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35mm Projection


SoLiEn

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hey, whilst I was sitting around waiting to do a lens change in the control room, I was wondering if theres anyone out there on the BR who does 35mm projection.

 

so yeah, anyone do it? if so, are you full time or part time?

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Actually, the place where I used to do it does much, much less now. Ever since being fitted with a shiny new NEC digital cinema projector, the cine stuff is much less used...

 

Which is a good thing. We seemed to break the rewind bench about once a month, and the manual was officially no fun at all.

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Well if we're geeking out on kit.... <_<

 

Kinoton FP30s x2

 

German engineering. Lovely things. ...mechanically. Unfortunately, the guy who installed them in the first place had some...idiosyncratic...ideas about electrical wiring.

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Bryson, you bring back bad memories....

 

Remember that hamlet of about ten years back, the 4 hour + one....

Broken rewind bench... And a replacement was a month away...

 

Mind you I was winning free drinks by arm wrestling in the local pub by the end of it.

 

Regards, Dan.

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I'm another "Me too!"

This was at the Gantry, and my baptism of fire was projecting Magnolia. We had a tower to run the film, as the old Westrex projector didn't have large enough spools. But Magnolia was a very long film, and it didn't fit onto one of the spools. So the film was split into two, and a short interval was announced at the start. So the thing fires up fine, and the first spool is about to finsh, stop it, and fade up house lights. I start to thread up the second spool. Anybody who worked in the Gantry will be aware of the state of most things, and something in the gate needed a sharp thump to get it to line up correctly. Also the pay off and take up speeds needed adjusting to ensure the correct tension.

 

Well, I didn't get it right, and the blooming film snapped half way through the second advert we had added to ensure all was ok, they were not shown on the screen. Now what do I do? Unravel what had already passed through or start another spool. B***er, no time to unravel, where is another spool?...stop panicing...downstairs...sorted. Anyway, I get the tensions right the second time, but something in the gate still wasn't quite right so started again and this time it was ready to go, and all went well.

 

So, if anybody ever asks me how long is 30 seconds, I say long enough. I have no idea how long it took to sort it out, I am told that it was only three mins, but it seemed forever at the time. I only did it a few more times, but I enjoyed it.

 

A similar tower can be seen here, but that is not me, and it is not the Gantry!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Another 'used to'

 

Running 16mm, video and twin 35mm projectors in an arts house cinema.

 

Worst moment was when a short film playing on the No 2 projector broke between sound head and the take up reel. I considered quickly and decided as it was only 5 mins long to let it run out onto the floor then repair it and rewind it by hand onto the feed reel after changing over to the main feature on No 1 projector. My plan worked well, but I am glad the short was no longer, the mound of film was over 3ft high and filling the entire gap between projectors by the time the tail hit the floor. Plus my arm was killing me the next day from winding it all back.

 

Ah, happy days!

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Another ex-projectionist!

I used to do it as a part-time job while in the 6th form at school - the town had 2 'flea pit' cinemas - the 'Grand' and the 'Savoy' - and I'd work a 2-hour shift every evening in one or the other so that the 'regular' projectionists got a tea-break. Got to be a dab hand at splicing broken films and manually rewinding them. I can still remember the violet glow from the mercury-bottle rectifiers used to feed the arc lamps - carbon rods had to be changed every couple of reels, it was always a good game to see how short you could burn them whilst ensuring they lasted until the next reel change. Even today, many years later, I regularly see the 'cue marks' on screen when watching a movie on TV, I think it's something that gets fixed in your subconscious.

(The comp cinema passes that came with the job were just the icing on the cake)

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Not quite a projectionist but a Telecine operator in the 1960's. Does that count? We used to run twin polygonal prism Rank Cintel machines in duplex and the reels were only 20 minutes, which was just enough time to change the reel and rewind the finished one. Days spent running the 16mm reversal stock news film was like having a holiday!
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