This is topic Not all the kids are hopeless in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Carl King (Member # 398) on 06-02-2002, 10:49 AM:
Once in a while your faith is restored in the young kids
that are in our booths. About a year and a half
ago an 18 yr old usher/relief manager was sent to my booth
for training. He took to it like a duck to water. In his spare
time (from University as well as volunteering with the local Search and Rescue organization) he worked for a local sound engineer installing equipment in local venues and businesses. One of the first
things he did after learning to thread and start was ask to take
manuals home to read. In a couple of days he would be telling me thing
that I didn't know. He is a rare bird indeed. Works hard, learns fast
and is now travelling with our tech guy doing new installs and troubleshooting. Just last week he installed two new amps in my booth without any problems. There is hope for the future, eh?
Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 06-02-2002, 11:40 AM:
My two cents: I think there must be a gene for it.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-02-2002, 11:45 AM:
Well we all gotta start somewhere. 
At one time pretty much all of us was a gawky teen that the older projectionists probably wouldn't trust. I was one of them working the concession stand, but mostly I was a box orifice guy. Then one day just for fun my friend Tom, who was assistant manager at the same theater I was at showed me how to thread. He only let me thread a total of two machines. Eventually we got in another assistant who thought it would be convenient if I could run the booth for him when we worked together. I didn't argue and he gave me a crash course in projection really quick. We changed GMs to one that thought it was GOOD if someone other than a manager knew projection and she let me run booth. Those were the days.
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 06-02-2002, 12:24 PM:
I have to agree with Manny. I have seen young people flunk in the booth no matter how hard they try.I went through the MPO school while I was in the US Navy. The wash-out rate was about 60%. The attendees of this school were usually hand-picked by the commands they were part of, and many didn't make the grade.
Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 06-02-2002, 01:46 PM:
I also tend to agree with Manny and Paul. I't's not that someone is stupid, it's just that some people can't learn some things. A kid that used to thread up for us, later became a doctor. So obviously he wasn't a dummey; he just couldn't learn projection.Although, I would be willing to bet that Carl has created an atomosphere that encourages newbies. Not like several places where they just throw people into the booth without training, then complain about them later.
Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 06-02-2002, 05:21 PM:
I will agree to a point that some people cant be taught certain things. However, I think that with that there is an added dimension, you have to have it in your blood, you have to want to have it in your blood.I have seen young kids that were able to learn anything, and wanted to do this badly. But alas, they did not have the ability to treat this as an art form, in addition to a scientific media.
Great projection is half knowledge, and half artistry. Anyone can learn to play the piano, only a handful ever get to be concert pianists.
It is unfortunate however, that we no longer pay great projectionists as if they were the artists that they are. Instead, we cut costs to get the cheapest, and sometimes worst, up in the booth.
What if we did the same to the symphonies, replacing the best and the brightest with people that couldnt get the hang of the instruments in jr high school.
What if we did the same to basketball? Replacing great NBA teams like the lakers and the knicks with teams like the Jazz?
Yes I live in utah and root for the jazz, even though I know they are the equivalent to a bad projectionist in a good theater.
Dave
Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 06-03-2002, 12:03 PM:
Yeah, there must be a gene for it. I know one thing - it's in my blood permanetly, whether I like it or not. Good thing I like it! 
Some people are just not technically inclined. You have to be to run a booth. I was the same way as that kid when I first started out in the booth. After I learned how to thread and start shows, I would seek out any information I could. I took home copies of our equipment manuals and read all of them cover to cover. I was the only one at my theater that knew how to program our CNA-150 automation. I was emailing my tech with new questions practically every other day. And I traveled with him also.
But there were some operators at that theater that I just could not teach, no matter how much I tried. It's a shame that because they're managers, they have to work in the booth. (Manager-operated theater.)
------------------
This one time, at Projection Camp, I stuck a xenon bulb....
Posted by Jan Hackett (Member # 1231) on 06-03-2002, 02:54 PM:
Yea it got in my blood after that first changeover at age 14. I popped popcorn next to the booth and I begged the projectionist to let me do a changeover. I was a girl and girls wern'tallowed in booths those days. I mean the toilet was exposed right next to the projector. But I managed to learn to change the carbon arcs and thread the century heads and change lenses between trailers and main show in as little time as possible. I grew up and in this job. If there is a gene for it I got it. My dad was a projectionist, my uncle too. Now me...I hope to do it till the day I die. It is that much fun.------------------
Jan Hackett
Theater Operations Manager
Extreme Screen Dynatheater
NM Museum of Natural History Foundation
Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 06-03-2002, 05:01 PM:
Most of my experiences with females has been positive. Mainly because they haven't been so eager to bring screwdrivers to work and start tinkering.Presently, most of our operators are female.
------------------
~Manny.
Some people can read "War and Peace" and come away thinking it's a simple adventure story while I, on the other hand, can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe.
Lex Luthor, "Superman: The Movie"
Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 06-04-2002, 09:31 PM:
I remember being "just a kid" in the booth. The first question I ever asked the projectionist at the 18-screen I worked at: "Why didn't they install 70mm?" To which he replied, "We don't need it." 
I also remember the mistakes I made as if they happened yesterday, but I learned, and the more I learned the more exciting the job was. From the first day of training when all we had to thread were policy trailers to practice with, I got such a rush seeing that huge image that I put on the screen. It was magic!And every show thereafter, when I looked out the port glass and saw the audience settling in their seats, and the changeover opened and an entire room full of 400 people were now watching something that I made happen made me feel just as important as the actors on the screen. And every week, I made sure those 400 (or sometimes as few as 4) people got a flawless show.
Yep, I think I have the gene. Now I need to stop reminiscing and get back in a booth, quick!
Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 06-04-2002, 10:20 PM:
Originally, the bloke that taught me to fix Hosiery Machines, taught how to cause problems.Thus when I teach anyone projection, I start with the basics, then throw in
- How to take a xenon out of focus.
- How to scratch a film (using old trailers)
- And so on.......
Teaches them to think out a problem before calling for help.
Posted by Donna Sylvester (Member # 726) on 06-05-2002, 01:17 AM:
My 17-year-old projectionist is John Westlund, who posts on this forum. He has it in is genes. His great grandmother owned and ran my theatre years ago with his grandmother, mother, and I think aunts and uncles. He caught on very fast. He read (and memorized!) all my manuals and nearly everything on this site. I don't have a tech he can follow around, but when I get a tech to my site, he is there, observing. On the other hand, I have another young man (a real pleasant, outgoing kid) that needs to be clothed in the outfit that Thomas Procyk is wearing in his photo whenever he is up in the booth. He knows the basics on how to thread the projector, but is like a bull in a china closet at all times. He has grown about 12 inches in the past couple years and the hand-eye coordination hasn't caught up. Both young men are assets to my theatre in different ways.