Framing

The Framing Mechanism

From the Century Projector Manual: "Rotation of the FRAME knob on the front of the projector causes the intermittent to move up and down. Observe the upper and lower limits of intermittent travel, and position the intermittent at the center of its travel. This will insure adequate movement up or down to correct accidental misframes. Always "center" the intermittent in this manner before threading."

Not all projectors utilize the same framing mechanism as the Century, but making sure your intermittent is both centered and in a neutral position in relation the the Geneva mechanism is a must before starting any show, and MUST be repeated if at any point during a screening you re-adjust the position of the framing mechanism.

• If you are working with a Simplex XL you'll noticed the intermittent does not move up and down, but rotates. The same principle applies, position the intermittent at the center of its rotation, make sure the intermittent is in a neutral position, and then thread the film.
• If you're working with a Kinoton you won't be able to see external evidence of the framing mechanism having been moved. But it is still very important that the intermittent is in a neutral position before you thread. To check for this, put your finger on the sprockets of the intermittent as you manually advance. Once you feel the intermittent make it's rotation, advance a tiny bit more (the intermittent should be still) and stop.

Failure to do this can not only cause frame mishaps (which are embarrassing!) but other issues:

• If the film is threaded while the intermittent is in the incorrect position and then re-adjusted as the film is running it can cause your top and bottom loops to become either too small or too large, increasing the chance that they will be hitting a hard surface within the projector, causing scratches. "Slap scratches" are often caused by this very thing.
• If the framing is adjusted while the film is running and the operator fails to reset it before the next reel, you may attempt to adjust the framing AGAIN and discover that you have reached the limits of the framing mechanism. I.e you adjust the framing all the way in one direction but the picture is still out of frame on screen, and you can move the framing mechanism no more. At this point the operator must stop the film, reset the framing mechanism to center, neutralize the geneva, re-thread, and start the film again. Not only is this bad showmanship, but stopping the film on picture can cause scratches.

Hard Matte and Open Matte Prints

See Aspect ratio for some examples of hard matted, or soft matte (sometimes referred to as full frame or open matte) prints.

Hard matted prints have black bars on the top and bottom of the frame. If you are projected a print like this and it comes up put of frame, you will likely see these bars on the screen, making it fairly easy to frame correctly so that they are no longer visible. Soft matte prints do not have these bars at all and the projectionist must frame correctly without them. Follow the guidelines above for framing correctly, but then also pay attention to the image on screen. Look for things like heads being cut off if the framing is too high, lots of space over someone's head or the appearance of boom mics if the framing is too low.