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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: old projectionist memorabilia
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Steve Kraus
Film God
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Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000
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posted 01-31-2004 11:46 AM
If "projectionists in America who struggle to resist the dawn of digital projection." is the theme of this documentary then obviously someone seriously has not done her homework on the topic. That is just so far from reality that it leaves most of us dumbfounded.
No one is out there struggling to stave off digital projection. At the moment the digital systems in the field are a drop in the bucket, do not present a picture comparable to good film projection (once you get past the "it's digital so it must be better" BS), take many hours of technician time to load a new movie on, and have economics so bad that the several major companies which sought to enter the field of providing them to theatres have since left the business or scaled back their operations to existing units. None of that jives with your thesis.
That is not to say that digital will not have a significant impact in the future--it will. But if you are dealing with current reality I would suggest a different angle.
How about how being a projectionist used to be a skilled craft that people could count on as a career with decent wages, often protected (yes, some would say enforced) by unions. Then carbon arc lamps of limited run time and somewhat dangerous operation were replaced with xenon lamps of relatively unlimited run time. That in turn begat handling film as a single strand via platters or giant reel machines enabling single projectors per screen instead of 2-projector changeover, greatly reducing labor-per-show requirements and enabling relatively unattended operation with simple automation taking care of routine tasks like dimming the lights. That in turn made the multiplex theatre feasible but also allowed minimally skilled people to do the work or for the job to be handled by managers. Thus began the long downslide in projection as a craft. Now it's largely done by young people who do not view it as a long term profession nor can they given the typical wages paid.
There is a story there that should be told and it makes more sense to document reality and record historic fact than to speculate about the future. Even if it comes to pass that digital projection eliminates every projectionist job the story will be less interesting than what has happened up until now simply because these are no longer career positions being eliminated. If McDonalds someday automates the back room and the burgers are cooked, finished, and wrapped by robotic devices the job loss would be less interesting than, say, robots on the auto assembly lines eliminating high wage, career jobs for auto workers. In other words, the most interesting stuff has already happened and would make for a good documentary.
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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 02-02-2004 12:53 AM
quote: projectionists in America who struggle to resist the dawn of digital projection
I think the biggest construction made there to create a romanticized & saleable tale is that today most projectionists in the US are near-minimum wage employees who come in, punch a clock, & are unconcerned with what kind of machine they run at the job - digital, film, electrical, steam, blue buttons, red buttons, whatever.
You need to go to a large sample of theaters & see how it works not so much technically, but organizationally, employee-wise, & not create a mythos. I am continually confronted with & amazed at how many folks undertake & have a personal stake in a romanticization of a technology understood not even superficially, from nostalgia to flying-cars futurism.
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