My Weekend Education
When I went to college, I was craving knowledge: cinematic knowledge! While I was well-versed in the Spielberg-Lucas oeuvre and the cheap slasher-flick canon, I was really a cinematic novice. My thirst for a wider experience was partially instigated by an issue of Premiere magazine I bought in 1989 or 1990 (the magazine was relatively new then). The issue was devoted to the top 100 films of all time, and I realized that while many of the titles sounded familiar, I hadn't actually seen very many of them. The write-ups for each one piqued my interest. They were brief and avoided boring summary. Things like "Dr. Strangelove: Stanley Kubrick has been ensconced in his English house for so many years it's easy to forget what a firm grasp he had on the American psyche when he made this black comedy." Kudos to that writer, since I still remember the gist of his words over twenty years later.
My first semester at UF, high school buddy Burton Meahl was my dorm roommate but spent most of his weekends back in Inverness, Steve had moved back to Scotland, Dominick was mostly working at Red Lobster in Ocala and still living at home (I think), and Damian was at UCF in Orlando. Since UF was so big, and I've never been that adept on the social scene, I spent many weekends alone in my dorm room. So one of the first things I did was buy a VCR.
In 1990, Gainesville had a music and movie store called Spec's that rented VHS tapes. They had a large "classics" section. Having whole weekends to watch whatever I wanted, with no one else's tastes or opinions to consider in the selection of movies, allowed me to stock up on films that would, to most 18-year-olds, seem like lame, boring choices. I spent many weekends ensconced (like Kubrick in his English house) in my dark dorm room, watching Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Chinatown, Dr. Strangelove, The Birds, Raging Bull, Touch of Evil, Rope,... pretty much every Kubrick, Hitchcock, and Scorsese movie I could get my hands on. Instead of going to Gator football games on Saturdays, I was eating corn flakes with George Roy Hill and tuna melts with Orson Welles. It was bliss.
I'll always have fond memories of those weekends alone in the dorm room, watching so many great films for the first time. That was as much a part of my education as the classes that I went to during the week.
By the time Spring semester came around, three things happened that changed my weekend habits. First, Dom moved to Gainesville, as did Burt's girlfriend. Dom was much more available to hang out with, and Burt was in the dorm a lot more often on the weekends. Second, I took a class called "Writing About Film." After my semester-long film gorge, I felt much more competent, but the class still opened me up to directors I hadn't yet gotten to, like Zeffirelli and Kurosawa and Jacques Tati. Thirdly, I got another job at a movie theatre, this time at AMC in the Oaks Mall. Not only would this broaden my choices for seeing current movies, it would also give me the social network I lacked during the fall. Suddenly, I had people to hang out with, and they all loved movies as much as I did.
One more memory about that film class. The professor showed most of his films on a 16mm film projector rather than a VCR. During the first week of class, he asked for a volunteer to thread up the projector each week. I told him I had worked as a projectionist in a movie theatre back home. I got the job.
That class was one of the best classes I ever took. Unfortunately, I got a B+, only because I skipped one of the film viewings. Steve was visiting from Scotland, and besides, I'd already seen the film. But missing a viewing dropped your grade one letter grade. Oh well.
Laserdiscs
During that first year of college, I had educated myself about aspect ratio and mise en scene, enough to a) know that you lost a lot of the picture when you watched a movie on your TV and b) to care. There was a new format of home video just becoming popular that appealed to cinephiles like myself: laserdisc.
Even before everybody's TV was widescreen, most laserdiscs were released widescreen, and the audio and visual quality was far better than VHS or Beta. I saved up my money and got a laserdisc player in early 1991. My friend Damian worked at a Service Merchandise in Orlando. I gave him the money to buy my laserdisc player with his employee discount. It was a basic, no-frills model. Pioneer. I think I paid $325 for it.
The first laserdiscs I bought were the Star Wars trilogy. I got them through a mail-order movie/music service called Columbia House for something like 49 cents each (with an obligation to buy 3 more in the next year...you probably know the drill). Dom, Steve, and I (Steve was visiting from Scotland) inaugurated my laserdisc player by watching all 3 Star Wars movies, in succession, together. It was the first time any of us had seen the Star Wars movies widescreen since seeing them in the theater.
Over the next 5 or 6 years, I amassed a laserdisc collection of about 100 movies. When DVD came out in the late 90's, I knew laserdiscs' time was up. Luckily, I sold almost all my laserdiscs on eBay before DVD became fully entrenched. I got pretty good prices for them too. Definitely broke even. In 2003 or so, I finally sold my laserdisc player (still working fine) to one of my students. For sentimental reasons, I kept the Star Wars trilogy, an REM concert that Steve and Dom had bought me for my birthday, and a Paul McCartney concert film.
The Perfect College Job
Wanted: a young person who can stay up late, occasionally work hard with plenty of slow times where he can surreptitiously study, and get paid slightly more than minimum wage. Perks: free movies, popcorn, and soda. What college student wouldn't want that job?
Unlike my theater job in Inverness, I was now working with college students. A whole new ball game. It didn't take long before I had a big group of friends who I spent most of my free time with. Many of these people I'm still friends with today.
Within my first month working at the AMC Oaks 10, I asked a girl from my film class, Laura, to see Silence of the Lambs with me. It was the first time I'd asked a college girl out since being in college. Ten years later, Laura would work at GHS at the same time I did. Yep, Gainesville is a small town.
The summer of 1991 was glorious. Dom started working at the Oaks as well, and we spent most of the summer with Tesa and Karla, two of our co-workers. It was all platonic, but we'd work together, and spend many an evening together at someone's house, watching movies, cooking, and sleeping. College life at its best.
At some point, Burt also got a job at the Oaks, and when Steve came to visit in the summer of 92, we had enough pull with some of the managers to get him hired just for the summer. For the first (and probably last) time ever, Dom, Steve, Burt, and I worked at the same place.
I kept that job until the birth of Sofia in 1996 (my notice of resignation was for 4/30/96: Sofia's due date), though by then I was only working an occasional shift, mostly to retain free movie privileges. It was awkward to work there while student-teaching at P.K. Yonge, where invariably I would find myself selling popcorn to one of my students. I never got into management, like Burt did. Although when I neared graduation in 94 and wasn't sure what I wanted to do, I considered going the management route. But booth supervisor and then Senior Staff (which was the step right below part-time manager) was as far as I went with AMC. It was a good run, but I'm glad my life took a different turn.
I admit, though, that I occasionally miss working in a movie theatre. I still feel nostalgic when I see the projectors through the windows, or even when I see the ushers standing at the back, waiting to clean up, as the end credits roll.
No comments:
Post a Comment