PORT TOWNSEND — The preparation for this weekend’s Port Townsend Film Festival is a multifaceted process that always seems to come together in the end.
“We have a lot to do in order to make this all look easy,” said operations manager Gary Engbrecht.
The festival, in its 16th year, will screen 84 films in eight locations in downtown Port Townsend this Friday through Sunday.
This year’s festival features three special guests: actors Beau Bridges and Chris Cooper and actress Marianne Leone Cooper.
Cooper won the best supporting actor Oscar in 2002 for his role in “Adaptation”; he will be joined by his wife, Marianne, who appears in “The Thin Blue Line” and “Goodfellas.”
Bridges is well known for his part in “The Fabulous Baker Boys” and many other movies.
Engbrecht is in his first year as operations manager after volunteering for several years.
Janette Force, the festival’s executive director, said the 300 volunteers provide the backbone of the operation.
“They do everything from moving hay bales to driving filmmakers to and from the airport,” Force said.
“These people don’t know each other and have never worked together.
“They are just this army of folks who believe that independent film matters in this community.”
All volunteers are trained for different tasks — managing lines, selling passes using a smartphone and getting the tickets, which serve as ballots to decide the festival’s audience choice award, to the proper place for counting.
Thirty-four volunteers were trained this year as what Engbrecht calls “projectionistas,” taught to operate the dual-drive projection system in each theater.
The keyword for this operation, according to Engbrecht, is “backup.” At each location are not only two drives but also two projectionists dedicated to their operation.
Each projection setup has two identical Blu-ray drives, each designated as principal or backup and each with its own monitor.
The projectionist runs the same disc in the two drives, with the backup a few seconds behind the principal.
If a problem occurs during a showing, the operator toggles over to the backup drive.
The viewer may notice that about five seconds of the film will be repeated, but the action isn’t interrupted.
Engbrecht said most projection problems are nothing more than a thumbprint on a disk.
This is the second year the festival uses only Blu-ray, the high-definition video and audio format that is thought to be superior to the DVD, VHS and film.
Prior to converting to Blu-ray, a projectionist often had to deal with multiple formats in the same location. If a tape or film broke, the action stopped.
“Stopping the film in the middle is one thing that is unacceptable to me because it leaves 100 or 200 people in the air,” Engbrecht said.
Engbrecht, 64, previously worked as a musician during the summer and a carpenter during the winter, which honed the nuts-and-bolts skills needed in his current position.
“I’ve been preparing for this all my life,” he said.
Engbrecht said the event has not recovered from the loss of Chris Martin, who provided essential tech support before he died in a motorcycle wreck in March.
“I think we have yet to determine everything he covered so graciously and calmly,” Engbrecht said of Martin.
“He was always there, and things always worked. If there was a problem, he appeared, fixed it and life went on.”
The decision to run the festival entirely on Blu-ray came out of discussions between Engbrecht and Martin during the standard post-festival meeting in 2013 to determine what went right and what went wrong.
“This is a year-round operation,” Engbrecht said.
“There are lots of things that require care and feeding throughout the year, although when we get closer to the festival, we create spreadsheets that allow us to build a timeline.”
Force said the festival has already exceeded expectations and raised more money than the 2014 total.
The least expensive passes, the $35 one-off and the $100 six-pack, are sold out.
Still available are the $185 festival pass, the $650 director pass and the $1,250 mogul pass.
The festival pass includes first-come, first-served access to all films, while the more expensive passes add concierge service, special receptions and discounts.
Included in these three are the Friday afternoon dinner on Taylor Street, a salmon feast prepared by the Silverwater Cafe.
The dinner has been offered in the same place and by the same restaurant since the festival’s inception.
“We are providing a gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, soy-free dinner for 700 people,” said Silverwater co-owner Alison Hero.
Aside from salmon, the dinner will include mushroom risotto, green beans and a Washington apple salad.
A vegetarian option is available, and Hero is preparing a vegan version to accommodate Bridges’ dietary specifications.
Preparations are already in progress for the dinner, Hero said, with all ingredients expected to be on site today.
For more information and to buy passes, go to www.ptfilmfest.com or call 360-379-1333.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
