How do film projectors work?
Movie projectors have been around for almost a century. Though technology has progressed by leaps and bounds in those hundred years or so, the methods employed by projectors to put movies up on the silver screen haven’t really changed much.FeedingBefore a movie can be shown, the film must be fed into the top of the projector. Here, an upper feed sprocket feeds it into the machine while an upper pad roller keeps it running smoothly down into the projector.LightProjectors use heavy-duty bulbs, usually xenon bulbs, to project images. The light shines through the film as it passes through the film trap, projecting each frame on the film strip onto the screen through what’s called a viewport.ShutterA shutter is like a gate that opens and closes in front of the film. It closes and then re-opens again between each frame on the film strip, approximately 24 times per second, and looks like a two-bladed fan on a spinning mechanism. If there was no shutter and the film simply rolled through the p
