Regarding the condition of the MFL print, I would like to know why that print was accepted for this very important engagement. Did the projection staff not notice the condition of the print and report same condition to management? If there was any question as to the quality of the print, it should have been screened in advance and rejected, then demands should have been made for a better quality print. Clearview had no right to present this masterpiece in the condition outlined in this forum.
All very well and good Craig, however you missed the boat here, more effort should have been made to present WSS and MFL in their original 70mm roadshow granduer. As you can see by reading posts here, it was expected and would have been more appreciated. Having said that, I will say, myself and many others apppeciate the effort.
Yes Bill, I remember that memo, it was not uncommon to receive such instructions regarding the presentation of a movie, we also recieved a personnel letter from Mr wise as described in my earlier post.
It was not only roadshow movies that would be accompanied by letters or memos from studios and directors, I recall getting one from Woody Allen (Manhatten) and Warren Beatty (Reds) amoung others. In the case of Mr Allen and Mr Beatty, they were very specific about the proper aspect ratio and framing of those two films.
As a personnel note to REndres: Rob,I would appreciate your finding out exactally how the films being shown now at the Ziegfeld.
The comment about the MFL presentaion was disturbing, are we to understand that not only was it in 35mm, but non Dolby as well?
I Can’t wait for Bill and others to review the WSS screenings.
I would like to comment on the projectionist role in a proper roardshow presentaion. We often received suggestions from the studio regarding light cues, as a matter of fact WSS came with a lovely letter from the man himself, Robert Wise, which basically pointed out how hard everyone worked on the movie and how proud they all were of the final product, “it’s in your hands now” the letter went on to say, “we ask that you give my movie the same love and attention I have” (or words to that effect). As all of you recall, The WSS overture was a series of changing colors coordinated with the music, my job was to lower the two sets of lights to match the changing musical pieces, which was very effective and a hoot to do.
This is pretty much how we handled all roadshow engaements, although we did not always get advice from the studios, most of the boys would develop their own special presentation to the overtures,
entr'acte and exit music. It’s what we did, it was part of putting on a show. Someone asked about the 35mm releases of a 70mm roadshow, the answer is yes, in almost every case the 35mm version was the same as the 70mm version with respect to intermission. During my days as a projectionist we were bombarded with new and exciting ways to project movies, from Cinerama and 3-D to my final position with IMAX, it was a fun and fabulous way to make a living. I must say it breaks my heart to see the way movies are presented in some theatres today and especially sad to hear the comments about MFL presentation at the Ziegfeld. What a shame!
Sounds to me as if theatres runing “Towering Inferno” with an intermission, simply took the easy way out and spliced an intermission snipe at the end of one of the reels. When we did it, we selected a proper spot which in many cases meant cutting into the middle of a reel. Keep in mind many non roadshow movies did not need an intermission, it may have just been just put there to increase concession sales.
veyoung, I don’t know about Philadelphia, but it they had no intermission, in the pre platter days, then I would guess they had 4 projectors. Perhaps someone else knows
Vincent, if I am not mistaken, Radio City can run 30fps, I believe that speed is used for the 70mm 3-D opening scene for the Christmas show? As I recall runing Todd-AO, it was just a matter of switching drive motors. Perhaps REndres will respond. By the way Bill, you are correct about the Zhivago intermission, as a matter of fact part two begins with the train rushing towards the light at the end of the tunnel as we begin to see what’s on the other end of the tunnel the
imagine gets wider and wider untill the train clears the tunnel and we are oudorrs again, quite a sight to see that on a huge 70mm screen. REndres tells a great story of trying to match the opening of the travelor curtain to the spectacular opening shot outside the tunnel. Another point to add to what Bob wrote regarding the intermission in 3-D films, all of the features released in 3-D had built in intermisions, because in those days the movie cam mounted on 6000 foot reels, and was shown using two projectors, after the first half which ran 45-60 minutes, we had to have an intermission to change reels. The Paramount in NY was able to run 3-D without intermission because it was a four projector booth and could make a changeover.
