Looking Ahead by looking back
Let’s start with the super-secret news no one knows: tomorrow morning we’ll be receiving a pair of Norelco FP-20 35mm film projectors. These are two of the best film projectors ever made.
They’ll look something like this.
Why the pair? 35mm film prints don’t come on one big reel, but on 4 or more small reels. When film was common, those reels would be spliced together into one giant length of film. This process required a lot of handling while the projectionist cut and spliced it all together.
The film prints that survive today need more care than that. If a print is damaged, that’s it, there’s no replacing it.
That’s why we’re setting up two projectors in what’s called a changeover system. Rather than splicing the reels together, we’ll play them each one at a time. When one reel ends, the next is ready and waiting in the other projector, which the projectionist will ‘change over’ to right as the first reel ends. Done right, there’s no visible interruption for the audience.
We plan to post a lot more content about this in the coming weeks, and space permitting, we’re going to leave one of the pair downstairs for a couple weeks, so people can take a look.
Statement of Purpose 2022
January 28 - February 3
For one week, we’re taking a break from new releases and reminding everyone (ourselves included) who we are and what we care about. From January 28 to February 3, we’re going to play a wide range of films, sampling the kinds of one-off events we’ll be running throughout the year.
Movies include Pacific Rim, Trancers on VHS, Inception, Dunkirk, The Iron Giant, Dumb & Dumber, My Own Private Idaho, Seven, and McCabe and Mrs. Miller. You can read all about why we chose these films, as well as purchase tickets, on the event page.
