Rory Burke
 

I still think that it comes down to the type of person they are, not what sex. Give me someone with a good work ethic, and some degree of mechanical ability, and I'll make a projectionist out of them. Given time of course.
 

I have worked with several women in the booth. One is one of the best projectionists I know. I currently have 5 women working for me and they are my top 5 operators. They are more mature (most of my people are under 20) and listen and follow directions better. Guys tend to just do what they want and try and change things. Of course being a guy I enjoy working with women

Not to say that men aren't good, I am one as most of us here are. Just saying that women can be just as good as any man.
 

I think anybody can do the job if they love it. Women have an eye for detail which is very valuable in a projection booth. Men, on the other hand, are more intuitive with technical equipment. Which is not to say that every woman will be good in booth, or any man can fix any problem with the equipment. Projection is a personality intensive job. If you don't have the right characteristics, male or female, you won't last.

I, personally, have met with a lot of opposition in the idustry with reguard to my gender. I come across more people who don't think "a little girl can run the big bad machines" than I ever knew existed. So bravo to those of you who hire your projectionists based solely on their merit.
 

I have worked along side, supervised and trained a few female projectionists over the years, and to be honest, they have a higher success rate then the men do.
 

Who let you out of the booth. Don't you have some film to build up? Get back to the booth!

I find though that it's mainly guys who ask if they can be trained. I guess the girls do see it as a bit of a boys club (as do more than a few guys).

Erika, if you're ever out this way, I'll give you some work (and I won't ask you to clean out the purple gunk out of the gates...and that's not just because we don't get any purple gunk in the gates, either)

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The Olympics are coming...RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!
 

I used to date another girl who'd been a projectionist in a carbon booth. It's interesting to note the nuances of a female's approach to the job. I often find them to be very precise.

Somewhere in New England, I heard there was a very good female service tech, too.

And then there's the personable Karen Hultgren at DTS, who's certainly a brilliant tech.

------------------
Better Projection Pays!
 

The guys tend to get sidetracked. They will want to fix some problem or adjust things, etc, etc, and forget to start the show.

I have concluded who is the worst person to train. It's not teenagers, women, potheads, alcoholics or mentally retarded people. I know because I have trained all of the above (admittedly, with varying levels of success.)

It's FILM STUDENTS. Sorry to any out there, but generally speaking, they are the worst. First they keep "lookin' at the movie" instead of paying attention and watching the film. They want to change everything (one thought we should change the house light settings, for each feature, for a more artistic presentation.)

I show them a frame of film that's flat, but uses the full frame. They say; "What about that wasted area?" I say; "Only 446 x 825 is used at the theaters." They say; "Don't you know that increases the grain!? (You don't care enough to do a good job.)" I say; "Yes, I know. (I would like to strangle you with this film.)" They say; "Aren't you going to do anything about it?" I resist the temptation to say; "Sure, go get the film stretcher at our other theater...."

I told another that we only show 1.85 and 2.39 ratios at our theaters. He said that (when he is a big director) he will make sure our theaters won't get his movies because he "should have the freedom to choose any ratio he wants and the theaters should be able to show it." That same guy actually ripped up a few feet of film while making up a show, and slugged the damaged film with black leader.

Fortunately, none of them can thread a projector consistently, or splice on a frameline ("Don't you have that tape with the sprocket holes already on it?. ) So they are self-eliminating.
 

When it comes to looking at a projector, or whatever, a guy will ask questions and EXPECT that other guys will ask them questions.

(Many) girls will stand there and say, "Uh Huh". Guys don't think girls know about machines becasue they didn't say sonething like, "Is that a 1/4 horsepower motor or a 1/2?" Maybe it's becasue the girl is paying attention to what you're saying when the guy isn't?

I think it's funny that a guy can spend the entire day working on his 4WD truck, tearing it down and rebuilding it but when he's done he'll take his dirty clothes to the laundry room and be totally stupified when he has to turn on the washing machine!
 

You mean you can't just spray them film guard?

