So, just how do you "build" a movie?
A film is "built" in order to be projected onto the screen. I'll tell you how it's done.
Well, it's not as hard as you might imagine. Films arrive at the theatre usually in two grey cans, as you can see here.
The yellow plastic piece in one of the cans stores the DTS discs for this film. This is an older picture. Now the discs are simply stored in a plastic case. Click the picture to see.
There can easily be a third can if you have a film which runs about 2 1/2 hours or more. And even a fourth if it's a really long movie!
Then...
...I take each reel and cut off its countdown leader and ending tail, or "foot" piece of film. After that, I splice them in their correct order with the end of reel #1 attached to the beginning of reel #2 and so on until you go through all the provided reels. Here is how a splice is done.
And then I...
...find it much easier to assemble three 2000' reels onto one 6000' reel, as you can see here.
After that I...
...put that big reel onto the make-up table and reel it off onto what's called a "platter." The platter is a big horizontal dish which holds the movie flat across it.
When the film has finished it's theatrical run, I...
..."break" the film, it's spooled back onto the 2000' reels, as you can see here, for later pick-up and shipping to it's next destination.
As you can see, it's not that difficult, but do beware of this: I have known of projectionists who have tried to "race" to build a film. Please, if you ever train to become a projectionist: Do not do this!
Never hurry anything in the booth, you may cause bigger problems!
