Re: [Frameworks] need help with dual 16mm projection

From: email suppressed
Date: Sun Sep 19 2010 - 02:07:54 PDT


There are two ways of doing this: electrical or mechanical. Either you
use a common drive shaft, as was used for Dan Graham's Body Press
film, or you have a crystal controlled voltage supply that locks both
projectors to the same voltage. Such a system existed for three Elf
projectors. The Arts Council of England had some and William Raban
made a three projector time-lapse film, Thames Barrier (1977), using
it. There's also an English filmmaker called Elizabeth McAlpine who
has made some Super 8 films with six or so projectors that are
mechanically connected via a series of chain drives.

Nicky Hamlyn.

On 18 Sep 2010, at 22:45, Steve Polta wrote:

> This issue has been discussed here before and as far as I know
> nothing very conclusive has come from it, i.e. no real solution has
> ever really materialized.
>
> Quite a while ago I was interested in this and tried it out. I was
> using Super-8, for the record. The problem is obviously that your
> projector will not run at exactly the same speed, the result being
> that, if the second projector is faster, the slack distance between
> gets shorter and shorter until the film snaps; if the first
> projector is faster, the slack builds up until you have a pile of
> film between the projectors. The trick is indeed to use projectors
> with rheostats (i.e. speed control knobs). This is part of the
> reason I was using Super-8: the Elmo projectors I possess have such
> knobs, which subtly increase the speed in the range of 1-2 fps. My
> biggest problem was confusing the projectors—i.e. turning one up
> when it should have gone down, etc.—but this seems easy to correct
> with practice.
>
> Ultimately I just abandoned this work so I have nothing to show for
> it. I think it could be potentially very interesting so I encourage
> others to pursue this. I can't say I've seen such knobs on portable
> 16mm projectors (but they may exist) but modification is always a
> possibility. As precedence, I've heard of a Sharits work which may
> have done this; also some early Luis Recorder pieces ran the same
> film through the same projector twice (looped over itself) and were
> very interesting.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Steve Polta
>
> --- On Fri, 9/17/10, D Dawson <email suppressed> wrote:
>
> From: D Dawson <email suppressed>
> Subject: Re: [Frameworks] need help with dual 16mm projection
> To: "Experimental Film Discussion List" <email suppressed
> >
> Date: Friday, September 17, 2010, 3:14 PM
>
> Depending on which projectors you are using, there may be a rheostat
> in one that will let you slightly adjust the FPS up or down... You
> can adjust and set this while they are running and it would help you
> tweak the slack if they were running slightly differently from one
> another.
>
> Deco
>
>
>
>
> On 9/17/10 5:09 PM, "jeanne LIOTTA" <email suppressed> wrote:
>
> carefully.
>
> On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 5:56 PM, mariah garnett <email suppressed
> > wrote:
> I am trying to rig up an installation involving one 16mm film loop
> that runs through two projectors simultaneously. Does anyone have
> any advice on how to synch the 2 projectors so that the slack
> remains constant on both sides? I think I either need to rig up a
> slave motor or slave one projector to the other.
> Any advice?
> Thanks!
> Mariah.
>
>
> www.decodawson.com
>
>
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