Boxoffice (Jul-Sep 1961)

shoes and excessive takeup tension, etc. More about this later. Sometimes we see imprint of the sprocket teeth on the film, brought about when the film runs off the sprocket. Sometimes this is caused by improper threading or badly adjusted sprocket idler rollers and dirty sprocket teeth. The idler rollers should be set exactly the thickness of two pieces of film from the face of the sprocket and accurately centered in the teeth of the sprocket. Accumulation of oil and dirt in the grooves of the idler rollers will also cause trouble. During our inspection trips we have found considerable film damage was caused by “undercut” sprocket teeth. These “hooked” teeth catch in the perforations and completely damage them; often these badly worn teeth will rip out portions of the film. We strongly recommend hardened sprocket teeth for longer wear and less undercutting. KEEP TENSION SHOES CLEAN May we point out here that any accumulation of oil, dirt or wax on the tension shoes is extremely bad and can also cause film damage. Excessive tension on shoes should always be avoided as it requires only enough tension to hold the film firm and eliminate picture jump, any more than this is absolutely unnecessary. Most modern projector mechanisms are equipped with regulating screws for adjusting the tension for green and old prints. Of course, old prints require more tension than new prints. In older mechanisms it will be necessary to bend the springs until you have the correct tension. Now, let us discuss film rewinding. If you have an electric rewind, it should be adjusted to rewind 2,000 feet of film in about eight to ten minutes. When hand rewinds are used, projectionists try to rewind too fast and if the film does not go on smoothly and tightly, they hold back the reel and try tightening it by forcing the film tight. This method will cause scratches and is extremely bad practice. The dummy end of the rewind element should have sufficient tension so that the film will wind tightly. Most rewinds are equipped with a brake strong enough to make the film rewind snugly, though not too tightly. Frankly, no set rule can be laid down for braking power; the projectionist must determine that for himself. It should be, as stated before, sufficient to rewind the film tightly and avoid uneven rewinding. BENT REELS CAUSE DAMAGE Another source of considerable film damage can be attributed to bent reels; usually, exchange reels are never in good enough condition to be run in the projector. They usually become bent or otherwise damaged in shipping, which cannot be avoided by the exchange, due to careless handling in transportation. Exhibitors should provide a full set of reels to be used in the theatre during projection time. Still another source of film damage is excessive oil getting on it from the projector mechanism. On old model mechanisms, use only a few drops of oil in each bearing. Any more than a few drops of oil, except in the intermittent movement case, is very much worse than useless. Any excess over that amount will run out of the bearing and be thrown off, getting on the film and making a dirty mess on the projection room floor. Of course, mechanisms having sealed-in gear compartments need not worry about over-oiling but, on the other hand, if the seal becomes loose it may cause oil to seep out and make a mess. Keep the oil seals in good condition and always wipe off any excess oil when filling oil reservoir. The importance of alignment of magazines in older types of projectors is very important in order to avoid film damage. It is quite possible to get magazines out of line sidewise with the upper and lower sprockets, which will pull the film sidewise and cause damage to the edges of the film. With modern projectors the positions of the upper and lower magazines are fixed, and they cannot be located wrongly. The impedance drum should be kept clean in the sound head so that it will do no film damage, and the lateral guide rollers should turn freely and not develop grooves which could cause damage and affect film travel. We know that a film in good condition will have the motor and changeover cues in the right places — a black dot printed on the upper right hand corner of four consecutive frames, the first of which is exactly 12 feet and six frames from the end of the picture. This cue is to start your motor and makes allowance for variable speed of pickup in different motors. The last cue mark is the changeover one. It is permissible to make a ring around this mark with a special cue marker when it is hard to see in a dark scene but never use large punch mark or crayon pencil marking as this looks terrible on the screen. It is an outrage for any projectionist to use other than regular cue marking. Every projectionist should test his motor and make the necessary allowance for pickup speed so that a perfect changeover can be made every time. Remember that motor pickup speed should be checked if the mechanism has been overhauled, and time will sometimes alter the pickup speed of any type of motor. In conclusion, let me point out that considerable damage is done to prints right in the projection room due to the physical condition of the equipment. There are, unfortunately, still a large number of exhibitors who give little thought to the projectionist’s needs in the projection room. They will not okay the purchase of sprockets, shoes or guide rollers until these parts become so badly worn that they will no longer run. It should be needless to state that these particular parts can cause considerable damage to the film running through a projector. Moreover, such an attitude can result only in mediocre screen presentation. On the other hand, in all fairness to those exhibitors who do not hesitate to supply necessary replacement parts when needed, the projectionist should keep a careful watch and replace parts that may cause film damage. We know that projectionists who take pride in their work will appreciate a boss who cooperates with them. He, the projectionist, will do his utmost to keep the equipment in tiptop running condition, and operate it efficiently and intelligently to the end that screen presentation and sound reproduction will bring praise from patrons. Let us again bring to your attention some of the causes of film damage: 1. Dirty pad rollers, gate, frozen rollers, dii*t in fire trap in upper and lower magazines; 2. Tightening film after it has been rewound and using faulty film exchange reels; 3. Loss of loop, sudden jerk on takeup, tootight takeup belt, or takeup mechanism not operating properly ; 4. Dirty projector; too much oil used causing oil to get on film; dirty sprockets and pad rollers; 5. Faulty film splice, too-wide splice, too much film cement making a stiff splice; 6. Worn sprockets, shoes, pad rollers and film -trap rollers; 7. Too-dry film and not properly threaded; 8. Projector mechanism in poor repair, such as sprockets, lateral guide rollers and worn film gate shoes, can ruin a good print in a very short time. New Booth Equipment Installed at Drive-In James J. McGuire, Local 170, I.A.T.S.E., is shown in the projection room at the 63rd Street Drive-In Theatre, Kansas City, Mo., with the recently installed powerful National Ventarc projection arc lamp. BOXOFFICE :: July 3, 1961 7