Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: who is installing the last 35mm film projector?

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Posted by Don Sneed (Member # 955) on 12-13-2012, 07:34 PM:

It Could be Me !!! I removed the old 35mm lamp house's & projectors with newer console & projectors at The historic Admiral Drive-In theater on the old Route-66 in Tulsa, OK...reopened in July-2012...

on November 23,2012 I Installed an Optimax, Simplex 35mm & Strong AP-3 platters at the Circle Cinema-3 theater in Tulsa, OK, This was a single screen, now a three screen, screen 1&2 is ready, still working on screen #3...no sign of Digital Cinema here...

Question is: Who will install the very last 35mm film projector...this could be a 35mm film trivia question one day & the person could go down in history....could happen...

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-13-2012, 07:47 PM:

Don beat me.

My first and possibly last start-to-finish 35mm cinema installation was this summer. After two years' worth of renovations, this theatre re-opened on August 31, 2012, exactly 85 years after the building was first opened to the public. This is primarily a performing-arts house, but has and will continue to screen classic films on an occasional basis to the public and also for rentals and special events. As a special venue, I believe that film will be around at this place (and others like it) for years to come.

They also have a nice Christie video projector (not D-cinema, however), and are set up to do seamless changeovers from film to video and back (stomp on either foot pedal and a "douser close" command is sent to the video projector; hit the "video c/o" button and both film projector changeovers close and a "douser open" command is sent to the video projector). I have wanted to have this capability for years and it has proven to be useful several times already.

The film equipment was a mixed bag of used items. The projector heads and bases were original to the theatre (installed around 1960, it seems), while the lamphouses, rectifiers, and modern sound equipment were purchased used. Tim Reed worked with the electrician to install the lamphouses and rectifiers and also designed and installed a relay box for the video changeover system and the motor-start signals for SRD. I wrote the specifications for everything and installed and aligned the projectors, which have lenses and aperture plates for four formats, and installed LED readers and did A- and B-chain alignments. The sound contractor installed the video projector (it hangs from the ceiling and uses an extra porthole to the right of the #2 projector).

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 12-14-2012, 06:20 AM:

We have a Kinoton FP38E installation (two different changeover sites, actually) slated for 2013. I could see us installing film (35/16 and even 70mm) for the foreseeable future.

Single projector platter installations are likely the first to die (or have already...except for home screening rooms). The only way one is going to get film prints in the future is going to be changeover only.

Posted by Donald Brown (Member # 5427) on 12-17-2012, 05:57 PM:

This raises an interesting corollary question: Where and when was the most recent commercial installation of carbon arc equipment?
The last carbon arc set up that I installed was in 1995 at the Diamond State Drive-In Theatre in Delaware with two Peerless Magnarc lamps.

Posted by Robert Throop (Member # 61) on 12-18-2012, 02:03 AM:

quote: Donald Brown
Where and when was the most recent commercial installation of carbon arc equipment?

We installed a pair of Ashcraft Core Lites in the Capitol in Rome, NY about 2005. They had originally been installed in Lincoln Center in 1964 and used for only a couple of weeks a year. When they upgraded to xenon we got them. They replaced Strong Mighty 90's which were put in in 1953.

Posted by Don Sneed (Member # 955) on 12-31-2012, 01:17 AM:

Wow carbon arc install, in my 33 yrs as a tech I never install, I serviced many of them, I removed one from service three yrs ago at an old indoor theater...that would be too cool to see again...

Posted by Marin Zorica (Member # 1716) on 01-06-2013, 01:43 PM:

Does it count if I do re-install? in few days need to move two kinoton FP30D a bit to get space for new digital projector, but still owner will keep 35mm changeover.

Posted by F. Hudson Miller (Member # 5318) on 03-18-2013, 05:19 PM:

My guess is it will be AMPAS in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Its suppose to have multiple screen rooms/theaters and the Academy has a large archive of film prints.

http://www.oscars.org/academymuseum/index.html

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 03-18-2013, 09:13 PM:

We have more than two systems where we are slated to install 35mm (and 16mm ) systems this year. Film is NOT dead yet.

Note Kinoton still has, essentially, the entire line of film equipment available.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-20-2013, 10:25 PM:

Definitely been hearing buzz that there will be no more film by end of next year.

Only thing I do know that print availability is reduced where 2nd run and discounts are fighting for a print from time to time.

Or, is this some wild myth swirling around the industry as a scare (or crutch) to get more digital units installed.

This myth had to start somewhere from the beginning. Make you wonder who started it (or, should we know who started it..)

-Monte

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 03-20-2013, 11:02 PM:

As of now, I will say that I am likely to win this contest. [Smile]

I will be installing a single 35mm machine with AW3 platter in my (future) house. [Big Grin]

That house is at least 3-5 years away at this point.