Projecting

Projectionists are a funny bunch.

They choose a career that basically involves being locked in a room surrounded by large machinery that makes a hell of a racket and don't really talk to other people much. A lot of projectionists are essentially vampires who emerge from their projection boxes once in a while to go on the hunt for trailers or unfortunate films that have escaped their clutches.

You get tall ones, short ones, thin ones and fat ones, just like real people. You also get lunatics, weirdos, freaks, deviants and psychos again just like real people. Even though they spend a lot of their time away from natural light, they do have human emotions and can be offended or upset if you don't treat them just right or if you inadvertantly give them paperwork to complete. Paperwork causes them to almost break down in tears because it doesn't involve pressing buttons or taking a machine to pieces and putting it back together again.

My Chief Projectionist is a very likeable chap. Having come from Brazil orginally and being built like a brick shit house doesn't hurt his people skills either. He still has scars on his forearms from his time as a bouncer back home but really knows his stuff when it comes to running a tight ship projection wise. Kind of like Lenny with brains. This helps the Chief when dealing with the vampires that work for him as although I'm sure they would like nothing more than to suck his blood dry, they wouldn't ever try to fuck him up as he could probably lift them up with one finger and take a Projector to their head with the other hand. I should hang a sign on the outside of the cinema saying 'Beware: This building is protected by an anti theft device who will flatten you if I let him off the leash'.

The irony of the situation is that the brick shit house slab of muscle who terrifies his Technicians and commands a 'respect me or else' attitude from everyone who meets him, is a holy man. He is a Christian Pastor who preaches peace and good will every Sunday lunchtime at his local church. Not everyone knows this and I do not volunteer this information to the people that meet him as it kind of takes away his 'hard bastard' mystique.

I'll spend more time on projectionists later, but for now I have a film that needs liberating from it's prison in the Post Office and I know just the giant available to help me intimidate the guy behind the counter...