YFN Stories: Florentina Faconti

With YFP Network Bursary funding, we got to take part in a Film Handling Workshop day at the Electric Palace. Going into this workshop, I had very little knowledge of what it took to get film from a reel onto the big screen. I have always had a big interest in movies but had never even held physical film in my hands before. The first time we were given some to handle was terrifying but by the end of the day it almost became second nature!

We spent our time exploring all different varieties of film and the different projectors needed to play each one. My personal favourite was the 35mm because you could see the picture clearly without a projector and it was so interesting to look at each frame individually, especially the ones that had colour added in after filming. It was also a lot of fun playing with the 8mm film too because you couldn’t see what you would be putting on the screen until you started to play it. The highlight of the workshop for me was getting to run a trailer on the 35mm projector.

I volunteer at the Electric Palace regularly and all we have to do to start the film is press a button, and even that can be nerve-wracking! Despite being there so much over the past year, I had never been up into the projection room before and it was fascinating seeing how the old projectors run. Now I know how long it takes to thread all the film through the projector and how much work it would take to run a whole feature, I’m very thankful all we have to deal with is one button!

If getting to play with it in the projectors wasn’t enough, we were even given a chance to cut film, which is exactly what it says on the tin. We were given a contraption that sliced the film in half and stuck it back together with tape. Even just doing a few cuts and repairs took a while so I can’t imagine how long it would have taken to cut together a whole feature.

If you’re a fan of cinema, I cannot recommend this workshop enough! I loved playing with all the different kinds of film and gadgets that David brought with him. The workshop was so practical and hands on that my arm was aching the next day from winding all the film reels! I learned so much from him in just those few hours but it was clearly just scratching the surface of his vast knowledge of motion picture film and cinema. I was eager to learn more so I even came back and assisted him in another workshop with children from a local primary school the following week. A very fun and educational day in a beautiful, historic venue!