John Walsh,
Couldn't agree more. I've trained a couple film students, and it's not worth the headaches. I get pretty tired of these guys telling me I should treat a particular film better than others, simply because it was directed by Stanley Kubrik or something.
It's so funny, though, when you get an applicant who has never run a booth, but thinks just because he/she has taken film production classes in college, he/she knows everything there is to know about film, including how to run a booth.

I've worked with several women in the booth and have mixed results. One of them in particular back in 1990 was definitely first rate and I wish she was still around to be able to work with. She was always interested in finding better ways of doing things and that makes a better operator of anyone, regardless of gender. We tried some of the most craziest ideas and the booth was a constant "testing ground", but the quality never suffered and everyone there walked out of the booth significantly better than when they walked in. Her attention to detail was what I admired the most. Since then there were other women operators who were also very good.

On the other hand, I've worked with a couple of women who couldn't be told anything. Try and demonstrate a possible alternative method for doing the job and the response was bitch, bitch, bitch...don't tell me how to do my job, I know what I am doing and I'm not damaging the film. This sort of attitude comes from women who have only been in the booth with a couple of years experience, too. (In all fairness, the same thing has happened with men as well, but from a more cocky standpoint.) So in that respect, I think it is absolutely crazy for such comments like women will keep a booth cleaner or are better operators. Those comments are sexist, plain and simple. Would a topic like "white people make better projectionists" or "gay people make better projectionists" even be accepted? That would be absolutely ludicrous and this is really the same thing. I don't think EITHER sex is better than the other. The bottom line is the individual person and how seriously he/she takes their job and how much he/she wants to improve their film handling practices and presentation. The final result on screen is what matters and anyone not willing to learn new methods for working with film (that goes for not sharing methods as well) and cannot seem to leave their personal problems at home, always coming into work in a bad mood and pouting around all during the shift is not a good operator in my book and is simply unprofessional.

Again, it all depends on the PERSON and NOT the gender. Women in general are no better than men and men in general are no better than women. I'm amazed such a prejudiced topic is even being discussed.

You CAN spray them with FG but it works BEST if you've sprayed them once or twice already. Then you've got to spray them again in a week.....
 

He was more concerned with the projectionist showing all of the opening fade in.

------------------
Better Projection Pays!

Remember the first "Superman" movie? He thought the credits were too long, and cut them out. Got caught, too, I'm pleased to say.

After training five film students I have gathered enough empirical data to make a vaild statistical profile of their interaction with projection.

I'm prejudiced. They are all a pain in the ass!
 

Damn! Those opening credits were great AND had the theme by John Williams which was some of his best work.

I hope you slapped him good and hard as well.

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The Olympics are coming...RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!

It was the end credits he cut off. There's a sort of gap in the end credit roll about 2-3 min. in. He cut it there, and removed everything after until the MPAA rating tag at the end. A minor guy from Paramont had worked on the film and brought his mother to see his name in the credits.

The same guy decided the projector image was too low. So he filled some milk cartons with concrete and put them under the pedestal. It looked like four cows were holding up the projector. The manager said he laughed so much he decided not to fire him.
 

The only real problem I can think of with women projectionists is lifting and carrying films. There was a female projectionist at the last cinema I worked, who was very competent and reliable (although her tendency to play Spice Girls CDs before screenings of French arthouse films did not go down well...). Her problem was that she was quite simply unable to lift complete prints from the delivery point to the box - she'd have to open the cases downstairs and carry the films up 3 reels at a time. If an assembled platter roll needed to be moved between screens, she had to get help from an usher or manager, which on some occasions caused delays.
 

An out-of-condition man might have the same difficulty. I've seen far too many projectionists risk their backs and health trying to carry an unbalanced load of heavy film cases or equipment, or unwieldy large rolls of film without assistance. Men are often too proud to ask for help, women wisely seek it.

Trying to lift and carry a full feature roll between platters alone is very likely to dish and cinch the film, and may spill the entire roll onto the floor. I like to eat spaghetti, not untangle it.

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

A guy just told me that many years ago (like in the 1920's or so) there was a fire at a theater in Montreal. After that, they made a law that said no one under the age of 16 was allowed in a theater- unless with a parent. The law was waived once for "Snow White." Then many years later, the law was removed.
 

