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Embeddable Moving Image
A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation.
Embed Code
The twitter embed code in raw html
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yKRNB-cQ-o4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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
Mining Review: Woman Projectionist in Bishop Aukland (1966)
Subject
The topic of the resource
women projectionists
Description
An account of the resource
This video contains an extract from an edition of the film magazine Mining Review. This particular item focuses on the daily routine of Dorothy, a cinema projectionist.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKRNB-cQ-o4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
YouTube
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-10-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Embedded video
Language
A language of the resource
English
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
||||osm
1960s
||||osm
Bishop Aukland
1960s
North-East England
women projectionists
-
https://cinemaprojectionist.co.uk/files/original/b94f09f29396594e7d6a936b15e6af0c.mp3
c179cf7c6f7a1ca3e59a91e26a777397
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
When you used to get the films in at the Odeon there, again used to come and in the transit cases. Five, six, or seven or eight parts. And used to make them up onto a split spool, again on a bobbin. And then you used to put the 6,000 foot of film horizontally onto a little table, and from the table you used to run it onto the platter. But, of course, what you used to do was you’d put a leader on the beginning and you’d put the ads and trailers on ‘cause that's how we used to work. Used to put the ads and trailers on there and then join the feature to it you see. And you put all the parts on, but you put them all head out because you’re working from the middle not from the end. And you ran all your show onto a ring and once it was all on the platter you used to pull the ring out in the middle, and in the middle of the plate you had a feeder unit. Some people used to call it the brain, I don’t know why, but we just called it, well it’s the platter feed unit. You always started from the middle and as you pulled it you went over the rollers on the wall to the machine at the other end. And you pulled it until you got to the countdown leader, say about maybe nine, you laced it up and then you brought it back onto another plate where there was another ring and the ring used to take up the film. Once the machine started, this plate used to revolve. As I say, it started off, ‘cause it was all interlinked with the projector. As soon as you started that the feed would start and the take-up would start. And the take-up was controlled by an arm, so if the arm was right across like that the take up would be quick but as the film increased the arm would go towards the column, it would go slower because, of course, there’s more film being taken up. And that's how it worked, it was quite an ingenious piece of equipment. When you saw it working, when people used to come in and see it… I remember when we opened people used to come in and they were just astounded. They said, “What’s this? ‘Cause we thought you was still working on reels.” I said, “Oh no, this is what you call the non-rewind system.” Because once the film had taken up on the bottom… say you started on the top, and it was feeding from the top of the projector onto the bottom, taking up on the bottom, once it finished on the bottom you just pulled the ring out again and you started again so you didn’t have to rewind it. You see all that had gone. But, of course, what you had to do as well because you’d made it up on the plate with your ads and your trailers and your feature all together, when you’d finished with it, you went from that plate onto the make-up table then used to put the film onto a bobbin and you had markings to where each part was. Used to mark it so you knew how far you had to go, and then once you got that you snapped it and put the leader back on and put that back in the tin. That's how it worked. And you had to do that on a Thursday night when you’d finished so there was two of you on a Thursday night. Say, the guy would be upstairs doing that one, while you would be downstairs doing this one. And sometimes you’d be there to like one o’clock in the morning plating off these films because they’d be picked up in the morning, they’d be picking up, say, it might have had to go to another cinema. Or there were times when we had to move the film off which, again, was another headache. I mean at first we had to put them on a big board which was about, you know, five foot square. Used to have to pull the ring out so far, but not right out, so it would slide onto a board and then two of you would have to carry it to another screen. But it was quite heavy ‘cause you had about 12,000 feet of film in your hand and you had to carry it somewhere. And, of course, the rings were made of like a reinforced plastic but that doesn’t mean to say that they wouldn’t break, because when you got hold of it and you let it go you could feel it sagging. ‘Cause there was once or twice I got hold of a one, after I’d carried it and, you know, put it against the wall and I could see the ring, instead of it being sort of like round it would be starting to go oval shape and I’d be thinking, “That’s gonna break!” So you better get it off and get it on a board because if it broke and the film went like that, that was it. You were in trouble, you were in ghastly trouble.
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.)
