For chrissake, get CLAMPS, or at least, since you are supposedly 'on a tight budget', find one of the large 'pizza scoop' type print moving devices, those are usually a throwaway item from many platter houses that closed and didn't have clamps... or just break the thing to 6000' reels and remake it at the new location!

Not to offend,(and there are some here that will have a MUCH harsher opinion on this subject than I...) but its theatres like yours that give a bad rep to 35mm film as a presentation medium. Learn what you can here, and begin to apply the lessons to your film handling practices and you and your customers will see the difference!!

I too had worked in a theatre that used some of the most unimagineable equipment and techniques just to keep a show on screen, and it didn't take long before I had enough of it and got things changed (If I get in the mood to post the story (it will be pretty long) I will do so.)

Some of that old stuff is 10 times better than the new stuff. IF it is properly taken care of a 50 year old projector can last ANOTHER 50 years without missing a beat!

Just stick it out and do what you think is right. Don't sell yourself short by cutting corners where you don't have to. Some day, if you play your cards right, you might have the chance to graduate to a "new" booth. When you do you'll just take one look and say to yourself, "Ha! This is a piece of cake, compared to my LAST booth!"

 |  IP: Logged

The owner was so cheap that for about a week we had PAID an employee to spin a feed-out platter instead of having PAID to get a new motor or switch or whatever the problem was.

Quite often too we would have ONE working payout platter on 3 of our 5 Super Platters so we would have to scoop the movies back to the original platter just to play it. Not complicating things more by the fact that our FIVE screen had FOURTEEN movies. So sometimes CLAMPING was the last thing we were concerned with. I quite often moved movies with ONE clamp by myself.

I dunno - it's easy to lose sight of good and safe projection techniques when you're saying prayers every day before work that you can just make it through a night without having a problem that can't be jury-rigged. I can make platters spin, I can keep stripped slit-lense adjustors NOT vibrate out of focus (THANK YOU masking tape), but I can't keep a 25 year old rectifier or a beat up KINTEK amp from blowing out.

I did however do my best to keep things as close to standard as possible. There are MANY little things you can do to encourage a more detail oriented projection staff. MAKE ALL THE LITTLE THINGS YOU CAN, CLEAN and WORKING.

And, a Potts take-up ring does not lock (or spring) into position, like a Xetron or Christie. Yet, the film stayed together.

Of course, I was still pretty careful when moving prints. No need tempting fate.....

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

As others have noted, many times we are asked to "make do" with less than ideal equipment. IMHO, the skill and dedication of the projectionist are more important than having the latest and greatest equipment. I would much rather have a film shown with a forty-year old Bausch and Lomb lens in perfect focus, than be at a new theatre where the focus of a state-of-the-art Isco or Schnieder lens was never checked, and the port glass was filthy.

Develop your skills so you always "Do Film Right" in taking good care of the print, and showing it properly.

To keep the show on the road for about 2 weeks the projectionist ran just the soundtrack and recorded it onto a cassette tape, then ran the print even though it had perfs only on one side. At approximately the right time he would switch to non sync, press play on the cassette, and hold a piece of cardboard in front of the lens to mask the image area that was missing.

That is the most dodgy thing I have ever heard but since then our cinema has gone digital, full automation and is pretty much state of the art and still with the same owners. It just goes to show.

-Scott