Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How many Prints have you made up?

This is topic How many Prints have you made up? in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Andrew Bangs (Member # 4938) on 10-10-2008, 06:29 PM:

I can only guess how many total I have put together at this point and I am relitivly new. The better question I guess is... How many prints have you had to put together in one day. This last Thursday I had 5 to put together and one to take down for an early pick-up. Starting at aprox. 2pm I went well through to 10:30 having two prints tails up. It was a crazy day!

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-10-2008, 07:39 PM:

Well over a 1000+ print build ups (scattered over multiple days, of course. This is only a rough guess because I really have no idea). I know when I worked at a 16-plex we would average 4 or 5 new prints each week, sometimes more. I did it all in a half an hour and even took a 20 minute break in the middle! [Wink]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-10-2008, 08:56 PM:

9 in and 8 out in one evening shift...by myself while running the booth.

Posted by Fred Tucker (Member # 4482) on 10-10-2008, 11:50 PM:

I built 18 in one night courtesy of horror fest last year. Average for me is 6 to 10, gotta love a 24 plex. But I'm rarely running the booth while I am building up.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 10-11-2008, 12:50 AM:

I think the most I've done in one day is 3. That's one nice thing about working in a 5 or 7 plex. Yesterday I had to build 2 and break down 3.

For the total number, I would have to guess 500+. I've been doing this for 12+ years in theatres that average a little more than 100 prints a year. There have been stretches where I was building maybe 1 in 3 prints and there have been stretches where I was building almost every print.

Posted by Tyler Potts (Member # 4952) on 10-11-2008, 12:58 AM:

First full print was the 1st Fantastic Four flick... then pretty much every Thursday since. I don't even want to know.

This weekend was 6, plus 2 breakdowns.

And our delivery really grinds my gears. Technicolor and deluxe prints both usually stroll in around 4pm. Everywhere else I know of is able to get theirs around 1pm - 2pm.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-11-2008, 01:21 AM:

I actually enjoy breaking down films. It is very relaxing and extraordinarily quick and easy (especially with clear tape and no ID frames [Razz]

). I don't like breaking down trailer packs, though. I'd rather just throw them away and I try to as much as possible unless we absolutely need a trailer that's on there. I do not like carrying the prints across our unnecessarily long lobby. I always enjoyed working at the United Artists Greenwood Plaza 12 were we could just leave the cans in the booth and the shipper would come up and get them themselves (plus bring them up when they came in). Then again we got about 10 prints a week.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 10-11-2008, 02:00 AM:

I also had my shares of "megaplex" nights of 7 + in 5+ out for almost the entire summer at my discount 6plex...along with print moves to assigned houses....like Brad does - all by myself and crawl home, hurting and sore close to 3am

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-11-2008, 09:25 AM:

We've had our platter for almost 28 years, and we play on average around 65 movies a year, plus a few special shows a year (matinees and such) - so I'm probably closing in on 2000 prints by now. I've done all but about 10 of them myself.

Posted by Andres Briano (Member # 4621) on 10-11-2008, 03:01 PM:

A buddy of mine (English/Canadian) and me (Argentine) put together 16 prints in one whole day. This was one day prior to the grand opening of Moscow´s (Russia) very first multiplex.
I remember vividly that because of the numerous spikes in the 220v local line, we were burning rewind bench fuses like crazy. Eventually, at the middle of our day, we ran out of spare fuses. We ended up wrapping them in aluminum foil.
However crazy that day was, I only have fond memories of it.

Posted by Don Anderson (Member # 397) on 10-11-2008, 03:17 PM:

I'd have to say that I've hit at least 700+ over the past 8 years. I actually enjoyed building/breaking down prints. It helps when the booth is air conditioned too!

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 10-11-2008, 08:18 PM:

I guess I can safely say, since 1976 when I was introduced to the AW2 platter (actually 4 of them), that began the countless numbers of makes and breaks that I've done - and that isn't including the gazillion miles of film that I've ran up to 1984 in changeover houses.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 10-11-2008, 09:10 PM:

In 22 years, 2676.

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 10-12-2008, 03:26 PM:

In the business part-time for the last 8 years.

As a guess I've built a little over 100 prints.

To change the topic slighty, what was the first print you ever bulit?
Mine was that Jim Carey film 'Me, Myself and Irene'

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 10-12-2008, 06:49 PM:

1976 - ROCKY! ..was the first print I put on an AW2 platter.

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 10-12-2008, 07:34 PM:

Most ever for me was 7 in and 6 out in one day when I worked at an 8-plex.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 10-12-2008, 10:26 PM:

My first was Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis in 1996. At least that was the first one I did on my own.

Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 10-12-2008, 10:59 PM:

The most I've ever done in a day is 4, and the first was ENTRAPMENT. I don't know how many I've put together total, but it's probably around 1,000.