PT00H03M57S
Bit Rate/Frequency
Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio)
320kbps
Cinema
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
Empire Cinema, The Gate, Newgate 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
Using platters (Neil Thompson)
Subject
The topic of the resource
platters
Description
An account of the resource
Projectionist Neil Thompson describes the process of using a platter (cake stand) projection system.
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/3307
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/25181
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
1980-2014
POINT(-179436.52103875 7356795.9379675)|16|-179284.2441465|7356537.4591398|osm
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
POINT(-180105.94220043567 7356484.908683271)|15|-179782.2791588|7355922.5665422|osm
Empire Cinema, The Gate, Newgate Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
Neil Thompson
North-East England
preparing the print
things going wrong
working conditions
-
https://cinemaprojectionist.co.uk/files/original/989e8255fd38982a257d0c3900d8663b.mp3
9e9f45ec4934501009157b00eb3f3c3c
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
Well, when I started there was no formal training, so you trained on the job. A lot of places, I was told, you went into the projection room and you weren’t allowed to touch film, all you did was sweep the floor. But actually what happened with me, I think the chief took me under his wing ‘cause he knew I was so interested and wanted to get to know all the equipment. I think within a week I was lacing up. But, of course, he kept an eye on me like. And he showed me how to rewind films, ‘cause a lot of people just put the film on the rewinder, take it across and just rewinding it and just look elsewhere, you know. But he actually said you need to check it as you rewind it. And you don’t need to go very fast, just check it because you could come across a split perforation or a nick, ‘cause if it went through the machine like that it will probably tear. Because in those days we used triacetate which was easy broken so you had to check the film as you went through.
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
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
Training and learning how to check prints (Neil Thompson)
Subject
The topic of the resource
training
Description
An account of the resource
Projectionist Neil Thompson describes the process of learning how to work as a projectionist including the importance of checking film prints when rewinding.
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
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
1974-1980
POINT(-179197.65532541 7357428.9321082)|16|-179046.5727617|7357500.0879649|osm
Queens Theatre, Northumberland Place, Newcastle upon Tyne
chief projectionist
film damage
Neil Thompson
North-East England
preparing the print
presentation and showmanship
training
-
https://cinemaprojectionist.co.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://cinemaprojectionist.co.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://cinemaprojectionist.co.uk/files/original/e63dac39bcfdef756e08fb6b58edc788.mp3
678382b61e5d6fd52ec3473043d16800
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
We started using polyester, and polyester was sometimes problematic because, as I say, it had static problems. And sometimes you would see the film feeding through the feeder unit, and maybe instead of taking one loop out, it would take two or three and it would go round like that and you’d think, “Ah god! That’s gonna pull or snap or do something.” We used to have a solution of stuff, we used to work with, we used to use at the Gate called Film Guard I think it was called. And we used to put this Film Guard on, when we knew it was a polyester copy we used to cover it with this Film Guard and it used to keep the static down but it didn’t eliminate it. But used to reduce it by about 30%. And what they fitted, once we started using static… the polyester prints, there was a device that fitted to the platters. And what happened was if it jammed up due to the polyester, if it sort of tightened itself around the feeder unit, there used to be a cut off system. You see it wouldn’t snap. Polyester was very hard to snap. It would pull all your rollers off and cause a lot of damage. And we used to use one of these, it was an anti-tension unit, and you had to lace the film through this tension unit, it was just a roller. And if the film pulled the roller went down and shut everything off. ‘Cause if it didn’t shut everything off, if you’re using polyester and it jams somewhere and it pulls, it would pull all your rollers right off the wall. It would, it would cause an awful lot of damage. It could be a headache sometimes. If you saw a problem starting like that, you’d say to whoever came on at four o’clock or five you’d say, “Oh, keep an eye on screen six because, you know, it’s polyester and I nearly had a snap with it or nearly had a stop. Because it pulled too much film out at the same time. It wrapped itself round, you know.” And of course, with polyester as well when you lifted it off you would get a crack on your hands because it was static. So you’d be pulling it off and your hand would touch the metal plate and boom! You know.
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.)
PT00H01M59S
Bit Rate/Frequency
Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio)
320kbps
Cinema
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
Empire Cinema, The Gate, Newgate 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
Polyester film (Neil Thompson)
Subject
The topic of the resource
polyester film
Description
An account of the resource
Projectionist Neil Thompson describes the characteristics of polyester film, including its static properties, the difficultiy tearing it and the problems that these caused.
