From: harris.minter@ehbbs.gwinnett.com (Harris Minter) 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: rec.arts.movies Frequently Asked Questions
Date: 27 Jan 93 04:42:00 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: Ed Hopper's BBS - Berkeley Lake, GA - 404-446-9462
Reply-To: harris.minter@ehbbs.gwinnett.com (Harris Minter) 

To: ecl@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (evelyn.c.leeper)

I worked as a projectionist for a number of years, so I thought I'd
enhance and elaborate a little.........

>15) What are those funny dots that blink on in the upper-right corner of
>    films?

The correct terminology is "cue mark".  Four consecutive frames are
marked with a little circle in the upper right-hand corner of the
frame.  6 (six) seconds later (which translates to 9 {nine} feet of
35mm film), there is a second identical set.

>These are change-over cues, or "reel-change dots," signaling the
>projectionist that it is time to change reels.  There is actually a set
>of   dots.  One dot is approximately 20 seconds before the end of the
>reel, which informs the projectionist that a change-over is about to
>happen, then comes the final dot which indicates the change over.  The
>average reel contains about twenty minutes of 35mm film.  In some old
>films on TV, you'll see long changeover cues since some projectionists
>were paranoid that they would not see the marks.  So, they extended the
>marks to include more frames.  Sometimes they would just use a paper
>punch and make *big* holes in the film.  Hard to miss these....

The projectionist threads up the next reel of film so that he has
slightly under nine feet of leader between the lense and the start of
the film.  At the first cue mark, he starts the motor on the second
projector.  This gives the projector time to get up to to speed and for
the speed to stabilize.  On the second cue mark, he throws the switches
that change the picture and sound sources.

The projectionists do tend to become paranoid.  Sitting all day in a
dark, noisy projection booth tends to have a deleterious effect on a
projectionist's mind.  They drink too much - every single projectionist
I've ever known developed an alcohol problem to some extent.  Since
1970, five of the projectionists with whom I've worked have died of
alcohol-related problems.

Being a projectionist isn't a high-dollar profession.  When a
projectionist's eyesight begins to fail, he doesn't necessarily have
the funds for an eye examination and a new pair of glasses.  Therefore,
with that poor eyesight, he has trouble doing two things - focussing
the image on the screen (THAT's frequently why the picture is out of
focus), and seeing the cue marks.  That paranoia makes them enlarge the
cue marks to make them once again visible.  I've known for one
projectionist to scratch a big X across the entire frame.  Believe it
or not, he'd still miss 'em from time to time.  That paranoia also
makes them carry binoculars to work, for focussing.  About half the
booths I've been in have had a pair of binoculars laying around.
                                                           
----
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|       Ed Hopper's BBS - ehbbs.gwinnett.com - Atlanta, Georgia         |
|  USR/HST: 404-446-9462                  V.32bis: 404-446-9465         |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies