When I was first trained... I was trained to LOAD the projectors. When our manager was replaced, EVERY time I told him "I'm gonna go load #2" -- he'd ALWAYS, without fail respond with "Huh? Do we have a truck out back? Where are you taking #2?? We need that! Don't load it onto anything!" and he'd play stupid until I said "THREAD the projector."
I have him to thank for my annoyance every time I hear somebody say "LOAD" the projector.
THREAD the film through the BRAIN.
BUILD UP & BREAK DOWN movies.
I think that's the basics of the Cinema West dialect.
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The man with the magic hands.
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The man with the magic hands.
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I'm okay with just about any terminology, as long as they don't call the projector a CAMERA, and film TAPE! This is ultimate ignorance.
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Better Projection Pays!
Hey Dustin, do you work in that drive-in in Eau Claire?
mabe I'll drop by this summer.
Josh
Annoyed yet?
Aaron
im my own opinion the def. ot thread is to feed somthing trough somewhere else to a given destination. Oh im sorry i mean "Final Destination".
Lacing is when you mix two objects together?
Although my tech uses the term load a print but when he is running a booth, he actually calls it threading.
Used in a senetence. thread my laces in my shoes.
I work at the 12 plex in town, at the Oakwood Mall. I'm always there Friday afternnons, Saturday nights, Tuesday afternnons, and Wednesday afternoon. I also have a fifth shift either on Sunday's or Thursday afternoons. It will probably be Thursday this summer. Drop by anytime, I'll be happy to give you the grand tour of our cluttered and messy booth.
Around here it's "Thread" (Western Pennsylvania)
But then again, in Western PA, people say "Root" when they mean "Route" and "Soda" is called "Pop".
no its called coke. sprite or Dr. pepper
Im sorry i even use to live up north and still find it strange?
oh wait im sorry if you are up north that means most likely you drink pepsi instead. 
wzup with dat yo?
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--"That's my story and i'm sticking to it!"--
Pepsi is communist. They make their cans red, white and blue to try to prove they're not!
You REALLY wanna' hear some messed-up lingo? Go to New England! I lived in Boston for over 5 years and was only STARTING to get the hang of it. Pittsburgh would be my second choice for "regional idioms". ("Poke" -- "Gumband" -- "Gynt-Iggle")
What's really bad is when people call the brain the "governor" or "film governor"! Way too many syllables for this cat!
I had a customer tell me that the tracking was off once. Another misframe produced someone who said that the focus was off. Someone else once told me that 5 minutes of the film just melted!
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Scott A. Magie
scoooot@hotmail.com
"Anybody wanna peanut?"
***POST EDITED BY MODERATOR***
I "make up" film (I use a light foundation followed by a... no, I won't go there) and "take it down" when finished.
When I first learned, back when this was a changeover booth, the act of transfering the film from the shipping reels to the house reels was called "making up," at least by the guy who trained me and he'd been here 25 years.
Also I drink Pepsi. If their red, white and blue cans make them communist, then what do Coke's red cans make them....Native American?? 
It has also been interesting to me to see those same regional differences show up in other practices. As a lad discovering those strange dark rooms way up there behind the balcony, ususally populated by a semi-antisocial character working in a haze of grey smoke, change-overs were activated by a foot pedal for the douser. You stood beside your incoming machine to make your changeover. Most of the pedals were switches controlling "Zipper" dousers, but I have seen systems wherein the pedal was mechanically connected by bicycle chain to cast iron flags on the front wall. In other parts of the country everything is (was) wired to a central console between the machines where it was all done with pushbuttons. On arc lamps that did not have hand douser handles on both sides, you had to reach around the right machine to open them.
Speaking of differences, for those of us who have been in lots of single changeover houses, there are the fascinating little devices those projectionists used to concoct to make their lives easier. All the gadgets to hold the doors open (illegally) alone could make up a long thread here----perhaps another day.
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Bill Purdy
Component Engineering
Showing films using 1000-foot reels.
"Carbon Savers".
Silver "jaws".
Collecting copper drippings for Will Rogers.
Projectors with doors and film magazines.
Fire shutters.
Nitrate film. (Acetate film).
Cement splices.
Phototubes instead of solar cells or CCDs.
Vacuum tubes instead of solid state.
Motor-Generators, ballasts, and mercury vapor rectifiers.
Rigorous training and certification of projectionists to develop technical skills.
Projection as a skilled CAREER.
Two operators per screen for 70mm.
Five operators per screen for Cinerama.
Film exchanges run by each distributor that actually inspected prints for damage.
"Academy" format
Curtains (and not just one set).
Showmanship.
etc.
Lots has changed, much for the better, some for the worse. We can't go back, and wouldn't want to. But we can learn and apply those things that provided the professional presentation and "showmanship" that is so often missing today.
BTW, I'm really not THAT old, but I did use carbon savers, silver "jaws" and saved copper drippings for good ol' Will.
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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
and also we sold the carbon butts to a printshop who used them for plate burning
*clears throat*
When a film arrives, we "make it up" (make-up) on to the platter.
We then proceed to "thread" it into the projector day in and day out. The first item we thread it through has two common names, depending on the age of the speaker. The young folks (snooty college types) call it the brain and the old geezers call it the "pay-out".
When were finished, we "break it down" (break-down) on to the reels.
BTW, Possum fat makes better popcorn than ANY other oil on the market! As an added bonus, the hide makes an excellent film cleaner media.
