- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

If you have ever been to our Galaxy Cinema, you've likely seen Jon Mulder, the General Manager, and if you are the observant type, you will have noticed his many movie-themed ties. He has hundreds of them.

When I asked for a photo for our story about the Galaxy's re-opening, this is the one Jon sent, and I asked about the tie. He replied that he'd had it custom made, and it’s a film strip leader countdown… “from back when we still had film.”

Of course it is! I just hadn't recognize it in colour! But now I wanted to know the answer to one of my life's great questions. Why did it never go down to 0?

As it happens, Jon could answer that question for me. “These are from the days when  film was on reels… when the projectionist had to do a reel change, he would try and sync the projectors for a seamless switch. So the last couple of seconds (the “1”) was black film (as was the tail of the previous reel) so both dowsers, controlling the light from the projectors, could be open at the same time so one reel would end , the other would start, and the audience would be none the wiser. Film used to be on 20 minute reels, and so change-overs happened every 20 minutes or so… do you ever remember seeing one as a kid?  Probably not… I had a projectionist once who said the best projectionist is the one the audience doesn’t know is there – I’ve always liked that!”

So that’s my answer!  Jon says he's been holding on to that one for about 35 years now.

And he added a bonus...

“The cue marks to let the projectionist know that the change was approaching were little green circles that flashed in the bottom corner of the screen… they are know as “cigarette burns”… really! If you look at DVDs of old movies, some times you can spot them.”

Ah… The things he learned in Projection School.