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Author Topic: The Smell of Projection Peter David Bruce Expert Film Handler Posts: 187 From: East Anglia -England Registered: Aug 2007 posted 01-21-2008 11:29 AM                    Odd title, perhaps... When I first saw my first projection booth on my interview for the job, I was overcome somewhat by the lovely smell of the place. I couldnt put my finger on it. A bit of musty, dusty, 'from your grandpas attic' smell perhaps? Whatever it was, since working in the booth for about 5 months now, I cant smell anything. And thats such a shame. It was half the experience of working there, and one of the main reasons I fell in love with the booth. I still smell it a few times a week when i get in, but soon its gone. Does anyone else know what I mean? It had that kind of stately home/mansion feel to it? Perhaps its the darkness, all the equipment and maybe even the film itself? I cant put my finger on it - anyone help? It used to be a little bit of nostalgia whenever i got into work. lovely feeling.\ Peter  |  IP: Logged Larry Myers Master Film Handler Posts: 371 From: Herndon, VA, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 01-21-2008 11:42 AM                 I think Simplex Oil has that musty dusty smell.  |  IP: Logged Benjamin John Doman Film Handler Posts: 35 From: Slough, Berkshire, England Registered: Jun 2007 posted 01-21-2008 11:51 AM                     Hi, Ahh, that lovely warm old oily smell! My wife always knows when I have done some 'open heart surgery' on a projector as I bring the smell home with me. Takes me right back my first cinema. Westars, Westrx valve amp and the pasties warming on the convector heater in the corner! Ben  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 01-21-2008 12:05 PM                       I always loved the smell of a carbon arc booth at a drive-in, with the slight mixture of popcorn and hamburgers in the air. Every once in a great while, I'll smell something similar and I'm instantly transported back in time. Then I realize I just need a bath.  |  IP: Logged James Westbrook Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1133 From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa Registered: Mar 2006 posted 01-21-2008 01:21 PM                     It's the normalicy factor. You get used to a smell, you simply don't notice the smell anymore. I don't notice the smell of popcorn popping anymore unless I am in front of the popper actually running the popper (and on our old Cretors machine, the smoky smell hit me once and I had a flashback where I recalled in a small community we lived in for 6 months, we could burn our garbage in barrels in the alley which was designed for this. This was back in 66 and 67.) The lobby of Movies 4 (Mann Slide Road0 smelled like a kitchen/dishroom of a restaurant, but this was likely due to a restaurant being located next door to it.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-21-2008 02:15 PM                     Mine was smelling the carbon arc soot from Ashcrafts and the grease smell of Motiographs - along with the hamburgers, pizzas and freshly popped popcorn in our snakbar at a drive-in that I began at back in 1969.  |  IP: Logged Robert Throop Master Film Handler Posts: 412 From: Vernon, NY USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-21-2008 04:26 PM                     I love the smell of mag tracks on a 70mm print.  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 01-21-2008 06:24 PM                     Go to the Vine Theatre in Hollywood, CA the whole theatre smells of booth.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-21-2008 06:51 PM                        For me, it's the mix of stale popcorn and projector oil that makes up "that smell." Has anyone noticed that different chains have slightly different smells, presumably due to the use of different popcorn oils? I know that the "General Cinema" smell is different from the "Landmark" smell, for example. Naturally, I cannot stand to be exposed to "vinegar" smell.  |  IP: Logged Chad M Calpito Master Film Handler Posts: 435 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Apr 2006 posted 01-21-2008 08:14 PM                        Ahhh, a walk on memory lane. Everytime I walk into my booth, I feel at home and am transported back in time to my Ultra Star Cinemas La Costa 6 days, especially when I do a shift at the Gaslamp Stadium 15. Still transports me back to the good ol' days when I first learned booth operations.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-21-2008 09:31 PM                        We had a ticket-taker girl who used to hang out in the booth with me sometimes. A couple of years ago she visited Forsyth after being gone for 15 years -- she walked into the booth and took a deep breath and said, "Ahhhhh, it still smells just the same." (And she was smiling when she said it, so I assume it was a good memory.)  |  IP: Logged Peter David Bruce Expert Film Handler Posts: 187 From: East Anglia -England Registered: Aug 2007 posted 01-22-2008 02:58 AM                    Thanks for the replies. I was hoping everyone else would have the same memories of the early days. I suppose for me it takes me back to the smells of my grandpas printing press he had in his garage. all that metal and oil and stuff. And all the rags covered in parafin and machine oil. Its nice, for me its almost like im stepping back in time to my childhood a little every day. I just wish I could smell it all the time. Mostly if its been raining and the booth gets a little damp in the air it gets all musty. Thats when i smell it nowadays.  |  IP: Logged Bernard Tonks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 619 From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-22-2008 03:46 AM                     Going back to the old days in 1952 when I first worked in a projection room, I remember the musty smell of nitrate film on Saturday morning children’s shows, and Sunday for 1 day revivals. The weekday release pictures were by then all on safety film stock. The projection room wooden block floor polished daily. Projector oil. Very strong vinegar or lavender odour on treated reissue prints. Film cement.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-22-2008 10:36 AM                        FILM CEMENT! Bernard, I had forgotten all about that! I LOVED it...probably about as close to sniffing glue as I will ever get, but I did love to take deep deep breaths whenever I was splicing. Splicing tape....bahhumbug. Smells really do transport you back in time. And yes, we do get used to smells fairly quickly -- it's nature's deodorant! Actually, we tend to do that with all of our senses.....the brain figures out what is the steady-state and does it's best take that out of the mix. Keeping us aware of change is better for our survival; we can better aware of something changing, moving, if everything else become background. Just yesterday one of the lenses fell out of my eyeglasses while I was driving. At first I paniced, but then I remembered about cinematographers who don't have to keep both eyes closed when looking thru the viewfinder because the brain will effectively shut off the eye that he's not concentrating on. It worked; after a minute or so, yes, I was seeing both eye images (one badly out of focus), but my brain just ignored the out-of-focus image....just like some booth zombies do when they start a movie. As for steady-state smells....that's why you can put a dozen air freshener hanging thingies in your car, but it's only when you first enter that you notice the fragrance. That's why they have to put a fan in those little plug in things. Unfortunately for the consumer who thinks plugins is an alternative to cleaning, that's just a gimmic -- you will STILL get used to it. They could spray perfume into the room using fire hoses and you'd get used to it. It's in our DNA. I've asked this before, but...does anyone know of the aresole spray that had the scent of popcorn? In my early days, the owner of my theatre in Bryan-College Station used to spray this stuff in the back of the theatre about 20 minutes before the intermission (we ran double bills). People would come out in droves to buy popcorn; he would just stand there with a smile on his face. I don't recall the name at all other than it had Popcorn as part of it....Maybe Instant Popcorn? I've never seen it since.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-22-2008 10:46 AM                     I think alot of the smell is all the oil thats dripped down and saturated the cement floors... That oil goes ransid and has a unique pungent oder. Mixed with popcorn and burgers smell its pretty unique. Film cement gone well before I was in this biz... I used to use it to splice my 8mm home movies back when I used to frequent the likes of Superior Bulk Film Company for film, processing chemicals and 8mm processing tanks.... Mark  |  IP: Logged

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