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By Fran

18 thoughts on “Time out at the av club”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars David Edgar says:

    I've transferred film to digital. It's very time consuming. Just to make a film ready can require hours of time cleaning, fixing, and " lubricating" the film. I love these old documentaries, they are very informative.

    Make sure to use a well ventilated area especially with old kodachrome. If that film wasn't processed properly, there can be some very toxic residues that can vapor off. Projectors with high temp. light sources can accelerate the process.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Dr. Detroit says:

    Another one with some memories triggered. I was on the AV staff in my Jr. High School, in the late 60's. Meet at the AV room at my appointed class hour. Put on my AV Staff badge, roll the big projector on a cart down the hall to the classroom scheduled. Unpack and set up the projector, I think it was a blue cased Bell and Howell, and mount and thread the film. Teacher, after some introduction, pulls down the screen above the blackboard. Lights go out, start the projector. Correct the occasional loss of sync. Film ends, lights go on, screen goes up, rewind film. Take down the film and pack up projector, roll it back to the AV room. Prepare to go to my next class. One of the things I can say I did.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars tadonplane says:

    I loved seeing films in elementary school so much that I joined AV club in HS. We had a dedicated auditorium with a projection booth that contained a 16mm RCA Porto-arc projector. It had to be hand threaded, the transport was separate from the lamp house which contained a carbon arc rod lamp that had to be struck to get it started. In the base of the stand that the projector was mounted on was a transformer similar to a small arc welder. Once the arc was started a clockwork mechanism fed the rods together as they burned away. A prism and filter on the lamp house produced an image of the arc so that the projectionist could set the proper gap between the rods and monitor whether the clockwork was running correctly. I loved running films on this machine and got really reliable at it. It produced a big bold bright steady picture, as long as the projectionist did everything correctly, sometimes with the whole student body in attendance ready to watch the film.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars A Hall says:

    Great film series Fran…the one on manufacturing vaccum tubes by hand, I have not seen before…and the women (& men too) doing this in their good clothes, wearing jewellery, etc is typical…thanks

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ichi-go Ichi says:

    Movies have been a great reminder of what we were shown as youngsters. I would love to find one of the films that during the mid sixties all students were shown about drugs, ie weed,heroin and pills. I always wondered if this actually seeded the drug usage of America that proceeded. I always wondered if my gen would have been aware so early in life and so many experimented if never given the visuals. I am sure it would have existed but not at the magnitude that proceeded. Thanks for being you!๐Ÿ’•

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Franko Walker says:

    I'm loving these films. At school in the early 80's our sex education was a 20 minute film, all about flowers being pollinated. As a teenager, it could'nt have been more boring. LOL.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Leptoquark says:

    Iโ€™m really enjoying these films. You must have time traveled to my elementary school and raided the AV closet. You are absolutely right that getting a movie was a real highlight in school.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Winston Smith says:

    Our middle school rocket club which I and a friend established took advantage of free 16mm films from Thiokol Chemical Corp. about their solid propellant rocket motor development and after school hours used the school's AV room to project them since we were also AV volunteers. Thiokol would send the films in armored containers with an address and postage card in its holder/window. It would be reversed to send it back marked postpaid. What a deal.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Craig Pennington says:

    That's a lot of work Fran. Sorry to hear about your van driver loss in the accident. My condolences. You tube has now been censoring some of my comments and edits of. Best wishes in getting your stuff published. It's a very messed up America now that is going NOWHERE FAST.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Abihef says:

    That's a shame, based on the title, I'm loving this so so much.
    And I was wanting to ask if I could use some of the sound to make music with an these videos contain the best voices, recordings and subjects. I love them and I would love to use them in some tunes.
    Anyway, gonna miss it very much and sadly I have missed living in the seventies and eighties but still having the TV roll in and playing some science in elementary was the best.
    Shame it wasn't as extensive as these wonders though.

    Also the best of luck and best wishes and everything during the moving and forthcoming times.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ian Carroll says:

    Hi Fran, thanks for all you effort putting these reels up on YouTube, they are fascinating. I can totally relate to the feeling when you would go to class and see the projector setup and ready to go, even in Ireland where i attended school and seen many of the of these types of films, the excitement of projector day was great.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars E2qNX8btraQ3zRD6J7fc says:

    so true; when the projector was in the classroom, you knew it was going to be a good day. Sometimes it would be a filmstrip and I'd love to be the kid to turn the film and frame it when the soundtrack played the tone. Do we remember filmstrips?

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Glenn Stasse says:

    In school in the 60s we had the AV Club the members of which would set up and run projectors for these movies. Now an again someone would not notice the take up reel not spooling in the film and the whole thing would end up on the floor.

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Acme Racing says:

    I liked the Smithsonian films when I was in school in the 70s. It's still owned by Disney, but they used to show us Donald in Mathmagic Land on the last day before Christmas vacation, when we were too excited for a traditional lecture anyway. I'm also the right age to remember the excitement of seeing the projector, and building Heath and Eico kits.

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Brian Hutton says:

    Fran, I understand my opinion or input means anything at all to you. However, can I just thank you for all your videos. You are such a beautiful corner of truth and wonder in this hollow, vacuous medium. I genuinely appreciate you and your energies. โค๏ธ

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jeff Knapp says:

    For me, it was always the science films from the NASA Aims Research Center. I was the school nerd/geek and was the one in charge of all things A/V in high school. That included running all of the 16mm films. For two years, Jr. High and High Schools was at a boarding school and every Friday night, we had movie night. We had a small group of us who chose all of the movies we saw and I was the one who always ran them. If it was a film I particularly enjoyed, my roommate and I would get to take the projector and that week's movie and run it again in our dorm room. It was great. It was our own, private screening. Because our room was smaller, therefore, the throw was shorter, we got a much clearer, brighter image. The main thing I always hated though was how they pan 'n' scanned those films to fit the 4×3 aspect ratio of TV (these were the same prints that would be rented to local TV stations for broadcast). Once in a great while, we would receive a print that was actually letterboxed so we could see the whole width of the original image as it was originally shot and meant to be seen in the theater. This was all in the 1970s.

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Paul Sirens says:

    Lost a few friends and an ex lover this last year, getting older certainly don't help.
    Approaching retirement age now, its like I'm getting afraid to stick my head above the parapet.
    In the mean time Fran thanks for the uploads ๐Ÿ˜‰

  18. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars DandyDon says:

    I have three 16mm projectors, (Bell and Howell 385, Bell and Howell 550 Specialist, and a Kodak Pageant AV-126-TR), and I'll bet none of them are in a condition as nice as your Eiki. I remember my AV/TV Repair teacher told me Bell and Howell projectors are hard on film. I believe he was right!

    If you are not using a Telesync, and instead a camera standing behind a semi-translucent screen, how do you flip the image to make it correct again? With your video editing software?

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