You mentioned that the 'anamorphic ' lens compressed the image.....that is incorrect....during projection, the image is expanded. During filming, an 'anamorphic' lens is used to compress the image.
Someone is selling one of these near me but they have it on a pallet outdoors where it's been rained on and rusted. I really just need the xenon console, I already have projectors.
He's actually aligning the film to be in frame. It has to (well, should be) put in with the film in the right position out of 4 possible positions it can be placed on the sprocket. He's leaning in to spin the motor manually to get it to a position where the intermittent sprocket has just stopped.
Well I can totally understand the desire to replace all of that machinery with digital projectors at theaters now, but nothing beats the look of film, and it sucks the way things are evolving. I had no idea that one of these was such a big set up. I knew that a single movie came on over a half dozen reels and had to be stitched together by the projectionist as the movie played, and that some lamps (maybe older) had to be manually adjusted as the filament burned down, but seeing it all running is quite impressive. The last few movies I saw at the theater was a lousy digital projector, and you could literally see the screen door effect from where I was sitting, and they didn't even bother masking the screen, so there were black bars. This was at a Cineplex Odeon, Canada's biggest theatre chain, apparently where this projector was taken from. Looks like the experience of seeing a movie the way it was meant to be shown is a dying art. It's a real shame. . .
+DarthHater100 It's not stitched together as the movie plays. It's done once when the movie arrives, then it runs from a large horizontal reel called a platter. Platters were what made multiplexes possible, as they allow movies to run unattended, requiring only 5 minutes' work from the projectionist to thread and start. Each projectionist can handle 10+ screens with platters. Without platters, you run changeover. You have two projectors, while each reel is running on one you load the next reel on the other, then watch for a cue mark on the screen and switch to the other projector when it appears. Then you rewind the reel that just finished. You have to do this 5-8 times per movie, and it requires constant attention.
+Adam Ahmed But if movies are not stitched together, what happens "5-8 times per movie, and it requires constant attention"? I'm kinda confused by your comment. . .
+DarthHater100 Movies come on 5-8 reels depending on length. Without a platter, changing over from one reel to another happens 5-8 times throughout the movie and requires constant attention from a projectionist. Platter systems avoid this by having all the reels spliced together into one big reel in advance, which requires no attention during the run.
+Adam Ahmed Oh okay. So youre saying that no films are stitched together as the movie plays _anymore_ , bc _now_ they just use platters?? Or were they _never_ stitched together as the movie played? I knew about platters from a documentary about drive in movie theaters, but I thought they still sometimes did it the old fashioned way. . .
DarthHater100 They were never stitched together as the movie plays. Before platters, they were never stitched together ever. The movie was projected from the rolls it ships on, which each hold about 20 minutes of film. While one reel was running, the projectionist loaded the next reel onto the other projector and started it when a cue mark appeared on the screen. He then removed the finished reel from the other projector, rewound it, and loaded the next one. Repeat 5-8 times throughout the movie. With platters, those 20-minute reels are stitched together onto the platter before its first showing. It then stays on the platter throughout its run at that theater. At the end of its run, it's broken back down and wound on its shipping reels to be sent back. The only place you'd still find changeover systems are small 1-2 screen arthouse cinemas. It doesn't make sense to use a platter when a film will run very few times.
I just found this video after watching some photonicinduction and after the first few minutes I subscribed its so cool finding these types of videos of guy(s) in a garage bringing something back to life like that
Why don't you call columbia pictures or warner bros. and see if you can purchase some of their old 35MM film prints? I'm pretty sure they have no more used for them. You probably can get some good older films from the 90's or whatever. I don't think they will sell you the classics like Citizen Kane but you may be able to get like New Jack City that came out in 91. Or like Drop Dead Fred, some corny movie like that. You never know. And they may even give it to you for free. You should see.
Awesome, iam going to by simplex millanium and highlight 2 from a theatre and assemble in my home! Please send me the whole electric/electronic circuit digress in it's console if u can! Also the drive motor showing separately removed in the part 3 was it's default one?what is the whole unit total weight, early reply expected Ashok
Awesome, THANKS. These are the projectors we had at AMC Marple 10 when I worked there in 2001. I really miss those days. That's an awesome home Cinema setup!
Excelentes videos. Quiero ayuda para aprender a programar en modo automático el sistema CPA - 10. Tengo un proyector apogee modelo 2003. Lo manejo todo en modo manual pero quiero aprender el modo automático. Gracias.
love this. saw this 5 years ago just as I was getting into 35mm projectors as a hobby. Its now Aug 2022. This helped me understand things. I even own a scope now. (lol)
Yes, the first filter is the relector. It is dichroic coated to allow a lot of the UV to pass thru it and to reflect the visible light. On this projector, there was also a dichroic filter between the manual dowser and the projector, but that was only used on the 4-7Kw models.The UV filter (referred by Strong as a Heat Filter) has the dichroic glass mounted on an angle to reflect the UV light back, but not into the lamp and reflector
I had a total of 11 years of film projection experience, and unfortunately got laid off when my theater went digital. I enjoyed it very much. One of my theaters I ran the shows at had an SDDS system. (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound) It was very unreliable, and I don't miss it. Was very glad to see the SDDS system get removed and out of the way, and in with the new DTS system. I never had Dolby Digital at any theaters I worked at, but got to thread a 35mm projector with a Dolby Digital decoder at a theater my friend and former boss worked at. He trusted me to thread it since he knew of my experience. Back to the comment at hand. Film has a nice grain and natural color look. Digital just does not show the grain or photographic beauty that film has. As a guest projectionist, I ran a Simplex XL projector that was originally made around 1968, but had the reel arms removed and replaced with the guidance film rollers for platter system operation. It's a crying shame that film projection systems like this one have been junked because they are masterpieces of mechanical engineering.
