The Ann Arbor Summer Festival has been a community tradition for the past 36 years. The festival provides entertainment for all ages including music, dance, comedy, circus, art, and film. The outdoor program, Top of the Park, presently takes place in front of Rackham Auditorium. One of the outdoor festival event series is Movies by Moonlight. Festival-goers get to enjoy movies under the stars projected on a very large inflatable screen. There are a wide range of films to watch from kid-friendly to classics to recent blockbuster hits.
To make this possible, LSA Technology Services is behind the scenes making sure the movies are projected properly. During each movie you can find Rob Feeley, Alec Richker, Chris Taylor, or Brian Woodring of LSA Technology Services operating the projection booth. This includes a video projector, Blu-ray player, and laptop. The movie’s audio is connected to the same sound system used for the live music performances.
We have been providing audiovisual support for the Summer Festival’s Top of the Park film screenings since its inaugural season in 1984, long before we were known as LSA Technology Services. The projection of films for Top of the Park has always resided in LSA, however, the organizations involved have changed over time. Let’s take a look back in history.
Top of the Park Movie Screening, Fletcher Street Parking Structure
(Image Credit: Ann Arbor District Library, A2SF Digital Archive)
16mm Films
Beginning in 1984, LSA Film Projection Services provided the expertise and equipment to project the films onto the large elevator shaft wall on top of the Fletcher Street parking structure, thus the name Top of the Park was born. The wall was painted white to make viewing easier. At this time, movies were still on 16mm film and needed an experienced projectionist to operate the equipment. Anne Moray Windsor, now a Senior Audio-Visual Technician with LSA Technology Services, was there from the very beginning. Windsor explained, “On average, most 16mm films consisted of three reels with each reel lasting about 40 minutes. When one reel came to an end, we would have to seamlessly switch over to the next reel so there was no break in the movie. We used two pageant 16mm film projectors with a change over system that allowed us to switch the sound and the light. For audio, we set up giant speakers and amplifiers. I remember strapping large tarps over the speakers to keep them from getting wet during bad weather”.
Introduction of Video Projection
Later, in 1990, Film Projection Services became one of three branches of LSA Media Resource Center (Michigan Media). Jim Pyke, currently LSA Technology Services’ Special Events and Classroom Services Supervisor, started working for Michigan Media as a student worker. He explained that the first introduction of video projection was in the late 1990s. Once the video projection technology advanced to where our organization owned cutting edge video projectors—ones with higher resolution and brightness—we moved away from 16mm film. “Our job has always been operating the equipment to project the films but the technology has changed over time,” Pyke expressed. “We first set up our equipment and worked from a table in the parking lot. Then, sometime in the mid-1990s, they started live band performances and needed a secure place to keep the sound board so they built an elevated enclosed booth. We got to use the enclosed booth as well and began running the audio for the films through the sound board”.
Top of the Park New Inflatable Screen, Rackham/Ingalls Mall Location
(Image Credit: Ann Arbor District Library, A2SF Digital Archive)
New Location, New Screen, New Organizations
In 2006, renovations on the Fletcher Street parking structure began and the Top of the Park (TOP) concerts and movies were relocated to its current location on the north end of Ingalls Mall in front of Rackham Auditorium. A large inflatable screen was set up for the movie showings. “Everyone was asking ‘how is this going to work?’. They had to do some rigging to keep it stable,” Pyke said. Once at the new location, video projection was exclusively used. That same year, Michigan Media was consolidated into a new unit called LSA Instructional Support Services (ISS). LSA ISS provided the audiovisual support for Top of the Park from 2006-2018. In 2018, LSA ISS joined with LSA IT, Web Services, and MIS to form LSA Technology Services. LSA Technology Services provided support this year for the TOP Movies by Moonlight and it was a great success!
Movies Over the Years
“Although we never had a say in the programming, they always featured some really great films,” Windsor mentioned. Some of the films featured over the years included black and white classics, Alfred Hitchcok films, Yankee Doodle Dandy (on the fourth of July), Indiana Jones, the original Superman, Wallace and Gromit Claymation, foreign films, and selections from the Ann Arbor 16mm Film Festival. This year festival-goers had the opportunity to vote on what movies they wanted to see. Some of the winners included Black Panther, Paddington, Bohemian Rhapsody, and The Greatest Showman.
Looking Forward to Next Year
It is always great to see our organization working hard to make classes and events on campus a success. LSA Technology Services is looking forward to next year’s Summer Festival and continuing to provide the evolving projection services to this long standing community tradition.
