Running multi reels with only one projector without a break, amazing!

[Winbert Hutahaean]

Hi all,
I understand this video below is showing 35mm being projected but I post here since we do not have a sub forum for this particular format.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18JYU4bUP5/

The video shows how someone in Indonesia is projecting multi reels of a full feature with only one projector. The amazing thing is that he can avoid a break between changing the reels.

What he does is to splice and unsplice on site while the movie keeps playing. This must be done quick because he also needs to put a new reel after that.

While this is 35mm film, this procedure can also be done with any format including 8mm. But who dares!! 😅

[Matthieu van der Sluis]

Wow hey, what a race.
in 35mm the filmstroke goes much much faster too compared with 8mm, so in 8mm it could be a little less stressfull.

Fun video, thanks Winbert.

[Alexander Vandeputte]

Yep, some projectionists manage to destroy a print in only one run!

[Joseph Banfield]

After seeing this I think there should be a new law declaring this a criminal act with a mandatory two-year prison sentence for film abuse!

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

I knew right before even clicking on the link what I'm about to see, and turns out to be EXACTLY what I expected.😫 Another reason of my big relief when we switched over to digital system so I don't have to see this horror practive again.

(An example when things gone wrong...)
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=908287637947462

BTW judging from the projector head used (namely Tokiwa T60) this is more than likely to be from my country Thailand not Indonesia, as this film-grinder T60 is a default machine for open air cinema business here.

[Dave Bickford]

In a way, this reminds me of a particular TV station I was working at over 30 years ago. Our automated tape machine for commercials (Sony Betacart) failed one night and I had to run a few breaks manually using the only two videotape machines in the master control room. Super stressful and fast paced!

[Winbert Hutahaean]

I knew right before even clicking on the link what I'm about to see, and turns out to be EXACTLY what I expected.😫 Another reason of my big relief when we switched over to digital system so I don't have to see this horror practive again.

(An example when things gone wrong...)
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=908287637947462

BTW judging from the projector head used (namely Tokiwa T60) this is more than likely to be from my country Thailand not Indonesia, as this film-grinder T60 is a default machine for open air cinema business here.

I am not sure if it is in Thailand or Indonesia since we share the same appearance and language (southern part). But the title is Indonesian which make me to assume that.

[Steve Klare]

The slower transport speed of 8mm would be a help here, but the idea of doing an 8mm splice under time-pressure sounds kind of stressful!

I remember a time when I saw this being done not so seemlessly, but also more kindly to the print. We were camping at a commercial campground when I was a young teenager. They announced that there was going to be a movie at the rec-hall that night. My friends and I went up to see it.

We were sitting right behind the one projector. The feature was some Elvis Presley movie. I sort-of knew who he was (I was about 15 years too young). I don't remember the title. I DID recognize 16mm because my teachers used it at school.

The Projectionist (-same guy that worked in the camp store selling ice cream, propane refills and tent stakes during the day.) kept me interested by doing changeovers with tiny intermissions. A reel would end, and he'd bring the empty supply reel back to the rear spindle and threaded up the next reel, landing on the new take-up. He was on top of his craft: less than a minute with the lights up between reels. We hung out a little while after Elvis finished up, there was a LOT of rewinding at the end.

For me, this was much more entertaining than a seamless two machine changeover, because I enjoyed watching the guy work so much that I still remember it!

Little did I know this would be useful information some day a few decades down the road!

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

Winbert Hutahaean As far as I had seen Indonesia's open air film show seems to be mostly made by a pair of Chinese-made portable projector called Shanghai 10-x something, in the proper change-over style. In another words a "film done right" practice, unlike what we're doing here since everyone seems to love being in "risky business" (and scratching films).

And to add another level of risk, I had seen some film show running carbon arc lamphouse. In order to keep the show running they had to change out the consumed carbon rods WHILE IT'S STILL RUNNING, and still keeping the lamphouse lit all the time. Crazy isn't it?

[Rob Young]

Arghh! The horror! the HORROR!

I do remember showing Disney features back in the day and taking off the feed spool as the tail left it, getting the next reel on and then swopping the take-up fast before a quick gate wipe and threading. All in about a minute and no risk of damage. Happy days.

[Barry Grinter]

Reminds me of my time as a projectionist in the early 70's. Had a brand new fully automated system that would start the projector, turn off the muzak, turn down the house lights, and open the curtain. At the end it would reverse the procedure.
It used these huge 3 foot diameter reels that held the entire movie, but I had to cut and splice all the individual reels together to fill it, then take them all apart to ship them back. Easiest job I ever had - just pushed a button every couple of hours. 😁

[Lindsay Morris]

Topping and tailing movie parts on a single 35mm projector to produce a continuous screening was a VERY common activity undertaken by the old Travelling Showmen here in Australia in the 1940's.
Most of them only had the one 35mm projector which to a degree was reasonably portable and they would take it from town to town screening the movie in successive small town halls in the country locations.
At that time most movies came as 1000 foot parts and what they did was to prepare the ends and heads of each part ready for a quick CEMENT splice as the reel end came along.
They would spin off the last of the movie on the feed spool and pop the next part onto the feed spindle and do a quick cement splice from the ending part to the next part and as it went thru the machine catch the splice as it went onto the takeup spool ready to pull it apart ONLY if the takeup spool was full as they then used 2000 foot spools as takeup.
They would do that just for the first showing and once onto 2000 footers keep it like that until the circuit they had was the Last show and then as the show got underway they would start the Takeup on the company 1000 foot spools and as the joint went thru they would break the cement splice and swap takeup reels and so on putting 2000 foot reels on the feed spool topping and tailing those as they went until the last spool was run through.

The guy who taught me the art of 35mm screenings using 2000 foot reels, carbon arcs with 2 machines doing changeovers had been an old showman with a 7 town circuit in the southwest of Western Australia and one night during my training he demonstrated the cement splice Top and Tailing using the Newsreel at the start of the show that night..He was quick as greased lightning doing it and he never missed a beat catching the join go through, breaking the cement splice and quickly swapping the takeup reel. NO interruption to the show at all.
As a VERY new projectionist I was spell bound at the process.

As to swapping carbons with the arc running it was EASY to do on the Negative carbon as you could run the carbon right down to the very last Centimetre of carbon in the negative holder and as the holder almost came up against the stop, quickly slightly undo the carbon clamp and quickly slide a NEW carbon in behind the burning stub. Then quickly use the new carbon to push out the old stub and allow the new one to touch the positive and ignite, pull it back a few millimetres, wind the Negative mechanism back quickly to provide enough feed for as long as needed, screw jaw clamp up tight and you were done.. On screen there was just a slight dimming of the light and a few flickers as the negative settled into the burning state.

However doing that with the Positive was NOT so easy as one had to open the lamphouse door and thus expose the burning carbons and avoid allowing the bright light to catch your eyes and try and do similar as done swapping a Negative carbon and getting the Positive carbon rapidly into loosened jaws, pushing the stub of the old positive out at the same time keeping the new carbon lined up to slide neatly through the Positive carbon guide and then have a clean ignition of the new carbon was a VERY tricky process.

I never had any troubles swapping Negatives on the run BUT Positives were a PIA and usually the screen light went right out for a few seconds as you did it and of course you are dealing with Red Hot carbons and melting copper from the outer coating so that was a totally different ball game.
Thus I always made sure I had sufficient Positive carbon for the run time needed and any competent carbon arc projectionist could accurately judge how much carbon was needed for each reel and not get caught out.

Prior to going Digital at my cinema I moved from 2 machines and carbon arcs to a SINGLE 35mm machine with a 2Kw Xenon lamphouse and a MUT system that held the movie on 42 inch reels paying out from the feed reel, around the front wall on rollers to feed into the projector and as it came out of the machine the film went back around the front wall on rollers again and onto a similar sized takeup spool.
The MUT system had a couple of swinging arms that would move up or down as the size of the film pack on each reel altered in diameter. Thus the feed spool started out running slowly and the takeup was travelling faster and as the show went on the speeds on both changed to ensure a constant feed into the machine and takeup the film coming out smoothly onto the 42 inch takeup reel.
At the end of a session one rewound the film from one spool to the other OR if finished one could wind off each part back onto the company spools picking up each reel end as the tape join went through. They were easily identified as the splices were marked on the very edge of the film righ on each splice so as the tape came off the marking on the film came off.

35mm sessions were good days and the conversion to digital was OK and fully automated to the extent one simply powered up the digital setup and walked away and let it start on time, dimming lights as required and even "tweaking" sound levels from screen ad to trailers to features if one bothered to do a short run through to into the feature and set each volume for each clip precisely such that the patrons had a constant and correct volume from start to finish. Good showmanship doing that.

35mm film is NOT dead and is making a bit of a comeback much like vinyl records have done and one cinema here in WA is giving screening 35 & 16mm film a good hard crack at just screening FILM.... NOTHING Digital apart from pre-show screen adverts.
Good to see.