I would like to add my two cents on the intermission policies. back in the day, starting in the mid 50s, all roadshow 70mm films were presented with built in intermissions, the 35mm continuous performance realeases to the local movie houses also carried the intermissions. I was working at the Cinerama theatre in Hawaii at the time we say the end of the roadshow, the last one to play there was the 70mm re-issue of “This is Cinerama” in the mid 70s. After that, the big movies that had in the past been presented as roadshows were simply played on a continuous performance schedule and they rarely had built in intermissions. Like some have posted, many of the theatres began adding their own intermissions and I gather not in a very good way, the idea was mainly to enhance concession sales. At the Cinerama, one of the first movies we did this with was “Mame” and “Funny Lady”, both of which was played in 35mm with 4 track mag sound, we would screen the movie and find the absolute best place to slug the intermission, since the movies no longer carried additional intermission music or overture, I would purchase the soundtrack album and use a track from the album to use as overture, and entr'act music for the second half. As Laurel said to Hardy “no one was ever the wiser”. For me, it kept the spirt of the roadshow alive, we had fun, and I think the audience appreciated it.
Thanks BG0007 for those wonderful old photos,and a wonderful trip down memory lane.
I was a relief projectionist at the Fantasy during the 60s,the head projectionist, I think his name was John, had a reputation for keeping the cleanest and best maintained projection booth on Long Island. At the time, the Fantasy had two 35/70mm Norelco projectors
which John kept in perfect running order and you had better clean them every shift, otherwise you heard about it from John, he was a fantastic old showman, a true professional in every sense of the word
I loved the Fantasy booth because it was rather large and had windows looking out on the street, which made it less confining on some of those long double shifts.
Ron Newman, to answer your question regarding the Loew’s name.
The new name of the company will be AMC Entertainment. AMC will convert as much as possible to AMC from Loews, such as soft marketing materials. However, the marquee and hard signage changes may take a while. Recently, AMC impressed the exsisting Loew’s Managing Directors at a conference in Kansas City.
Friday,January 27th, a three week transition period begins.
William, the Ziegfeld has reel to reel capabilities. They just choose to run platters most of the time. I will be happy to know the prints are going to be shown reel to reel and not mounted on a platter.
Thanks for that Peter, I was not aware of the Dolby SR prints of WSS
I suppose if all the movies are shown with either Dolby encoded SR, Type A, or DTS tracks, although I am not sure the Ziegfield has a DTS processor, it won’t be bad. In fact some of the older 70mm tracks I listened to a few years back did not sound all that good, lots of hiss, and a deficiency in high frequencey, which of course is the result of too many runs thru the mag reader. You are certainly correct about the 70mm prints and I am sure no new prints will be struck, with the execption of IMAX, 70mm seems dead. I thought there would be a resurgence of 70mm with DTS after “Vertigo” and “Hamlet”, there was talk of doing “Rear Window” but I don’t believe it ever happened. It was very promising for a while since the expence for both the studios and the theatre owners was not very high. The studios cost would be the large 70mm prints (3x the cost of 35mm) but no mag-stiping costs, which because it was done reel to reel would up the cost to 12x that of a 35mm print.All that would be required in theatres already equipt with DTS was a 70mm reader for the time code. Alas it never came to pass.
I was saddend to hear the “Backdraft” story. I was working in Hawaii
at the time but the news reached us there, a blemish on the great profession of projection to be sure.
I am hoping REndres will be able to report back to us regarding the format being used to show WSS, MFL and others. 70mm prints are getting harder and harder to find, I worry we may end up seeing them in 35mm possibly with mono sound. I played WSS twice in 70mm and several times in 35mm. None of the 35mm prints had magnetic tracks, they were always optical (momo) So I am not sure if any 35mm stereo prints exsist. In addition, I don’t recall hearing of any Dolby remastering as was the case with MFL. But whatever it turns out to be I agree we must support the showings, if they are a sucess perhaps we can begin to se more of that at the Ziegfield and
possiblly Radio City as well. Wouldn’t THAT be sweet.
Bob Furmanek, I would love to see that VistaVision info you described. I worked with just about every movie process that came along over the years but never VistaVision.
