Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Do prisons hire projectionists?

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Posted by Robert L. Fischer (Member # 2424) on 08-03-2004, 04:08 PM:

This is a silly, pointless question, but one that bugs me nonetheless. When I was younger, I had an uncle who we'd visit in prison, and I distinctly remember often seeing film cans sitting outside of the visitor's building for return. Do prisons hire projectionists? Or do they just teach a few of the guards to do the projection work?

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 08-03-2004, 04:10 PM:

Probably a bootleg print of The Boys From Cell Block Q.

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 08-03-2004, 05:07 PM:

Around here all the prisons had real auditoriums with a real 35mm projection booth. They had projectionists from the union local come in for 'movie night' when the prisoners were good. But about ten years ago lots of prison riots were becoming the norm so the auditoriums were dismantled, projection equipment sold at state auctions, and movie night became video night in your cell.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 08-03-2004, 05:27 PM:

They had the same thing with getting a union operator at the Terminal Island location near Long Beach, Ca..

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 08-03-2004, 06:04 PM:

Is that what they mean when they say a movie is playing in the big house?

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-03-2004, 07:04 PM:

There's no equipment in the booth any longer at the Utah State Pen according to the guy that ran it which works for us. It was union run back when there was a union in town.

Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 08-03-2004, 07:11 PM:

There's an old Army fort in the town I grew up in. It's the place where "An Officer And a Gentleman" was filmed. For awhile, it was used as a State detention center for bad boys, & they hired me to run films for them every other week. The base theatre was fully operational... E7's, Magnarcs, RCA soundhead & floor rack & a Hertner generator. It was the only booth I ever ran that had DC field coils in the speakers... took me 2 hours to figure that out the first time I ran the place. The generator provided the power, backed up by a standby supply in the sound rack. All-in-all, a very nice, functional installation.

On the question though, that's interesting. I'd have bet that the prisons would have converted to video a long time ago... 'bout the time the public schools all started doing it.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-04-2004, 02:00 AM:

quote: Manny Knowles
Probably a bootleg print of The Boys From Cell Block Q.

...or how about 20,000 Years in Sing Sing?

Posted by Darren Crimmins (Member # 1116) on 08-04-2004, 11:07 PM:

I would hate to think what would happen if there was a film break or anything that would detract from the presentation to the "patrons". [Eek!]

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 08-04-2004, 11:34 PM:

Not to worry... I'm sure they would just bend over and crack a smile...

>>> Phil

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 08-05-2004, 12:22 PM:

And how many years do they get for a missed changeover?

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 08-08-2004, 01:19 PM:

We didn't do prisons but the Union did send an operator over to St. Elizabeth's Hospital every few weeks. The local paid $15.00 for running the show which I guess it was some sort of community service thing. The booth had XLs with carbon arcs (Ashcraft if I remember correctly) and an Altec 351B amplifier. The old sound system from the 30s was cut dead and left in place. Those amps were mounted on a huge black frame and had tubes that looked like light bulbs. There was also a carbon arc follow spot for stage shows.