Projectionists Meeting @ 2010-03-08 15:41:53
*Qproj Meeting, Week 9, 6pm*
*Present*
Niks, Matt B (young), Tim D, Martin, Rachel, Tim B, Matt B (classic), Vicky, Rob, James, Sam, Amy, Andrew, Alex.
*Absent*
Janis, Charlotte
*Show Reports*
Tuesday: From Dusk Till Dawn (Rachel & Dan)
Start up a little rushed as I was trying to impress on the trainee the
necessity of starting on time. Then the KPMG video died (I think he
pressed P3 twice) so went straight to ads, although there was no lens in
the projector! (Apparently we agreed to do this at a meeting recently, but
I couldn't remember it and found no mention of it in the minutes, so I was
going to bring that up as an AOB) Dowsed and put lens in before any
audience members came in!
All fine until C/O from R4-R5, which turned out to be R4-R6 :( Realised
almost immediately, but took about a minute to shut down, and maybe
another minute to get the new reel and lace - had to lace SDDS as well as
projector. Unfortunately this ruined the ending of the film for the
audience, as we all got to find out who survived :( Would estimate the
whole disturbance took 2-3 minutes to resolve.
Wednesday: Thirst (Sarah and Andrew)
Reel 7 was a tad oor but otherwise all good.
In the 'equipment problems', I noted that Andrew could hear a sound coming
from a top wheel (near DTS/SDDS units) which sounded like "nails on a
blackboard but quieter". I couldn't find anything wrong in terms of how
they felt or looked. And I forgot to ask him if this sound was still there
on the next reel (we were on P1).
I made Loughead train Fergus and this made him quite nervous and moany (or
at least more so than usual... yes. It's possible.) It would be sort of
cool if we could give the trainees a little bit of training experience
before they're qualified. You learn a lot more when you've got people
asking you stuff you'd never really thought about. Oh, and Loughead needs
a second additional... preferably with a technical person... the boy's had
no disaster!
Thursday: Twilight (Andy & Owen)
Loosened gate tension on the ads as splices were making a racket as they
were going through. Explained to trainee why I did it and what effect gate
tension has (not just what effect too loose a gate tension has, but what
too tight a gate tension can do as well).
Some stability issues on P2 during R3 (or R5). Took gate out and cleaned
with IPA during the next reel. Stability seemed better (R7 was OK and the
credits were on that so it should have been noticeable if it was a
problem).
Was showing the trainee some stuff on the amp racks and CP500 and noticed
the film drop from SRD to SR momentarily a couple of times. At other
times film was running with an error rate of 3 or 3. so don't know if
there was some damage on the film.
As far as the audience were concerned a Mary Poppins show.
Ads hadn't arrived and there was no trailer change for Friday so didn't
have an opportunity to go through ads changes with the trainee. Also I
forgot to email or text the Friday early proj to let them know the ads
hadn't been done due to this (sorry!).
(According to Owen - it was: AWESOME. Although there was a small stability
problem on R3 on P2, which Andy corrected before R5 and after that is was
cool beans. )
Friday Early: New Moon (Niks & Vicky)
Ads started slightly out of rack and very out of focus, both corrected
straight away. Forgot to put in aperture plate, dowsed and corrected. C/O
R1-2 out of focus, corrected straight away. During R5 a moron in the
audience switched the lights on to full, lights were turned back down
straight away.
Friday late: New Moon (Tim B)
Failed to press PC format for a few seconds, music instead as was too keen
starting kpmg as a song had just finished. Curtains late on R1 Pearl and
Dean a little too high, corrected immediately. Some focus issues as I
forgot my glasses.
Saturday: Jennifer’s Body (Rachel) - No sound on the KPMG Video due to the
sound not being plugged in. Went to ads after maybe 30 seconds of
wondering what to do! Film was fine, P2 was showing s-track on the top
left throughout.
Sunday Early: Avatar (Andrew & Fergus)
Some slight issues with picture stability on P1 (for a change). Gave gate
runners a clean after R2 which helped a little bit. DTS played up during
reel 3, losing timecode and barely getting it back in time to stay in DTS.
DTS unit dropped to SR a couple of times but due to people fucking about
AGAIN Auto Digital had been un-set on both P1 and P2, and SR had been
removed as an Auto Digital source. Corrected this. If you're gonna mess
about with the settings for whatever reason (eg during a Snaps Test)...
PUT THEM BACK AFTERWARDS! Also if you've set them a particular way due to
a problem encountered, it'd be nice to email the proj list and let
everyone else know why!
Anyway during R4 I cleaned the DTS reader lens on P2 (which was the one
which had the problem with R3). Turned DTS unit back on, and it
functioned fine for the rest of R4, and R5/6, but then messed up in the
same way at the end of R7. Took the decision to run the rest of the show
in Dolby Digital(and explained to the trainee why). Also swapped the DTS
disc trailer for a Dolby Aurora trailer.
Apart from R3 having been in SR for a bit I doubt the audience would have
noticed the sound problems.
There was also a small shadow on the top of the screen during R2, showed
the trainee how to adjust this once we'd changed to R4 since it was
similarly off for the ads reel. Adjusted tightness of the lens too.
During the show I also swapped the old ads reel for our 'spare' reel since
we've not had the new one returned yet. Ran through doing ad changes on
the platter with the trainee as we had time during some of the reels.
The whole show was basically run by the trainee. All changeovers done
without prompting, and pretty much perfectly. Lacing was generally
good(out of rack a couple of times, but showed him where he was going
wrong and later reels were fine). Very good indeed for a first time
trainee.
Sunday late: Matt Brennan (PDF)
Played in SRD (on Andy's recommendation) due to DTS problems on the
previous show. Started late 'cause it's a freekin' long film. R2 veeeeery
slightly oor, some subs touching edge of screen. R6 was fugly near the
end. Scratches down R6-8. Fuckin' A.
*Feedback*
- Tim B needs to bring his glasses to project >: (
- Snaps tests – list what’s been broken, don’t break what you can’t fix.
- Tim’s PDF on Tuesday – Sarah can watch.
- Sunday early week 9 – Sarah + Tim B – someone is going to de-sign so a
trainee can sign up.
- Lenses/aperture vote:
Take everything out after show – 6
Convert back to X-wide – 6
People suck and should check (aka abstentions) – 1
Sarah doesn’t know.
Training sessions:
Wednesday 1pm – Vicky will take Andrew’s 2nd additional training session
Wednesday 3pm – Tim B will take Peter’s 1st additional training session
Wednesday sometime – The Breeze will take Owen’s 1st additional training
session
*Majors/minors system*
Majors:
• The DM or another projectionist having to tell them that something is
wrong, unless the problem is undetectable from inside the proj box
• Subtitles persistently cut off.
• C/o missed with header/footer/white on screen and sound
• Reversed soundtrack
• Lacing incorrectly, qproj would notice as it would be likely that some
damage would appear on screen.
• Wrong lenses
• Unnecessary shut down.
• Top spool falling off during show.
• Bad focus that is persistent and no attempt at changing.
• Accidental leaning on something.
Minors:
• no aperture IF corrected quickly.
*AOBs*
- first weekend of vacation – tech lenses/anamorphic going to be fitted,
all welcome to help.
- tech session on Saturday at 1pm
- top roller – check alignment for SDDS units b/c of funny noise
- allen key missing for DTS.
- bring tools in.