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/3307
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/25181
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
1990-2014
POINT(-179434.13238159 7356799.5209532)|16|-179284.2441465|7356508.7952542|osm
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
POINT(-180101.1648861764 7356477.74271167)|15|-179796.6111016|7355889.1253420|osm
Empire Cinema, The Gate, Newgate Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
1990s
2000s
2010s
Neil Thompson
North-East England
things going wrong
-
https://cinemaprojectionist.co.uk/files/original/fe008a0e50d2fd59e3d899ab33a5ba78.mp3
45cb12f36638b6cdce75dbd4b177542b
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
When you first went in about ten o’clock you would open all the arc lamps and you would clean them out ‘cause obviously with using carbon arcs they used to get all like carbon dust and of course the mirror at the back used to get covered. And we used to hoover them out every morning, got rid of all the dust and makes them lovely and clean. Make sure that the reflector at the back of the lamp house was clean. Used to clean that with a special solvent. Then once you’d finished them, you dismantled all the projector, used to take all the, the gate out and all the sprocket jockeys that kept the film on top of the sprocket, used to take all them out and clean them with methylated spirits. But yeah, used to dismantle all the bits and pieces and clean them. Make sure… I used to get the little toothbrush out and make sure that the intermittent sprocket was clean and the top sprocket and the bottom sprocket. Check the magnetic heads if you are using magnetic film, you had to make sure they were clean. And then you just left the projector ready to lace up. You didn’t lace it up, you used to leave it until five minutes before you were ready to go on. Because what we used to do at The Queen’s, again, we used to run the machines for five minutes just to warm them up. ‘Cause obviously starting a machine from cold you might get speed issues. And then once you’d done the projection issues you used to go up and check the lamps in the theatre. Used to go up and make sure, see if there was any lights off anywhere. And then make sure the heat came on if it was required, because you were responsible for heating and ventilation. And you were also responsible for the emergency lighting, ‘cause as you appreciate, when you’re in a public area you must have emergency lighting in case the main lighting goes off. So we were responsible for looking after the batteries so you went and checked them and made sure they were on. And anything else that needed looking after, because you were the sole technical guy in the cinema. So if, say, somebody like one of the cleaners came up to you and said, “Well, oh, there's something wrong with one of the hoovers, can you look at that?” You got the job of that as well. Or maybe downstairs, maybe one of the staff would come up and say there’s something wrong with the kettle. Anything like that. Or if the management wanted you. So it was quite a busy period.
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.)
PT00H02M01S
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
Morning routine (Neil Thompson)
Subject
The topic of the resource
routine around the cinema before the start of screenings.
Description
An account of the resource
Projectionist Neil Thompson describes his morning routine, preparing for the day's screenings, cleaning the projection room and conducting other duties around the cinema.
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
1974-2010
POINT(-179195.26666826 7357427.7377797)|16|-179026.2691761|7357545.4724505|osm
Queens Theatre, Northumberland Place, Newcastle upon Tyne
POINT(-179441.29835303 7356812.6585676)|17|-179386.9564032|7356668.8352822|osm
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
1970s
maintenance
Neil Thompson
North-East England
outside the box
routine
-
https://cinemaprojectionist.co.uk/files/original/8c6d4e9a7f9cd91cb694f461f98032d2.mp3
07c91193a2d7237d3bacb022c5bd7528
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
Obviously making up a show you had to make sure that each part was like, you know, in line, say, one, two, three and four, five and six. Because if you mixed them up, you know, which it has been done, I didn’t do it, but I have known where it’s gone to one, two, four and then three, five and six, you know, it has happened, but it didn’t happen at The Queen’s. Again it was down to you to make sure that these parts were made in the right order. ‘Cause what you used to have to do when you actually made a film up, if it was a brand new film the leaders were attached to the parts, what you had to do is when you cut the leaders off to join up each part, so you didn’t see anything in between, you used to leave a frame of film on the end so you had the leader and a frame of film so you knew when you put them back in the tins that that was the right leader, it would match up. Some projectionists used to just cut the blinking thing off and they never left a frame so you didn’t know whether that was the leader that went… “I mean if that's part four, is that part four because there's nothing to match it?” And a lot of projectionists used to just put the part in the tin and wrap anything round. And, of course, the next person to get it didn’t know where he was because he thought, “Hang on, is that part four or is it not?” Because there was nothing to identify that leader with that. And before you knew where you were you put the show on and you’d get a call from somebody saying, “Well hang on, that part there, there's a guy been killed and he’s shown up again in the film so there’s obviously something not right.”
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.)
PT00H01M33S
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
Empire Cinema, The Gate, Newgate 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
Making-up films (Neil Thompson)
Subject
The topic of the resource
making-up films
Description
An account of the resource
Projectionist Neil Thompson descibes the process of making-up film prints, including the projectionist's trick of leaving one frame on the leader to help reassembly.
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
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/25181
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
1974-2014
POINT(-179195.26666825 7357427.7377796)|16|-179075.2366473|7357562.1930503|osm
Queens Theatre, Northumberland Place, Newcastle upon Tyne
POINT(-179432.93805304 7356805.4925963)|17|-179329.6286320|7356674.8069252|osm
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
POINT(-180105.94220043 7356472.9653974)|15|-179877.8254442|7355934.5098276|osm
Empire Cinema, The Gate, Newgate Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
Neil Thompson
North-East England
preparing the print
presentation and showmanship
-
https://cinemaprojectionist.co.uk/files/original/fa55186ad22feabac4a2d5701c35da9c.mp3
26e20456f7580006c2c7fda99ebde025
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
I liked the machines down at The Queens. They were real workhouses. You know, you had a massive lamp house. We used to use these carbon arcs which were high intensity and the light from them was fantastic. I mean when we used to strike them, we used to put the carbons in and tie them and shut the door, then we used to press the button, you'd hear the contactor come in and then when you joined the two together it used to make a hell of a sound you know. And then you had a little eye piece where you could look to see how far they were. And, of course, carbon arcs had a tendency to wander away from each other. And there was a little motor on the side that used to keep them, or try to keep them, at a certain distance because if they went too far the picture would go blue, if they went too close the picture would go brown. They had to be about an inch apart. So you had to keep going and checking them, making sure ‘cause it had a guide at the top of the lamp house. You know, that was fascinating. Of course you daresn't open the door because the light was just intense, you know it could blind you. Of course that's what they used to use in search lights during the war. And I think that light, meself, from them was better than xenon bulbs will ever be. I mean it’s...with carbons you had fumes as well, they weren't good for your health. Whereas xenon bulbs, it's more temperature controlled, you don't have any fumes and they're simpler to use, you just put them in and that's it and once they're set up that's it, you don't touch them. Whereas carbons, you had to put a carbon in every time this one burnt right down and you had to set them up and you had to keep an eye on them, well that's all done away and finished with. But at the time, I mean they were good, they were really smashing, you know, fantastic. Because I mean when I first kicked off, I mean like a lot of people you would think that there was a high voltage bulb that was in there that used to provide the illumination. And I had that at The Odeon in Gateshead in 1970 when I was there, it was one of the first things I remember asking, you know, “What kind of a bulb are you use in these things?” And he says, “Oh it's not a bulb, we're using carbon arcs”. And I thought, “What's carbon arcs then?” And they explained it to us. It's just an empty lamppost with these two rods in and a reflector at the back. Fascinating, absolutely fascinating. They pushed me over to the Odeon in ’75 and when I went across to the Odeon I had to learn about xenon bulbs. Because we were working with with what they call platters, or cake stands as they used to call them which held four foot horizontal plates and on those you had, I think it ran about three and a half, three and three-quarter hours. And, of course, carbon arcs would be no good then, and so we all went with xenon bulbs. They were in their infancy then, they had just came out. To me the light was terrible. The light was cream, it wasn’t white it was awful yellowy cream colour. Of course later on they converted them to three phase and they were much steadier and they were whiter. And they were blinking dangerous because one went off on me one day when I was on with the Chief there. He’d just changed the lamp in number one and he’d just left it on for five minutes and oh, all of a sudden I can remember standing right next to it and there’s this almighty bang and the glass went all over the floor. It didn’t seem to affect him, he just come round and he says, “Oh, my bloody lamp’s blown.” And I was standing there and I thought my nerves were nearly shattered. I thought, “I was standing next to the damned thing!” I remember walking to the lamp house, everything was just broken. There was glass all over the place, the reflector, the back was all in bits because of the bang it just took it and there wasn’t extensive damage but it made a bit of a mess. So they were really dangerous. You had to be careful but, as I say, they were in their infancy then, they just came out.
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.)
PT00H03M38S
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
Light sources (Neil Thompson)
Subject
The topic of the resource
technological change in light sources
Description
An account of the resource
Projectionist Neil Thompson describes the change in lighting technology from fast-burning carbon arc lamps to long-lasting xenon lamps.
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
Queens Theatre, Northumberland Place, Newcastle upon Tyne
POINT(-179430.54939592 7356803.1039393)|17|-179382.1790890|7356666.4466253|osm
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
1970s
1980s
light sources
Neil Thompson
North-East England
working conditions
-
https://cinemaprojectionist.co.uk/files/original/00105cf05986bcb8e57a5044ebd41f32.mp3
63c59e29593e7937184fbeb69572f570
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 it makes such a noise, I mean when you start the machine up and you can hear it rat-tat-tat-tat. I don’t know how the people outside in the auditorium didn’t hear it. It made you more aware of what you were doing, when you had hold of all this massive film, and you’re showing it on a massive screen and you had a full audience, that's what drives you on, that’s what the adrenalin is all about. You think, “I'm in charge of this. This film’s cost so many millions to make and it’s me that’s in charge of showing it. I’m the last link in the chain. Which is what I always think a projectionist is. ‘Cause you are the last link in the chain from a story to a screenplay, then a crew’s got ready and then they get the actors and it’s filmed, it’s processed, then it’s sent to cinemas for people to see. You’re the last link in the chain so it’s up to you to present it properly.
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
Empire Cinema, The Gate, Newgate 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
Being the last link in the chain (Neil Thompson)
Subject
The topic of the resource
projectionist as last link in the chain
Description
An account of the resource
Projectionist Neil Thompson outlines his thoughts as being the last link in the creative process.
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
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/25181
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
1974-2014
POINT(-179194.07233968 7357426.5434509)|16|-179062.0990331|7357571.7476788|osm
Queens Theatre, Northumberland Place, Newcastle upon Tyne
POINT(-179430.54939591 7356797.1322965)|17|-179320.0740035|7356633.0054255|osm
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
POINT(-180105.94220044 7356480.1313687)|15|-179815.7203587|7355896.2913133|osm
Empire Cinema, The Gate, Newgate Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
Neil Thompson
North-East England
presentation and showmanship
-
https://cinemaprojectionist.co.uk/files/original/11a5c765029a59694924ad29329fce8c.mp3
6086927670a3da1d14a65865b6ed64eb
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
We used to have to put pulses on because everything was automated. What it did was, when the pulse went through the projector and it, you had the pick off, well we used to call it the proximity detector, that was the name for it, and when the pulse went by it just connected to a circuit. You used to have two metal drums on this Cinemation circuit and on the drums there was holes in them and you used to have pegs in the holes. And these holes corresponded to these switches. And then these switches used to correspond with your masking, the lights, the curtains. And when that pulse went through it used to advance the drum, once like that. And when the drums advanced, the peg used to correspond with the switch. And of course the switch used to do whatever it had to do you see. When the leader started going through the machine, the first pulse would strike your lamp so the first pulse would go through on the leader and you’d hear the lamp strike. And then next the curtains would open and the lights would go down, and it would switch over to film from your non-sync. Your non-sync by the way is the CD that’s playing. It’s short for non-synchronous. It did everything for you. At the end of the show used to put a pulse on about 30 feet before the end and when that went through it closed the curtains and everything for you. It brought the lights up and it stopped the projector at the end, and, of course, your leader was just hanging. So all you had to do was to switch it on again and make sure it went back onto the bottom plate, clean the machine and then take the ring out and then start and lace it up ready for the next one. So that was still interesting enough ‘cause as I say, you had to be there, you had to do everything. It was up to you to make sure the thing went on. But even though it was automated you still had to keep an eye on it, because with the pulses going through it would get dirty, they might miss when they go through, the pickup might just miss it, and the lamp probably wouldn’t strike. And you would hear it start and you think, “I never heard that lamp strike.” Even when you had automation you still had to keep an eye on these things.
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.)
PT00H02M58S
Bit Rate/Frequency
Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio)
320kbps
Cinema
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
Empire Cinema, The Gate, Newgate 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
Automation (Neil Thompson)
Subject
The topic of the resource
automated projection
Description
An account of the resource
Projectionist Neil Thompson describes the process of using automated projection systems from the 1980s onwards.
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/3307
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/25181
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
1980-2014
POINT(-179423.68200666 7356797.8880823)|17|-179366.0556533|7356637.5961257|osm
Odeon Newcastle upon Tyne, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
POINT(-180120.27414325284 7356472.218942034)|15|-179770.3358732|7355876.4356010|osm
Empire Cinema, The Gate, Newgate Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
1980s
1990s
2000s
automation
Neil Thompson
North-East England
presentation and showmanship
-
https://cinemaprojectionist.co.uk/files/original/fee3f76d4540ab687a3d93a6fd504deb.mp3
c804d0694ee94b45a0d08b1351a1730c
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
We knew, oh it must be about thirteen or fourteen months before how it was going to work, ‘cause we got a letter saying that, you know, now that the digital is going to be installed there's a chance that there'd be redundancies. I think that was the September 2012 and yet we didn't leave until the April 2014. So there was about three or four cinemas done first to see how it went, and then they said what we're gonna be doing is changing one or two and then all will be changed all at once. The first one was put in about 2009. It took about a month or two to get in installed. I remember when it first came, of course all the staff came up to look at it, they said, “Oh I must see what this is”. Of course a lot of them were being funny, they’re saying, “Where do you put the cups?” ‘cause they thought it was one of these, like a tea maker or a coffee maker. The digital got changed more or less overnight. There was about eight screens to do. There was about four of the engineers came in and all the digital equipment arrived one night and it was all just standing, waiting to be put in. And within two days all the projectors and Cinemeccanica stuff had been pushed to one side and the digital machines had been put in, all the plugs were all ready just to put into the wall. They had all been rewired weeks before. Because the lads that I worked with were, when I was on they'd say, “Hey, this is not going to take long, they're gonna do this and they're gonna do that.” And I'd say, “Oh well you know, wait, you know, we might be here longer than you think.” And of course when digital was put in and it didn't take long. All that had to be done was be set up with a laptop. It used the same amplifiers, all you need to do was put a server. I was there when they were putting the last ones in. In fact number eleven was the last one to be put in and I was the last one to lace up a 35mm projector in that place. And the lads were just standing, watching me and I was lacing up and I said, "When this has finished you're carting this out aren't you?" And he said, "Yeah, as soon as that's finished we'll be getting rid of that." And there was a digital projector right behind, ready to put in its place. And once the film finished I went down the bottom end to do something, and when I came back it was all just pushed out the place. Four of them just got hold of it and pushed it to one side, the plinth, the lot, the projector. And the digital was in its place. And that was the last one to go in, and I just thought, “My god,” you know, I just couldn’t believe it. They had it all wired up ready and they said, "Right just check it and on the next show you can go ahead." I said, "What, already?" And he says, "Oh yeah, it's ready." Unbelievable.
Original Format
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One-to-one interview
Duration
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PT00H02M25S
Bit Rate/Frequency
Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio)
320kbps
Cinema
Empire Cinema, The Gate, Newgate 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
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Arrival of digital (Neil Thompson)
Subject
The topic of the resource
digital transformation
Description
An account of the resource
Projectionist Neil Thompson descibes the arrival of digital projection in his cinema, including the timeline of the digital conversion.
Creator
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The Projection Project
Source
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Interview with Neil Thompson
Publisher
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The University of Warwick
Date
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2015-12-29
Contributor
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Richard Wallace
Neil Thompson
Relation
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http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/25181
Format
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.mp3
Language
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English
Type
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Sound recording
interview extract
Coverage
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2009-2014
POINT(-180115.49682897 7356477.7427116)|15|-179794.2224446|7355934.5098276|osm
Empire Cinema, The Gate, Newgate Street, Newcastle upon Tyne
2000s
2010s
digital projection
Neil Thompson
North-East England
working conditions