How do CINEMAS work?

Sam takes a look at how digital projection works in 2017, running through the life cycle of how a movie gets from the distributor, to your local cinema's projector.

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[underhillgaming]

Used to love playing CoD and Halo on the big screen after close. Lol

[AJGeeTV]

Wow! It's so easy now. I was a projectionist in England in the early 1980s and we had to carry up to 10 x 20-minute reels of 35mm film up the stairs to the projection room - it was heavy, 'The Deerhunter' was 15 reels! We had two projectors operating; one was showing a reel and the other was being prepared for the other reel, and you had to ensure a seamless change over when the dots appeared top right of the screen to flip the switches from one projector to the other. Then the rewinding, boxing, and preparing the next reel. It was hot and hard work. Now it seems as easy as watching this youtube video 🙂

[markmerrell]

We used to put together the reels on a round table, and thread the film from the middle to the projector and back to another round table. We watched movies after the theater closed for the night on a Thursday just to make sure the movies were spliced together correctly. Lot of fun! Very interesting and informative video!! Great job

[scottthurman]

Projectionist was my favorite job EVER! I Started in the late 70's in the Tyler theater(Tyler, Tx.) a classic Movie Palace that had a baby room with speaker and a large picture window in the rear of the auditorium. The projection booth still had the safety lines, a cord with soft metal couplings above both carbon-arc projectors that in the event of a fire would separate and drop metal covers over all the window ports. These were important not for the lamp houses but for the films used to be on VERY flammable Nitrate stock. The door to the room was heavy steel. The films came on 12" reels 4 or 5 to a can and were a "joy" to carry upstairs through the balcony to the booth. The reels were inspected to be sure the head was out then loaded on the projector. As the film ran out the RPM of the upper wheel would increase activating a mechanical bell to alert the operator it was almost time for a "change over". If you watch older films, about 15 - 20 minutes in there will be cue marks in the upper right of the image usually round( sometimes a star). The operator would start projector #2 then 10 seconds later a second set of marks would cause operator to flip the change over switch shutting off sound and light from #1 transferring to #2 machine.

[trainsignal]

Great video and thanks for the info- I worked in a theatre years ago and learned how to run the old "CARBON ARC projectors" at an old movie theatre in the 1980's. I was wondering if there was a hard drive for each "print" but you answered it, as like right now "Dr Strange" can be in as many as 7 (or more) different screens. I would gather that the IMAX and 3D were totally different files, but it is great to see that one hard drive can "Share" on five screens at once. When I worked for a film company back in the 90's a film that would run a lot would get scratched up and eventually, would be melted down. The first time I ever saw a digital print "Attack of the Clones" it was driving me crazy as there was no scratch marks- but now I am used to it. Thanks for the video and the info.

[orbtastic]

I used to go to the cinema a lot. From the early 70s to the early 2000s. I went a lot in the 70s/80s where you routinely had to sit through: ads, supporting feature (if it was a Disney film you may have been unlucky and watched a film over an hour long) cartoons, ads then the main film. You often got a break mid-film if it was long or between the supporting feature and main film. I noticed a shift in the early 80s when summer blockbusters became a thing (roughly starting with the first Indiana Jones film) where the supporting feature was dropped but the cartoons (there were often multiple) were not. With ads and break it often added over an hour to the film. So my question is, why, when you often had to queue around the block to WAIT to get even a ticket, did they waste time with hours of supporting features? Without them you can get more shows per day, you sell more tickets and queues are smaller. Often you would be queuing for hours outside waiting to see if you could even get in and get a ticket. I queued for hours to watch Superman only to be told there were no tickets left and I had to wait for the next performance (another 3 hours, lolz). I never understood why.

[daniel_elias]

This was super interesting. Always wanted to know how cinemas worked.
Thanks Sam!

[YYMBRrecords]

thanks for putting this together. it wasn't easy to find some info on this in this day and age. most search results are showing me how old projectors work or how to set up a home movie projector haha. this is good info!

[skytripa]

Crazy to see how much the tech has changed since I was a projectionist back in 99

[codingrachael]

Really enjoyed this! Thankyou Sam, Subscribed

[sbadges]

Interesting. I used to be a projectionist back in the 1990's. Film projectors were hell. Sometimes on Thursdays you would be at the theater breaking down and compiling film from reels until 6AM, maybe more. Films would sometimes fall off of platters and be ruined at the rundown theater I worked at, because the projectors were old, and the platters would wobble unevenly and force films off onto the floor. I also once assembled an ancient Bollywood film that took I think about 45 splices to put together. The crowd that rented the theater thanked me because the film "only" broke 2 or 3 times during the film. The not so good old days.

[paularose]

I think it's sad to be honest. By the way, most cinemas now don't have curtains. The good old days of going to the cinema had very subtle but noticeable glitches and eccentricities. This added to the character and atmosphere of the experience. Also, now there's nobody there to manually focus when the film is slightly out of focus. This happens a lot actually.

[ultimategamer]

I actually remember sometimes when I went down to one of the cinema's called Odeon I could be watching a movie let's say flushed away when that was still new and you'd be watching half the movie on the screen and half on the wall 😂😂

[kylehill]

could a Switch be plugged in and Breath of the wild on big screen?

[airwaves]

I recently watched Captain Marvel and during the scene where Danvers is on planet earth and talking to Yon-Rogg the film started the lag for every 5 minutes. A member of staff then asked us to remain on our seats as the team behind is going to restart the film and play the scene where it left off.

[shreyashk]

The audacity "exactly the right time" its 30 minute after the right time thank you very much

[onebitstory]

Why do u sound like Korg from
Enjoyed your video, cldnt stop laughing on the voice...!!
Cheerz

[Kyle_v]

i sat down at my computer and said " i wonder what goes on up there during the movie" and now im here

[ThunderBlastvideo]

Imagine plugging in a PS5 into one of these puppies

[CT-vmgf]

Wow that was fascinating. And here I was thinking film was still being used.