-
https://projectionproject.warwick.ac.uk/files/original/4d0d0d306d4ad4b39307d2975364cc57.mp3
19b005a6ef8cac8e36ebba176724b48b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Projectionists' Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Interviews with projectionists
Description
An account of the resource
Interviews with projectionists
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The Projection Project
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
University of Warwick
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
.mp3
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound recordings
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Richard Wallace
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Neil Thompson
Date of Interview
2014-11-11
Location
The location of the interview
Gateshead
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
And you had to keep an eye on the speakers on the stage, make sure they were still working all right. And every now and again we used to put a test film on from what I can remember. Somebody used to go in the auditorium while you put this test film on just to make sure that each speaker was working. So they knew that the ambiance was working from this side. And they’d say, “Right, we’ll try the left speaker. Yes, the left speaker is working. The centre speakers’ working. The right speaker is working”. And then you had an outside speaker which was like on the stage. So, again, we used to do that. Then you had to go up to the amplifiers which are in the boxes as well, you had to keep an eye on those ‘cause you had a standby amplifier which I had to check, put that in, make sure that's okay in case it went off during a show. So it was, it was interesting. I mean for a lad 16 year old coming from school and going and seeing all that, I mean it was just horrendous at first, my god. But I was so interested I just went in, I just went in head first.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
One-to-one interview
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
PT00H00M51S
Bit Rate/Frequency
Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio)
320kbps
Cinema
Queens Theatre, Northumberland Place, Newcastle upon Tyne
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Setting up sound (Neil Thompson)
Subject
The topic of the resource
setting up sound
Description
An account of the resource
Projectionist Neil Thompson describes the process of setting up and checking cinema sound systems.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The Projection Project
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Interview with Neil Thompson
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
The University of Warwick
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-12-29
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Richard Wallace
Neil Thompson
Relation
A related resource
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/26353
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/3307
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
.mp3
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound recording
interview extract
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1974-1990
POINT(-179195.26666826 7357428.1856528)|16|-179058.5160474|7357492.1755381|osm
Queens Theatre, Northumberland Place, Newcastle upon Tyne
POINT(-179436.52103877 7356806.6869249)|16|-179310.5193750|7356523.1271973|osm
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
1970s
1980s
1990s
Neil Thompson
North-East England
presentation and showmanship
sound and music
-
https://projectionproject.warwick.ac.uk/files/original/8a9875da41e0f4934cac673d997e0e17.mp3
45fe00183c3ff0070a83da20520fe39c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Projectionists' Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Interviews with projectionists
Description
An account of the resource
Interviews with projectionists
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The Projection Project
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
University of Warwick
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
.mp3
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound recordings
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Richard Wallace
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Neil Thompson
Date of Interview
2014-11-11
Location
The location of the interview
Gateshead
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
And I think presentation was the order of the day. Presentation and showmanship for me was spot on. And that’s what I was taught. How to put the film on properly. I've been to so many cinemas where they’ve put a film on, but what they’ve done is they haven’t opened the curtains at the right time, they haven’t took the lights down at the right time. Now that to me is bad presentation. ‘cause I mean when you start a machine you’ve got, I don’t know if you are aware, you’ve got a countdown leader. We used to start on number eight and what we used to do was used to start the machine and then take the lights down and then open the curtains because it took a long time for the curtains to open because they were very slow. So in actual fact when the film went on, the curtains would be, say, two thirds of the way open. So your picture went on the screen and not on top of them, you know? And I think that’s to do with presentation. And keeping an eye on the sound levels, that's another thing you had to be careful of. You had to go downstairs into the stalls and think, “Right, well can I hear that?” You had to be able to hear every whisper. Doesn’t matter whether the music’s loud, or the effects is loud, that’s deliberate. But you had to be able to hear every word. You’ve got effects banging and music that you need to hear, and I think music needs to be heard not, not fantastically loud but it needs to be heard in order to make an impression. There has to be plenty of bass there to make you think, “God, listen to that, that’s fantastic”. You see that's what presentation is all about. When a curtain opens and you see a picture come on the screen, I used to look right in the corners to make sure there’s no fuzzy lines. Because obviously the aperture plate had to be cut exactly right. Because if the aperture plate inside the projector was over cut you got the picture going onto the masking. Again, bad presentation.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
One-to-one interview
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
PT00H01M45S
Bit Rate/Frequency
Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio)
320kbps
Cinema
Queens Theatre, Northumberland Place, Newcastle upon Tyne
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Presentation (Neil Thompson)
Subject
The topic of the resource
presentation
Description
An account of the resource
Projectionist Neil Thompson outlines the process of starting the film, checking sound levels and checking the aperture plates as part of good presentation.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The Projection Project
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Interview with Neil Thompson
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
The University of Warwick
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-12-29
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Richard Wallace
Neil Thompson
Relation
A related resource
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/26353
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/3307
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
.mp3
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound recording
interview extract
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1974-1990
POINT(-179195.26666828 7357426.543451)|16|-179069.2650045|7357540.6951361|osm
Queens Theatre, Northumberland Place, Newcastle upon Tyne
POINT(-179438.90969589 7356798.3266248)|16|-179240.0539895|7356569.7060113|osm
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
1970s
1980s
1990s
Neil Thompson
North-East England
presentation and showmanship
running the show
sound and music
-
https://projectionproject.warwick.ac.uk/files/original/28271c0a0edf899cd600754a25d0d7f0.mp3
37d68d2882dc6e96f54f447a03c34917
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Projectionists' Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Interviews with projectionists
Description
An account of the resource
