‘The Greatest Showman’ bows out
Cinema manager Bruce Lea faced many changes over the years
In Part One last week, Bruce Lea announced his retirement as cinema manager and talked about the technology changes at the Regent Theatre in Pahiatua. Little did he or the cinema committee know just how fast cinema technology was advancing. In 2005 the Hollywood film boffins decided to change the 35mm film soundtrack system which meant the old 1935 projectors at the Regent couldn't adequately read the sound tracks of the 35mm film prints which had to be replaced necessitated .
“Then, in 2008,” Bruce said, “we were fortunate to obtain a grant of $100,000 from the Central Energy Trust which enabled us to completely refurbish the old projection room and replace the two 1935 carbon arc projectors with a modern oneprojector platter system, an E-cinema media player and a Dolby digital surround sound system.”
Now using their modern digital system, he would set up a programme for an upcoming movie, such as the latest Jame Bond, but it would be postponed by the distributors, due to Covid. This has meant it takes twice as long to do the programming and it's still happening.
Covid has affected the operation — with 100 seats, social distancing by one metre, only 21 single people could be fitted in. Groups allow an increase in this number.
“We rely on big fundraiser screenings for schools and organisations, where they buy out the whole show. Five of those have been cancelled due to Covid, since March last year.
“We had a wage subsidy of $11,000 last year. This has kept us going, along with a subsidy this year. The only reason the Regent has survived is that it became a community project. I couldn't have run it on my own — it's kudos to the volunteers who assist.
“We are faced with having to get our building up to earthquake resilience code in the future. I was getting older, the responsibility was getting too much for me, and I'm not able to work 40 to 50 hours per week any more — I have lost that youthful enthusiasm.
“I couldn't keep it up to the standard I wanted or expect volunteers to do that. ‘Maybe it's time for me to step aside and get new blood, new ideas,' I thought.
“I've had a passion and I could see it was good for the community. I want to see it keep going — it's been my ‘baby,'” he said.
The Regent Cinema is run by a committee comprising Eleanor Bridge (president), Nick Perry, Bruce Lea (manager/treasurer) Tara Olsen (secretary), Michelle Moynihan, Esther Sergeant and Shirley Carter.
“I think Bruce has been very special,” said Nick Perry. “I can't envisage keep
ing up with technological change like Bruce has, moving from 35mm films to the digital ‘monsters’ that are up in the cinema now, it’s been a continual hurdle, you’re always jumping over it to keep up with technology. I admire Bruce for that,” he said.
The committee is faced with a bill for $2000 each year to keep the digital system maintained.
“I make myself have a positive attitude,” said Bruce. “When you come up against a problem, my philosophy is to look at a problem and say ‘we need to have a whole different way of looking at it to keep going — to be proactive rather than take a reactive approach.’ That’s how I’ve survived, I had to because it was my livelihood.
“When I was really young, we had a neighbour who was interested in
photography. He would let me go into the bathroom when he was developing film, with curtains on the windows. I was just fascinated seeing him developing films.
“He had a friend who was a projectionist at the Regent, Ross Kenwood, who went on to become a famous cameraman for TV3. He had a little hand-wound projector with a Mickey Mouse cartoon in black and white he showed me.
“I was fascinated by it — it got me hooked. As children, we’d regularly go to the Saturday Matinee, when the very front seats were 9d, the back seats downstairs were one shilling, upstairs 1/6 and two shillings. We felt privileged because we could sit in the one shilling seats.
“In the early days, we were more interested in comedy shows such as Ma and Pa Kettle — we loved those — and cowboy films such as The Lone Ranger, which was in serials.
“The whole first half of the show was made up of shorts, newsreels, a couple of cartoons, a travelogue, and a comedy, such as Charlie Chaplin or Laurel and Hardy. then the next half of the show would be the main feature. The only visual news people got then (no television) was the weekly newsreels in the late 1950s.
“At the beginning of each film God Save the Queen was played and everyone would stand up. If you didn’t stand up, people would comment — you were considered unpatriotic.
“It used to fascinate me how the picture would get on the screen. You’d see the beam coming from the projector. In those days, you couldn’t smoke in the cinema, but you could in the foyer. The smoke would go up into the cinema, so you always saw the beam of light. You’d get to the end of a reel and you’d get this scratchy film, then it would become clear — that’s when they’d change over the reel.
“Then I’d see the light change from one portal to another. One cue mark came up then, when the second mark came up, it would be cut over as well as the sound.
“It was never done in the middle of a scene though.
“I always wanted to be a projectionist.”