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Author Topic: Pretty soon, you'll no longer have film,' projectionist predicts Jeffry L. Johnson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 809 From: Cleveland, Ohio, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 09-01-2003 10:30 AM                        Pretty soon, you'll no longer have film,' projectionist predicts Business News Pretty soon, you'll no longer have film,' projectionist predicts 08/31/03 Janet H. Cho Plain Dealer Reporter Chris Baxter, 30, started his career selling popcorn at Cinemark Movies 10 in Willoughby Hills. As he rose through the ranks, he was trained as a film projectionist, learning to operate the refrigerator-sized projectors that shoot images onto the screens. But as projectors became more sophisticated, he found himself needing less time in the booth. He now serves as managing director of the 20-screen Loews Cineplex at Richmond Town Square and spends only a fraction of his day as a film projectionist. "Everything's automated," Baxter said, walking along the row of projectors in the cavernous control room. "You can have one person monitor 14 screens. [After starting the movie], you don't even have to have a person up here anymore." The old movie houses required two projectors for every movie, and a projectionist had to splice together several 20-minute reels to show one film. Projectionists also had to dim the house lights, start the movie, keep the picture focused, monitor the white-hot bulb, keep an eye on the flammable nitrate film and manually rewind the movie. But now, it takes Baxter only a minute to thread a film around several spools, through the projector, around more spools and through a giant platter that automatically rewinds the reel as it spins. Except for replacing the occasional burned-out bulb, "everything else is done by machine," he said. In the early 1990s, movie theater jobs were far more segmented. People were hired for specific duties: serving popcorn, selling tickets or sweeping floors. Being a projectionist was a prestigious specialty, a craft handed down from veterans to select apprentices. Even at Baxter's theater, only six of his 60 employees are trained as projectionists, and each performs other roles. Before television, there were more than 400 people in the local projectionists union; now, there are about 50 full- and part-time projectionists, said John Galinac, business agent of Cleveland Local 160 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Yet they are doing it at a wider range of venues, from drive-ins and OmniMax theaters to concert videos and multimedia shows. Experienced projectionists can make $15 to $20 per hour. "The industry had to change," said Baxter, who does not belong to the union. "Pretty soon, you'll no longer have film. You'll just put the movie into a computer and hit Play.' " To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jcho@plaind.com, 216-999-5069 © 2003 The Plain Dealer.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 09-01-2003 10:42 AM                    Hmmm...nitrate and xenon overlapping. Mmmkay.  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 09-01-2003 10:52 AM                     It amazes me that people believe you'll be able to "just hit play" and forget about DLP machines. I've had my home computer crash for no reason in one month more times than I have had a film projector go down for as long as I've worked in the booth. Yeah, put it in the computer and hit play. Then figure out what to do when your patrons complain that "the movie is rebooting" in the middle of the show. And aren't film projectors more resistant to power surges than computers? =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Matthew Nock Film Handler Posts: 82 From: Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 09-01-2003 10:56 AM                     yes, well thats what happens when half a journalist interviews the least experienced person they can find who knows what a projector looks like!! I mean, really... "The rest is all done by machine?" next, he will be telling us that 35mm film is just like 16mm and we can just poke it near the projector at the start of the day, and it will thread itself! Look out, my craft is dying.... NOT!  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 09-01-2003 11:07 AM                       quote: a projectionist had to splice together several 20-minute reels to show one film. Projectionists also had to... monitor the white-hot bulb, keep an eye on the flammable nitrate film and manually rewind the movie. Oh, he's an old-timer, alright! By gosh, they used to have to splice those reels together to show them! What work that must have been! Why didn't they just interview the business agent?  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 09-01-2003 12:56 PM                        Yeah, I miss having to splice reels together before they go on the platter. quote: next, he will be telling us that 35mm film is just like 16mm and we can just poke it near the projector at the start of the day, and it will thread itself! Hey, if IMAX's new multiplex projectors can do it with 70mm, why not.  |  IP: Logged John T. Hendrickson, Jr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 889 From: Freehold, NJ, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 09-01-2003 03:48 PM                     "Everything's automated," Baxter said, walking along the row of projectors in the cavernous control room. "You can have one person monitor 14 screens. [After starting the movie], you don't even have to have a person up here anymore." Now that sounds familiar, doesn't it? Sort of reminds you of the corporate mentality of the big chains, doesn't it? After all, Mr. Baxter is now a "Managing Director". And at the tender age of 30 to boot. I'll bet his career as a "projectionist" was quite brief and probably undistinguished as well. He was probably bored and waiting his chance to move up. Here's another example of corporate inattention to the booth. Lose a show? No problem- give 'um all passes. Scratched prints? So what- not many people complain, and when the do, give 'um passes. Equipment breaks down? No problem- give 'um passes and call the company tech. After all, you don't even have to have a person up there anymore. This guy should not even be associated with being a projectionist. Nor should the person who wrote this be associated with being a journalist. Makes me want to  |  IP: Logged Gerard S. Cohen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 975 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 09-01-2003 05:40 PM                     "The industry had to change," said Baxter, who does not belong to the union. Noted.  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 09-01-2003 05:55 PM                    quote: Cinemark Movies 10 in Willoughby Hills So everyone knows this theater is a discount theater in ohio. He probably never cared about projection. I can find a lot of things to do in the booth that is benaficial to the job. it will be a long time before thos 20 minute reels disapear. In the old days of carbon arc you didn't have to worry about splicing the reels together. No automation is full proof quote: But as projectors became more sophisticated, he found himself needing less time in the booth. Why does that sound like it controdicts its self. IF they are mor sophisticated wouldn't you need to be more aware about what was going on.  |  IP: Logged Hillary Charles Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 748 From: York, PA, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 09-01-2003 06:27 PM                     Back in the days when projectionists "had to splice together several 20-minute reels to show one film" what were the two projectors for, then? Don't you just love when clueless people demean your work in such an offhand manner?  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 09-01-2003 06:59 PM                       Hillary, he's talking about 6,000 ft. capacity reels, with a changeover in the middle of the show. Evidently, he had no clue that was an advance in technology, just as he had no clue there were carbon arcs before xenon lamps. That's why I made the sarcastic remark about him being "an old-timer".  |  IP: Logged Ken Layton Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1452 From: Olympia, Wash. USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 09-01-2003 07:23 PM                     Who did this so-called "journalist" interview....George Lucas???  |  IP: Logged Dennis Atkinson Expert Film Handler Posts: 129 From: Birch Run Michigan Registered: Feb 2000 posted 09-01-2003 07:51 PM                        "Projectionists also had to dim the house lights, start the movie, keep the picture focused" It's been a long time since I have seen a feature in focus at a multiplex. I usually say something, sometimes it even gets fixed Dennis  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 09-01-2003 08:04 PM                     I have to laugh at these so-called news articles about the tech-side of movie presentation. Who does the Cleveland Plain Dealer use as the primary source of their article? Some fellow at a bargain house extolling the virtues of running things more on the cheap! Why doesn't the press ask authorities on projection like Brad Miller or Steve Kraus about this kind of stuff? I suppose talking to some actual experts wouldn't support the spin of their puff piece.  |  IP: Logged Sean McKinnon Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1712 From: Peabody Massachusetts Registered: Sep 2000 posted 09-01-2003 10:47 PM                        GUYS! CHILL OUT! I dont personaly know Chris but one of my best friends is the person who trained him as a manager and speaks extremely highly of him and often compares him to me as bieng my clone, LOL. I know that the person who trained Chris is extremely compotent and I am sure that Chris is as well. I can almost Gaurantee that his words were taken out of context or mis represented. I have been compared to this person by about 6 people in the company I used to work for and I dont think they would have compared me to someone who does not know the booth well, as I am very serious about projection, and presentation.  |  IP: Logged

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