Rehearsing films (Mike Williams)

Mike Williams interviewed by Richard Wallace

Projectionist Mike Williams describes the process of rehearsing film to get them ready for screening.

We were shown things like how to put the footlights on at the right tempo. Some films you put them up fast, other films you put them up slow. You see we also used to rehearse films, they don’t do that anymore. But sometimes we used to have delivery of films on a Thursday, sometime between Thursday and Sunday that film would be played, only the features, second features didn’t really matter, but the main feature film bearing in mind that we were a first run house, we used to run parallel with the West End. So feature films would have to be run through and the chief or the manager or the senior second would sit in the auditorium and cue them so the sound was all right all the way through. And you’d run by that cue sheet then all through the week. Frank used to consider that a necessity and, again, it worked. No need to change it, you know. It was a good system. And it worked.

Title

Rehearsing films (Mike Williams)

Subject

preparing screenings

Description

Projectionist Mike Williams describes the process of rehearsing film to get them ready for screening.

Creator

The Projection Project

Source

Interview with Mike Williams

Publisher

The University of Warwick

Date

04/12/2015

Contributor

Richard Wallace
Mike Williams

Relation

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/7970

Format

.mp3

Language

English

Type

Sound recording
interview extract

Coverage

1956-1964

Interviewer

Richard Wallace

Interviewee

Mike Williams

Date of Interview

25/08/2015

Location

Cardiff

Transcription

We were shown things like how to put the footlights on at the right tempo. Some films you put them up fast, other films you put them up slow. You see we also used to rehearse films, they don’t do that anymore. But sometimes we used to have delivery of films on a Thursday, sometime between Thursday and Sunday that film would be played, only the features, second features didn’t really matter, but the main feature film bearing in mind that we were a first run house, we used to run parallel with the West End. So feature films would have to be run through and the chief or the manager or the senior second would sit in the auditorium and cue them so the sound was all right all the way through. And you’d run by that cue sheet then all through the week. Frank used to consider that a necessity and, again, it worked. No need to change it, you know. It was a good system. And it worked.

Original Format

One-to-one interview

Duration

00:00:59

Bit Rate/Frequency

320kbps

Cinema

ABC (Olympia) Cinema, 67 Queen Street, Cardiff

Citation

The Projection Project, “Rehearsing films (Mike Williams),” Cinema Projectionist, accessed March 29, 2024, https://cinemaprojectionist.co.uk/items/show/400.

Output Formats