Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Film Scratches

This is topic Film Scratches in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Keith Benschoter (Member # 3653) on 03-10-2006, 06:31 PM:

I'm new here, so bear with me... I'm looking for some pictures of typical film scratches to use as training aids for my projectionists.
Can anyone help me???
[Confused]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 03-10-2006, 06:35 PM:

Give your newbies a new trailer, ask them to run it a couple of times without your assistance. There's your training material! [Razz]

(I'll see if I can find anything.)

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 03-10-2006, 07:47 PM:

Brad,

Have you ever though about setting up on the site a booth training wiki? I know many people out there have, from one time or another, been looking for training materials. Something like that could be a good way for the community here to collaborate on materials that is easier to reference and are more structured for training purposes than the forums are. Just a thought..

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 03-10-2006, 10:32 PM:

Actually what I have wanted to do for some time is make a series of videos (free downloads via internet Quicktimes or the same content could be purchased on DVD for a couple of bucks), but I just don't have the spare time. I would also need someone like Joe who is very proliferent at Final Cut Pro to crank out the editing and assist with the shooting, and of course local.

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 03-10-2006, 10:36 PM:

Keith, just take them on a field trip to your local cinemark or AMC.

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 03-11-2006, 12:12 AM:

Think of the most common types of scratches and damage and then create that damage yourself.
Bring your pad rollers in too close on the lower feed sprocket, thread it against a roller bracket/skip a roller, loops the wrong size, takeup cluster set too low (aw3 only) on bottom platter or something like.
In the past I've taken two identical trailers, scratched the hell out of one and made slides out of the two to show the difference and talk about what to look for when checking theaters.

Posted by Ron Curran (Member # 3631) on 03-11-2006, 12:33 AM:

I have trained many projectionists and passed on all of my faults, just like teaching your kids to drive. Actually, I had the good fortune to start in the business when good projectionists were thick on the ground and most of them had been put out of work. We could get an expert to work relief shifts. Jim Haron (retired) still does a maintenance shift for me once a week and operates occasionally; he has forgotten more than I will ever know. He helped in the Sydney Cinerama installation and worked at Supreme Sound. Jim and I made commercials together (video, 16 and 35) when I was in advertising. He got sick of training people before I did.
It did annoy me at one time that other cinemas stole our newly-trained projectionists because they had no one to train them. One of our people went to a theatre that had installed 70mm – they needed someone who could do changeovers.
These days we get it easy, with platters, automation, xenons, splicing tape and digital pre-show, but Lesson 1 to any newby is First do no harm.

Posted by Keith Benschoter (Member # 3653) on 03-11-2006, 11:31 AM:

What we are trying to do is make a "common problems" handbook for all of our managers to have in their booths. (Kind of a quick reference) This way our repair technician might not have to waste a 200 mile trip, or we might not lose a show, when he might have been able to correct the problem over the phone.

We've put together numerous photos of equipment and labeled the basic parts. It's not just my equipment, it's our whole company. Which covers about every make and model known.
example: I have 2yr old milleniums with strong platters in my 7-plex, while my other 3 screen "bargain" theatre has 2 Century C's & a Simplex XL all with different platters.

I know this isn't the best solution, but we're just trying to do something to help our managers put on the best show possible.

Posted by Jacob A. Velleman (Member # 2533) on 03-14-2006, 02:28 AM: