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Author Topic: When should you stop a movie Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 03-24-2004 07:30 PM                     I ask this on a basis of what is most professional. (I did a search and nothing come up so forgive me if this has been discussed) : Today I had a string from my cleaning rag attach itself to the aperture plate. I noticed it during the second or third trailer, so I waited until the trailer was over, stopped it and took care of it. Question: Is it more professional to stop it like I did or would it be better to keep the movie running and just remove the aperture plate and have an uncropped image on screen while you fix it?  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 03-24-2004 07:36 PM                        If you notice something caught during the trailers I would just close the dowser after a second of titles at the end of a trailer, pull the plate, clean it, stick it back in, and open the dowser. Nobody'll ever know since it'll only take four seconds to do.  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-24-2004 07:55 PM                     Chris You did the right thing. It is best if you can make repairs and have them in a program pause. The repairs may not be as simple as you thought, things and fingers can easily get caught in moving parts. It is evident that there was a problem. No matter what you did everyone there would have known you were making adjustments. Stopping the show before the feature was a good place for the interruption. By stopping the machine you reduced the danger of personal entanglement in the machine or even having the string get wrapped in the shutter. A few seconds spent off the screen is just good sense as opposed to damaging a gear train and killing a machine. I wonder about the cleaning process which placed the object in the light path. Perhaps this cleaning technique needs improvement. KEN  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-24-2004 07:56 PM                     I have an unwritten rule which says that the projectionist gets a Mulligan (for a minor problem) if the program is still in the previews. I think the audience will understand that, sometimes, things go wrong and have to be fixed. If there is a hair in the gate or if you need to make a focus/framing touch-up or if the sound isn't quite right they can be quickly remedied without too much fuss. If the audience even notices these things they will realize that there is somebody "up there" and they will understand. If they go unaddressed through the feature customers will notice and they are likely to be peeved off! The only thing I would add to that is that the operator should try to effect the remedy in as unobtrusive a way as possible: Wait until the break between trailers and/or shut the dowser and/or make the adjustment slowly and discretely.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-24-2004 08:51 PM                     This is truly a context-sensitive judgement call. If I'm in the pre-show then I would do as you did and wait until the break between trailers. During the feature, it becomes a little trickier. Generally, I would try and wait for the most opportune time, especially if I know the film and also assuming that an "opportune time" will be coming up shortly. All of this, taking into account the severity of the problem. If film is being damaged then we are dealing with an emergency situation and the show must be stopped. Program interruptions are among the worst things to deal with. This is why I watch the trailers very closely. For this reason, I usually object when two shows are scheduled to start at the same time or very close to one another.  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 03-24-2004 09:39 PM                     quote: I wonder about the cleaning process which placed the object in the light path. Perhaps this cleaning technique needs improvement. Perhaps my original wording was not so good. This was jsut a small hair sized string, as I wiped the bands off a fiber got on the aperture plate.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 03-24-2004 11:26 PM                     Had a similar situation Saturday nite. A blast from aerosol canned blow dislodged a large fuzzy hair or whatever. Looked for it at the end, never found it. Shot in at the edge of the aperture plate using the wand it will move most such debris without going off the screen. Otherwise just pucker up and get as close to the hot gate as you dare and blow like hell.  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 03-25-2004 04:54 AM                       You should stop it when you see "Starring Jennifer Lopez".  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 03-25-2004 09:00 AM                        Agreed with Manny: the only situation in which you absolutely must stop the show, immediately and with no questions asked, is if you are aware of damage to the print being inflicted which cannot be stopped while the film is in motion. Otherwise, as all have said, we're into judgement call territory. 99% of crud in the gate incidents can be corrected without needing to stop - you simply douse the picture, pull the plate out and clean. On an FP-20, I found that a blast of compressed air spray down the top of the pressure plate (in between the plate and the film) would usually dislodge it without even needing to douse. If you can do the douse after, say, a fade to black between scenes, so much the better. The only projector I know of which absolutely needs you to stop is the DP70, in which you need to lever the brass pressure plate back in order to get at the gate trap and aperture plate. For mainstream print runs this simply shouldn't happen except in a completely rogue situation: if you keep the print and the film path clean, no bits of crud big enough to be visible on the screen should be able to get anywhere near the gate. For arthouse venues with a very high print throughput it sometimes isn't that easy, but I've found that with 99% of setups there is always a 'workaround' of one sort of another you can use to minimise the disruption.  |  IP: Logged Jeff Stricker Master Film Handler Posts: 481 From: Calumet, Mi USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 03-25-2004 10:33 AM                     The old RCA TP-66 16mm television projectors I used to operate had a button on the operating panel that would issue a blast of compressed air into the aperture area. I belive (but my memory of things 35 years ago are a little fuzzy) that a blast of air was automatically issued each time the machine was started and stopped, too.  |  IP: Logged Stewart Anderson Expert Film Handler Posts: 105 From: Sandy, Utah /United States of America Registered: Aug 2003 posted 03-25-2004 11:20 AM                        In my old booth we had some small mobile air compressors that were intended for cleaning out projectors at the end of the night, but when a show was started with a hair or dirt in the aperture we could use the air compressor (very carefully) to remove the obstruction with out stopping the show or removing aperture etc... I think I might encourage my present employer to get some cans of compressed air. NOTE: If you do this, you should start blowing the aperature from a distance because you could actctually cause a lot more harm then good.  |  IP: Logged John Walsh Film God Posts: 2490 From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way Registered: Oct 1999 posted 03-25-2004 01:17 PM                     Generally agree with Manny.... Whether to stop the show for a problem depends, of course, on how bad it is. That's a relative judgement; somewhat difficult to define. But I think if you can fix it quickly (like a hair in the gate) you should go ahead and stop, even during the feature. I think most people would whatever it is fixed, rather than it bugging them the whole film long. Well, I agree with Tim, too...  |  IP: Logged Robert E. Allen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1078 From: Checotah, Oklahoma Registered: Jul 2002 posted 03-25-2004 04:24 PM                     I agree with what Leo said. I wonder why there was a thread in the light path anyway. A toothbrush, not a rag, should be used to clean the trap (gate). I learned that stopping the show is also an effective way to quiet a crowd. Years ago, when I owned a 600 seat theatre in Portland, Oregon, I had a packed house of young people who would not stop talking. I was working as the projectionist that evening. I shut down the show, raised the houselights, walked down on the stage and told the crowd that the movie would not continue until they were quiet. You could have heard a pin drop. And they were quiet the rest of the evening.  |  IP: Logged John Walsh Film God Posts: 2490 From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way Registered: Oct 1999 posted 03-25-2004 05:39 PM                     --"I shut down the show, raised the houselights, walked down on the stage and told the crowd that the movie would not continue until they were quiet."--- Yow, today, not only would they probably not shut up, you might get shot...  |  IP: Logged John Anastasio Master Film Handler Posts: 325 From: Trenton, NJ, USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 03-26-2004 06:44 AM                        You might not get shot here, but you'd have to clean the screen. I can remember our old AVA guy in school fingering a gob of spit onto the top loop. The hair in the gate would stick to it and get carried away. I don't even want to think of what that did to the print.  |  IP: Logged

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