IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

I've had my Elmo GS1200 for some time now and have for as long been aware
that it is possible to sync the playback from videos or DVDs to the film
but I have never known how to do this. So getting up off my lazy bum, could
one of you guys tell me how.

"Cinema For Thurso Group" <forums@theiac.org.uk> wrote:

I've had my Elmo GS1200 for some time now and have for as long been aware
that it is possible to sync the playback from videos or DVDs to the film
but I have never known how to do this. So getting up off my lazy bum, could
one of you guys tell me how.

Um, can you be a bit more explicit?

Do you want to set the projector so that you can shoot video from the
screen with minumum flicker?

Do you want to match the projector speed to playback from a video
source ... and why?!

Many super-8mm projectors had ways of adjusting their speed to
match some external source ... my favourite was an early Elmo system
where a reel-to-reel tape-recorder was linked via a system of rollers
and levers to the projector motor. The soundtrack determined the speed
at which the film was shown. Maintaining close sync was possible but
often meant adjusting the distance between projector and tape-recorder
during the show. We would edge the tape-recorder gradually back along
the projection table ... potential disaster always just around the
corner.

Dave

Oh I thought this was going to be kinda obvious but more fool me! I want to
run the video or DVD in sync with super 8 so that the higher quality stereo
on the video can be played as the sound accompanying the super 8 print. I've
heard of this being done with "A Bugs Life" on DVD using it's digital soundtrack
to work with the Super 8 version.
I have "Return Of The Jedi" on super 8 and VHS hifi stereo as identical
versions. The super 8 sound is mono and unbelievably bassy as Gone With The
Wind is toppy. The stereo sound on my super 8 Star Wars isn't to hot either
and I'm about to buy Empire Strikes Back which also has a mono soundtrack.
So how do you link the video sound to run in sync with super 8 film thru
the Elmo GS1200? (I have the relevent pulse unit from cresta)I'm guessing
there is a pulse on the video or DVD (which is just audable on VHS tapes)
and that it must be possible to isolate the pulse thru the scart socket to
feed it to the projector. But is this the case, how is it done?

match some external source ... my favourite was an early Elmo system
where a reel-to-reel tape-recorder was linked via a system of rollers
and levers to the projector motor. The soundtrack determined the speed
at which the film was shown. Maintaining close sync was possible but
often meant adjusting the distance between projector and tape-recorder
during the show. We would edge the tape-recorder gradually back along
the projection table ... potential disaster always just around the
corner.
That's an interesting technique and if Thomas Edison had thought similarly

to connect the Phonograph mechanically to the projector with his talkies
in 1904 who knows where sound film would be today.
This also reminds me of our old Picture House Cinema where carbon rods were
used right up until it closed in 1983. The Vulcan DL arc units could be set
to adjust automatically the distance between the rods but that part of the
system was long out of use by 83 so it was done by hand. One wrong twitch
and blackness. Remarkably I've never known it to happen.

You must be dedicated to cine !!! But if you accept the inferior
image of super-8 why worry about the inferior sound? You would get
better picture and soundtrack from the dvd versions. Is that beam
of light and the clatter of the mechanism really so vital?

Obviously it is to you. I wish I knew enough about the GS1200 to be
able to advise how to achieve the link. Can anyone help?

I HAVE heard this done in a very small way ... I introduced a 16mm
screening of 'Thelma and Louise' ... when it reached the final sequence
and credits the music suddenly became stereo and much richer ... the
projectionist switched to playing a CD of the theme. But that did not
need sync.

As for the old carbon arc lamps - their secondary uses included lighting
the operator's cigarettes and cooking meat pies in the lamp house. The
long feature films caused some anxiety as operators tried to keep arcs lit
while also economising on the rods which became harder to get and more
expensive.

At least when the arc died it could be re-started fairly quickly. With
glass lamp systems everyone has to wait 20 to 30 minutes before moving
the old but hot lamp before plugging in a new one. I first was aware of
that problem when the lamp went in a commercial screening of the spoof
disaster movie 'The Big Bus' !!!

Dave

What is this bitter attack on super 8. Time you had a good look at professional
movie production and realised that the super 8 format is alive and kicking
back with companies like Pro8mm tearing strips of the old image of shakey
badly exposed super 8. The commercials in your local multiplex will comprise
adverts made on video transfered to film and adverts filmed on super 8 transfered
to 35mm. Those of us who might be picky about quality will notice the super
8 image is beating the video one hands down. I recall a professional director
taking about sections of "Black Rain" (Michael Douglas movie) which had been
filmed on super 8. He said that super 8 has enough quality that the viewer
wouldn't know is it was shot on super 8 or 35mm. I watched the film on video
some years ago and I couldn't see any difference.

You must be dedicated to cine !!! But if you accept the inferior
image of super-8 why worry about the inferior sound? You would get
better picture and soundtrack from the dvd versions. Is that beam
of light and the clatter of the mechanism really so vital?
There is a clear lack of understanding of human interest here. I don't question

my brother as to why he likes to periodically rebuild his Ford Anglia, it's
what he does and no bad thing at that.
Projectionists usually have a wee room to themselves or at least find a
position away from the audience. The noise of machinery is not the point
of projection film.
Super 8 is very much down to abilty of equipment and user and the combination
of the two but that also applies to video or any other hobby or profession.
Have you ever stripped a car? There isn't much to a car and nothing of any
quality in it except the engine but only perhaps. There is nothing inferior
about film quality and that's why video systems have been following film
bench marks all these years.

As for the old carbon arc lamps - their secondary uses included lighting
the operator's cigarettes and cooking meat pies in the lamp house. The

long feature films caused some anxiety as operators tried to keep arcs
lit
while also economising on the rods which became harder to get and more
expensive.

Well a projectionist has got to live as well you know!