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Author Topic: Big screen format "RV"? Gunnar Johansson Expert Film Handler Posts: 181 From: Gothenburg, Sweden Registered: Mar 2003 posted 11-29-2004 08:48 AM                        Hi. It´s been awhile, but I´ve been busy, now working part time as a projectionist (actually getting paid, more than a hobby). And now I have a question I hope you can help me answer. Some of my work is in the biggest theater i Gothenburg, Palladium, which is a single screen seating 770, with a balcony, curtains, huge screen and two Philips DP-70 (beautiful machines, got to love them). The building is from 1918, but it´s been rebuilt and refurbished several times. The masking machinery and controls are from, I think, the 50´s, and has, in order, settings for "NB", the swedish abrreviation for academy, "VF", which is 1:1,66, "FrVF", which is 1:1,85, "CS", obviously for scope, and then it has "RV". Nobody knows what the RV is, and I think that if you press it it doesn´t do anything, having been disengaged. The theatre has 70 mm capability (and does show it, but extremly rarely and now years ago), and it also used to show Cinemiracle, with the film Windjammer. The problem is none of my colleagues knows, some have been working there since mid-70´s and have been trying to find the answer. What further complicates things is that the abbreviation is most likely in swedish, and as you can see we don´t call everything the same as the rest of the world, or at least the US, does. So the question is: do you have a guess as to what the format RV can be, as it seems to be larger than scope, so that we may finally solve this riddle? Any help is welcome, and we´ll see what we can do. The next time I´m there I´ll try the button to see if it works and if it allows measuring of actual ratio. //Gunnar  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 11-29-2004 09:07 AM                        Possibly original 35mm CinemaScope (2.55:1) or 70mm Ultra Panavision (2.76:1)?  |  IP: Logged Dean Kollet Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 591 From: Florida State University Registered: Jul 2003 posted 11-29-2004 10:14 AM                     well, your flat format is FrVF.....what does it stand for? Seems like the RV is in the middle of the two Fs. I don't know the language, but what does FrVF wirtten out say? My money goes on 70mm, 2:1 or something like that. On a smartass note, it could be a real video (.rv) setting  |  IP: Logged Gunnar Johansson Expert Film Handler Posts: 181 From: Gothenburg, Sweden Registered: Mar 2003 posted 11-29-2004 10:30 AM                        VF is for vidfilm. meaning Wide film. FrVF is for Fransk vidfilm, French Wide Film, for some ancient reason. It could be Real Video but I highly doubt it... Thanks for the suggestions, keep ´em coming. Like I alwas say, how hard can it be... //Gunbar  |  IP: Logged Mike Babb Master Film Handler Posts: 250 From: Norwich UK Registered: Jul 2002 posted 11-29-2004 01:56 PM                        This is just a guess but many maskings have a "stop" button to hit points between presets.  |  IP: Logged Carl Martin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1424 From: Oakland, CA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 11-30-2004 01:49 AM                        quote: Gunnar Johansson VF is for vidfilm. meaning Wide film. FrVF is for Fransk vidfilm, French Wide Film, for some ancient reason. quote: "VF", which is 1:1,66, "FrVF", which is 1:1,85, are you sure you don't have those ratios reversed? the 1:1.66 ratio is the one that is most common in france. carl  |  IP: Logged Christian Appelt Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 505 From: Frankfurt, Germany Registered: Dec 2001 posted 11-30-2004 05:46 PM                     Sounds to me like a question for Thomas Hauerslev !  |  IP: Logged Gunnar Johansson Expert Film Handler Posts: 181 From: Gothenburg, Sweden Registered: Mar 2003 posted 12-01-2004 09:00 AM                        Carl: I can see how you would think that, and how it even would be logical, but I wrote it the way I learned it, and the wal all masking and lenses have been marked everywhere I´ve been... Weird. Christian: I´m hoping so too, but he personally knows my colleagues, and they have probably discussed it, but you never know. Sometimes you hvae to believe in miracles... //Gunnar  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-01-2004 12:15 PM                     Before the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood remodeled. The masking settings on the front panel had an extra button setting marked Cinerama. When it was in use the masking opened much larger than the regular full 70MM settings. Same thing with the D-150 theatre masking settings. Since you said that your theatre ran Cinemiracle, which was a 3 panel Cinerama type of presentation using 3 projectors in one booth. Using mirrors, than 3 different booths like in real Cinerama. That could be the extra wide Cinemiracle / Ultra-Panavision 70 format.  |  IP: Logged System Notices Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi Posts: 215 Registered: Apr 2004 posted 02-19-2008 03:31 PM                 It has been 1175 days since the last post.  |  IP: Logged Gunnar Johansson Expert Film Handler Posts: 181 From: Gothenburg, Sweden Registered: Mar 2003 posted 02-19-2008 03:31 PM                        Just looking through old threads I came across this one. My theatre closed this Sunday. No more Palladium in Gothenburg, and it´s a crying shame. I ran the last shows, and we had quite a nice turnout, but most were there because it was the last showings, and not because it was Sweeney Todd (-AO?). Anyway, an old projectionist was there, and I finally learned what the RV button was. The panel was installed after the cinemiracle days, when they built it back to a 35/70 set-up, but they wanted to be prepared for whatever formats were coming after the early 60´s, so RV is for Reserve, in both English and Swedish... It seems so easy now, but I wasn´t thinking along those lines at all. No I´ll go from being the second projectionist at the towns best cinema, to working part time at a newly built multiplex. But I´ll use this to get serious about going back to school and finishing a second degree, going from a Master in Philosophy back to Master of Engineering Physics... Thanks all for the input all those years ago. Sorry if I did the wrong thing bringing this back up.  |  IP: Logged

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