Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Borat Toronto film festival screw-up

This is topic Borat Toronto film festival screw-up in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 09-20-2006, 05:41 PM:

Does anyone know which theater and what kind of equipment they had at this screening that had to be cancelled? I also heard that Michael Moore was there and claimed that he could fix the projector, if it was even the projector that messed up.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 09-20-2006, 05:51 PM:

I was told that it was a simplex xl and the intermitent flywheel screws sheared off

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 09-20-2006, 05:56 PM:

Thanks, that is exactly what I wanted to know.

Posted by Dan Lyons (Member # 1454) on 09-20-2006, 08:11 PM:

What would cause something like that to happen?
Maybe someone poured their soda in the oil bath and cause the screws to rust. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Alexander Smith (Member # 1769) on 09-20-2006, 08:42 PM:

If the report about the flywheel screws shearing is true, that
type of thing could happen at any time. Not just when you've
got a screen full of customers expecting to see a preview show.

It _could_ have happened on a quiet Monday evening, but it
happened when the media were watching. Unlucky.

Alex.

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 09-21-2006, 08:30 PM:

It was a Simplex XL. The machine is left in the venue booth (a live theatre and lecture hall) but used only for Festival shows and checked out annually beforehand. The intermittent failed. I don't know about the screws, if they were loose I think there'd be a hellacious noise for quite a while before they'd shear off and I've never seen those screws work loose before. Several people (not necessarily experienced people) worked on the machine after it stopped, so reports are pretty unreliable.
Michael Moore sure got a lot of publicity, good for him! When he posed by the projector for photos he didn't know he was looking at the back where the film does not go, so I doubt if he could have fixed it.
Probably next year there will be a spare intermittent in every booth.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 10-21-2006, 12:00 AM:

YouTube has a poor-quality video of Michael Moore dinking with the broken projector at that Toronto Film Festival showing of "Borat" in September.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-21-2006, 02:36 AM:

Boy, he really looked like he knew what he was doing!