*Well, now that I've cleared that up...*
Russ
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"It's not the years honey, it's the mileage".
Indiana Jones.
I do, however, load a camera with film.
There will be standard terminology when there is standard training.
By the way, great columns in Film Notes for Reel People.
Nice to know someone is reading my ramblings. As you know, Brad has most of the back issues of FNRP in the "Manuals" section of Film-Tech. The Kodak website also has the last few years on-line:------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
John.. <snnniff!>, you're bringing tears to my eyes. And yes, I WOULD want to go back to those days, when it was a CRAFT! Just pick me up, and set me down somewhere in the middle of 1948!! I'll take it from there.
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Better Projection Pays!
At my theater, we BUILD film using the MAKE-UP TABLE, but never say we MAKE UP a film, for some odd reason. At the end of its run, we BREAKDOWN film, but one of our managers (who came here from another theater) calls it TEARING DOWN.
My friend at another theater puts a trailer PACKAGE before the first reel of the feature, but I call it a trailer SET.
We sometimes say we THREAD a PROJECTOR, or LOAD a MACHINE, depending on the mood of the day, but I have never heard the term LACE before today.
Just last week, I called another theater of a different chain in our town, to find out when we could pick up a ROLL-OFF (used print) we were getting from them. I asked her when that movie DROPS (meaning: when does it finish playing); she kindly informed me that it “TAILED OUT” at 11:30 (I had never heard the term “tail out” before).
The film at our theater plays out of a CENTER-FEED MECHANISM, and NEVER out of a BRAIN. That is how I was trained (by a union projectionist), and we have carried on that tradition at our theater, but others in our chain use the “B” word. If, heaven forbid, we have a wrap, it’s called a CENTER-FEED WRAP.
Also, our concessions stand sells POP, not SODA, though I sometimes use another more vulgar term for it.
Chris
"Wow that is a pretty big tape in that camera" "Is that the sheet down there?"
I have used the term lace, thread and load depending on mood and sentence. As in, time to lace-up or load the projector or gotta go thread.
The first term I had for the payout device in a platter was "center-feed" and it has pretty much stuck and is popular in these parts. The other term used is "core" as in "core-wrap" Personally, I don't like the term "brains" for the device because it isn't really accurate but it is the most common I have heard on a nationwide basis. Platters don't have brains but operators/projectionists should.
Now that summer is upon us...here is a term that seems to have some varients as well...the process of running one film in two or more screens (platter operation)...
It was most commonly called Tandem in the DC area back when a twin was considered a multi-plex. Some like to call it "interlock" but that often referrs to running unmarried or "two-strip" prints. It also implies that the two machines have some form or mechanical or electrical connection so they are interlocked together (like a dubber with selsen or bi-phase encoder). The last term I have heard is "Sync".
I'm sure you all have heard others.
Steve
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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"
Out here in California - apparently what you call a ROLL-OFF print... we call a CICUITED print. And we're big fans of TAILING OUT as well. Although I'll usually just tell anybody who asks that the "SHOW IS OVER AT"
I've lately been driven nuts by the previous theatre manager's legacy of "LIFTING" movies from platter to platter. The rest of my projection staff "LIFTS" while I "SCOOP" or "MOVE" the print. Oddly enough they use "LIFTERS" to "LIFT" that print, while I use "CLAMPS"
Am I the only one compulsive enough to ACTUALLY be annoyed by these differences???
when a film reaches its end, it is 'tailing out'
when a film has already tailed out and is inbetween shows but not threaded, it is 'dead'
I 'clamp and move' a print
I 'circuit' a print, sometimes on 'sixes', as the chain management won't allow circuiting a print 'on the ring' anymore
The trailers on a print are a 'trailer pack'
I 'build' and 'break' prints
I do cueing and trailer pack work 'on the [rewind] bench' rather than at the 'make-up table'
The units on the rewind bench are 'rewinds', the Goldberg device that looks like a camera magazine is a 'rewinder'
I 'thread' a projector or platter, and during my early years with platters, called the thing in the center the 'centerpiece' (christie's official name for it) but now always call it the 'brain' (less syllables than 'centerpiece' i figure)
The take-up controller on Norelco and Christie platters is a 'swing arm' and on Potts, Strong, and CFS platters, its a 'Dancer'...
i could go on.......
Aaron
People often ask me if they can see the cameras, and I tell them we have none...and they say "Oh my god, how do you show the movie then"? And I say...Do you show a picture with your camera?...we use projectors!
We run reel to reel on 6000' reels with automated changeovers, therefore the only brain in our booth is mine (and that breaks down sometimes as well). Back when I had my apprenticeship...we ran the film on the picture sheet, but today it's on the screen. We would "warm" the procenium curtain with the built in floods on the balcony front. Those floods were referred to as curtain warmers. Also if the show concisted of all parts of the program...cartoon, newsreel, travelogue, short, trailer(s) and the Feature it was a Deluxe show, while some late afternoon shows skiped some of those elements and they were therefore Non-Deluxe shows. Or if there was a stage show with the film...that was a Deluxe show, while those without the live acts were Non-deluxe. Today we still use that term to designate the difference between weekday shows when only 2/3 of the houselights are used, and weekend and holiday shows when all stage and houselights are used. Every fixture is lit for every show, but on non-deluxe shows...only 2/3 of the circuits are turned on in most of the fixtures.
Thinking about all this is really starting to make me feel old!
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Bill Purdy
Component Engineering