Inside the box: A projectionist’s world

Who plays the movies at today’s multiplexes and cinemas?  Until 2011 it was a projectionist who performed a range of duties to do with preparing and showing reels of 35mm celluloid film. Since then, the vast majority of cinemas in the UK and elsewhere have not only got rid of their 35mm projectors, but have made the projectionist redundant too.  Movies arrive as computer files, and operating the digital projector requires none of the specialist skills or knowledge the projectionist spent years acquiring.

The cinema at Warwick Arts Centre is one of the few in the West Midlands that retains a projectionist, Adrian Pearce, and the capacity to show films on 35mm as well as digitally.

The project looks at how films, which often do allow us to enter the box, imagine the role and character of the projectionist.

On Saturday 7 May, University of Warwick’s Projection Project showcased some of their research at the Arts Centre as part of its programme of film talks.  The event, Inside the Projection Box, included the chance for small groups of audience members to visit the box, where Adrian introduced them to one of cinema’s hidden spaces.

Image: Geek_Love13/ Flickr

The Projection Project is a research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and based in Warwick’s department of Film and Television. Its broad mission is to capture and document the projectionist’s role before it passes into history.

Inside the Projection Box opened with a talk by Dr Richard Wallace, the project’s research fellow. His investigation has taken him into the Coventry archives where he recently discovered some material about local projectionist Florence Barton (nicknamed Bart), who started as a projectionist during World War II, to cover for conscripted men, and stayed on after the war, rising to become chief projectionist in a male-dominated field.  Richard played some audio clips of Bart being interviewed about her career in the mid-1980s.

During the post-show Q&A they wanted to discuss everything from the old habit of spraying the cinema with disinfectant powder between shows, to the future of cinema-going in the digital age.

Film clips from The Last Showing (2014), in which Robert Englund plays a projectionist who turns rogue after being demoted from the projection box to the popcorn counter and The Smallest Show on Earth (1957) in which the comedy actor Peter Sellers plays the eccentric projectionist of a so-called fleapit.

The project looks at how films, which often do allow us to enter the box, imagine the role and character of the projectionist. The event seemed to capture the audience’s imagination and they told us they especially loved getting to see the projection box and have a peak at Adrian’s world.  During the post-show Q&A they wanted to discuss everything from the old habit of spraying the cinema with disinfectant powder between shows, to the future of cinema-going in the digital age.

Check out the Projection Project’s virtual projection box online, where you can access audio clips of Richard’s interviews with projectionists and a wealth of other material. Or tweet to us to find out more at @ProjProject.