(The little star in the upper right hand corner of this
image is one of the change- over cues that were used by
projectionists back in the days when reels had to be changed every 10 or 20
minutes. When the first star appeared on
screen for a split second, the projectionist would start the motor of the second
projector. When the second star
appeared, the projectionist would change over to the second projector with few
people the wiser. Later, the entire film
program was spliced together into one long roll that rested on a huge
platter. Today, most theaters no longer
use film and show their movies using digital technology.)
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Sunday, February 15, 2015
The Riding Hannefords #36
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3 comments:
Most single reels ran 22 minutes
The supply magazine had a roller
follower that was hinged to ride
the outbound film & rang a bell
shortly before the changeover
That gave you time to "strike"
the arc between the carbons
A long lost art of "Operators"
which was the industry term for
moving picture machine operators
AKA projectionists
1 of my grandfathers was a charter
member of NY Operators Local 306
Another segment of the IATSE
The cue marks that Eric mentions
were between 7 & 9 seconds apart
They could be green dots or any
other crude crayon mark often by
any or many of the previous men
that ran the print & depending on
the actual starting speed of the
projector you would thread up at
a given frame number as shown in
a viewing window so that enough
leader would run out before the
changeover & unless the arc gap
was different in each lamphouse
it would be hardly noticeable
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