Sorry Movieguy, I simply cannot accept your comments regarding projectionists. Sure, in every industry you have people who are as you described, but in my many years in theatre business I have found the guys in the booth to be hard working, dedicated profressionals who would never disrespect the the fine art of projection. We are a breed of individuals who love the job and get great satisfaction and joy in putting on a good show. As for volume in trailers, it was a major problem for a while, the studios and producers recorded them at a high level to get your attention in selling the picture. several of the industry’s most prominent organizations, including the Motion Picture Association of America, the National Association of Theatre Owners, and THX’s Theatre Alignment Program have decided to work together on developing a set of guidelines to regulate trailer volume. As a result, an industry committee dubbed the Trailer Audio Standards Association has been formed to help ensure that volume levels enhance, rather than hurt, the moviegoing experience, so as you pinted out, have improved over the last few years. Problematic, too, was that the difference in dB levels between trailer and feature presentations was still quite discernible. Trailers were so loud, theatres turned down the volume because they were getting complaints, and then not turning them back up for the features. You are quite correct in your statement regarding level adjustment settings in sound processors and automation panels, however, their are some flaws contained in those options as well. As the Loews guy said it can be troublesome, due to the fact that in a multi screen operation, prints are moved from house to house and trailers are interchanged, replaced, updated on a regular basis, so it can become difficult to keep track of all those settings. Keep in mind not all trailers are recorded at the same level so it’s not just one level adjustment involved. Hopefully I have caused you to change your opinion of “the guys in the booth"
honestly, the vast majority want to put on the best show possible.
Oh Rob that’s a riot! Good point about the weight of the two reels, the difference,of course, was the diamater of the reel which made it a bit harder to handle. In addition we often used “floating hubs"
which was good for the takeups but much harder to handle. I also remember doubling up a lot of the reels on a 70mm musical picture because in order to avoid a reel end in the middle of a musical number, many of the reels ran only 11-12 mins. You spoke of mounting prints on reels running just to or slightly over the edge, I remember many a time joining two reels together not knowing for sure if they would both fit, just shouting "come on baby you can do it” Alas it not always did. I never really liked having the print run over the edge, although I did. I was always concerned some relief operator would not pay enough attention during rewind and cause damage, it happened to a print of “Hello Dolly” and the boys in the booth caught holy hell. At the next union meeting after that incident, we were forbidden by the union president to allow reels to run over the edge. By the way, ever see a 70mm print on a platter have a brain wrap?, not a pretty sight.
So what do you hear about the prints being used in the upcoming festival? any 70mm?
Thanks REndres, I feel better now. Yes, I too ran double 70mm reels (oh my acking back) at the D-150 in Syosset, New York and also in Hawaii at the Cinerama. I did a few 15 hour grind days lifting those suckers and still feel the pain. That was unusual, generally I ran single 70mm reels which weighed quite enough thank you very much.
As for the 6k reels, they were very common in many theatres due most in part, as you said, to the Xenon lamps. Interesting note about “Napoleon” I can see how 2k reel to reel could be problematic for the conductor. Lastly you mentioned the producers and of course the other studio guys (ya had to love em) who would always show up for the technical rehersals (dry runs)to put in their two cents,
I never minded though, cause if we did not agree with their ideas we
would forget them after they left. In addition, every now and then they had a good idea. One thing they all had in common, and that was they all wanted it played loud.
Yes Bill, We actually copied the idea in the burbs by showing news, trailers etc in a 1.33 format, then doing a “delux”, which was to close the curtain, raise the stage lights, and then open the curtain to expose the scope screen, this was especially effective when we played the volume a DB or two low for the optical (mono) stuff
and then raised the volume when the scope feature hit in 4 track mag sound. It was especially impressive when it was the Fox fanfare. Of course Leo the lion was good too.
Great story REndres, but what did you mean you had to splice to the next reel? did you not run reel to reel? (Oh no, here we go again)
by the way, what are your thoughts about the ziegfeld running platter
What a marvelous idea, and so in keeping with the spirt of the good ole days. I am so proud of Mrs Rosemary and family for their outstanding efforts. When ever I drive by the theatre I always have a big smile on my face because it is so alive and well.
