The art of film projection (or why you should keep the booth floor clean)

Greg Carttar posted on Facebook about the projection techs at the Telluride Film Festival, and this story came to mind.. I figured I should actually archive it somewhere, so here it is..

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Ah yes, the art of film projection (or why you should keep the booth floor clean..)

About 10 years ago, I finally got the opportunity to run 35mm.. I had some quick training sessions (show me the principles of operation, and your favorite tricks, and let me figure out the rest..).

My first event was a screening/brief lecture with a foreign director.. A student group, with the usual lack of organization characteristic of groups that rarely host events.. I arrive early, and wait.. and wait..

They finally arrive, 20-30 min prior to screening, and hand me a couple of cardboard boxes containing the film.. It's the directors cut, and it's tails out, on hubs.. oh joy, I get to deal with split reels on my first screening..

Those of you who have worked with reel-to-reel tape decks may be familiar with the 10.5" reels with metal flanges that screw on to a plastic hub. You could buy bulk tape either with or without the flanges. If you bought tape without the flanges, what you received was a "pancake" of recording tape, wound tightly (but not too tight) on the hub. You would either add flanges, or mount the tape on the deck with only a backing plate. You didn't want to make any fast or sudden movements, because if you bounced a loop off the hub, you would quickly end up with a tangled mess.. This generally worked well on the supply side, and you would use a proper reel on the take-up side.

Split reels for film are similar.. You have a pair of flanges that slide together through the center of the hub, to give the film lateral support as it feeds in and out of the projector head. The problem with split reels is their thickness.. They are slightly thicker than a regular reel, and depending on the length of the spindle, it can be difficult or impossible to lock them in place. I'm sure that the folks who regularly run split reels have some tricks up their sleeves for dealing with this, but I didn't, so I had to keep a close eye on them, at the same time that I was trying to get the next reel prepped..

One of the big problems, on top of the lack of prep time, was the fact that I didn't have an infinite supply of empty reels.. Normally you have enough so that you can have a reel mounted on each projector, plus one in rewind, and a couple of spares for shorts/trailers, etc.

We had a couple of spares, but not enough for an entire film, so as I prepped, I spooled onto our reels, but take-up was going to have to be split reels, so it could go straight into the box, so the director could leave immediately to catch his flight.. (Oh, did I forget to mention that little tidbit?)

When you prep a film, you are looking for several things.. one is cue marks, which alert the operator of a changeover. You want to make sure they are there, in the correct places, and that there are not additional spurious cue marks to throw you off.

Another is leader, on both ends, of adequate length. Ideally leader should be opaque black, so if you are slightly late on a changeover, you really want to go to black, instead of white, and you really want to know if anything other than black is a possibility. You want to know if the lead-in countdown is accurate, so that you can compensate if need be.

The changeover timing has two cue marks, indicating motor start, and shutter cut. The lead-in is timed so that when the projector motor is started, there is a direct correlation between the spacing between timing marks on reel A, and the amount of leader on reel B, such that the images and soundtrack on both reels are in sync when the shutter cut occurs. Since the sound leads the image, the lead-in is the critical end.

You want to make sure that the film is oriented correctly on the reel.. It's not fun having the sound head trying to read the pictures, and the audience trying to watch the soundtrack.. or the image being upside down..

I think this film had a bit of everything.. short leaders, clear leaders, twisted film, etc.. all of which I needed to know about and fix or work around before the film went through the gate.

Anyway, I've got the film running, most reels are prepped, and we're about halfway through the second or third reel, when the outside flange of the split reel decides that it wants to sneak off to the pub for a pint, and departs the projector.. This leads to the film deciding to follow, and loops of film start dumping on the floor..

When this happens, you have a couple of choices.. one is to stop the film, and try to ignore the angry audience and irate client. another is to ignore the problem, but that leads to a really big mess as the film gets twisted into a big wad, and drawn into the take-up reel, which leads back to the first choice..

The option that works the best is to pull the take-up reel out of the projector, and just let the film pile up on the floor until the end of the reel.

Yes, It's a mess, but if you caught it quickly, the film should not be too badly twisted, and you can stretch it out, and loop it around something to feed towards the splicing bench, where you can wind it up by hand..

That's why you want to keep the booth floor clean..

That was the only reel that gave me real trouble, and by the time the film ended, I had hand spooled the offending reel back onto it's hub, and packed it away.. The director was none the wiser..