------------------
Dave Bird
 

I agree, carrying made-up platter rolls is not ideal, but I am running a projection department, not a film archive. We handle prints as carefully as our equipment will allow, but this does impose limitations.

One of our three projection boxes has no make-up table, and so we have no choice but to carry fully made-up prints over there (we normally run them in one of the other screens first, to ensure that they're wound tight enough to minimise the risk of the collar falling out). Believe me, hauling a 15,000ft feature up and down twisting staircases and down 300 yards of corridors is not my idea of a fun-packed Friday morning.

When the City Council's health and safety officer visited some months ago, I invited him to carry 'Magnolia' (10 or 11 long reels) to screen 3. By the time he got to the bottom of the first staircase the poor bloke was puffing and panting like he was about to have a heart attack. So I take JP's point about the problem not just affecting women, though I would still argue that it is more likely to affect women more often.

Anyway, the Health and Safety officer insisted that a make-up table be provided for projection box 3 - only to be vetoed by the fire brigade on the grounds that the only place it could be located would block a fire exit and thus breach fire regulations. So the '16 tons' ritual continues.

It could be worse... we could be running 70mm in there.

As for moving assembled platter rolls being unkind to film, I agree that you have to be very careful to avoid edge damage when lifting the roll off the platter. However, which is likely to inflict more wear? Moving a fully-assembled print or spooling it off onto 6,000ft reels? To my mind, all that unnecessary winding is far more likely to contaminate the print than moving it on a platter roll (always assuming that the film is wound sufficiently tight to avoid cinching or rubbing as the film is manouevered from horizontal to vertical and back again).
 

I know that having to move a built up roll between platters is a "fact of life" in most theatres. I agree that done carefully, the risk of damage to the print is probably less than breaking it down and making it up again.

My point was that if prints are moved, it should be done with care for the film, and concern for the health and safety of the people moving them. The best method is to let the film wind up on a solid platter disk or "doughnut". (AFAIK, units are sold by companies like Kelmar and Goldberg), and then to have TWO people carefully move the fully supported roll between platters. Moving an unsupported roll risks cinching, dishing, and perhaps spilling the entire roll on the floor. Trying to slip clamps or a "cookie sheet" under the roll after it has wound up on a platter risks edge damage. Trying to move an unwieldy full roll without help is very risky to both the film and the health/safety of the person doing it.

Sadly, there are too many "horror stories" of damaged films and personal injury when trying to move prints incorrectly. For examples, see the thread "projectionist nightmare" started by Scott McFly on 08/11/2000.

BTW, if the built-up roll is being stored off the platter, be sure to cover it, to protect it from dirt and damage.

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

------------------
Dave Bird
 

*flexes some muscles* Then again, I worked for several months unloading trucks, and thus built up more strength than I already possessed! (And my mom didn't raise me to be a wimp!)

~GLB
 

...It now escapes me where I heard that. d'oh! >_<
I may be enough of a brute that I can move heavy stuff around easily, but at the same time, I'm an artist at heart. It shows in my eye for detail, in my hands with their delicate touch, and in my patience for tedious tasks.
Too, it never hurts if you're able to cope with being isolated from people, and able to cope with people thinking that you're crazy for liking being hidden away in the "dungeon"!

~GLB
 

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

 

My earlier point wasn't intended to be in any way sexist; rather, I was making an observation based on a specific problem which the only female projectionist I've ever worked with had. I tell all the projection staff I am responsible for, male and (if there were any here) female, that they should only lift weights that they feel comfortable with, and to enlist help if they don't.

You may think this is out of concern and respect for my colleagues - well, OK, but there's another reason: if they do any of their backs in, I'll end up having work hours and hours of (probably unpaid) overtime. Besides, if anyone drops the collar out of a 15,000ft print, I'm buggered if I'm winding it up off the floor!

As for the lady projectionist mentioned in my earlier post, she once called me a 'wuss' for expressig reluctance to tighten a live rectifier core. 'Rather you than me', I commented, so she donned a pair of rubber gloves, took an insulated screwdriver and tightened it. That rectifier has run silently and with a rock-steady current ever since.
 

