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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: Toronto Star Article about Projectionists
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Dave Macaulay
Film God
Posts: 2321
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 07-07-2003 03:40 PM
I don't know anything about projectionist's pets - other than the mice and squirrels common in cinemas.
The Eaton Centre cinemas were, indeed, a horrorshow. 16mm rear projection mini-theatres squeezed into a parking garage level. The projectionists had a fair bit of work to do for show starts but not much during shows, so I suppose they could go out to a bar - but I didn't know of any problems. There are boozers in any profession. I've heard some tales of alcoholic projectionists in IA173 but much more lurid tales of journalists, lawyers, and politicians with a love for the bottle...
I can't figure out the point of the Star article. The Star has been getting nutty lately, with things like a front page spread about the lack of non-white players on the Blue Jays baseball team (huh?). It was never a "hard news" paper but lately they've gone off the rails IMO.
As far as the Fox goes, this is a "funky" rep house that can't be compared to a chain cinema. If the candy girl is actually a girl when you're there, there'll be more a lot piercings and tattoos than AMC would tolerate. I wonder what they could post to the "what are you wearing" thread...
I don't remember seeing any "lounge area" in the booth, and except for the rewind room I can't imagine where it could go. The booth is tiny and pretty full with the two Century 35s and a 16mm, rectifiers, sound equipment, and who knows how many film cans - they run 2 different films a night plus some matinees (ie Movies for Mommies), and usually change the program every day. Doing changeovers on 2000' reels doesn't give you much time to "lounge" anyway! This is not a job that one of the multiplex "booth usher" types could manage.
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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 07-08-2003 08:40 AM
While the reporter is seeking entertainment value and may not be knowledgeable about the technical aspects of our craft, he does touch on the mental health issues affecting old-time projectionists who spent most of their years in isolation.
The fantasy of being a showman bringing amusement and culture
to multitudes, while the projectionist is invisible to the public, enduring enforced isolation, seems a contradiction but was very real. The writer piles on extreme examples from the lifetimes of several projectionists to make his report interesting and entertaining, because he must have understood a chronicle of daily tasks and long stretches of boredom would not make an entertaining article. He's not writing for us!
The suicide story may be apocryphal, and the extrusion machine a humorous metaphor, but the writer's concern with the mental health of the projectionist attempting to convert an inhospitable environment into one of personal amenities, is one that rings true for me. I turned a booth into a cinema art museum, library, workshop and kitchen by decorating it with framed lobby cards, 8x10 glossies, huge posters, glass-doored bookcases, a microwave, and cabinets of my favorite tools.
Other booths I worked had carpeting, refrigerators, A/C, a complete kitchen, a dog house, a working computer, telephone access, and comfortable recliner chair. On the other hand, I've worked booths without windows, access up a rusty ladder through a heavy wooden trap door, toilet in the middle of the floor, and grit and dust all over.
The author selects his details for effect, but creates many misleading impressions. For example, not everyone works long hours, even though the theatre might be open 365 days per year. I worked for years full time in a four-man, single screen theatre running two 6-hour shifts daily. We'd work three days on, then four days off, then four and three. Days and shifts were arranged by the projectionists themselves. I worked five years at a theatre running three shifts daily. Usually my
job entailed 21 to 24 hours per week plus overtime. My last job, with a crew reduced from four to three to 2 1/2 then two,
increased my hours to 33 per week. While supporting my wife through her medical residency, I worked more than one job at a time, but afterwards, cut back to one. True, the chains would now prefer full-time projectionists to work a 40 hour week, but this was unheard of years ago.
Most projectionists I've worked with were well-adjusted to the isolation of the booth. Many were readers, some prefering biography and history books. The regulars owned their own homes or condos, put their children through college, and some retired to Florida or Hawaii. I met a couple who were ill-suited to the work, being too gregarious to appreciate solitude. I enjoyed working alone, after many years surrounded by faculty and immature students while a teacher.
I was never aware of alcoholic or binge-drinking projectionists, though some old-timers became somewhat deaf and fidgety. After all, one's reputation was only as good as his last changeover!
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William Leland III
Master Film Handler
Posts: 336
From: Charleston, SC,
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 07-08-2003 10:17 AM
quote:
television, VCR, radio, computer with Internet access, washroom and assorted furniture,
Furniture in a booth, my god. I consider a chair with a wheel, luxury. An alligator in booth, these people are crazy.
I do agree with the solitude of booth. We are solitary people. We all have a common factor, we are able to be by ourselves for a period of time. I sometimes feel the loneliness of boot, it sucks but you deal with it.
I'm sure alot of us have trained people after the first day or so can't take the fact that we work alone for hours at a time.
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