Dual movie projectors

[P3D Paul Enchelmayer <paulench@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob Wier said:
> This kind of brings up something I've wondered about for some time - on
> multi-reel movies, how does/did the projectionist get a seamless
> changeover from one reel to the other? I know about the little "dot flash"
> they watched for. However, this seems like it would be open to considerable
> variation as to how fast they got onto the switch to change to the
> other projector. Or was the dot just used as a signal to the projectionist
> to turn on a switch which then
> automatically synchronized the projectors so that they were running
> at the same time and switched from leader to film (or vice versa)
> automatically at the correct time?

This may be more than you asked for, but here goes:
I was theatrical projectionist in the 60's.  Theaters then had two
identical projectors. I'd thread the first reel on one projector and the
second reel on the other projector at about the 7 second countdown of
the reel's leader. A few minutes before showtime I'd fire up the carbon
rods in the first projector. (Xenon lamphouses were still scarce and
expensive.) 

Then at showtime I'd:
Start the motor drive on the first projector, allowing it a few seconds
to get up to speed,
Then as the first frame of image (not countdown) passed through the gate
I'd hit the "Changeover switch". This would immediately open the film
gate to allow the image to project and simultaneously open the sound
gate. 
(Of course, I was dimming lights and opening curtains while this was
going on.)
Now, to answer your question. At the end of each reel would be two
circles that flashed in the upper right of the screen. These were the
"Changeover cues". The first one would be my cue to start the second
projector's drive motor, and the second circle was the cue to hit the
"Changeover switch" on the second projector. There would be about 2
seconds of a silent image, or maybe sound effects - never dialog- at the
end of one reel and the beginning of the next.  This would ensure that
no dialog was clipped by a projectionist who was too early or too late
in the changeover. It was not automatic, but did require the judgement
of the projectionist to get it right. Films are still edited to this day
with that in mind.
But now, of course, projecting is quite different. The films are still
shipped on short reels then spliced together onto giant continuous
platters. 
But look closely. You'll still see the changeover cue circles in the
upper right corner at the end of each of the shorter reels. I notice
them of course - can't help it anymore - and now to me it signals a big
hairy splice instead of a graceful changeover. Oh well, progress ;>)

I never had a chance to run any 3-D but an old friend of mine was one of
the first projectionists to run Bwana Devil. He said that during the
film's second half he'd reach out of the projectionist's window and
insert a 6 foot spear into the wall just below the booth.  So when the
audience left the theater they'd get a kick out of the gag.

==
Paul Enchelmayer
Winter Park (Orlando), FL
http://www.magicnet.net/~paulench


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