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The 22-year-old movie projectionist and assistant manager at Winona 7 Theater prepares each movie from film reels for the big screen.
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Movie Projectionist, Ryan Hazeman, 22, of Winona, splices reels of film together in the projection room of the Winona 7 Theatre Thursday. Splicing is the first process of "building a movie" in which the projectionist assembles the movie for viewing and loads it into the projection system.
(Photo by Melissa Carlo/Winona Daily News) |
Hazeman said this job requires quick hands, patience and a love of movies.
Wednesdays and Thursdays are our main days to get the movies ready for Friday, so I come in at 11 a.m.
On most weeks, we get two or three new movies. Some weeks we get four. If you build a movie in this booth, it takes around an hour, hour-and-a-half.
They come in heavy cases, and usually there are six reels. You have to mark the order of which ones are which and splice all the reels together and put it on a platter.
Most movies come in heads up. When it comes in tails up you have to basically rewind it onto another reel. You always have to cut the heads — basically the buffer film or a leader.
A splicer is what we use to cut our film and tape it together. If you put the yellow tape over the soundtrack strip, it’ll make a cracking sound.
It’s not like “Fight Club,” where he splices film into kids’ movies.
When the movie comes in, I pick a few trailers and throw them on. You try to get it as close to the genre as you can. We add cue tape for turning the lights down at the beginning and act like sensors for putting the lights up at the end of the film.
I try not to touch the film, because the oils on your fingers can hurt it. If you screw up, you don’t have to worry because one second is 24 frames. But even if seven of the thousands of (square) dots don’t work you don’t get digital sound.
You have to watch out when you’re building a film for scratching the film in the process. You’ll have to send it back.
When a movie is ready to be watched that’s called threading. There 11 total rollers we have to go through before the film enters the projector. You have to be really good with your hands when you get inside the lamp house.
There’s a certain height you want all this to be because these loops (around the rollers) have to be a certain size. If they’re too big, they’ll flap around the metal sides. If they’re too small, it’ll lift up this gate and make all the film pop out.
When you’re threading, you don’t want the film to wrap. In the movie Cars once, the company must have left a piece of masking tape on it and it wrapped. We had a full theatre of 100, 150 kids in there all going nuts.
You have to be very patient because if something wraps you can’t freak out.
Just to get the projector going, you press start. Once it goes, it goes. You’re supposed to check on it every 15 minutes … When film goes through the projector, it actually goes in upside down and a series of lenses flips it onto the screen.
There’s no rewind button. We get people that come in and ask us to do that all the time.
My first movie I projected was “Dukes of Hazard.” I watched it like 10 times.
You don’t need a degree. It helps on your resume, and I know there’s a school on how to service projectors.
Everyone starts off in concessions around $7 an hour. But it’s more if you work your way up to management. The top projector who services all the projectors for CFC Theaters is making bank.
I’m working 40 to 50 hours a week. It’s nights and weekends and holidays. You get free movies and free popcorn and soda.
We have a poster drawing every three or four months. Sometimes we’ll get 40 posters for one movie. It’s crazy.
I’m the assistant manager here, so most of my time is spent downstairs. I do ticket sales and reports at the end of the night. The only thing I don’t handle is talk to the head honchos.
Usually you have to be a fan of movies to work here … I have like 600 DVDs at home.
I’m guessing in 10 years there won’t be any projectionists left. It’s all becoming digital … Soon there will be no film or nothing and movies will be run with just a click of a computer.
This story is part of a weekly series called “On the Job” where area residents talk about their careers. Contact Reporter Amber Dulek at (507) 453-3513 or amber.dulek@lee.net.
