Pat Heigham

My Dad was a trained engineer (Thorneycroft) and never threw anything away ‘in case it comes in useful!’. But how may times do you have a clear out, then two days later realise that the very thing you need has gone!

Dad bought me a 16’ x 8’ shed for the garden that I made into a cinema, years before I entertained ideas of joining the Beeb, see pics, below:

I had always hankered after a Bell & Howell 16mm projector that came in a wooden case, but beyond my pocket money, so built an 8mm projector into a facsimile.

Also the ‘projection room’ was rigged as a darkroom for photo processing and a chap who lived up the road was in Film PR and gave me a load of posters for decoration. That was my first tape recorder, owned long before I joined the BBC and played with real ones! Then later in the film industry, acquiring the lovely Nagras.

Dad won [the shed] back when it was needed as a workshop to service our two Triumph Heralds, parked on the lawn outside. …

I’ve always been interested in the presentation of films.

I attended Ewell Technical College (now Nescot) which had a proper projection room on the floor above the main hall. Apart from running the free 16mm films from BP and other libraries, I instituted evening screenings of classic movies. We didn’t get enough support financially from the students to hire the prints, so opened up a membership to all the local residents – much leafletting ensued. The hall had a drop down roller screen behind the proscenium arch, but when we ran a foreign film with subtitles, the hall not having raked seating, meant that the back row couldn’t see the subtitles. So I managed to get the screen mounted higher up in front of the pros arch!

I think the Principal was impressed with me as he gave me a testimonial which got me into the BBC, before they saw my A Level results!

A West Country friend wanted a film show for his daughters, so I went the whole hog. First considered hiring a 35mm projector from Sammies, but too complicated, so eventually acquired a couple of 16mm Elf’s, hiring the prints from Filmbank, a library. Bought a nine foot folding screen from Harkness Hall which make the screens for all the cinemas inc IMAX. We got away with mounting outdoor screenings for six years, weather wise, but it blew over the first time I put up the screen. My friends’ daughters rushing in to announce the disaster.

Although I had twin projectors and was geared up for reel changeovers, my chum wanted a reel break to flog a few more glasses of wine/beer – proceeds for charity, and the punters got a supper, too!

The audio was via a Bose Acoustiwave, about £800 but I now only use it for my computer sound.

I got bored with the quality of 16mm optical sound, so switched to video projection off BluRay discs. The other pics are of the six foot screen, but for “Fiddler on the Roof” I managed to install the nine foot one.

My friend there has a hi-fi set in the right place, so audio is OK, via a SQN mixer for local control.

 

Mike Jordan

I was part of the team that ran the Film Projection Unit at school (back in the early 1960s)

One job was showing the Sunday evening films to the boarders in the school main hall.

There was a removable window in the side of the Geography Room (hence GR on the chair) and various types of speakers on the stage (until some idiot thought a clutch of warship type round cans spread along the walls would be better and which of course gave great echo but no directivity)

Our old 16mm Bell and Howell projector did great service, though once I had to carry it by rail and tube  all the way from Brentwood to be serviced in a place by Shepherds Bush Market.

The fairly regular broken film gave splicing experience and a quick sniff of the film cement!

I seem to remember the films arrived by post from somewhere in London and were collected from the Post Office in town.

I haven’t got a picture but we also had an old (wooden?) Epidiascope for showing 3 1/4” slides and served as an early overhead projector for paperwork.

 

Pat Heigham

Interesting that many subsequent BBC Tech-Ops types had similar interests!

The Tech College I mentioned earlier, boasted two BTH 301 projectors, so we could run feature films with changeovers.

One showing could have been  disaster, as the evening Spanish class needed one of the machines. So we went ahead with running a 3 hr show on a single projector. Prepared the end of the first reel ready to do a cement splice, and wound off the last 100 feet into a large cardboard box, with someone making sure that the film fed out properly. When we grabbed the end, smacked into the splicer, then wound back the remaining film onto the supply reel. As soon as the splice went through, it was broken away and the new spool mounted. All well, until it was discovered that there was a 180 degree twist, so more spooling off and twiddling of the new supply spool! The poor machine was pretty hot by the end, but I think we may have engineered a hair dryer blowing cold, aimed at the lamphouse! Did have a slide projector standing by with a prepared slide apologising for any breakdowns. Great fun! At the time, I was allowed to borrow a machine to take home and run a film show for my friends. Mum ironed a sheet which was pinned up in the lounge window, and I used black crepe paper for the edge maskings. When I left the College this was no longer possible, but I discovered that I could borrow from the Surrey Visual Aids dept. But I had to be certified!

This meant a couple of training sessions at Reigate, intended for teachers at the local schools to be competent to play with the kit. When the instructor discovered that I was BBC staff, I became a second instructor, since he realised I knew about it all. So I got my certificate, which I have to this day!

I had a lovely girlfriend at College, who wanted to join the Film Club, and proved faster and more deft than I was at setting up and running the projectors. Operating one of the feature shows, we were huddled together, peering through the projection port, when her long auburn hair got caught up in the turns of the take-up spool!

Can’t remember how we sorted that one!