login | register

Projectionists Meeting @ 2008-03-10 18:00:00

Present: Rob, Kathryn, Charlotte, Amanda, Rachel, Martin, Tom Hunns, David.
Apologies: Ed, Aiden, Tim, Matt K, Will(for being late).
Late: Tom Hill, Sarah, Andrew, Will(with apologies).

1. Rotas
The rotas are full up to the end of term. There are already some
takers for term three.

2. Qualification
Rob, Ed and Aiden will be at Charlotte's qualification show on
Wednesday. Martin and Amanda may or may not be able to come. All
qualified projectionists are welcome (and encouraged!) to attend.

3. Show Reports
Tuesday: Shrooms (Scope); Rob and Sarah.
Other than the slightly abnormal preparation due to the microscope
conditions testing, this show went well. A slight adjustment was made
to the P1 tilt on reel 2.

Wednesday: Les Triplettes de Belleville (1.66:1); Rachel and Kathryn.
Shutdowns were required at the starts of both reels 1 and 3 due to
having soundtrack on the wrong side. In both cases this was due to
rewinding the film with the soundtrack on the wrong side before
subsequently not doing a sufficiently thorough check of the film path.
For reel 1 this was spotted immediately so (after correction) most of
the city sound trailer was played.

On one changeover both projectors were projecting on screen at the
same time and hence appeared "insanely bright". Also on another
changeover the aperture plate got knocked somehow (must have been
during lacing) and half of the scope and x-wide apertures were
showing.
It was also noted that since the film was in 1.66:1 and played in
1.85:1, it looked a bit ugly. Can try to play 1.66:1 films in academy
instead. Best to check how these two ratios look beforehand.

Thursday: Goodfellas (1.85:1); Ed and Sarah.
From the fingertips of Ed:
"One C/O was out of rack, that was mostly my fault as the racking knob
was turned almost fully one way and I only remembered to reset it a
few seconds before Sarah did the C/O. A few of us tested the sound on
R2 beforehand and we decided it was in SR, but during R1 there were
reports from outside that it was sounding strange, so it was played in
A for the rest of the film. A couple of C/O has a fraction of a
second of footer onscreen. The film was very dirty, and so the gates
and backplates were cleaned after every reel with IPA."

General observations were made at the meeting, including that once a
film has been laced (and with such little time remaining, as was the
case here) the racking knob should not be adjusted. This can only
result in the film going out of rack unless there is time for a
re-lace. Several reels were racked quite low in order to aid with
seeing the cue dots, though one was a tad too far. There was then a
general discussion about the use of IPA as opposed to foam cleaner to
clean the gates. The general opinion was that foam cleaner should be
used to clean gates and that the projectionists should ensure to dry
the gates as thoroughly as possible before returning them to the
projector.

Friday: Beowulf (Scope)
6.30pm screening: Ed and Matt B.
From the fingertips of Ed again:
"Start of ads was very out of focus and corrected in a few seconds,
the masking was left in wide for the start of ads and was corrected
after the sound and vision check. The start of the film was also very
out of focus and corrected in a few seconds."

The majority of those present at the start of the film were unsure as
to why both projectors would be so out of focus. It was suggested we
should check the prefocussing of the lenses due to this bad focussing
having occurred on a couple of occasions recently.

9.30pm screening: Tom Hill and Nikita.
The UBS white frame at the end of the presentation was skipped due to
a slightly premature change-over. Three or four of the change-overs
were out of rack. This was subsequently diagnosed as intermittant
setting issues which should now be resolved. The tilt also had to be
adjusted and an observer noted that one reel was slightly out of rack
throughout.

Sunday: St. Trinians (1.85:1)
6.30pm screening: Aiden and Vicky.
Selected highlights (relevant bits!) of the report from Aiden's
keyboard tappings:
"The only major problem with the film was the fact that it was quite
dirty hence as each reel progressed the picture became more and more
unstable. We cleaned the gates/back plates after each changeover (with
foam cleaner) and tightened the gates slightly when it started to
bounce. For some reason the bounce was more prominent at the end of
the reels playing on P2 i.e. moments before the first cue dot
appeared. It is possible that all the odd reels were slightly dirtier
but seems a little coincidental. The tilt on P1 was a little off and
was tightened as far as it would go although there was only as very
faint shadow and I didn't think it was necessary for someone to
support the projector to allow us to tighten it some more."

It was noted in the meeting that the gate tension on P2 seemed
particularly bad and that this could have been as a result of the
previous day's snaps test. It was also mentioned that there will
normally be some bouncing near the payout reel as the reel nears its
end, due to the natural increase in tension at this point of the reel.

9.30pm screening: Amanda and Nikita.
The start-up from slides to ads was a bit premature, with part of the
white UBS slide being missed as a result. The film went ok, with some
bouncing on P1. This was the opposite to that witnessed in Aiden's
show, so presumerably due to gate tension . The tension on the payout
roller had to be loosened, as it tension was causing a "clicking"
sound on the top sprocket.

4. AOB
i) Tech - The alignment of the SDDS readers needs to be checked, as
the film was noted to appear "twisting", which could be leading to
some of the bouncing problems currently being noticed. It was agreed
that having the tension too loose on the top roller was better than
having it too tight.
ii) Aiden's secret agenda point: Shall remain forever such, as none of
those present at the meeting knew what it was
iii) Projectionists (both qualified and trainees) were reminded that
the proj meetings are a place at which they should feel free to bring
up any issues that they may have. Also, when any issues are raised
they need to be minuted, both for future reference and for the benefit
of those not attending the meeting.

The majority of those present then went on to the social at Chico's

Back to list