I work in an IMAX projection booth in a Big mega-plex.

The overall view, projectors running. The film in transit is a barely visible strip in font of the door in the background.



A closer view of the running units. Each one cost over a million apiece, the big hoses are for cooling the 8000 watt lamp.



The QT Reel Unit where the prints live. This 90 minute Xmas film pays out from the middle and wraps around a hollow core. For Avatar the film will go all the way to the edge of these 180cm platters! The prints weigh 3-400 pounds and can cost over 100K.



Control station. Nearly all my WW sets were made right here, lots of sketching and grunt work cutting...



The mighty audio panel. Left to right:

35mm CP200, DTAC hard disk, accessory panel, 11,800 watts of amplification going into 42 speakers, pre-show effects panels.



The mighty screen, it's 16X21 meters and weights almost 1000Lbs by itself This was shot from the viewport, you can see some of the 252 seats.



What they look like opened up and unloaded. Film moves horizontally, around the big rotor. Polarizers are visible on front of the lenses.



Getting the film ready for another run, brain in hand.



Thread 'em up!



Goodbye from sunny, sunny Edmonton!!

That was Very COOL! Very educational. Thanks Paul.

And love the snow pic, complete with Starbucks on the Corner!

That was very cool... except for the last one, that was just plain cold-looking.

Thanks for the look behind the scenes!

The weathah don't look so bad to me.

The Auld Grump, disappointed with the wintah so fah, heah in sunny, sunny Maine, ayuh.

Cool! How do you get the film prints into the projection booth?

So how long you been working as a projectionist? Knew a projectionist when I was younger who let me work with him a few times. Kinda showed me the ropes, course, when I first met him, they were still using carbon arcs for the light!

He let me start one of the projectors up by lighting the arc. I was considering becoming a projectionist, but he talked me out of it because there weren't a lot of jobs for it in my area.

Anyway, thanks for the picts of the booth!

The film frames are side by side instead of stacked vertically:

Oooooh...cool! Thanks, Paul.