Hi William, good to hear your thoughts, although I think when you use the word progress it should be “progress"
I understand the need for film transport systems in multi screen or manager/operator theatres, however that does not apply to the Ziegfield where full time union projectionists are employed. As for the studios prefernce to platters over reel to reel, please, the chance of error on one of these contraptions is far greater than running reel to reel. Platters can, and often do, have brain wraps which can delay the show for several minutes, prints can be thrown
either off center or completly off the platter where the print dangles like a dead fish, causing delays of a very long time or even complete cancellation of a performance. Then there are the scratches on prints caused by rollers forced out of alignment or damage done to them by mylar prints brain wrapping. In addition I have seen prints with reels spiced together either out of frame or out of sequence, I even saw a show where the third reel was spliced in up side down. As you know, I could go on with the problems cused by platters. As for reel to reel, like most professional projectionists, I could count the number of missed changeovers or other mishaps I experienced on one hand. Yeah, I know, I’m an ole fool for trying to hang on to the past, but one of the biggest problems, next to people taking on cell phones,in our theatres today is poor projection caused by poorly trained amatuers, running platters (God I hate them) and killing off the great art of
projection. There I feel better now :)
Thanks REndres for that information. Now can you give me your opinion as to why they would choose to use a platter in a single screen operation, with a licenced union projectionist, instead of reel to reel? Help an old man understand the thinking behind such madness. Apparently they are doing the same thing at Graumans in LA, the big (original) house has a platter. An industry friend of mine in LA,who attended the premere of “The Producers”, told me that about half way thru the movie a brain wrap caused the print to jam in the gate causing the image to burn away. Is that supposed to be progress? In both locations they have a professional maning the booth, with two projectors, sitting for 2 hours watching a platter go around instead of running reel to reel. Thank God I am retired!
REndres, are they running reel to reel or platter?
Some of the biggest problems with projection today comes from the use of platters, with brain wraps, thrown prints etc.
I understand the need for platters in a plex or manager operator theatre, but not in a single screen or even a twin operation where the booth has a projectionist.
Regarding the condition of the MFL print, I would like to know why that print was accepted for this very important engagement. Did the projection staff not notice the condition of the print and report same condition to management? If there was any question as to the quality of the print, it should have been screened in advance and rejected, then demands should have been made for a better quality print. Clearview had no right to present this masterpiece in the condition outlined in this forum.
All very well and good Craig, however you missed the boat here, more effort should have been made to present WSS and MFL in their original 70mm roadshow granduer. As you can see by reading posts here, it was expected and would have been more appreciated. Having said that, I will say, myself and many others apppeciate the effort.
Yes Bill, I remember that memo, it was not uncommon to receive such instructions regarding the presentation of a movie, we also recieved a personnel letter from Mr wise as described in my earlier post.
It was not only roadshow movies that would be accompanied by letters or memos from studios and directors, I recall getting one from Woody Allen (Manhatten) and Warren Beatty (Reds) amoung others. In the case of Mr Allen and Mr Beatty, they were very specific about the proper aspect ratio and framing of those two films.
As a personnel note to REndres: Rob,I would appreciate your finding out exactally how the films being shown now at the Ziegfeld.
The comment about the MFL presentaion was disturbing, are we to understand that not only was it in 35mm, but non Dolby as well?
I Can’t wait for Bill and others to review the WSS screenings.
I would like to comment on the projectionist role in a proper roardshow presentaion. We often received suggestions from the studio regarding light cues, as a matter of fact WSS came with a lovely letter from the man himself, Robert Wise, which basically pointed out how hard everyone worked on the movie and how proud they all were of the final product, “it’s in your hands now” the letter went on to say, “we ask that you give my movie the same love and attention I have” (or words to that effect). As all of you recall, The WSS overture was a series of changing colors coordinated with the music, my job was to lower the two sets of lights to match the changing musical pieces, which was very effective and a hoot to do.
