Projection lost

  Sometimes there is just nothing you can do to change the outcome of a situation. Unfortunately in life things happen that we have no control over and we just have to deal with the results of these unexpected happenings. I have often referred to the amount of instances in my life where fate blindly leaned in my favor as considerably less than average. To put it in other words if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all! The most recent of these types of incidents was at my last job which I held for a record shortest time of Two days (approximately 10 hours).

   This job was at a movie theater and I held the position of a projectionist. It isn’t like I didn’t know what I was doing. I have worked as a projectionist in the past. I was a little rusty at first and these projectors were a little different than the projectors I was used to but I picked it up quickly. Well this particular theater has 8 screens and the projectors that correspond to them are 6 Victoria projectors and 2 Christie projectors. The equipment is rather old and there is a bit of wear and tear on it. Some of the rollers are loose and broken and some of the guides are bent or damaged. Never the less, being of strong mechanical sense I adjusted the faulty parts and continued on. There is a simple difference between the feed systems on the two types of projectors that I mentioned before. On the Victoria’s feed system it is common to have what is referred to as a brain wrap due to the design of the feed control unit referred to as a brain. On a Christie’s feed system this occurrence is almost never an issue. While I was being introduced to these particular projectors one of the theater’s current staff was also being trained to operate the projectors. At the time I didn’t see this as a problem nor should I have. Well needless to say lightning was about to strike!

   I didn’t really agree with the way this theater ran its operation.  Once the films had been started the projectionist was sent on break.  This is not a good practice to follow in a theater as it is possible something can go wrong at any time and you should have your projectionist in the booth.  Well who am I to question management anyway?  So I return from my break and inform my supervisor I am ready to return at which time she says to wait 10 minutes.  After that time had passed I clocked in and headed upstairs to get a head start on what was next as far as threading up the projectors and what not.  I had made it to my 3^rd projector and all of the sudden a distressed call came over the radio alerting us that there was some kind of problem on screen five.  Being the closest one and always ready to take the initiative I ran over to projector 5 and what I found was a mess.  I did what any good projectionist would do, seeing that the film had seized up and melted through to a white screen I closed the shutter, Turned off the projector, turned off the feed system, and turned the house lights up so the audience could see.  This Christie projector which was known for not having brain wraps had what looked like a brain wrap but it wasn’t a normal brain wrap.  Something didn’t look right about the way it was wrapped. Before I could do anything else my supervisor came around the corner and asked me what I was doing at that particular projector.  I explained I was the closest person to the projector and when I arrived that I turned off the projector because the problem could not be remedied while it was running and to prevent further damage.  My supervisor sent me away to assist someone downstairs while she remedied the problem. 

   Within the next 20 minutes I was in the office defending myself against allegations of sabotage.  Amongst other things I was offended to say the least. Being a former Marine with combat decorations for Honorably serving my country this was an insult not only to me but to the The Marine Corps.  I was accused of unplugging the feed systems power source and causing the brain wrap and at the time I was a little overwhelmed by the whole thing.  What actually happened was the tail end of the film came loose with about 15 minutes left because it was not properly tucked in by the employee also being trained.  This loose end started to unravel and eventually got hung up on something causing the film to tangle around the brain making what looked almost like a brain wrap.  To someone not thoroughly trained in projection it may be easily mistakable.  So by management not being able to understand how this happened since the movie ran fine up to that point the blame was put on me and I was fired from that job for something I didn’t do and something I couldn’t control. 

    In closing I performed the duties of this job beyond expected and showed initiative and a proactive attitude in all areas pertaining to the job and a willingness to work towards constant improvement and achieving excellence on the job.  I am not mad about what happened.  What happened is a learning experience and I kind of saw it coming the way theater functions were carried out in a lackadaisical manner.  Being a Projectionist isn’t about starting projectors it’s about bringing the audience that movie theater experience in a perfect showing!