From film reels to hard drives: He has kept movie lovers happy for more than three decades

It's usually never good news when the police turn up at your workplace looking for you.

But in Bilal Sapuan's case, it was one of those rare times that it was a much welcomed visit – the policeman was there to hand him a film reel that a theatre full of increasingly antsy audience were waiting to watch.

"I still remember the picture was [called] The Gods Must Be Crazy, but the film never came," the 63-year-old recounted, adding that he was starting to panic as the audience had been waiting for the film to start for quite a while and were starting to get impatient.

Hence, without asking any questions, he took the reel and rushed to the projector room to start showing the film to appease the cinema patrons.

It was only later that he learnt what led to the special delivery – the runner who was supposed to transport the film reel had been involved in a traffic accident. But he was smart enough to enlist help from a policeman at the scene to send the film reel over so that the show could go on, shared the former projectionist.

This 1991 incident is one of the more colourful experiences that Bilal has had in his 30-odd year career in Singapore's cinema industry. He started as a projectionist in Regal Cinema, which was owned by Cathay Organisation, and is now a senior technician at Cathay Cineplexes.

And while his job title may have changed over the years, his work has always been to ensure that films can be played when they need to be so cinema patrons can enjoy their movies as expected.

Changing with the times

Having a movie's film reels hand delivered by a policeman is unlikely to happen ever again, only mainly because the technology in cinemas has evolved greatly and gone are the days where 35mm film reels had to be manually loaded into a projector located at the back of each cinema hall.

Back then, being a projectionist was a labour intensive job as these film reels were not light – each one weighed a few kg. And Bilal had to manually transport the reels from hall to hall, depending on the day's schedule.

He was also responsible for ensuring that the sound and image was running smoothly, which meant having to scurry to a hall if anything went wrong at a moment's notice.

Things are a lot less hectic now as there is a centralised system to control the project of movies in each theatre, and hard drives are used in place of film reels.

Hence, his role has now evolved to that of a technician, where he has to troubleshoot whenever things go haywire with any of the projectors within the cinema.

And while picking up new skills is never a breeze, Bilal knows it is as part of the inevitable change that every industry faces and that adapting is the only way to continue to stay relevant.

Ensuring visitors enjoy their movie experience

You would think that the best part of Bilal's job is getting to view the latest blockbusters while being paid. But for him, after more than 30 years of working in a cinema, he does get “sian” of watching movies.

Instead, he takes pride in being a part of the team that keeps the cinema running and patrons happy.

This includes working even whilst the cinemas had to shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak as the machinery still needed to be cleaned, serviced and maintained so that they can run again immediately once cinemas were allowed to open its doors again.

There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes in every cinema for operations to take place smoothly that few people know of, says Bilal and he's glad that he gets to play a part in ensuring moviegoers have an enjoyable experience whenever they visit.

trining@asiaone.com