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35MM PIX

This picture is a bit old, dating back to 1997, in an issue of Image Technology. This is the Journal of the BKSTS (British Kinematograph, Sound and Television Society). Putting three digital sound systems on the same film with the analogue track was then seen as simply a technical possibility, possible because all three used different areas of the film.

The analogue track has come a long way from the early days, with twin tracks for stereo and companies like Dolby squeezing surround sound and other effects from it. The DTS system, as I understand it, simply provides a time code to a sound unit playing the equivalent of a CD. This has the advantage that you just change the CD to change the language the audience hear. Film breaks don't matter as the coded signal simply shifts the CD on to the correct place. The Dolby SRD system I find particularly fascinating, as it breaks away completely from the linear, analogue approach, by placing the digital soundtrack information in separate "packets" between the sprocket holes. This really exploits the possibilities of digital, allowing discontinuous info to be processed to create a continuous soundtrack. I once attended a talk by a Dolby engineer, who said that they had found that the inter-sprocket area was very little affected by wear, except right in the centre of the "packet". So they didn't use that bit for soundtrack info, but put the Dolby double-D logo there instead. Now that I call inspired, tho' I don't know if they still do it. I don't know anything about the SDDS system, tho' it looks like digital info in a conventional linear form.

This is a drawing I found (probably from BKSTS) with the dimensions of a TODD-AO projection print. I love this sort of detailed stuff. Huge amounts of it, of course, on that series of big posters BKSTS did on film gauges, colour systems etc some years back. I also have a bad copy of an article by Grant Lobban MBKS from the BKSTS, called 35mm Release Print Formats. This dates from 1970 and was £8 then. I don't know where I got it or why anybody bothered copying it, because without top quality pix it's useless, but if you're into this kinda thing, it looks fascinating.

I always used to wonder why they couldn't make 35mm projectors that were only a bit bigger than 16mm instead of unbelievably heavy and cumbersome. As my projection facility is in the loft and I have too much stuff, size and weight are serious considerations.  Eventually I found one; I have seen others, too, so it obviously can be done.

LH pix -dunno name. RH three pix are Microcine; the innards are interesting - everything is driven by toothed belts. The fans for cooling the Xenon lamp and its power supply (which is integral) are just standard 80mm mains-operated computer case fans. (See the Microcine website; link in Miscellany).

               I found these three pictures on ebay. The machine is called a Kinelite - from the back view it seems to be a fairly stripped-down machine - but still pretty compact.  

These four are of a Spectra. This was a Chinese machine, imported into the UK by some British company. The range included a pair of these, complete with stands, 1000 watt Xenons, a single power supply or "ballast" cum changeover unit (which weighed more than the machine itself - old technology), an amplifier, a pair of rewind arms and a tape splicer. They were aimed at cine clubs and similar. Spool capacity was only 2000ft, so changeover operation was needed, and operators had to have a degree of skill. The same company also imported a full-size theatrical machine and cakestand aimed at small cinema operations - there was one in my local library theatre, I discovered. I acquired one of a pair of the "portable" type, with the Xenon power supply, as seen here. (The other machine, bereft of its power supply, got converted I think).  I seem to recall I did have the stand, but didn't use it as I needed all my projectors to be moveable - it's on a wheeled stand in these pix - but not the splicer or rewinds. (Curiously, I did acquire a splicer and rewinds, in a completely separate transaction, a year or two later; the splicer was an obvious rip-off of the CIR. I later had it converted to 28mm. The rewinds, bench-edge-mounting type, are still in use).

The problem for me was that it only took 2000ft spools, making running anything longer than two reels a chore, so in the end it had to go. However, it was a beaut bit of kit, good old-style engineering and few belts. It did leak oil from the intermittent gearbox tho'.

   My 35mm Ciniola, left. Right is an advert for some classy-looking machines from the thirties - did they sell any and, if so, what happened to them all?

Finally, a lovely-looking semi-toy 35, a Butcher-Houghton Empire A, courtesy of Trevor Adams in NZ. I assume it is the one in the pic in the ad, but the ad is not clear enough         

Projectors at Auction – from a Christies sale.

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