Spencer Christiano is Senior Projectionist at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, where he is responsible for all technical and projection aspects of the 966-seat David Geffen Theater and the 283-seat Ted Mann Theater. He is a co-editor and co-author of The Art of Film Projection: A Beginner’s Guide (2019), a comprehensive outline of the materials, equipment, and knowledge needed to present the magic of cinema to an audience. He has taught the techniques of film inspection and projection at the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, the National Film Archive of India, the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, and the University of Rochester. His work as a playwright includes Endangered Features (2016), a one-person show about the world of film archiving, film projection as a technical art, and the evolution of cinema exhibition from its analog roots to cutting-edge digital.
Originally from Rochester, New York, Spencer was Chief Projectionist of the Moving Image Department at the George Eastman Museum for 6 years, where he supervised projection operations in two archival exhibition spaces; and was Technical Manager of the Cinema Theater for 9 years. He has coordinated technical operations for film festivals including The Nitrate Picture Show (2015-2019), the Domitor Conference of Early Cinema (2018), the Rochester Jewish Film Festival (2014-2019), the ImageOut LGBT Film Festival (2014-2019), the Fast Forward Film Festival (2015-2018, served on jury in 2018), and the Rochester International Film Festival (2014-2019). He is a proud member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists and of IATSE Local 695.
The history of cinema is full of love stories, but none has been as essential as the love between projectionists and their machines. The Art of Film Projection: A Beginner’s Guide is a comprehensive outline of the materials, equipment and knowledge needed to present the magic of cinema to an audience.
Part manual and part manifesto, The Art of Film Projection compiles more than fifty years of expertise from the staff of the world-renowned George Eastman Museum and the students of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation into the most authoritative and accessible guide to film projection ever produced. The product of more than ten years of painstaking work by renowned film preservation specialists, and featuring a foreword by Tacita Dean and Christopher Nolan, this volume addresses a changing film landscape.
No film comes to life until it is shown on the big screen, but with the proliferation of digital movie theaters, the expertise of film projection has become rare. Written for both the casual enthusiast and the professional projectionist in training, this book demystifies the process of film projection and offers an in-depth understanding of the aesthetic, technical, and historical features of motion pictures.
Join in the fight to save the experience of seeing motion pictures on film.
Spencer Christiano is a published playwright, poet, journalist, and writer of short fiction in Los Angeles, California. Originally from Rochester, NY, his plays have been produced at the MuCCC Theater, Geva Theatre’s Fielding Stage, Writers and Books, and the University of Rochester’s Todd Theater. He was the New Play Facilitator and an Artist in Residence at the MuCCC Theater in Rochester, and he is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
His body of theatrical work includes The Rochester Plays – Part One: Attraction / Part Two: Escape, a low-income love story involving a convicted sex offender moving into an urban residential neighborhood. The Rochester Plays were produced and published by the University of Rochester International Theater Program in February 2013. He is the only Rochester-area playwright ever to be produced and published by the University.
His other works include Cow Town, a small-town drama about the attraction and dangers of drug use, exploitative relationships, fast love, post-college disillusionment, and the subtleties of sexual consent; Endangered Features, the coming-of-age story of an accidental film archivist; To My Friends: The Life and Death of George Eastman, a supernatural play about the Kodak founder, visited by spirits from his past and future on the morning of his suicide; M.I.A., an award-winning one-person show telling the story of the playwright’s great uncle, Lt. Col. Joseph Christiano, who was missing in action from Vietnam for 46 years after the plane he was navigating was shot down on Christmas Eve, 1965; WAR TERRIER, a jingoistic fantasy about a canine soldier teaming up with Uncle Sam during WWII to fight the Nazis; and Rebound, a dark sex comedy about the relationships between relationships.
He is also a director, actor, lighting/sound/set designer, technician, and producer. He frequently collaborates with other artists and companies, and has worked on nearly two hundred (often new) plays, performance art pieces, experimental works, dance programs, concerts, improv shows, and mixed media productions.
A low-income love story about the birth and decay of trust, questionable parenting techniques, and unforgivable neighbors. Set in Upstate New York, the two-part cycle explores the effects of a sex offender moving into a working class neighborhood, the mechanics of fast love, and the torment of friendship.
A small-town drama about the attraction and dangers of exploitative relationships, fast love, post-college disillusionment, and the subtleties of sexual consent.
The coming-of-age story of an accidental archivist. This true story chronicles one projectionist’s journey from falling in love with escapist cinema as a young boy, to growing up working in a charmingly scrappy neighborhood movie theater, to preserving cinema at one of the world’s top film archives, and traveling to India to teach a new generation of preservationists skills to prevent their cultural history from fading into oblivion. This one-person play invites you to explore the secret world of the projection booth, and shows what lies behind the glass port. This intimate, intriguing, and enchanting play exposes film exhibition as a technical art, reveals the hidden evolution of cinema from its analog roots to cutting-edge digital, and commemorates what we have lost— and what is still at risk.
