Film is officially dead?

**Jim E** · 2011 October 18th, 21:21

Originally Posted by Janke

Who will press the button?

Several years ago, when I was making tentative enquiries about working part-time as a projectionist at a local cinema, I was told that the process of starting and stopping the projectors was all controlled by computer.

I thought, surely it still requires someone to thread the film and fix it if it breaks.

No doubt, if digital photography hadn't come along, cinemas would have had a computer-controlled robot to do all that.

At least a robot could ignore the audience's booing and stamping feet when the film broke.

.

**jet** · 2011 October 19th, 02:21

Careful another http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?1...ligious-Debate may start up.

**Almohada** · 2011 October 19th, 02:42

Originally Posted by jet

Careful another http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?1...ligious-Debate may start up.

Hey, at least that debate is still open... remember what happened to the Mac vs. PC one?

**Jim E** · 2011 October 19th, 02:50

Originally Posted by Almohada

Hey, at least that debate is still open... remember what happened to the Mac vs. PC one?

What Mac vs. PC one?!....

**Janke** · 2011 October 19th, 03:08

Hey, seriously - what would you do if the Windows system would crash/stop/malfunction in the middle of a 2-hour movie? Could you re-boot and re-start the movie from the breaking point?

**Jim E** · 2011 October 19th, 04:23

Originally Posted by Janke

Hey, seriously - what would you do if the Windows system would crash/stop/malfunction in the middle of a 2-hour movie? Could you re-boot and re-start the movie from the breaking point?

They'd probably have another comp ready, just to show a screen saver if the first comp crashed.

**Almohada** · 2011 October 19th, 04:43

Originally Posted by Janke

Hey, seriously - what would you do if the Windows system would crash/stop/malfunction in the middle of a 2-hour movie? Could you re-boot and re-start the movie from the breaking point?

I said the same thing!!!

Originally Posted by Almohada

Wait, if it's running Windows who will fix it when it crashes????

It's bound to happen!

**Janke** · 2011 October 19th, 05:10

Originally Posted by Almohada

I said the same thing!!!

No - you said who, I said what...

**Bertzie** · 2011 October 19th, 08:38

Originally Posted by Janke

Hey, seriously - what would you do if the Windows system would crash/stop/malfunction in the middle of a 2-hour movie? Could you re-boot and re-start the movie from the breaking point?

Why not just hook a bluray player up to a projector? Problem solved.

**Dr. Benway** · 2011 October 19th, 08:54

Originally Posted by Bertzie

Why not just hook a bluray player up to a projector? Problem solved.

Or flash media, even better.

**Janke** · 2011 October 19th, 10:34

Originally Posted by Bertzie

Why not just hook a bluray player up to a projector? Problem solved.

Blu-ray disks and flash cards can be copied/bootlegged, digital cinema uses protected systems, usually encrypted RAID disks.

**Jim E** · 2011 October 19th, 10:38

Originally Posted by Janke

Blu-ray disks and flash cards can be copied/bootlegged, digital cinema uses protected systems, usually encrypted RAID disks.

what a world we live in!

**Fade to inferno** · 2011 October 19th, 17:13

Originally Posted by Janke

Hey, seriously - what would you do if the Windows system would crash/stop/malfunction in the middle of a 2-hour movie? Could you re-boot and re-start the movie from the breaking point?

hmm for some reason I've never experienced a crash DURING the movie. When there are problems it's usually troubleshooting getting the movie to start. Like the show playlist (SPL) has content missing, or theres a glitch with the Theater Management System (TMS) but if it were to happen we would reboot and attempt to start the movie from it's breaking point. Depending on how severe the problem is, it could take up to 10 minutes to reboot. so we would have to give out passes to the patrons.

**Fade to inferno** · 2011 October 19th, 17:15

Originally Posted by Janke

Blu-ray disks and flash cards can be copied/bootlegged, digital cinema uses protected systems, usually encrypted RAID disks.

yeah, this is true. sometimes it becomes a problem because the system "Keys" expire after a certain time. and our noobier projectionist forgets to re-ingest them. So right before starting the show the SPL is locked and cannot play the show

**Janke** · 2011 October 20th, 01:55

Originally Posted by Fade to inferno

So right before starting the show the SPL is locked and cannot play the show

Nice!

Never happened to me - the worst that happened once, was the middle of a roll (on a core, not a reel) dropping down onto the floor. Had to quickly make 2 rolls of it and do an extra changeover...

This is how I did it: Took the outer part, put it in a split reel and stuffed the "big hole in the middle" full of empty cores. Into the projector! Inner part in another split reel, into the other projector.

When I heard the clanging of the cores dropping in the cassette of projector 1, I did the changeover...

**Fade to inferno** · 2011 October 20th, 04:59

When my threading wasn't at a mastery, for whatever reason the 35mm just broke during half of the movie. Had to do my first splicing under crazy pressure and people were pissed lol

**monkeynutsjr** · 2011 October 20th, 23:31

I used to work at a Theater and they work on a 3 platter system. The film playing is all taped together, and it sits on one platter (If the theater is a double feature, the second film is on the second platter) and the film goes through the projecter and is spooled up on the 3rd platter. Then when the second movie is played, it is ran through the projector and is spooled through the platter that the first film was on. So the films are ready to go.

**Janke** · 2011 October 21st, 03:24

That came after my time, I worked as projectionist in the early 1970s...

2000 ft reels, changeovers every 20 minutes or so.

**cgbier** · 2011 October 22nd, 21:27

Steenbeck introduces three new editing tables: http://www.macvideo.tv/editing/featu...icleId=3303228

**Janke** · 2011 October 23rd, 03:55

Originally Posted by cgbier

editing tables

Here, you can get editing tables for free from production companies that still have them, provided you handle the transporting...

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