[Frameworks] more on projector speeds

Tue Feb 14 05:23:34 CST 2012

This also raises the issue of the objectification of temporality and process (experimental a/g film/cinema) in the guise of  gallery installation where galleries have become high-end shops, purveyors of fetishised technology and associated merchandising.

Rob.

On 14/02/2012 07:23, "nicky.hamlyn at talktalk.net" <nicky.hamlyn at talktalk.net> wrote:

Brilliant, especially the last bit, which raises the whole issue of whether it's appropriate to show older work on new equipment. There was a great show at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin about four years ago called Beyond Cinema: The Art of Projection, in which all the work was shown on equipment that was current at the time, including, eg a Peter Campus projection that used an original 1960s or (70s ?) video projector. This has also be an issue recently in representing early British video work, ie whether to show it on period cathode ray tube domestic TV sets, as some of the work, such as David Hall's, implicitly requires or assumes, or to show it on a modern CRT or, much worse, a flat screen.

Nicky Hamlyn.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Tetzlaff <djtet53 at gmail.com>
To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
Sent: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 5:49
Subject: [Frameworks] more on projector speeds

That graphic I was sending to Josh Guilford notes an interesting feature of the
Pageant 250S, which relates to the whole discussion of how projection affects
the 'look' of a film, not just the duration.

Almost all projectors have a 3-blade shutter, so at 16fps they flicker 48
time-per-second, at 18 fps they flicker at 54 times-per-second, and at 24fps
they flicker at 72 times-per-second. Now, I can definitely see 48 pulse
projector flicker, and find it annoying (and I have trouble watching PAL TV,
because I can see the 50Hz flicker and it bugs me). But those specs, 50Hz TV and
48 pulse film projection were set because MOST people supposedly cannot perceive
flicker at those rates. I think it's safe to say, though, that 24fps/72 pulse
flicker, and good old NTSC (59.97 field pulses/sec) look the same to pretty much
everyone.

Anyway, not ALL projectors have 3 blades. Telecine projectors have five-blade
shutters, with narrow openings at that (too dim to use for public projection).
And some projectors have 2-blade shutters. The 250S has a "Kodak Super-40"
shutter, which has spring-loaded movable blades. At the silent speed (18fps) the
springs keep the blades in a three blade configuration, yielding 54 pulses per
second. At 24fps though, the centrifugal force on the blades overcome the spring
tension and the blades move into a two blade configuration, yielding "40 percent
more screen illumination' and a 48 pulse flicker. However, depending on whether
you change the speed before or after the projector is in forward motion, you can
get the other shutter configuration with either sound or silent speed. That is,
you can get 18fps in 2 blade mode (yielding 36 pulse flicker) or 24fps in 3
blade mode (yielding 72 pulse flicker).

--

So if we really wanted to get anal retentive about how filmmakers intend their
work to be shown, we'd have to know not just the frame rate, but the number of
shutter blades. And the shutter-angle of however many opening there are...

And, really, 2fps one way or the other is one of the smaller variables between
different instances of projection. Are the projectors in a booth so their
mechanical noise is muffled, or out in the open where the projector noise is
audible? How big is the image on screen relative to the audience-screen
distance. How bright is the image? What's the color temperature of the lamp?

(warning: irony ahead)

So if Warhol showed 'Sleep' with a 16mm projector running at 16fps, with a three
60-degree blade shutter, in an open room, 25 feet away from the screen, burning
a 1000W incandescent lamp, through a 38mm f.1.8 lens, then that's the way to
screen it, damnit. No messing with the flicker, no hiding the projector noise,
no Xenon lamps that produce a cooler monochrome, or put out more light (unless
you compensate the f-stop of lens to keep the lumens on screen constant, natch),
no 25mm or 50mm lenses...  Anything else is ILLEGITIMATE!

Why, you might as well put Schwechater on a looper and run it in a museum
gallery where people are walking in and out of the room all the time, and
there's enough ambient light so they don't trip over each other, when we all
know they should be in individual seats with side blinders locked in for the
duration with one of those locking bars across their laps like a ride at Disney
World! Show it RIGHT or don't show it at all!
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