The true story of Lt. Col. Joseph Christiano, who was missing in action for 46 years after his gunship was shot down over Laos during the Vietnam War on Christmas Eve, 1965. This one-person play honors a man who sacrificed everything for his country; a family that, together, overcame an unimaginable loss; and the hardships of veterans everywhere. Proceeds and royalties benefit Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 20; nearly $800 raised so far.
A supernatural play about George Eastman, the legendary businessman and philanthropist of Kodak fame, on the afternoon of his suicide. This historical fiction, in true Dickensian form, has Eastman visited by spirits from his life and beyond: Reverend Hannibal Goodwin, the chemist who first patented the nitrocellulose rollfilm for which Kodak became known; Henry Reichenbach, the Kodak chemist whom Eastman fired after he learned of Henry’s plans for mutiny; George Dickman, the head of Kodak’s London operation and one of Eastman’s closest friends; and Steve Jobs, the former co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple.
An action-packed exploration of World War II-era disillusionment. After discovering that the crumbling Nazi regime has developed an ultimate weapon that threatens to decimate Washington, Henry (the WAR TERRIER), a grizzled veteran betrayed by his country, must overcome his dwindling patriotism to team up with his past rival, Uncle Sam, and save The Greatest Country in the World.
A dark sex comedy about the relationships between relationships. Rebound follows late-twenty-somethings Zoe and Caleb after a particularly nasty breakup as they search for companionship and intimacy while trudging through the ashes of their relationship and navigating the absurdities of 21st century dating.
Portrait of Jennie is, ostensibly, an average film. It’s another Jennifer Jones–starring David O. Selznick production. For most of its running time, it is an eerie and unusual love story typical of the chances filmmakers were taking in 1940s black-and-white cinema. But in the last reel, it passes through three color processes (two of which were obsolete) and a change in aspect ratio that was unheard of at the time.
Through this webinar, Curator of Film Exhibitions Jared Case, Preservation Manager Anthony L’Abbate, and Chief Projectionist Spencer Christiano will talk about the film, its technical peculiarities, how they fit in with cinema history, and how those aspects are re-created in a modern cinema. Christiano will stream live from the Dryden Theatre projection booth to demonstrate the techniques used to exhibit the film in a manner consistent with the filmmaker’s artistic vision. With no Nitrate Picture Show this year, tune in and enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at what might have been—and will be again!
Part discussion, part demonstration, this panel will explore film projection and its importance as part of our cultural heritage along with methods being used to ensure its preservation. There will be a projection demonstration, followed by individual presentations and a panel discussion centered around film projection’s cultural importance and supporting community. Discussion points will include history of projectionists, human components of projection, documenting practices, and the importance of film projection as cultural heritage. This panel asserts that preserving the practice of film projection is integral to the broader mission of preserving moving image media.
We notice the projectionist, as we notice projection itself, only when there is a technical problem. We are impatient with the projectionist to fix it, so we can resume being enthralled by the image. “Projection Instructions” consists only of a succession of written cards that are simultaneously read by the narrator. This text, written and spoken, is a set of instructions to the projectionist to manipulate the controls of the projector. Under ordinary circumstances this would be an egregious disruption of the film, but in this case only by doing so is the projectionist projecting the film correctly. ‘Normal’ projection would be a failed performance, as the audience can gather from the note addressed to the projectionist that begins the film. The note informs the projectionist that to project the film correctly he or she must follow the instructions that the film consists of. The film requires the projectionist to watch the film while projecting it, which ordinarily he or she seldom does, and to respond continuously to its demands. The disruptive acts that the projectionist must commit call attention to the machine that he or she controls, just as they also call attention to the projectionist. What the audience sees and hears is the interaction between the film’s image and sound, which together are a score, and the projectionist who performs it. The film is a performance work in which the score is visible while the performer is not. And the score, unlike most, changes in response to the performer’s performance of it.
“Projection Instructions” resembles ordinary movies in that it has a star; that star is the projectionist.
— Morgan Fisher
Following a presentation of Projection Instructions (Morgan Fisher, US 1976, 16mm, 4 min.), Spencer Christiano will provide an overview of the work that goes into film projection, a practice which is essential to the exhibition of motion pictures yet, as Morgan Fisher notes, largely invisible. His talk coincides with the release of The Art of Film Projection: A Beginner’s Guide.
Beyond detailing the technical aspects of projection, the guide also advances an argument for the projectionist’s curatorial function. The care which should be put into the task is one of the most vital stages of film preservation; exhibited under the proper conditions, a print can survive unblemished after decades of screenings. Since the production of new prints is becoming more difficult with each passing year due to rising lab costs, the discontinuation of film stocks, and the challenges of obtaining quality negatives, the future of seeing films in their original format depends, in no small part, on the person who changes the reels, the star of our program.
