Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Some films need a Projectionist's Health Warning

This is topic Some films need a Projectionist's Health Warning in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Geoff Power (Member # 6880) on 09-04-2015, 11:45 AM:

How I hate it when a feature starts in a way you least expect, and make you think the system's broke or you've got the wrong film altogether. When I started Cinderella (which has human characters) the other day the 1st 10 minutes were a cartoon short of Frozen, but with no warning - I had the audience turning to me and asking if I'd goofed until the short finally ended. OK I now know that it's normal with Disney, but it's not good for my heart!

Then Love & Mercy begins with 2 minutes of blank screen and soft music which had my colleague racing back to the box. Mr Turner begins in total silence with a panoramic landscape - "are the speakers connected" the duty manager asked me (as we alternate live shows with film this can easily happen, and does).

Jurassic World has a weird 2:1 aspect ratio leaving black bars top & bottom, but we were warned of this by the distributors (and I'd picked it up on this forum). I wish they'd all put a note in with the packing list to forewarn us of any abnormal running "issues".

OK, rant over ... I feel better now, until the next time!

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 09-04-2015, 04:18 PM:

The last 50 or so years of cinema are full of such things, fake gate burns, phony film jumps and the like, as well as other fake outs. The first time I ran Monty Python & The Holy Grail I had NO clue about the ending. I thought for sure that I had failed to find a sixth reel.

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 09-04-2015, 04:39 PM:

That's why projectionists used to preview all the shows.

Posted by Matt Russell (Member # 8989) on 09-04-2015, 05:13 PM:

To be honest though with Cinderella, Disney did ADVERTISE it with the Frozen short, so people should of been expecting to see it with that no matter what. You should of also checked the drive you got as mine had a file for the Frozen short built-on the hard drive. Jurassic World was a strange case of "flat mixing with scope", the reason I believe was because the first 3 were shot in 1.85 to achieve maximum height for the dinosaurs (which is what Spielberg said) but someone on board this movie must of wanted it to be shot in 2.39, so the director settled on 2.1 to make things even. When I saw JW for the first time in a regular auditorium, it was shown in native 1.85 (no black bars), but I saw it again at a Cinemark XD and there were black bars on the top/bottom. [Confused]

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 09-04-2015, 05:18 PM:

Anybody ever run "The Projectionist" (1971)? It starts with a cartoon and a film break. A real heart stopper if you are in the booth.

We never had the luxury to preview films back then. Often the print would arrive shortly before showtime.

Posted by Matt Russell (Member # 8989) on 09-04-2015, 06:13 PM:

I remember the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie was also causing a ruckus amongst projectionists because it opened with a "fake theater policy trailer" before the studio logos. Tropic Thunder was the same sort of situation as well, which had fake character trailers before the actual feature started. It's much more easier to recognize it's apart of the film now a days since it's all digital, but with 35mm, someone could of easily thought that they screwed up or got the wrong print.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-04-2015, 07:15 PM:

The one that got me was Gremlins: The New Batch. It has a fake gate burn that looks completely real. I happened to be standing in front of the booth in the balcony when it happened -- I had gone downstairs to the restroom and was just watching the audience for a minute before going back inside the booth. The fake burn happened and I raced for the booth door, and just when I got inside I heard the gremlins "hehehehehe" laugh and I knew I'd been had.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-04-2015, 08:29 PM:

The projector malfunction fake out in Gremlins 2: The New Batch was a hoot. I was watching it in 70mm Dolby SR at a theater in Manhattan. When the Gremlins started laughing and making hand shadows on the screen their noise sounded like it was coming from the booth.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 09-04-2015, 11:23 PM:

There was an alternative breakdown gag for the home video version, in which the picture breaks up and NTSC snow appears, as if the VHS tape had jammed in the transport around the scanning drum, followed by silhouettes of gremlins and a cheesy 1950s western serial. IMHO, they should have put that one on the DCP.

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 10-03-2015, 09:15 PM:

I saw "Love & Mercy" in a theater and don't remember two minutes of music with no image.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 10-04-2015, 12:26 AM:

When I inspect film, I always note whether a reel starts on black -- ever since that one time I got confused when I changed over and saw nothing on-screen.

(I also note if a reel fades out to black at the end, but that's less scary. The note is mainly to help with changeover timing.)