I was a projectionist at Theatre 80 for about a year. It was a great experience because I saw so many films I had never seen before.
The pay was awful, and Howard could be cantankerous as some have mentioned, but the experience of putting films together while trying not to lose frames (many prints had been spliced and damaged so many times that we often had to remove a frame here and there), watching the films with subtitles in a large mirror behind the screen (rear-projection the words appeared backwards to me), all the free snacks I could eat, and listening to the audience shout and moan when a splice broke or the projector lost a loop, all of that made it well worth the crappy pay.
It was also interesting to be buzzed by Howard (we had an intercom system between the ticket booth and the projection area) and told to chase people out of the restroom who would use it to shoot up their drugs. I usually let them pack up, then politely told them they needed to go elsewhere.
Glad to see others have some fond memories of that theatre.
I was a projectionist at Theatre 80 for about a year. It was a great experience because I saw so many films I had never seen before.
The pay was awful, and Howard could be cantankerous as some have mentioned, but the experience of putting films together while trying not to lose frames (many prints had been spliced and damaged so many times that we often had to remove a frame here and there), watching the films with subtitles in a large mirror behind the screen (rear-projection the words appeared backwards to me), all the free snacks I could eat, and listening to the audience shout and moan when a splice broke or the projector lost a loop, all of that made it well worth the crappy pay.
It was also interesting to be buzzed by Howard (we had an intercom system between the ticket booth and the projection area) and told to chase people out of the restroom who would use it to shoot up their drugs. I usually let them pack up, then politely told them they needed to go elsewhere.
Glad to see others have some fond memories of that theatre.