The times they are a changing
In the theater, last week, seeing Harry Potter, I was surprised to see cigarette burns. I looked up, and saw only one projector (as I had expected). Do they still insert the cigarette burns on continuous platter movies? Or is there some tech I don’t know about?
When I ran a projector, a million years ago, we were able to show the same movie in two or three theaters by cycling through the individual reels. You could start movies a half hour apart and show the movies in two different theaters just by keeping ahead of the reel swap.
Dunno what’s changed. I know they went to continuous length platters in the 80’s, but I never noticed a burn on a continuous. ANy film geeks out there?
Not me, I don’t have a clue.
They stillput in the burns in at the end of reels for the continous platter machines.
I do not know if it is habit, or to make it easier on the projectionists building the movies, but when I was a projectionist about 7 years ago there were burns right at the reel ends.
Hummm… I was wondering that too. Saw HP last weekend. I thought they had gone digital and were using high quality DVDs but did still the the burns.
Hit up Susie at Practical Penumbra.
http://practicalpenumbra.mu.nu/
I haven’t had a chance to get to her site for the last 6 months (ARG – too much to do, too little time) but she is still the manager of a movie theater… which included changing reels and selling popcorn and everything else. Bet she could tell you all about it.