PHOTO GALLERY: Ragtag switches from analog to digital projectors

Steve Ruffin is one of the three employees who works in the projection booth at the Ragtag Cinema on Hitt Street. Ruffin's job is not constrained to the crowded, clanking and at times extremely hot booth, but he must also work the ticket counter during films.   |  Bobby Watson

Steve Ruffin examines the digital and audio information imprinted between the sprocket holes and the image on the film in the upstairs projection booth at the Ragtag Cinema on Hitt Street on Tuesday.   |  Bobby Watson

Steve Ruffin unpacks the reels which held the film "Robot & Frank" during transport to the Ragtag Cinema on Hitt Street. Because the cinema's 35mm films arrive on five separate reels, Ruffin and the other projectionists must unroll and join all the reels together into one complete spool that sits on a large platter before it is fed into the projection pulleys.   |  Bobby Watson