This is pretty much how we handled all roadshow engaements, although we did not always get advice from the studios, most of the boys would develop their own special presentation to the overtures,
entr'acte and exit music. It’s what we did, it was part of putting on a show. Someone asked about the 35mm releases of a 70mm roadshow, the answer is yes, in almost every case the 35mm version was the same as the 70mm version with respect to intermission. During my days as a projectionist we were bombarded with new and exciting ways to project movies, from Cinerama and 3-D to my final position with IMAX, it was a fun and fabulous way to make a living. I must say it breaks my heart to see the way movies are presented in some theatres today and especially sad to hear the comments about MFL presentation at the Ziegfeld. What a shame!
Sounds to me as if theatres runing “Towering Inferno” with an intermission, simply took the easy way out and spliced an intermission snipe at the end of one of the reels. When we did it, we selected a proper spot which in many cases meant cutting into the middle of a reel. Keep in mind many non roadshow movies did not need an intermission, it may have just been just put there to increase concession sales.
veyoung, I don’t know about Philadelphia, but it they had no intermission, in the pre platter days, then I would guess they had 4 projectors. Perhaps someone else knows
Vincent, if I am not mistaken, Radio City can run 30fps, I believe that speed is used for the 70mm 3-D opening scene for the Christmas show? As I recall runing Todd-AO, it was just a matter of switching drive motors. Perhaps REndres will respond. By the way Bill, you are correct about the Zhivago intermission, as a matter of fact part two begins with the train rushing towards the light at the end of the tunnel as we begin to see what’s on the other end of the tunnel the
imagine gets wider and wider untill the train clears the tunnel and we are oudorrs again, quite a sight to see that on a huge 70mm screen. REndres tells a great story of trying to match the opening of the travelor curtain to the spectacular opening shot outside the tunnel. Another point to add to what Bob wrote regarding the intermission in 3-D films, all of the features released in 3-D had built in intermisions, because in those days the movie cam mounted on 6000 foot reels, and was shown using two projectors, after the first half which ran 45-60 minutes, we had to have an intermission to change reels. The Paramount in NY was able to run 3-D without intermission because it was a four projector booth and could make a changeover.
I would like to add my two cents on the intermission policies. back in the day, starting in the mid 50s, all roadshow 70mm films were presented with built in intermissions, the 35mm continuous performance realeases to the local movie houses also carried the intermissions. I was working at the Cinerama theatre in Hawaii at the time we say the end of the roadshow, the last one to play there was the 70mm re-issue of “This is Cinerama” in the mid 70s. After that, the big movies that had in the past been presented as roadshows were simply played on a continuous performance schedule and they rarely had built in intermissions. Like some have posted, many of the theatres began adding their own intermissions and I gather not in a very good way, the idea was mainly to enhance concession sales. At the Cinerama, one of the first movies we did this with was “Mame” and “Funny Lady”, both of which was played in 35mm with 4 track mag sound, we would screen the movie and find the absolute best place to slug the intermission, since the movies no longer carried additional intermission music or overture, I would purchase the soundtrack album and use a track from the album to use as overture, and entr'act music for the second half. As Laurel said to Hardy “no one was ever the wiser”. For me, it kept the spirt of the roadshow alive, we had fun, and I think the audience appreciated it.
Thanks BG0007 for those wonderful old photos,and a wonderful trip down memory lane.
I was a relief projectionist at the Fantasy during the 60s,the head projectionist, I think his name was John, had a reputation for keeping the cleanest and best maintained projection booth on Long Island. At the time, the Fantasy had two 35/70mm Norelco projectors
which John kept in perfect running order and you had better clean them every shift, otherwise you heard about it from John, he was a fantastic old showman, a true professional in every sense of the word
I loved the Fantasy booth because it was rather large and had windows looking out on the street, which made it less confining on some of those long double shifts.
Ron Newman, to answer your question regarding the Loew’s name.
The new name of the company will be AMC Entertainment. AMC will convert as much as possible to AMC from Loews, such as soft marketing materials. However, the marquee and hard signage changes may take a while. Recently, AMC impressed the exsisting Loew’s Managing Directors at a conference in Kansas City.
Friday,January 27th, a three week transition period begins.
William, the Ziegfeld has reel to reel capabilities. They just choose to run platters most of the time. I will be happy to know the prints are going to be shown reel to reel and not mounted on a platter.
