[felixyz]

It wasn't all over the place (in professional productions). Rather, it was an important part of the craft of cinematography to adjust the speed of cranking to fit the mood of a scene. Experienced cinamatographers would vary the speed even during a take, envisioning how the film would look when projected at standard speed - slower crank, faster movement, and vice versa.

[throwawa66]

But that does make it all over the place even if intentional

[SamBam]

Probably in the same way that a visitor from the past would find the volume all over the place in a modern movie, or the lighting.

[felixyz]

You put a nice twist on it and I almost agree. I think "all over the place" is more closely related to ideas like disordered, indiscriminate, every which way, unsystematic -- you could intentionally create a work that looks unsystematic, but that's not the case for the people and films we were discussing.

[throwawa66]

I agree that all over the place doesn't imply intentional or not. In this case all over the place had a human artistry twist and the final product as a piece was not all over the place but the framerate itself was.

As an anecdote, I remember when I was a kid (early 80s) my uncle who collected old cameras and projectors exchanged with me an old hand cranked pathe-baby projector for a solar powered calculator. The projector was working properly and had a few films cassettes and they were supposed to be played back at variable hand cranking speeds according to the scenes. It was an interesting experience to play those films back to my family in the only room that had absolute darkness, in the kitchen.

[felixyz]

That's a great anecdote, and now I will not be satisfied until I too own a Pathé-Baby projector. The curse of knowledge.

https://library.princeton.edu/pathebaby/node/2245

[throwawa66]

If I remember correctly you could go backwards too. The film would collect a glass covered container inside the projector's body and when the film was over you had to crank it back inside the cassette.