#thenitratepictureshow

[mynitratememories]

My Nitrate Memory

Prelude Despite the aroma of fresh popped corn that accented screenings of our home movies, it’s the smell of our glass-beaded movie screen and the purring sound of our Kodak movie projector that remain vivid memories to this day.  Back then, I couldn’t wait till I was old enough for Dad to let me run the projector and put on the show!  Little did I know.

Act I I gazed upon the photo, an awestruck teenager.  

“That horror of horrors rising behind Mrs. George Evan Young (then Miss Geraldine Hathaway), of Niagara Falls, Ont., is Crystal Beach’s famed Cyclone, which has been called the granddaddy of all rollercoasters in terms of thrills.”

Thus began the newspaper caption accompanying a 1927 photo of the legendary Crystal Beach Cyclone, published in a Buffalo, New York newspaper.  That photo would impact the course of my life years into the future.  The sculptural quality of the twisted trackage fascinated me, igniting a passion to build a model replica of it, and, in the process, overcome my fear of roller coasters.  I began riding, filming, and photographing them.  Joining the Western New York Coaster Club some years later, I met Norm Liemberger and Art Parmele, coaster enthusiasts by day, and union projectionists by night.  It didn’t take long for me begin visiting them in the booth, igniting a passion for theatrical projection.  Following an apprenticeship, I began working as a part-time moving picture machine operator on nights and weekends, with daytime employment in television.  Projecting 35mm motion picture film (and getting paid for it) was a thrill!

Act II After 18 years’ work in media, I enrolled in The L. Jeffery Selznick School of Film Preservation, which provided my first introduction to nitrocellulose film.  Nitrate film is a dangerous good.  It is classified as UN Hazard Class 4 – Flammable Solids.  The storage, projection, and shipment of nitrocellulose base films are highly regulated.  The federal government requires dangerous goods shipping training for anyone shipping this material.

Upon graduating from the Selznick School, I began work at George Eastman House as a film technician, joining the archival projection staff as well.   Working with manual change-over projection in an archival venue fed my passion and furthered my education.  As a projectionist, I operate a piece of electro mechanical equipment in the booth.  In the theater auditorium, the audience is psychologically / emotionally engaged in a narrative.  Somewhere between the projection equipment and the audience, magic is happening, and I have the opportunity to make the magic.  How satisfying!  

The opportunity to project nitrate film is exciting, yet not an experience to be taken lightly.  The aged, irreplaceable prints, running through a piece of machinery with teeth, printed on flammable nitrocellulose base, exposed to the light and heat of a 2000-watt lamp, adjacent to an auditorium full of people, presents a sobering responsibility.  During the projection of nitrate film, while the audience is focused on lustrous images, the projectionist focuses their attention on the film travelling through the picture head of the projector.  Preventing a jam in the projector is the primary line of defense in preventing damage to the print and combustion.  Travelling at a speed of 90-feet a minute, film damage can occur, and multiply, very quickly.  The operator keeps one hand on the mechanical dowser of the lamp house, ready to close it and cut off the light & heat from reaching the film, while the other hand hovers near the motor switch, ready to stop the projector in case of a film break.  The chatter from shrunken prints and the pops of splices entering the gate serve to heighten one’s awareness of the fragility of the object in their care.  Keep in mind, the youngest nitrate prints are 63 years old.

From personal experience, I can tell you that projecting nitrate film for a festival is a lot of work!  Film inspection and preparation warrants an essay unto itself.  During the festival, each projector commands its own operator, while another projectionist winds and rewinds nitrate prints onto and off of house reels, and a fourth is busy transporting reels.  A limited amount of nitrate film is allowed in the projection booth, so film reels are constantly trafficked between storage, prep, and projection spaces.  Nitrate films are mounted on 1000-foot reels, providing a 10-minute maximum run, with most reels running less.  Threading the projector, running the reel, cleaning the film path, threading the next reel, and beginning again at the next change-over keeps the operators very busy, and, nitrate prints typically have double the amount of reels of their safety counterparts.  After the festival ends, dangerous goods shipping protocols are employed to return the prints safely to their respective archives.

Screenings were so much easier when Dad ran the show!

Tim Wagner Film Technician Moving Image Dept. George Eastman House