Here’s a fun video called “Facts About Projection,” made several years ago by a 35mm film projectionist in London. He wrote, “This is a short film about my job as a Projectionist. I am quite proud of this film, mostly because I’m so proud of my job–it seems like a fulfillment of my childhood romantic notions of what I wanted to be when I grew up.”
Not that long ago, 35mm film could be played in almost any movie theater in the world. Since 2008, the 35mm film projectors have largely been replaced with digital projectors, and the 35mm format is rapidly becoming obsolete. The basic operation of digital cinema projectors is straightforward and can be performed by a theater’s managerial staff.
In the future, traditional projectionists will only be found in theaters that continue to show print films from archival collections, and so, sadly, they are a dying breed.