The reason it is being discussed is because you Brad are the exception. And a wonderful exception I might add. I started working in the booth in 1973. Women in the south of the United States were barred from the booth. I hedged my way in and have stayed there ever since. I now run my theater with a head projectionist who is female, an assistant projectionist who is female, a relief projectionist who is female and a staff of female theater attendants. I am an equal opportunity employer but I have found no males who will stay on the job. Once we had a male projectionist who feigned a projector failure on SuperBowl Sunday and shut down the theater. While the gender issue seems less important nowadays, remember that it wasn't to long ago when women wern't allowed in this male domain. Thank goodness todays generation of projectionists and theater operators have learned that gender is not the issue and that great showmanship is. Unfortunately for women Brad, not all operators share your view and thus the reason for discussion.

------------------
Jan Hackett
Theater Operations Manager
Extreme Screen Dynatheater
NM Museum of Natural History Foundation
 

Neatness. Attention to detail. Willingness to show up on time (or early) and do the work. Enthusiasm and a general sense of energy. Good communication skills.

Culturally...this gives women an edge in this country. While it is true that I have had the pleasure of training and working with some highly-motivated young men, the general scenario is that the women have a better work ethic.

Strength is another issue...can they move a print? It's a requirement.

So is age...must be 17 or older (there has only been one exception that I'm aware of).

Here's one that you won't see in the U.S.A. - A height requirement...can you see through the booth window? Can you thread the brain on the top platter?

So, essentially, there are a couple of basic "yes or no" type questions that make a person eligible for the training program. Male or Female isn't one of them.

After that, it's up to the candidate to impress us during training and examination.

Odds are that in the ten vacancies I have in the upcoming training, probably six of them will be female. If history is a valid barometer, then I'll end up with three females in the top five.

Could it be that women try harder because they feel that they must prove themselves?

As far as lifting cans, in New York there was never any question of lifting film shipping cans. The union rule was simple -- projectionists don;t lift film cans. The manager has to assign someone else to do that, usher or whoever. That was when there were change-over booths. I have no idea what the rule is now because projectionists are always moving prints around by themselves, platter to platter.

As far as film students are concerned, I don;t know, perhaps times have changed, but all I know is this: in my neighborhood theatre every summer, the projectionist would prop the booth door open to get some air; I discovered this when I was about 10 years old and I would sneak up there and sit outside the door, mesmierized, looking at him work....looking at what I saw as unbelievablly huge machines and the super blue/white shafts of light spilling out around the lamphouse door. It was all an amazement to me -- like watching the Wizard of Oz at work, and I knew I wanted more than anything to do what that guy was doing. Today I work in a beautiful 2500 seat art deco, single screen theatre with a change-over booth which still runs carbon arc. We are located next to Brooklyn College, literally a 5 minute walk from the Film Department, and NOT A SINGE film student in all these years has ever come up to me and said, "I would love to see how you run a film." I get young stage hands who want to learn projection, a kid from my class on film sound recording, but no film students. To me, this is quite uncomprhensible. If I were in school and there was a facility such as our Whitman Theatre that I would have access to at almost any time I wanted, you can be sure I would be in there every free moment. I guess film students today get more turned on by fantasies of making another JAWS that will break all box office records bringing in those magic millions in a single weekend rather than the relatively more mundane magic that goes on in a projection booth. Each to his own.

Oh, as for their knowledge of practical film issues....one year they used our theatre for screening their student films. Most of them had no idea what aspect ratio their own films were shot in. Which is no surprise as once one of their professors wanted to screen a film that I was not familiar with. He said it was "wide screen" so I asked did he mean it was an anamorphic print. His face glazed over and it was quite clear he had no idea what I was talking about. Rather than embarrass him, I said not to worry, I'd be able to tell when I got the print.

Frank
 

That never seemed to be a problem in New York. I know one "vertically challenged" operator got a manager to provide an OSHA-approved ladder
for a booth with a five-stack platter system, while the use of a
wooden or plastic beverage carton, stepladder or one of those wheel-retractable "step-stools" is common. And I remember a slender young woman,able to reach the spindle above the penthouse to place a full 6,ooo'reel, by doing a ballet leap, scissoring her legs in a motion
half-dance and half weight-lifter.
I've seen some elderly projectionists used to sitting down to thread up. So height shouldn't be a problem for the ambitious.