So true Stuart, so sad but true, it'a all about the money.
Thanks for that Peter, I was not aware of the Dolby SR prints of WSS
I suppose if all the movies are shown with either Dolby encoded SR, Type A, or DTS tracks, although I am not sure the Ziegfield has a DTS processor, it won’t be bad. In fact some of the older 70mm tracks I listened to a few years back did not sound all that good, lots of hiss, and a deficiency in high frequencey, which of course is the result of too many runs thru the mag reader. You are certainly correct about the 70mm prints and I am sure no new prints will be struck, with the execption of IMAX, 70mm seems dead. I thought there would be a resurgence of 70mm with DTS after “Vertigo” and “Hamlet”, there was talk of doing “Rear Window” but I don’t believe it ever happened. It was very promising for a while since the expence for both the studios and the theatre owners was not very high. The studios cost would be the large 70mm prints (3x the cost of 35mm) but no mag-stiping costs, which because it was done reel to reel would up the cost to 12x that of a 35mm print.All that would be required in theatres already equipt with DTS was a 70mm reader for the time code. Alas it never came to pass.
I was saddend to hear the “Backdraft” story. I was working in Hawaii
at the time but the news reached us there, a blemish on the great profession of projection to be sure.
I am hoping REndres will be able to report back to us regarding the format being used to show WSS, MFL and others. 70mm prints are getting harder and harder to find, I worry we may end up seeing them in 35mm possibly with mono sound. I played WSS twice in 70mm and several times in 35mm. None of the 35mm prints had magnetic tracks, they were always optical (momo) So I am not sure if any 35mm stereo prints exsist. In addition, I don’t recall hearing of any Dolby remastering as was the case with MFL. But whatever it turns out to be I agree we must support the showings, if they are a sucess perhaps we can begin to se more of that at the Ziegfield and
possiblly Radio City as well. Wouldn’t THAT be sweet.
Bob Furmanek, I would love to see that VistaVision info you described. I worked with just about every movie process that came along over the years but never VistaVision.
Sorry Movieguy, I simply cannot accept your comments regarding projectionists. Sure, in every industry you have people who are as you described, but in my many years in theatre business I have found the guys in the booth to be hard working, dedicated profressionals who would never disrespect the the fine art of projection. We are a breed of individuals who love the job and get great satisfaction and joy in putting on a good show. As for volume in trailers, it was a major problem for a while, the studios and producers recorded them at a high level to get your attention in selling the picture. several of the industry’s most prominent organizations, including the Motion Picture Association of America, the National Association of Theatre Owners, and THX’s Theatre Alignment Program have decided to work together on developing a set of guidelines to regulate trailer volume. As a result, an industry committee dubbed the Trailer Audio Standards Association has been formed to help ensure that volume levels enhance, rather than hurt, the moviegoing experience, so as you pinted out, have improved over the last few years. Problematic, too, was that the difference in dB levels between trailer and feature presentations was still quite discernible. Trailers were so loud, theatres turned down the volume because they were getting complaints, and then not turning them back up for the features. You are quite correct in your statement regarding level adjustment settings in sound processors and automation panels, however, their are some flaws contained in those options as well. As the Loews guy said it can be troublesome, due to the fact that in a multi screen operation, prints are moved from house to house and trailers are interchanged, replaced, updated on a regular basis, so it can become difficult to keep track of all those settings. Keep in mind not all trailers are recorded at the same level so it’s not just one level adjustment involved. Hopefully I have caused you to change your opinion of “the guys in the booth"
honestly, the vast majority want to put on the best show possible.
Oh Rob that’s a riot! Good point about the weight of the two reels, the difference,of course, was the diamater of the reel which made it a bit harder to handle. In addition we often used “floating hubs"
which was good for the takeups but much harder to handle. I also remember doubling up a lot of the reels on a 70mm musical picture because in order to avoid a reel end in the middle of a musical number, many of the reels ran only 11-12 mins. You spoke of mounting prints on reels running just to or slightly over the edge, I remember many a time joining two reels together not knowing for sure if they would both fit, just shouting "come on baby you can do it” Alas it not always did. I never really liked having the print run over the edge, although I did. I was always concerned some relief operator would not pay enough attention during rewind and cause damage, it happened to a print of “Hello Dolly” and the boys in the booth caught holy hell. At the next union meeting after that incident, we were forbidden by the union president to allow reels to run over the edge. By the way, ever see a 70mm print on a platter have a brain wrap?, not a pretty sight.