You should put that high speed footage in it's own video. I think many people don't even realize that the film stops 24 times per second in front of a shutter.
This is so interesting, at my theater we are digital only. We still use the xenon bulbs, flat and scope, but our digital projectors have a touch screen display where they're controlled from and run on a Texas Instruments distribution of Linux called Doremi.
Not at all. Besides the fact that this has immensely higher lumen output and much better optics, the resolution is also much higher. This is meant for a movie theatre not a business powerpoint.
When I used to project, I'd occasionally get a flat film which wasn't matted out on the film. If you watched it with the scope aperture (manual on my projector; you had to pull out and slot in the aperture), you could often see film crew and equipment in the parts that were meant to be blacked out (boom mikes were the biggest intruders), but occasionally you'd see parts of the set and stuff.
It could return if there was clever operators in the market seeing opportunities. Theatres have become convinced that easy digital projectors showing men in plastic suits on steroids' dancing around is more profitable.
In Pee Wee's Big Adventure, if you were out of frame, you could actually see that when he was pulling miles of chain out of the carrier on the bike, they had actually cut the bottom out of the carrier and were using a loop of chain!
@tesla500, the jacket that you were wearing is not enough protection if the lamp exploded.You need to wear leather or kevlar. Remember what the microwave did to the Kalua bottle in your microwave? That quatz envelope becomes a high speed projectile in the form of sand and schards ofsmll glass.
As an important note when handling lamps of this nature. There can be no body oils or any other contaminant on the lamp. The temperature difference can cause the bulb to explode under full lux. It is extremely dangerous so you should be using "Projectionist gloves" instead of welding gloves. Otherwise this could be an EPIC FAIL...
@ExStatic Bass: I'm guessing you didn't understand what I was saying when I said"you are being very carefully to not touch the envelope". This means that even when you are using welding gloves, You DO NOT TOUCH the envelope. By using the welding gloves (and I mean a pair that you use for just changing lamps, not ones that you normally use for welding), if the lamp explodes in your hands, your protected. "Projectionist glove" are typically thin cotton editing gloves and won't protect you.
Those welding gloves can leave residue and that can make for a large bang when the lamp reaches operating temperature. ANY substance on the envelope can cause the glass to fail. A small fragment of leather would do it. Small metal fragments which may be present on the gloves would also do it. This is why I recommend projectionist gloves as they leave nothing behind if properly cared for and are fairly inexpensive to buy costing $3 to $5 USD. They are worth it...
that 5kw light/reflector seems like it would be fun to play with :) Actually I could see it coming in really handy for high speed filming. Question regarding the lamp, is the UV filtered before projecting to the viewer?
While this is true, when installing these lamps, you are being very carefull to not touch the envelope. The welding gloves provide the need protection for if the lamp explodes.
WOW, guys! That's awesome! I must've missed something, and please forgive my ignorance, but @ the end when you said "end of an era", did you mean they no longer use film projectors in theatres & have gone to digital LCD projectors? I'm a "techie/geek" & find this absolutely fascinating! I REALLY appreciate you documenting this! Oh, yeah...& u said this was new in 1998? So it's quite likely this showed "Titanic" when it 1st came out, huh? I'm gonna watch more of ur vids now! Thanks, guys! ;)
Sadly, many of these projectors will never find a loving home like you have created for this one. Scrapping one of these borders on criminal. Thanks for the rescue, and thanks for posting.
I know this is an old comment, but since I've worked with anamorphic lenses, I think I can answer... This is sort of a "reverse" anamorphic lens. When you shoot the film on location, the lens will distort the image the other way, to use the full resolution of the film. When the film has to be projected it is "un-distorted" by the lens you see in this video. Hope this helped.
+Josh Bennett The lens won't overheat. The film will overheat and melt if it ever stops while the light is shining through it. Projectors typically have an interlock system that will automatically close the dowser (block the light) if the motor stops. This was a big deal before 1951 when nitrocellulose was used as the film base, it's extremely flammable and can't be put out, it even burns under water. It's been replaced by polyester, which just melts instead.
I love the look and "feel" that film projection gives movies, digital is okay, but unless you pay for imax, the colors and contrast are subpar. Point is, theaters changed over to digital for financial reasons, not because it was better. The act of going the the movies is on the downfall, and for a filmmaker like me, it is sad. It's like an artist paints something, and it's beautiful, but instead of going to the show and supporting the artist, people would rather download the image from google. That's the best analogy I can come up with.
