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Has anyone ever fallen asleep during a feature only to awaken to the sound of film flapping on the take up reel and a stark prison break light in your face?

I have. It was late and I was alone.

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Virtually a whole room full of us did!
It was on a very hot summers day in 1972. I was in the final year of an electrical apprenticeship with the National Coal Board. As part of our training we had to spend 5 weeks every year at an engineering training centre where on occasion we were required to watch 16mm films related to the industry.

On this particularly hot day we returned to the classroom after a very good lunch to find the blackouts in place and a film already laced up in the trusty B&H. The 20 minute b/w 'epic' was about productivity and consisted of the then NCB chairman framed in a head and shoulders shot talking directly to the camera. Within minutes I was asleep.

I, and several others woke to a brilliant white screen and the sound of the film tail flapping about - even the instructor had fallen asleep Needless to say we didn't learn much that day.
I have since acquired over the years about 90 reels of these films, some of which are quite graphic when depicting accidents and bad practices, they were meant to scare us.

Mal brake wrote.....



If you set the projector on a timer, say 22 minutes, these would be perfect for sleepless nights.

Mal, that is one very funny story. It would make a great scene in movie! There's something Dali about my last line.

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I don't imagine it counts but over Christmas I showed Lethal Weapon and my best friend passed out from a few too many festive beers. When she woke the film was over and her BF and I were loading her into his truck while she was demanding to be taken upstairs for bedtime. I live in a single floor home. I guess it was better than last year when her sister rode me down her basement steps piggyback before passing out in the Christmas tree box. Yeeesh my friends.

Lately I've been digging into my silents because there's some really good film (...and some of them are my own films) in there that I neglect because of the lack of a soundtrack.

-but I find as I get later in the evening it's better to stay with sound because with a silent the low, rhythmic sound of the projector without other sounds in the....room....tends....to.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

You know, it just dawned on me. This might not bring many new collectors into the hobby. I mean, falling asleep and all doesn't sound like an exiting hobby. Let me say that 99.99% of my screenings are with a group enjoying the classic media. Not a drooping lid in the bunch.

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Erik, I definitely want to be invited to some of your Christmas screenings! Sounds like my kind of film show. I had my own experience many moons ago. The mailman brought me my latest Super 8 Sound acquisition: the full length 15 Chapter BATMAN AND ROBIN 263 minute Columbia serial from 1949. That night I put the Elmo on the dining room table, the tripod screen in the living room and threaded it up. My kids were very young and lost interest during the first chapter. My wife wanted no parts of it. Well, I was determined to see my way through the entire serial and was enjoying the night one beer and one chapter at a time. It was a cool film--Batman cruised around town in a '49 Mercury convertible, and it kind of kept my interest, but there wasn't a whole lot of plot, and it was actually getting tedious, watching it all at once and when I put chapter 8 or 9 on...hey, I'll just sit here and rest my eyes a moment while the opening credits are rolling...I woke about 2 hours later.

Sometimes I decide to watch just one more short before I hit the sack and the film flapping on the take up reel always wakes me up!

Bill

Hahaha. You are always welcome Chris although all of our parties don't always happen here. Personally I've never fallen asleep during any screening usually because I am the one showing films. Not only did I do projection at the 8-screen theater here in town during the holidays but for about a year I managed the oldest theater in town. Even though the Simplex machines in that place were installed in 1936 we still had full Dolby Digital on both screens It wasn't a good idea to fall asleep during showings. Since that theater closed down I've kept the minset to watch my machines when I had an audience. Not that I haven't enjoyed a few films with double screens.

Can you image? You're watching a mint Derann print and you doze off only to awaken to a tangled mess spilling out onto the floor where your cats are encircled ready for fun. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

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