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Author Topic: Became interested in film because? Jennifer Pan THE JEN! Posts: 1219 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: Nov 2003 posted 03-10-2004 02:12 AM                        How many of you became interested in film/projection because it was a side job and then it just developed or was it always a passion the be working with film? For me I was passionate about developing the movie itself. (i.e. screenwriting, directing, cinematography, editing, soundtrack, producing). I've done it for a couple of years now. Small projects here and there, for school, a church, couple of friends who wanted extra points added on to their grade for a video presentation. Which lead me to develop an underground production company called Flashlight 21 and a sub-division to that company called Refinne Productions for screenwriting and other written works. I found it to be fate or something to that effect when I got called for an interview at a movie theater 2 hours after I applied for the job online. Then to actually be able to work in booth for awhile gave me more of a well rounded point of view in the film production aspect. The final product being shown and how the projectionist treated the film. Knowing very well that one day my movies will be going through the same treatment.  |  IP: Logged Travis Hubrig Expert Film Handler Posts: 175 From: Minot ND, USA Registered: May 2003 posted 03-10-2004 03:17 AM                     For me it started as a part-time job while I was in school. But after working around people downstairs and then moving to the booth, I decided it was something I truly enjoyed. I decided that I would make it a long term career choice and so far I have stuck with it. It just kinda makes sense... if its something you enjoy and get paid too.  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Fuentes Mmmm, Dr. Pepper! Posts: 1168 From: Corpus Christi, TX United States Registered: Jan 2004 posted 03-10-2004 06:08 AM                     Pretty much the same here. Just a job to make some extra money while in high school, and plus I knew it was where all the girls would be at, so that was an added bonus. For a while I was mostly interested in the "ground level" side of things, and moving to management. But then I got a chance to work in the booth, and I just couldnt get enough of it. Now I am interested in both sides. My goal is to become a tech, and learn as much as I can, and then one day be an owner, and be able to service my own projection equipment. Who knew that my first job would be the beginning of the rest of my life.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-10-2004 08:52 AM                     I became seriously interested in film after seeing Richard Donner's "Superman: The Movie" back in 1978. I was eight years old at the time. Some of you may be too young to know/remember this but the ads promised that 'you will believe a man can fly' and -- dammit -- I surely did believe! "Superman" has the distinction of being the first repeat movie experience. I saw it at least seven times that summer and then killed my Betamax copy of it. "The Empire Strikes Back" really pushed my cinematic ambitions into high gear. That movie confirmed what I already knew: I had to be a part of the magic. I consider myself very fortunate to work at a job that is also my hobby. I have held many interesting jobs within the industry, ranging from ticket taker to projectionist, theatre manager and, of course booth tech. On the production side of things I have worked on films as writer, reader (aka screenplay analyst), production assistant and editorial intern. My B.A. degree should (finally) be completed by year's end. I am happy to say that it will be in Cinema-Television. In related areas: I have produced a low-budget feature (on video) and several hours of programming for television where, in some cases, I was the on-camera talent. My interest in acting has also taken me into the world of 'legit theatre' which I prefer to call 'live theatre.' A friend of mine owns a recording studio. He writes his own music and we have done a lot of recording. All of that is a lot of fun, too. The entertainment industry is a very exciting one; I rarely feel as though I am working. Thanks, Mr. Donner!  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 03-10-2004 09:24 AM                        Was given a camera as a gift, and started taking photographs at the age of 7. Started processing and printing my own B&W photos at the age of 11, with a home darkroom kit I bought at a garage sale. Was photography editor for my high school yearbook for three years. Shot and edited 8mm, and then Super-8 films, and was always the family home movie projectionist. First experience with electricity was sticking a butter knife into an electrical socket at the age of 3 Had to be revived by my mother. I still have the knife with a hole burned in the tip! By age 7, I was experimenting with electricity, and by age 10, I was building radios. Repaired old discarded TV sets during my teen years, and worked at a TV repair shop for three years. At the end of my freshman year at the State University of NY at Buffalo (studying for BSEE degree), I was car-pooling to school with a high school classmate whose father managed the Grandview Drive-In in Angola NY. He noted my lifelong interest in photography and electronics, and asked if I would like a job as projectionist. Worked there for 3 years, and also at the indoor theatre, the New Angola Theatre. Built AM transmitter for one of the first Drive-in radio systems in NY, even used it for stereo (35mm mag prints) with one channel over the radio and one over the in-car speakers. Became friends with the business agent (Ken Kavanaugh) of Local 233 IATSE in Buffalo, and filled in occasionally for holidays and vacations. Just before graduation in 1970, Ken suggested I apply to Kodak, "a really good company". I haven't regretted that decision.  |  IP: Logged Gary Crawford Expert Film Handler Posts: 200 From: Neptune NJ USA Registered: Nov 2003 posted 03-10-2004 12:17 PM                     My mother was always a movie fan. I watched old B&W weepers on TV with her and she took me with her when she went to see a movie. Even at a young age I grew to love the experience of the (then) big old movie palaces. Once I got to play with Dad's little B&H 8mm projector I was hooked. Dad ordered me some old Hammer and similar shorts: 3 Stooges, Laurel & Hardy, other old silents and I was always putting on a show for the neighborhood. Not long after that I was burning rolls of 8mm film in our little wind-up camera. For various reason I didn't get into the AV Dept at school but a friend of mine was and he had a lot of cool home 16mm stuff and a basement cinema. It was the same friend who started in high school at "real theaters" as a projectionist and he asked me to work during the summer. (His Dad was the IA Local BA) He taught me the basics and off I went as relief operator. Put in my apprentice time and joined Local 243. It spilled over later into occasion movie work (first as a dailies proj) then into some stage work and more movie tech work. Fast forward to when I went to work doing live TV, from camera to becoming director, and back again to a single-screen indie theater. It seems whatever I did for a living had something to do with show biz. For a few years I drove 18-wheelers and the company I leased to had contracts to haul rock shows, operas, ballet, etc. so even then I was still in it.  |  IP: Logged Paul Cassidy Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 549 From: Auckland, New Zealand Registered: Aug 2001 posted 03-10-2004 01:40 PM                        I guess if you saw "Cinema Paradiso" the little boy was me ... always looking to the back of the cinema and not too interested in the movie , I started making my own little model cinemas complete with curtains and colored prosceniums , then working in projection box's for free learning the trade form old timers in change over operations , until I was able to run my own cinema with my wife and kids , the magic is still there in those 100year old projectors , my own Ernemann IX's are waiting to be fired up again one day .  |  IP: Logged Jeff Taylor Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 601 From: Chatham, NJ/East Hampton, NY Registered: Apr 2000 posted 03-10-2004 02:14 PM                     Silent 16mm at home as a kid, AV in Jr. High, 35mm projectionist in Prep School for Saturday evening double features on campus, made my spare change at Princeton running 16mm rental prints around to the various film societies and eating clubs, and got bitten by the collecting bug which I suffer from to this date. Now my focus is developing and renovating shopping malls, and I get involved in building multiplexes through that. To this day my home cinema is my refuge.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 03-10-2004 02:45 PM                        Needed a job but didn't want to work at the local Burger Shack. My friend Tom who was an assistant manager at the mighty Mann's Kipling Place 6 Theaters got me a job there as a peon. I was a peon for awhile, but since I am very technical I have always had an interest in crap like the booth. Tom walked me through threading two projectors one day and then I didn't touch a projector until we switched GMs 6 months later. One day I arrive and it is only the new GM and me. She asks if I knew how to thread projectors. I respond "yeah" and so begins my steady booth work. But you knew I'd say that.  |  IP: Logged R. Andrew Diercks Expert Film Handler Posts: 232 From: Marion, Iowa (In the middle of everywhere) Registered: May 2003 posted 03-10-2004 07:10 PM                     Started at 15 as concessionist "strictly summer help" the hiring manager told me. Must have done something right, I finished high school there and worked whenever back from college. Got in my blood so I stuck with it. Love every minute of it.  |  IP: Logged John T. Hendrickson, Jr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 889 From: Freehold, NJ, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-10-2004 07:19 PM                     I was hooked at the age of five when I got my first projector- 16mm silent with 100' reels, courtesy of the husband of a second cousin (it was his hobby). By age 12 I had two DeVry 16mm sound projectors and a modest film collection. From there I added two Homes 35 MM projectors. Set up a home theatre at my parents house. It became a serious hobby. After college I started teaching and was working for a day camp during the summer. One rainy day the camp went to a local theater in Ocean Grove, NJ and I met the owner who was also a projectionist at another theater. He put me in touch with the business agent of the IATSE local and I was soon training and working summers and doing relief work. Then the relative who got me started in my hobby retired from his regular job and went to work for a new theater owner as a manager/projectionist, and I joined him, doing relief work. Continued teaching and doing projection part time, then left projection work to concentrate on teaching and raising a family. Went back to it part-time after our daughters graduated law school, then retired from teaching to go to work full time as projection operations mgr. in a multiplex at the invitation of the owners I was working for part-time over the years. I haven't looked back. I love what I do, and I have free reign over the booth operation and help out with other areas of the business.  |  IP: Logged

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