By Stacee
Amid a humming whir of machinery motors, Craig August slides confidently and comfortably from one area of the Capitol Theater’s projection booth to the next, adjusting this and checking that.
Craig, 37, is a student, DJ, all-around fix-it guy, and full-time dad. He’s volunteered his time to the Olympia Film Society (OFS) and its historic downtown movie house since moving to Olympia, from Portland, in 1996. He’s originally from New Hampshire. “I started [as a projectionist] in 2003, but before that, in the 90s, I was a ticket-taker.”
He’d heard that helpers got free film tickets. “So I was like, I’m going to volunteer at the Capitol Theater and get free movies.”
The Olympia Film Society has been bringing independent, alternative films – as well as live concerts and other community events – to Thurston County since 1980. Its mission is to enhance film appreciation and encourage the development of allied arts.
A small paid staff makes up OFS’s backbone, but its nearly 125 volunteers are integral to the nonprofit organization’s success.
“It’s a really cool privilege,” says Craig, of being an OFS volunteer. “And anyone can do it.”
In fact, with OFS’s biggest event of the year on the horizon – its 28th annual Olympia Film Festival, taking place November 11-20 – it’s a perfect time to sign on, when the need for volunteers is at its greatest.
Craig loves manning the projector at the Capitol Theater, even though he doesn’t do it as often as he might like these days.
“For years and years I was the Friday night guy, and I loved it,” he says. “Then my wife and I had a baby and I couldn’t dedicate my Friday nights here. But the whole time she was pregnant, we sat right here, every single Friday night, and watched every movie.”
These days Craig fills in for projection booth shifts as needed.
His love of film is mostly nostalgic. “I grew up in the 80’s and I love old technology. I’m a huge LP record fan; I love the sound and feeling of film.”
Craig also loves sci-fi and kung-fu movies, and believes that both genres are best experienced in an older space like the 1924 Capitol Theater.
According to Craig, it’s important that movie houses like the Capitol Theater keep playing 35mm films.
“You’d be surprised – or maybe not – how many people out there don’t even realize they still make records,” he says. “Do we want that to happen to film?”
“I think we really do justice to try to preserve 35mm film, because it’s just not happening anymore. Everything is going digital, almost like an On Demand sort of thing, or Netflix for movie theaters. It doesn’t look the same, it doesn’t have the same feeling.”
Craig believes that iPods and the Internet have removed the tactile, human aspects of music and film. “These things are so instant to today’s generation,” he says.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he continues. “I have an iPod and a computer and I’m always downloading stuff and watching movies on the Internet. But I also DJ a couple nights a month and project films here, so I don’t lose appreciation for the real deal.”
The process of projecting 35mm films at OFS has been streamlined a bit in recent years. Films arrive on 20-minute reels that are spliced together into one giant reel.
But back in the heyday of 35mm films, movies were shown reel-to-reel, with two projectors set up and the projectionist switching between reels every 20 minutes.
“When one reel got to the end, you’d feed the next one,” explains Craig.
He would watch for a little mark, usually a dot on the top right-hand corner of the film, and after it spun by on the reel – one, two, three times – he would make the move to the next reel.
“Now we just load it into one giant reel and flip the switch once.”
That’s not to say it’s a simple task, or that things don’t still sometimes go wrong.
“I think the hardest part about learning to project at the Capitol Theater was just learning how to be comfortable and stay calm,” says Craig. “In the first 30 seconds of show time there are literally one hundred things that could go wrong – and I’ve seen almost all of them.”
Films break, films burn, bulbs go out. Motors seize and stop, so that the film is running through, but just piling on the floor. Reels get spliced together out of order or fed upside down into the projector, resulting in a reverse image and no sound.
“We’ve really upgraded the equipment in the booth recently, so it is much more user friendly but, still, you never know when something may go awry. And then you may have a whole theater full of people to witness it.”
“I think half the battle is just knowing how to respond,” he says, offering his modus operandi: “Be cool.”
“I’ve gone out there before and been like, “Sorry! My fault!” Craig says in a friendly, sing-song voice. “You want to maintain professionalism but, I mean, what else can you do?”
Craig clicks off the already dim overhead lighting, leaving just one bulb glaring down onto the projector in the otherwise shadowy room. He then flips the switch and moves over to another window to peer down at the screen. He adjusts the focus slightly and tweaks the framing. Then he straightens up and makes for the projection booth door. “Time to go watch a movie.”