The scarier thing to think about is how many movies you've threaded. My rough estimate is around 50,000.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-12-2008, 11:31 PM:

My first build-up was likely around right after The Lion King came out. We had a union projectionist who taught me to slice off four frames from the head and the tail and use shoe polish as well as solid yellow splicing tape at each reel join. You'd think someone who needed all of this to break down a movie would be blind as a bat, but nope! I never used the shoe polish, though. I only built up a few at that theater before it went out of business. I immediately went to the busiest United Artists in town where we had 10 billion prints to deal with every day since we were right next to the world headquarters. Those were really fun times and much learning occurred, making it even more fun.

I'm sure I've threaded at least one more time than everyone else here. [Smile]

Posted by Louis Belloisy (Member # 3836) on 10-13-2008, 12:32 PM:

how many, cant count that high. started out with the cellulose nitrate film. splicing was done by scraping off part of the emulsion and gluing the two strips together with an acetate type glue. the advent of splicing tape was a God send. how many in day, only 5.

i love friday's when i do the new films, all alone without the kids milling around.

louis

Posted by Andres Briano (Member # 4621) on 10-13-2008, 01:42 PM:

The first one I put together on my own was "The Fifth Element" which in these low latitudes opened in early 1997.

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 10-13-2008, 01:48 PM:

I never bothered to count but I bet some of those grindhouse guys who ran different double features every day might just exceed Joe's record of +1 over everyone else.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-13-2008, 04:16 PM:

No, that's just threading. Building is at least +2.

Posted by William T. Parr (Member # 677) on 10-13-2008, 04:28 PM:

My guess is that I have built little over 1000 movies in my 18 year on/off career. Most was 8 in 9 out at the Century 16 in Corpus. First print I ever built was The Burb's at the Cinemark Dollar Cinema in Corpus Christi.

Posted by Ryan Navaroli (Member # 3477) on 10-13-2008, 10:12 PM:

In total I've probably built between 600-1000 prints in the last 4 years. Working at both a 3 screen art house and an 11plex at the same time. I'd do Thursday at at least one of the theaters just about every week. Plus we used to get a lot of Friday deliveries at the art house. Also at the Art House we had classic midnight movies on Friday and Saturdays courtesy of working with the university, as well as a week long program once a month with foreign and classic stuff with usually 5-8 movies on one screen, as well as 4 film festivals.

Most films I ever built in one day was around 15 for the opening day of the film festival one year. Make up day and break down day for each festival was usually around that with a mishmosh of making up and breaking down all week but the brunt on Thursdays. Also on the Thursdays I'd have to break down all the prints from our regular week before or build for the regular week following. The most prints we had one year was 32 on 3 screens and were open like 12-14hrs a day. This was all while I was still going to school too.

Oh as far as the 11plex goes I had to make 5 and break down 4 last Thursday.

Posted by Jaime Tuzzio (Member # 4760) on 10-15-2008, 02:56 AM:

Since I started doing projection almost nine years ago I've threaded & started at least 20,000 shows (most of those years I only did projection once or twice a week, though I'm pretty much exclusively projection now). I've built around 500 prints, broken down just as many, and screened around that number as well. The most prints I've built in one day was 11. Nowadays most of my building is one day and breaking another, but the highest build & break day for me that I can recall was build 8, break 7, and screen 2.

Posted by Geena Phillips (Member # 3726) on 11-06-2008, 03:52 PM:

quote: Tony Bandiera Jr
Most ever for me was 7 in and 6 out in one day when I worked at an 8-plex.

I had that about two weeks ago. [Eek!]

And that was after building at a 12-plex the day before.

Posted by Sally Ann Burgess (Member # 4746) on 11-07-2008, 04:04 AM:

First film I ever made up was Antz. I was taught to mark all my joins with chinagraph, put fingerprints all over the print and chop off more frames instead of peeling off the tape...oh and then when breaking down a print, to use masking tape instead of splicing the heads and tails back on!!! [Confused]

Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 11-07-2008, 08:12 AM:

I worked at a 15-plex and one Thursday I had something like 7 in and six out and was working by myself running the booth also. That night sucked because I had a full-time job that I needed to be at at 8:30 am and I was working the theater until about 2-3 am. That is something I definitely do not miss about projection work.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-07-2008, 10:39 AM:

Sally, how did you learn better ways? Did you use common sense, did you see this site or did someone else show you better ways? Usually I find people are resistant to change even when it is for the better. The way they were taught has always been "good enough".

Posted by Sally Ann Burgess (Member # 4746) on 11-07-2008, 03:22 PM:

Joe, something else i forgot to mention...when I first started I was shown when threading to pull all the leader onto the floor by the projector, lace up then take all that dirty leader over to the platters. I didn't know any better since that was when I first started in Projection. The two guys I was taught by were old boys who didn't let me make up a print for SIX months as that was 'their' job. (this was over ten years ago)However, when I first made up prints, I knew that leaving smudges and fingermarks was a very bad thing so handled it by the edges. I was still using chinagraph, but only for a couple of inches instead of several feet!
When I went to work for the newly-opened multiplex at Bluewater, I was shown to lace up without putting the leader on the floor...although they were using white marker for their reel joins. I thought that was so much neater than chinagraph...we were doing slightly overlapping splices which was how I was shown at the previous cinema. The cinema was bought by Showcase in 2001 and we were shown how to splice properly by their tech...called 'butt-joins' and bloop splices (putting a black spot over the analogue part of the soundtrack at the join over the splice tape to stop any popping sound)
Now, when making up a print, I use a white sticker on the very edge of the film just to one side of the join (this comes off with the splicing tape)I still 'bloop' the prints as we have one cinema here that has Dolby SR only.
I didn't discover Film-Tech until mid-2003. I try to glean as much as I can from it. One thing I didn't know until recently is that when lacing up, the soundtrack should be facing in and in so that the emulsion side sits on as many rollers as possible. I have always gone out and out for years as I wasn't shown any better, but now I teach all my newbies the in and in way and explain why.
Would be interesting to find out what bad habits everyone had but I guess we can start another thread for that! [Smile]

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 11-07-2008, 03:44 PM:

I was also taught by an old union projectionist and he showed me to use white shoe polish at reel joins. I can't remember when I stopped using the shoe polish - it might have been when I went to work for my present company about 10 years ago. To the best of my knowledge, that was the only really bad practice I was taught.

Posted by Ed Alvarado (Member # 2760) on 11-09-2008, 12:51 PM:

Hmm I started back in late 2001 and since I worked for REGAL and we had everything from family film festivals to Indy films and your average release films I have to say about 1089 films Ive build.

The most in one day is 6 films while running the booth and tear down 6 films before the end of the night.

first film I ever build is "American Pie 2"

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 11-10-2008, 02:43 PM:

Going back to the original question:

"How many prints have you had to put together in one day."

I clocked in at 40 print builds in 48 hour period. So, 20 in a single 24 hour period (one day) -or so. No joke. I was assisting in opening a 20 plex theatre. They got in the intial 20 prints to go on the twenty screens AND 20 older prints to run for thier VIP day - where they ran movies for .25 cents and donated the money to charity. It was decided to let me build the prints because I was the only one in the building who knew how to.

Imagine getting forty prints delivered and being told to have them ready in 48 hours to go on screen. It was one of the worst 2 day periods of my life I can't get back. I earned my keep that week.

I did train people over those two days. But these were people who never had been in the booth before.

Going into the tangent that ever was getting into:

My first print build was "Gross Anatomy". Which I built tails first and every reel was upside down. I stayed with my manager until 4 a.m. to help fix the print.

I probably have built/tore down over 10,000 prints in my 19 years in the business. My number is higher than average because I typically assisted in opening new theatres in my career and was usually put in the projection booth the week of the openings. I had to train people and run the projectors opening weekend in addition to building prints.

One of my other worst "Thursday nights" in a projection booth was when I had to build 9 movies and break 9 down - all in less than a twelve hour period. That's also the night I accidently tore down an entire print of "Operation Dumbo Drop" onto a single 6000 foot reel. When I came around the corner and realized my mistake, I had just enough time to utter " Oh, Fuc*" before half the print fell on the floor into a big pile.

I've had some doozys. [Razz]

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 11-10-2008, 02:55 PM:

In the 80s, UA theatres was instructing their booth staffs via a manual and VHS training tape to apply white shoe polish at the reel joins. When I complained to a booth tech about how long it took for the shoe polish to dry, he told me to get white correction fluid and apply that instead.
In all fairness, this was to only be applied to a couple of frames on the sound-track side (which was up on the platter.) The print they were showing being built-up in the training video (Witness) had obvious rings of thin white lines where someone had used considerably more shoe polish than just 2 frames.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-10-2008, 03:15 PM:

I hate how theaters have to run a bunch of old crap for one day when they open. Such a waste of time, and the prints are usually awful.

Posted by Jonathan Althaus (Member # 5042) on 12-18-2008, 12:14 PM:

This week, 7 in, 7 out. 1st print I built was Bourne Ultimatum, have only been in booth 2 yrs now.

Posted by Michael Hossen (Member # 4274) on 12-19-2008, 09:38 AM:

Hmmm, Let's see. I've never actually been allowed to make up prints yet. I work for a family owned business and they are trying to keep the current head projectionist making up prints for as long as possible. I've been a projectionist for nearly two years now, so I'm hoping they'll teach me soon...

Posted by Cory Renkenberger (Member # 5054) on 12-19-2008, 11:40 AM:

I have never built more than 3 prints in one day. Primarily because I have worked in a twin-screen main street venue since 1984. I belive "Ghostbusters" was my 'learning print' and if I ran at our Drive-In, we were reel-to-reel until recently, so I can't count that.

-However, I would estimate at least 1200-1400 prints between this theatre and any of the others I was sent to in the last 24 years!
And not to toot my own horn, but in a rush a few times, I have seperated and diverted reel 6 onto an unused platter as it was running for an audience, and proceeded to tear-down reels 5,4,3,2,and 1 as customers were watching the end. I believe I had reel six in the can as the last few customers were driving away from the theatre! It pays to get creative in your booth! just be careful if you are a daredevil!!!