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Projecting all the right images

Posted on | June 18, 2009 | 1,169 views |

By Julia Harris

Ever wonder what’s behind those big glass windows at the back of the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Theater?

Well, a lot.

First, of course, there’s the two enormous projectors, which look nothing like the creaky film projectors most of us are used to from elementary school — and they cost a lot more too.

Then there’s the stacks and piles of film reels, some empty but most filled to one degree or another with film of different widths and sizes. And at the far end of the booth is a bank of media players that can handle just about any type of video.

It’s an intimidating place for most people, particularly people who still can’t figure out how to program their own DVD players. But for Bruce Bartoo, projectionist and de facto theater manager at the Wex, it’s as familiar as a garage workshop.

“I’ve been working in and around theaters for 35 years,” said Bartoo, smiling crookedly. “I went to film school in Boston, worked in a bunch of small arthouse theaters to pay my way and found that I could make the most money as a projectionist.”

Incongruously outfitted in a cable-knit sweater and walking shorts on an 80-degree day, Bartoo is a wiry and softspoken man filled with restless energy. Just months shy of his 60th birthday, he nonetheless handles the physical part of his job — loading and unloading and shuffling around full reels of film is not for the faint of heart — with relative ease.

Part of his stamina comes from his long tenure as organizer of annual science fiction marathons and horror movie fests, something he has done since 1977.

In fact he’s been so consistent he almost got in serious trouble. “The year I met my wife, her birthday fell right at the beginning of the sci-fi marathon,” he said. “I’m still trying to make it up to her.”

Over his long career, Bartoo has had occasion to work with all types of film, from 16mm to 35mm to 70mm and now digital. At the Wexner Center, where Bartoo has been working his cinematic magic since the mid 1990s, that experience comes in handy.

“We’re about the only theater left that can project all the different types of film,” he said. “At the modern theaters nowadays, the whole film comes on one big platter: You load it up, push a button and walk away. We’ve got a lot of experimental films in the archives and a lot of that’s done only in 16mm.”

As to the current trend toward digital cinema, Bartoo says the jury is still out. “I’ve heard of a multiplex that went digital but is putting their projectors back in because they’re not happy with the performance,” he said. “If something goes wrong with the digital, there’s pretty much nothing you can do but give people their money back and send them home. With film, you can often fix it, and projectors only go down once in a blue moon.”

If Bartoo sounds a bit partial to the medium of film, it’s because he is. For the past 17 years, he’s not just been projecting films, he’s been collecting them.

Many of the reels stacked up on the shelves of the Wex’s projection booth are his, just some of what he estimates to be thousands of movie trailers he’s accumulated over those years.

“These are the previews you watch before a feature,” he explained. “Theaters basically throw them away when they’re done showing the film. You can get them through eBay and certain other places. Some people go scavenging through the trash to find them. I don’t, but I know people who do.”

He’s hesitant to put a monetary value on his collection, though he says there are many rare and seldom-seen bits of footage, some from the 1950s and ’60s.

His personal favorite is from a 1960s movie called Common Law Wife. “It’s a guy in a motel room talking directly to the camera about who should and should not see this movie,” he said. “It’s a real hoot.”

Summer screening at the Wex

Now in its fourth year, the Wex Drive-In series is set to offer free outdoor showings of The Wolf Man (June 18), American Graffiti (July 23) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Aug. 20).

Movies are shown on the Wexner Center Plaza and viewers are encouraged to bring blankets or lawn chairs and to take advantage of snacks and drinks from a cash bar. Refreshments are served starting at 8 p.m. and the films begin at dusk, which is about 9 p.m.

Another film series will run this summer titled “Soundtrack Available.” Projectionist Bruce Bartoo describes the series as comprising “films in which the soundtrack is almost a character in the film, something that became so important to the subject of the film that it’s impossible to imagine it without that.”

The series kicks off with a double feature July 2 (Mean Streets and Saturday Night Fever) and concludes Aug. 20 with Easy Rider.

For dates, times, movie titles and ticket prices for both series, see the Wexner Center’s Web site, wexarts.org.

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