So what do you hear about the prints being used in the upcoming festival? any 70mm?
Thanks REndres, I feel better now. Yes, I too ran double 70mm reels (oh my acking back) at the D-150 in Syosset, New York and also in Hawaii at the Cinerama. I did a few 15 hour grind days lifting those suckers and still feel the pain. That was unusual, generally I ran single 70mm reels which weighed quite enough thank you very much.
As for the 6k reels, they were very common in many theatres due most in part, as you said, to the Xenon lamps. Interesting note about “Napoleon” I can see how 2k reel to reel could be problematic for the conductor. Lastly you mentioned the producers and of course the other studio guys (ya had to love em) who would always show up for the technical rehersals (dry runs)to put in their two cents,
I never minded though, cause if we did not agree with their ideas we
would forget them after they left. In addition, every now and then they had a good idea. One thing they all had in common, and that was they all wanted it played loud.
Yes Bill, We actually copied the idea in the burbs by showing news, trailers etc in a 1.33 format, then doing a “delux”, which was to close the curtain, raise the stage lights, and then open the curtain to expose the scope screen, this was especially effective when we played the volume a DB or two low for the optical (mono) stuff
and then raised the volume when the scope feature hit in 4 track mag sound. It was especially impressive when it was the Fox fanfare. Of course Leo the lion was good too.
Great story REndres, but what did you mean you had to splice to the next reel? did you not run reel to reel? (Oh no, here we go again)
by the way, what are your thoughts about the ziegfeld running platter
What a marvelous idea, and so in keeping with the spirt of the good ole days. I am so proud of Mrs Rosemary and family for their outstanding efforts. When ever I drive by the theatre I always have a big smile on my face because it is so alive and well.
Hi William, good to hear your thoughts, although I think when you use the word progress it should be “progress"
I understand the need for film transport systems in multi screen or manager/operator theatres, however that does not apply to the Ziegfield where full time union projectionists are employed. As for the studios prefernce to platters over reel to reel, please, the chance of error on one of these contraptions is far greater than running reel to reel. Platters can, and often do, have brain wraps which can delay the show for several minutes, prints can be thrown
either off center or completly off the platter where the print dangles like a dead fish, causing delays of a very long time or even complete cancellation of a performance. Then there are the scratches on prints caused by rollers forced out of alignment or damage done to them by mylar prints brain wrapping. In addition I have seen prints with reels spiced together either out of frame or out of sequence, I even saw a show where the third reel was spliced in up side down. As you know, I could go on with the problems cused by platters. As for reel to reel, like most professional projectionists, I could count the number of missed changeovers or other mishaps I experienced on one hand. Yeah, I know, I’m an ole fool for trying to hang on to the past, but one of the biggest problems, next to people taking on cell phones,in our theatres today is poor projection caused by poorly trained amatuers, running platters (God I hate them) and killing off the great art of
projection. There I feel better now :)
Yes Bill, I think we are all salavating over Vincent’s idea
Thanks REndres for that information. Now can you give me your opinion as to why they would choose to use a platter in a single screen operation, with a licenced union projectionist, instead of reel to reel? Help an old man understand the thinking behind such madness. Apparently they are doing the same thing at Graumans in LA, the big (original) house has a platter. An industry friend of mine in LA,who attended the premere of “The Producers”, told me that about half way thru the movie a brain wrap caused the print to jam in the gate causing the image to burn away. Is that supposed to be progress? In both locations they have a professional maning the booth, with two projectors, sitting for 2 hours watching a platter go around instead of running reel to reel. Thank God I am retired!
REndres, are they running reel to reel or platter?
Some of the biggest problems with projection today comes from the use of platters, with brain wraps, thrown prints etc.
I understand the need for platters in a plex or manager operator theatre, but not in a single screen or even a twin operation where the booth has a projectionist.