Little Art Theatre

Long-time patrons of the Little Art Theatre have a familiar routine when they arrive: a friendly hello with Jenny or whoever else is in the box office, a stop at the Little Art's unique concession stand for popcorn, pastries, a cup of coffee or herb tea or gourmet chocolates and then navigation to their favorite seats under the warm glow of the stoic faces of the houselights and a friendly chat with another patron. Warm-up music, chosen to match the mood of the currently showing film, washes over the house. The music ends and the screen comes alive with previews of coming attractions and no other advertisements! These are things that patrons see. What they never get to see, the process of preparing the film for projection and the equipment involved, is fascinating and sometimes a bit nerve-wracking. So, welcome to this look behind the scenes at preparing the film for projection and the gear that makes it all happen!

The Film Arrives

We begin with the delivery of the movie. Delivery can come at any time, day or night, including sometimes just 30 minutes before the very first viewing! The images you see are the delivery of Boys Don't Cry. This time the movie arrived at 7:30pm on the evening before it opened at the Little Art. Note: Click on the thumbnail image to see a larger version of the photo.

Movies arrive on packing reels, small plastic or metal reels that hold film in 15-20 minute segments. Sturdy, well-worn canisters, simply known as film cans, as battered and weathered as Richard Farnsworth's craggy face, hold and protect these reels. Each film can holds three packing reels, although some film cans hold four in the case when a film has a longer than average running length and there is more film than usual shipped.

Setting Up the Movie

Once the film arrives, a Little Art projectionist must "set up" the movie. One could project the film from these packing reels but this would increase the probability of small gaps on the screen between projector changes and the potential for other problems as well as create more wear-and-tear on the equipment because the projectors would need to switch back and forth more often. So the projectionist instead goes through a precision process of splicing the packing reels together in exactly the right places to create two large reels of film. Setting-up a film means transferring the film from the packing reels onto the 2-foot-wide projector reels that hold up to 6000 feet of film each. Each one of these large reels holds the equivalent of three packing reels, and most movies fit onto two of these larger reels. So, in most cases, the Little Art needs to use each of its two 35mm projectors only once per show. Some movies with longer than average running lengths require a third large reel, which means the projectionist, while rewinding the first reel after it has come off-screen, must mount and thread that very same projector with the third reel before the other projector finishes with the second of the 3 reels making up that particular film. In the image to the left, we see veteran projectionist Andy Holyoke, hand-cranking the film from one reel to another during the set-up process as he prepares to splice the packing reels together on the 6000-foot reel.

To join the packing reels of film together, the projectionist uses a special yellow splicing tape. The yellow tape makes it possible to find these splices when it's time to 'tear down' the film and return each segment to its packing reel. While setting up a film seems fairly simple, there is room for many errors to be made. A projectionist must arrange and splice the reels carefully as it is easy splice together packing reels out of order, backwards, upside down or to cut the film in the wrong places. The projectionist must concentrate to avoid a regretful and embarrassing presentation situation. On rare occasions the film arrives so close to the scheduled opening time that the projectionist is frantically putting together the second half of the film while the first half is on screen, and the audience is none the wiser. Working under this kind of pressure is not easy and is often complicated by opening the film cans to discover the previous theatre hadn't torn the film down properly and everything is mislabeled and a great big mess! This is somewhat the equivalent of asking someone to put a puzzle together in record time.

OK, the film is set-up. Now it's time to mount it on the projectors and thread it through a serpentine path of gears, rollers, gates and sprockets. No matter how many times one does this, he or she must be careful to properly align the film through all its pathways, leaving the proper amount of slack (loops) in the right places as well. A misstep in this process will quickly lead to a number of problems, the worst being a shredded film.

The Projectors

In the photo at the left, you can see both Italian made Cinemeccanica projectors. Projector #1 is in front of Projector #2 in this photo; however they reside side-by-side. Notice the wide silver exhaust stacks that rise up out of both units. The 2000 watt Xenon bulb (lamp) inside each projector is blindingly bright and generates tremendous heat. You don't want to drop one of those bulbs — they cost more than $600 each!

Here is the left side of projector #2. Not much happens on this side of the unit except for some oiling. If you look closely, you can see the projector #2's Cinemascope lens swung out of the path of the light beam that shines toward the screen.

At left, you see a top and bottom look at the business side of projector #2. Notice the film's path through the projector — the edge of the film is blue. Notice also the small latch that locks the reel to the projector arm. If you forget to snap that little latch to a 90 degree angle, locking the reel in place, the reel "walks" off the projector arm and crashes to the floor. Meanwhile, the projector still pulls at the film, quickly tearing it apart or jamming the film throughout the various gears. Usually, every new projectionist makes this mistake once. If they're lucky, the film breaks quickly and they have only a minor repair to make before getting the film back on screen in a matter of moments. In a worst-case scenario, damage is done to some of the delicate and precision-tuned parts that control the sound and the sound is lost. This is when it's great to still have two reel-to-reel projectors as opposed to one projector using the platter system: With one projector down you can throw the film on the other projector and keep running. The cost to repair damage done by forgetting to clip the reel in place can run up to $300.

In this shot, the lens turret is open, exposing three different lenses. One lens projects a screen ratio of 1.85:1, or standard movie screen length and width. A second lens projects a screen ratio of 1.66:1, or almost a square image, not unlike television. A third lens is the first lens in the Cinemascope lens chain. Cinemascope movies project a screen ratio of 2.35:1 and require the second anamorphic lens swung in front of the first lens.

Here's a close-up of projector #2, film loaded, lens turret closed and locked into place, ready to show the LAT faithful introductory message, a couple of previews and reel one of Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown. Again, notice the blue-edged film's path.

It's Showtime!

Two "action shots" of projector #2 at work showing Sweet and Lowdown. Projector #2 cannot contain the intense light that spills out from the critical point at which projected light meets moving film. The oranges, reds and yellows around the projector present a boiler room atmosphere.

Observant Little Art patrons might have noticed that the box office attendant starts the projector from the cashier's booth without running upstairs to the projection booth. This is because the projection system is automated. The control box you see at bottom left makes that trick possible. This automation box also handles the automatic changeover between reels one and two. The person who sets up the film places a piece of sensing tape at a strategic spot near the end of reel one. This tape cues the other projector when to start, exactly 7.3 seconds before the end of reel one. That's why the changeover from projector to projector is seamless and unnoticeable on-screen to the untrained eye.

Here's the sound system. The white cabinet at the top of the photo holds the amplifier that powers the theatre's speaker system and the booth monitor that allows the projectionist to hear the same audio that the audience hears. Below the white cabinet are the turntable, cassette deck and CD player. The LAT plays "seating" music that gets its patrons in the mood for the film they came to see. For Sweet and Lowdown, a 12" vinyl record album regaled the audience with old fashioned swing music! One of the theatre's dedicated employees often makes customized CDs featuring music from the library or their own collection that fit the movie that's playing.

We see a close-up of the components inside the white cabinet. The amplifier that feeds the theatre's speakers has volume setting instructions fitted around the amp's volume control. Below that is the booth monitor. Finally, notice the collection of record albums, cassettes and compact discs. These items are the pre-film music Little Art's patrons enjoy as they seat themselves and dig into their popcorn and unique concession purchases.

There you have it!