want to make a career out of it.
Joe, my friend, I have just two more words for you…
Video Production.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-28-1999, 06:14 PM:
Video Production? I would rather go into film production! Waitaminute. The line is blurring here. Soon most movies will be shot and edited on video, starting with SWEP2.I guess it is a bit useless to study film nowadays and advantageous to learn video. I will be able to edit an entire theatrical motion picture on my Mac by dragging and dropping clips like I do now with DV.
Even if the bulbs are easier to change than a slide projector and the auditoriums EQ themselves, they will still need somebody around to bitch about everything and that is where I come in.
Posted by Erika Hellgren (Member # 22) on 06-29-1999, 05:16 PM:
What will I do when I lose my job? It's a question that almost brings me to tears, since being a projectionist, I've found, is one of the few things I both enjoy and am good at. In reality, I'll probably have to give up my freedom and move back in with my mother while going back to college to get a Masters in Psych. There's always a market for therapists, counselors, ect. Maybe I can councel all the former projectionists who will be suffering from depression 
All in all, I do not look forward to life after film, and I have to say, I have never supported any form of new technology that ultimately illiminates jobs for those of us who don't have a hard drive for a brain.------------------
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-11-1999, 02:49 PM:
Well, once the first "video" cinema setup is running locally, we will start learning it.Please, oh please, I HOPE Christie doesn't try and make a digital projector!
I am surprised the leading pusher of this format is Mr.Lucas. One day his name will be taught in film classes all over the world as the man who killed film.
Posted by Christopher Seo (Member # 7) on 07-11-1999, 05:22 PM:
Why does it surprise you that George Lucas in particular is pushing digital projection? He certainly has been pushing the whole digital effects bit for a while, to the point where I've heard him talk about the future of moviemaking to be actors moving in front of completely bluescreened walls---or better yet, forget the real humans and go with CG characters.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-11-1999, 05:43 PM:
I've never heard an interview with George so pro-video. But then, I haven't been following him too closely over the years either. I didn't relize he was pushing it so hard.All I have to say is it won't be just the projectionists out of work if George keeps pushing all this digital crap. From your post it sounds like future actors might want to start learning how to toss pizzas as a backup gig.
Just think about all those future movies starring Jar Jar. Egad!
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-12-1999, 01:15 AM:
So, if Christie designs a digital projector, do you think they will program it to have artificial bob and weave? Do you think the sound will go bad every few months to simulate the sound drum bearings freezing up? Or artificial wow and flutter in the sound? Or will the projector stop once a year in the middle of the show to simulate the belts breaking? If the Christie digital projector doesn't do these things, than how will anybody know it is a Christie?
Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 07-12-1999, 02:49 AM:
They'll know its a Christie because it is painted with the world's most ugly shade of green...
Posted by Erika Hellgren (Member # 22) on 07-12-1999, 07:40 AM:
As far as entire movies with actors walking in front of blue screens, we're almost there ... just look at Wild Wild West!!! I swear every scene included blue screen work -- very badly done, I might add. I hate blue screen because it's so obvious to me when it's being used. The best blue screen work I've seen was in the movie The Parent Trap (1998). Somebody actually spent some time on that one! But I digress ...
How many of the old school Hollywood actors who are still alive and kicking today would put up with Georgie's ideas for the future of movies? Who (other than Liam Neeson) would choose to work with a cast of CGI's verses real people? And, of course, as long as the Actor's Guild exists, don't count on too many movies with ONLY CGI's. I'm starting to wonder if the future of Hollywood will be a war between computer effects engineers and REAL PEOPLE!!! Oooo, it's like Terminator with a twist