Overlooked in some of the technical discussion of problems faced by projectionists in getting aspect ratios right is the trend over the last two or three decades of consolidating the profession of the projectionist. Film projection used to be a union position whereby TWO fully certified projectionists would be on hand at all times (the second man in case of fire). In the era of monolithic theater chains and mulitplexes, it's more common that NO projectionist is on-hand at show time; rather, the professional projectionist makes a daytime route of theaters and spools films, then leaves the actual projection at show time (often a one-push-button affair) to a theater manager who is familiar with the mere rudiments of the system. Errors during showtime are often simply NOT corrected because there's nobody on hand who's got the know-how to fix them. I know there's a lot more to it than this, but the simple human factor ought to be considered it sussing out the situation. shawn levy ---- To sign off SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]