Tried to see Blades of Glory this weekend, but the theatres projector was blury, and it kept quitting out. After about the 3rd time of this, people were shouting to start it over and the staff said they couldnt rewind it! Along with many we left and got our money back, but confused why they couldnt start it over. Granted it might make the next showing late, but is there a technical reason why they couldnt start it over.
2007-04-01 15:17:05 · 3 answers · asked by lillilou 7 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Movies
You can't rewind film. Once it's in the projector, it has to run till the end, unless the film breaks, in which case it can be spliced and re-threaded through the projector.
2007-04-02 02:01:12 · answer #1 · answered by Film Jedi 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the old days, films were shown via two projectors controlled by an operator. If you watch some old films on TV, you might just catch circle or star shapes in the top right-hand corner of the screen. These shapes occur 10 seconds and 2 seconds prior to the end of the reel and were signals to the operator to start the next reel on the adjacent projector - that was the 10 second signal; the 2 second signal was to turn the projector's lamp on. There were problems with this system - the film to be suddenly out of focus, the sound might be suddenly loud.... But if there was a problem, then the projectionist was there to tackle it right away and take whatever action might be necessary, including splicing broken film or re-showing a particular reel. It was also the projectionists responsibility to rewind each reel once the show was over, ready for the next show.
These days, however, in an effort to keep costs low, the reels of film are all joined together and the film fed through the projector in one long snake. As it comes out the other side, it forms on a large reel, ready for the next show. The projectionist thus becomes merely an operator who starts the projector at the beginning of the show and stops it at the end. In between time, the operator can move to a different screen and do exactly the same thing there. Consequently, if something does go wrong, there is often nobody there to take remedial action and, if the screening is cancelled, the film still has to run through the system in order to be properly prepared for subsequent shows - it cannot (or at least, is incredibly difficult to) re-run a portion in the middle of the film.
Being a proper projectionist is fast becoming a lost art!
2007-04-04 01:21:34 · answer #2 · answered by diosma03 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
How Do Movie Projectors Work
2016-11-04 22:57:00 · answer #3 · answered by yun 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