Mike (with his hateful self) wrote:

OK, lets face facts. Anyone who is willing to spend $12,000 a year for an education in film is not exactly the brightest person in the world. Film students are morons.

These are hardly "facts."

I should know, seeing as how I am one.

Dear Diary: Mike has a low self-esteem, but he's so caught up in thinking he's normal that he has gone ahead and decided that everybody else is a moron, too.

Maybe YOUR film school sucks. At only $12,000 a year, it probably does - That's not your fault. It is, however, your fault for patronizing that school after arriving at the conclusion that you'd have to be a moron to stay there.

Maybe YOUR fellow classmates are indeed morons. Maybe it would've been safer for you to say "the film students at (name of your school) are morons." But that's not finally what you said. Sure there were morons in my film school but, for the most part, I'd say we were a pretty okay bunch.

But someone who doesn't know as much as they think they do is not necessarily going to be unable to learn something that someone who doesn't pretend to know anything can learn.

Whatever THAT means!

Film students generally have a lack of practical film knowledge.

Maybe at YOUR film school. Bear in mind that most film schools are teaching production and or criticism. They don't teach classes in projection. You won't learn that there unless you get work-study and end up running the films for the classes. Nobody I knew in film school aspired to being a projectionist.

But speaking from experience, that's because, as others in this thread have hinted at, they are not taught anything of value at film school. This doesn't mean that they don't have a love for film and a willingness to learn. I do. And I think that they have something to offer the theaters that they work at that you may not get from someone who doesn't have that love for film.

People first...what good is it to love films if you hate the people you're screening them for?

As for "the other people in this thread" who harbour similar irrational feelings toward an entire group of people...All I can say is that it's a disappointment that in such a field where details are par for the course, that you could go and paint a group of people...PEOPLE...with so broad a brush.

Not to wax my own car too much, but I'd like to think that I have made the place that I work at better.

I somehow doubt this. I've never known a hater to improve a working environment.

All of this being said, if there's one group of people who I hate more than anyone else on this planet, it's film students

Unbe-phugging-lievable!

Notice I didn't knock the intelligence of film students, what surprises me (over and over) is that year after year, film students come and go and I never find any of them coming to my booth with that passion to learn, not so much how run projectors, but just to learn the process....to see how the fruits of their creative labor finally becomes alive on the screen. I can;t understand how they WOULDN'T be intrigued by what goes on in the booth. My only measure is by how I felt at that age and how that projection booth was almost like the sound of the Pied Piper's flute; I was drawn to it.

Before I got my first projectionist job in that booth in Texas, I got a job as an assistant manager in a first run house in Austin TX (I believe it was the State Theatre on Main Street). I was so excited because I thought that job was a position of power -- powerful enough to get me into the booth -- my main desire. I fantasized that I would make friends with the projectionist, even get to run the projectors.

I wasn't there more than a day when I ventured up to the booth to introduce myself. A VERY suspicious projectionist opened the door a crack to ask what I wanted. I said, nothing, just wanted to say hello, maybe just look around. He reluctantly opened the door to let me in. I looked around like a kid in a candy store. He kept asking, "So what do you want; is something wrong?" I said, "No, no....I just thought maybe you could teach me how to work the projectors." He became frozen in place, speechless. I saw his reaction so I added, thinking it would show him my good intentions, "This way if you want to take a day off, I could run the show for you." He went ballistic. He threw me out of the booth saying, "Listen, you don;t come up here anymore, understand. If you have anything to say to me, you use the intercom. The only time you need to talk to me is if there is something wrong with the picture or sound and if you bother me anymore I am going to make a complaint to the union." So much for my irresistable, youthful charm.