Interviews with projectionists
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The Projection Project
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
University of Warwick
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
.mp3
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound recordings
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Richard Wallace
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Mick Corfield
Date of Interview
2015-08-03
Location
The location of the interview
Coventry
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
What we used to do, we used to open... We used to go... And I’ll talk you through it ‘cos it always makes me laugh. And Jack Spittle who was the senior projectionist at the time, the old projectionist. So we used to laugh because we used to go through this routine, we used to go... It used to be like being on a ship. It used to be “House lights to half, Mr Corfield.” “House lights to half, Mr Spittle.” And we used to take... We had little dials, knobs, that we used to take down, so we used to take the house lights to half. “Projector turn on.” “Projector turn on.” So we’d turn the projector on. But then with the take up of the film, because the film would sag, because the take up of the 12,000 foot spool wouldn’t take up quick enough. So while you were doing with one hand various things you’d have to hold the film until it took up. If you didn’t it’d snap the film. So the film would still carry on going through the gate but end up on the floor and then you’d have to stop it really quickly, and when you’d try and stop it before you obviously opened the douser, which is obviously what lets the light on the screen, and then you’d see the film. So obviously we’d open the douser, open the shutter and away we’d go, whilst taking the house lights to half. So you’d got your house lights to half, you’d run your projector, you take your spotlights down, which’d be at the front of the screen which’d be shining on the tabs, the curtains, the tabs. So then obviously what you do then is you press button, button, button, dial, dial, dial, and open it all lovely, so it’d open up with the Cannon cinemas ident as all the lights would drop down. This of course making sure the film hasn’t broken and also bringing the sound off so we hadn’t got a bang, ‘cause when a join goes through it bangs. Fading the sound down and fading the sound up. So of course once you’ve done your adverts you have to do the same thing again for your trailers, you’d bring the tabs down. You wouldn’t put your house lights up but you’d bring the tabs down and you’d bring your stage lights up to half, so you’d do that. So it’s called presentation. So we’d do all that and then we’d stop for an ice-cream sale and we’d put a spotlight on and do the ice-cream sale and then we’d start the main feature and away we’d go. So that’s what we’d do. And then we’d have to be down there five minutes from the end. We’d go down periodically and check, we’d stay there and make sure it was in the right ratio, any hair in the gate, anything like that, and you’d have to try and remove it because you couldn’t stop the show – all these little tricks that you learnt over the time.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
One-to-one interview
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
PT00H01M53S
Bit Rate/Frequency
Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio)
320kbps
Cinema
Reel Cinema, 12 Hagley Road West, Birmingham
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Starting a performance (Mick Corfield)
Subject
The topic of the resource
team relations
starting a film screening
Description
An account of the resource
Projectionist and BECTU representative Mick Corfield describes the process of starting a performance.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The Projection Project
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Interview with Mick Corfield
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
The University of Warwick
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-12-08
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Richard Wallace
Mick Corfield
Relation
A related resource
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6934
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
.mp3
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound recording
interview extract
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1989-1992
POINT(-224249.52035759 6884220.4276746)|12|-218932.3695782|6886417.4883802|osm
Reel Cinema, 12 Hagley Road West, Birmingham
1990s
2000s
audiences
Mick Corfield
Midlands
preparing the print
presentation and showmanship
running the show
sound and music
team relations
training
-
https://projectionproject.warwick.ac.uk/files/original/46594dd03a0c9569686266e9c414701e.mp3
cd323a53934ef6528a37e4e59d1b0b03
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Projectionists' Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Interviews with projectionists
Description
An account of the resource
Interviews with projectionists
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The Projection Project
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
University of Warwick
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
.mp3
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound recordings
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Richard Wallace
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Mike Williams
Date of Interview
2015-08-25
Location
The location of the interview
Cardiff
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
We used to … you’ll like this, we used to rehearse gramophone music. Note the gramophone, that’s all we had in those days was the non-sync, you know, and on Sunday afternoon we’d go in and Frank Saunders would run through the records we could use that week. We couldn’t use any records that weren’t sympathetic towards the film we were showing. And I brought in a rock n roll because it was rock n roll records in those days, I brought a rock n roll record in one day because we were showing The Tommy Steel Story and I suggested that we play this record and he went absolutely bananas with me. “We don’t play music like that in cinemas! We don’t play vocals in the intermission. Vocals are not on.” And, of course, I don’t know whether it applied to the rest of the country but we weren’t allowed to play music before 5:30 on a Sunday. We used to open the cinema at five o’clock, and had complete silence until 5:30 and then you could put a record on and play. A legal obligation in those days, yeah. Sunday cinema had only just come in, you know, and they’re very chapel around here, you see. And a lot of the chapels came out at 5:30 so it was all right to play music after 5:30 but not before chapel come out. So Sunday afternoons we used to go in, play the music that Frank Saunders thought was applicable and in all fairness it used to work.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
One-to-one interview
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
PT00H01M23S
Bit Rate/Frequency
Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio)
320kbps
Cinema
ABC (Olympia) Cinema, 67 Queen Street, Cardiff
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Music (Mike Williams)
Subject
The topic of the resource
music in the cinema
Description
An account of the resource
Projectionist Mike Williams describes the process of selecting music to be played in the auditorium prior to film screenings.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The Projection Project
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Interview with Mike Williams
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
The University of Warwick
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-12-04
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Richard Wallace
Mike Williams
Relation
A related resource
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/7970
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
.mp3
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound recording
interview extract
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1956-1964
POINT(-353451.98471281 6707026.38915)|15|-353502.1465126|6706814.1718927|osm
ABC (Olympia), 67 Queen Street, Cardiff
1950s
1960s
chief projectionist
Mike Williams
presentation and showmanship
sound and music
team relations
Wales
working conditions