Personally, I lock my framing controls down so it is either perfectly in frame out way out of frame and there's no correcting it once the movie has started. Try that and it'll teach you newbie to get it right the first time.

 

[This message has been edited by Joe Redifer (edited 07-24-99).]
 

No tips? I have learned a bunch of things on this forum! These guys are A1 in my book. I'd like to tour their booths and see just how they present a show. I could learn a thing or two.

I'm not griping. Thats a subject for another collector site.

Bruce
 

1) Tell them that they are REQUIRED to get it in-frame. Also say that customers will laugh at them if they don't. (When I watch a movie, I laugh at the projectionist if (s)he doesn't.)

2) Teach them to thread the right way. (The way you have to thread a Norelco AA-II.)

I tell people to time the int. & center the framing. (Century = carriage 1/2 way up -- Simplex = red line vertical.)

THEN I tell them to put the film in the gate and line up a frame with the framing landmark. (Simplex = framing window. -- Century = frame line even with the little screw at the top of the trap.)

THEN I tell them to set the film on the int. sprocket and ahut the trap.

THEN thread the feed & holdback sprockets and continue on with the rest of the machine.

When I was taught, I was told to put the film on the feed sprocket and work down through the projector. I always felt it was wrong. Later, I did some research and found that the Mfg. recommends that you thread the gate first. Then, even later, I had to figure out how to thread a AA-II by myself. It turns out that you can't thread it any other way because you'll hit the buckle sensor or any number of crazy things. Hell, you can't even OPEN the projector without timing it because the thing locks shut.

Frankly, I think it all boils down to quality of training!

P.S.: On the Century, I took a red Sharpie marker and put red marks on the silver bushing on the end of the int. the way the Simplex has. I did this on two projectors (out of 17) without telling anybody. Those two are the only ones that are almost NEVER out of frame. I can tell because the framing always stays the way I set it. I guess it's kind of a subliminal thing!
 

Any projector can be threaded in either direction. I have threaded AA2s running reel to reel top to bottom and running platters from bottom to top. Threading the gate first does not provide any benefit. It's either in frame or it's not.

On Christies, I put a piece of masking tape around the holdback sprocket and put little marks where the frame lines should be assuming the lower loop is correctly sized and the framing is centered in the gate. We start by "framing" the film on that holdback sprocket and thread all the way up through the digital penthouses. Upon inspection, all the loops are always correct and the picture is in frame...set the timer and let it go.
 

None-the-less, I still think it boils down to training...

It will be a snowy day in August before I get promoted where I work because I'm such an A-Hole about training people. (and other things too.) Most trainers give their students about 15 minutes of "instruction" and put the people to work. I always teach people "Heuristicly", if you will: Teach them what each part does first. Then teach them how to work the machine. It takes all of about 2 extra minutes to explain what an intermittent sprocket does! It pays off. I guarantee that if you let a new recruit turn the flywheel by hand and look at the sprockets turn for a minute before you even put a piece of film in their hand they'll be 90% less likely to thread out of frame.

That little exercise also gives you a chance to see if they have the "Right Stuff" to work projectors because the ones that don't will just stare blankly at the machine. With the "good ones" you can see the gears turning in their heads just as fast as the gears in the projector are turning! The "bad ones" can be weeded out right there before they have a chance to destroy something. It works for ME, anyway. Everybody has their own different style of teaching. To each, his own.
 

[This message has been edited by Erika Hellgren (edited 07-27-99).]
 

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I agree with you about girls in the booth.

A lot of times you'll get a guy that knows how to hook up a V.C.R. and he thinks he knows everything. Girls don't make that assumption. Guys get all cocky.

You COULD site a whole bunch of the traditional things people say why girls are better: Better manual dexterity and spacial ability. Girls are supposed to be better at math and stuff, too. Yeah, I know some people will start with a 'battle of the sexes' thing, here but that's not my point.

Besiedes, having a booth full of just guys is boring. Ya' gotta' have someone else to talk to once in a while!
 

As a fellow Pennsylvanian, were you required by your employers to get certified with the Department of Labor and Industry or did DLI send their thugs into your booth and threaten to take you away in the middle of the night like they did at our theater. I believe in the license and feel that it is valuable, however, I think Pennsylvania just gives it to get more money in the state coifers!
 

Also, it really doesn't matter where the newbies come from, straight from the popper is fine, just as long as they WANT to learn the booth. If they do, they will almost always work out nicely.

 

When we started working at TT17, we all had to sign up for apprentice cards. The theatre coughed up to dough. (Approx. $15/person.) About 6 months later, we took the "test". -- It was STUPID!!

Example Question:

Q: Name two types of film transport.

A: 1) Elevator and Dumbwaiter.
2) U.P.S. and Federal Express.
3) Small Car and Large Truck.
4) Platter and Reel-to-Reel.

I think, in Pennslyvania, the license is a kind of a union ploy. -- You gotta' have a license to get a job but you gotta' have a job to get a license. (The above statement is not meant to be taken as either "for" or "against" unions.)

The D.L.I. guy comes once or twice a year and checks licenses and that's about it. Only about 1/2 our 'guys' have actual licenses, 'cuz there are so many new people. They mostly all have apprentice cards. The only way they can 'legally' work is if somebody else in the bldg. has a full lic. At least informally, if you pass your lic. exam., you get a raise at your next job eval.

I heartily agree with licensing of projectionists but the testing procedures, etc. have to be better.

When other people ask me why licenses are required, I tell them this:
"Did you ever leave a movie theatre with a splitting headache? -- I't likely the projectionist's fault." (Yeah, I know it's weak but it makes my point.)

Now, I just pay for my own lic. renewals because I work at other places than my orig. job. That way they can't hold that issue over my head. And you know managers always late sending in the renewals. This year I was the only one in the whole theatre with a valid license for about a month 'cuz I sent my own in instead of waiting for the mgt. to do it.