I was devastated. The only reason I took the job was that it would put me that much closer to that magic projection booth. Later the manager explained to me that management and the projectionists were pretty much antithesis to each other -- they were both always walking on eggs and being very careful not to step on each other's feet (the reason for which was something I could never quite grasp, even to this day). By the end of the week I sadly realized that I would never get into the booth through the management backdoor and that my biggest responsibility would never be running a show, but counting paper cups and tallying popcorn sales sheets. I quit at the end of the week -- it was my shortest, most unrewarding, but enlightening job stint in my career.

Reverie over.

Frank
 

Certainly if I were the father of a little girl there is no doubt she would grow up well versed in technology and I would encourage her to question how and why things work, etc.

As for students, I have a helper who is a film student and he has proven to be good worker with good attention to detail and showmanship. Not perfect but then who is?

My editor just graduated from film school in fact, and I've had this debate with her many times. Unlike me, she thinks that film school was a valuable experience in which she learned a great deal and was given the opportunity to work with equipment that she normally wouldn't have. I think that's bullshit. Someone with her talent and determination could have easily found ways to learn just as much, if not more, outside of film school, and get paid for it.

I believe that film school is certainly a place where people can learn about film. But at the same time, I think you can learn more in your living room watching DVDs with commentary tracks by people who are actually out there making the films that we love.

I remember my first year at film school a teacher was trying to make a point. He said, "Name some of the great directors out there right now."
Someone responded, "Kevin Smith."
"Name Someone else," the teacher said.
"Paul Thomas Anderson."
"Someone else."
"Tarantino."
"No."
"Rodriguez."
"No."
"Soderbergh."
"No. Name people who have made a lot of movies."
"Carpenter."
"Yes!"
"Lucas."
"Yes!"
"Kershner."
"Yes! What do these guys have in common? They all went to film school. And they're the people who redefined cinema."
I could not believe what he was saying. Yes it's true. Those people did go to film school. And they did redefine cinema. TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO! But what about the first fifty people listed? They didn't go to film school. And they're the people who are redefining cinema today.

It's really hard to embrace something when all of your idols say it's bullshit. I really do hate film school. I don't mind most of the people, but I think you'd agree that there are a lot of morons who go there.

As to whether or not it's just my school in particular, I would have to say no. I actually go to the largest film school in the world. McNaughton and Kaminski are graduates. My favorite critic went there, too (but he doesn't really count, because he was a critic when he was 18, and dropped out shortly thereafter). There are two things that I hate about film school, and these things are not limited to my school. They are universal. I hate how you could take the money spent in a year's worth of education and instead put that towards a 16x9 Hi-Def monitor and an XL1 and still have enough money to pay the rent. I think you'd learn more this way. The other thing I hate about film school is the very subtle and unintentional way that students are pushed into certain creative directions. This seems very dangerous. I'd rather have filmmakers seek out their own tastes in film. But seeing as how the great filmmakers no longer go to film school, I guess it doesn't really matter.

Have I improved the booth that I work at? Maybe not. But I don't hate the people that I show movies to. I don't know where that assumption came from. I love them. I take my job very seriously. I grew up in this community, and now I'm the guy who shows them movies. That is so fucking cool. Also (and this is going to sound pretentious as hell), I think of myself as the last "artist" in the filmmaking process. P.T. Anderson says that no director has final cut. The projectionist has final cut. He is so right. This really hit me during my first summer in the booth. We had just put together our print of EYES WIDE SHUT. I was looking at it on the makeup table thinking, "Kubrick spent the last 3 years of his life making this thing, and now it's my job to show it to people. I better not fuck this up." I don't know whether or not I've improved the booth that I work at. But I do know that I was the guy who convinced them that we should have someone in the booth at all times, and not just on weekends. So that's something. Right?

One of the people who trained me was a woman. She knew a thing or two about the Norelcos, lemmetellya'.

I agree with the sentiment that gender is irrelevant and it's more about genes and upbringing.

------------------
So if old projectionists don't die, what happens when new projectionists get old?
 

------------------
Jan Hackett
Theater Operations Manager
Extreme Screen Dynatheater
NM Museum of Natural History Foundation
 

I find it odd that in this day and age there is even a discussion
about gender in the booth. One's genitals are not the body
organs that we should be concerned about. Brains and heart are
more important.
 

Tony Ratcliff
Ohio Theatre
Madison, IN