posted December 07, 2013 06:37 PM
I have very mixed feelings about this: I hate to see them go digital, but by the same token these days it's probably have some some digital Drive-Ins or have none at all.
Of course there are some that can't make the jump and will go dark as a result. (Rest in peace.)
I'll still go when I get the chance, but it's kind of like going to a restaurant knowing instead of a Chef in the kitchen there's a guy with a big stack of frozen food and an industrial sized microwave oven...
Even if the food tastes the same...
-------------------- All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
Posts: 3216
From: The Projection Box
Registered: Nov 2006
posted December 08, 2013 03:37 AM
I’ve been going around for the last year filming on super 8 cinemas ripping out 35mm and installing Dig for what will be my latest epic. For me not only is loosing real celluloid a tremendous loss for many reasons but the amount of staff that have been made redundant is shocking and a point in cinema history which is tragic. The only upside I can see is that many of the projectors have been rescued from skips and installed in homes or shipped to the far east which at least means irreplaceable machinery has been preserved. It’s been a tricky project to film this, much more than any of my other film related super 8 films, it’s certainly taken long enough!
Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007
posted December 08, 2013 10:14 AM
The projection box shown in the film had one thing I never met in my years of being a projectionist: a motor drive on the 2000' rewind.
British cinemas were of the opinion that a film should be rewound gently by hand whilst holding the film between the finger and thumb of the left hand. This was to feel that everything was OK and there was no damage which might show on its next run.
The mechanism shown appeared to be the U.S. Century projector, if it was, it was similar to the British Westar (made by Western Electric) which I worked with for many years.