As we are proceeding with the "initial" layout and design of our theatre, I've got a couple of questions I need some answers to.

We are contemplating building "either" a two story concessions/projection building with projection ports in the front and the rear of the second floor

... or...

one centralized concessions building (between the two parking fields) and building two free-standing 10' x 10' concrete block projection buildings.

Any preferences / or technical limitations that would keep us from from doing either one?

Also, as we have driven around the south east U.S. and "scoped-out" the latest "new-builds" (primarily in Alabama, Virginia & Tennessee), we have noticed that they did NOT incorporate parking ramps in their design or construction. With today's trend of "high-profile" vehicles, wouldn't ramping be a necessity?

Keep in mind that we want to build our theatre "cost-efficient"... NOT "cheap".

Ramps serve the added purpose of keeping speeds slower in the field. Speed limit with kids running around in the dark should be just above a crawl - 15 mph absolute max.

Dirt or paved field? I personally like the grassed over dirt fields. Terraced or ramped? A location with a slope works better.

Be sure to include a way to have a flea market. Preston Henn's 12 screen drive in in Sunrise Florida does an incredible flea market business, so much so that the drive in is just secondary.

IMHO, a drive-in without ramps is "cheap" and a poor design. It's hard to get good sightlines through the windshield (especially from the back seat) without tipping the vehicles slightly.

Radio sound is standard, but consider the "nostalgia factor" of having a few in-car speakers and poles.

With a 30 x 72 foot matte white (fresh paint) screen, 6000 watts should get you close to 8 footlamberts, which would be better than most drive-ins. Efficient dichroic heat filters and water-cooled gate are mandatory at this power level, unless you like burned fingertips, uncontrollable "focus flutter", and paying to replace heat-damaged prints.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com

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I had planned on "re-locating" a truss supported tower from a defunct drive-in somewhere. As many drive-ins that have closed, it shouldn't be that hard to find one. I know Selby still makes them, but I think they must be gold-plated - last quote I got was $55,000.00. I've estimated that it would cost about $12-15K to relocate and erect an existing tower, and add to that another $4k - $5k to prep and paint it. It's still way cheaper than new.

I too prefer grass instead of paving for the field.

6,000 watts ??? I was hoping to use my 4kw ORC, at least for the first year

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A ramped field is a must. In one drive-in field we built in 1995, the low ramping and a low screen cause problems. All types of vehicles obscure the view of other cars every time it is a full house, which is often. Having no ramps is not a problem if you never plan to have more than 40% capacity.

I too have seen new drive-ins with no ramps but they never fill so don't have the problem.

Our best drive-in field is steeply ramped with a high screen and even the biggest 4 x 4's can park and not block the view of a Ford sedan behind.

You must go for a central projection booth. If you cannot afford an on-top version, then at least one that is back to back. It saves in so many ways and enables you to keep an eye on the presentation!

With a 200 - 300 car field you will have a good throw with the booth at the rear. Use the biggest lamp you can we use 6k and 7k on some screens. You will only need a 70 footer - move the cars closer to it, at a drive-in people love the front ramp!

Our 100ft screen on a 150 car field is overkill and we can't light it like we would really like to. The latest Strong, Kinoton or Christie lamphouses are so much more efficient with big lamps. You can always use an older Strong X60 C or D and with the right blower, extraction and filters run 6k - do you agree Pat? We run some with 5k and they handle it pretty well. Our 7k's are Kinoton.

Don't limit yourself to 2 fields, allow room to go to four. Take a look at what Century did at Anaheim Stadium (finished as 8) or Pacific at Winnetka (was 4 went to 6) in LA. You can take all desirable first runs with these screens. With two you will miss some big films as you have to play out the seasons on others.

Fork Union is an excellent natural amphitheatre and a rare find. Always have at least two rows of speakers, in our drive-ins they are the first places to fill!

David

Our goal is to open the theatre with one screen, then add the second screen the second season. Although we do have enough projection equipment on hand to build both booths, we wanted to "test the waters" before we invested the money on the second field.

Both layouts do have their advantages and disadvantages.

The centralized two story booth will keep everything in a single location which will help the costs of construction (i.e. electrical wiring), and give us the ability to monitor the operation of both booths from the same location. However, like many have said, it's central location between the two screens will result in "long throws", higher powered lamping requirements, and longer walks for the patrons to visit the concession stand.

The second layout with the screens "back-to-back", puts the concession stand in the center of the lot(off-center, but closer to the screens. When we've looked at other drive-ins, we've noticed that many patrons park as close to the screen as possible. Given this as a consideration, if the fields fill up from the first row and work their way back, it would put the greatest number of patrons closest to the screens and the concession stand. It would require two separate projection booths, long runs of underground 3 phase wiring, and no ability to monitor the screens from the concession stand.

We visited the "Fork Union Drive-In" in Virginia in July of 1999, and also consider it one of the finest examples of "stadium parking" around. The grounds were well kept and clean, but we were there during daylight hours, so we couldn't comment on the presentation. We ran into the owner at the gas station up the street, and he said we could "go look" at the theatre, but do not go inside the fence.

Dave Bird mentioned re-working the ramp layout for todays vehicle dimensions. Any ideas as to "how steep is too steep" for ramping?

Shorten the distance to the screens by shaping the ramp areas like nested "L"s.

When you open as a single, the booth/concession will be in the middle of the field, but slightly off to one side. When you twin, cut the area behind and to the side of the building as shown. You will reduce the size of the first field, but that isn't always a bad thing. A full field might be used only two or three weekends a season.

This ASCII drawing looks bad unless you have fixed font size; cut-n-paste it into notepad to get a better idea of what I am saying.
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..Entrance Que.........................
Flush----------------Gate----------Flush
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The _slight_ offset of the booth can be compensated for by a combination of twisting the screens slightly and possibly using one of the offset lens mounts that are available for keystoning problems. You would have to be careful of losing light.

The important part of the concept, as you can see, is that only one side of the field needs to extend behind the concession, giving better placement of the booth and concession.

Whatever. Greg says I have to get back to work, and he's right.

The "frou-frou" stuff shown on the drawings is exactly that. The plans shown above were for a presentation we made to a local area Chamber of Commerce back in June, 2000. They wanted to know what type of facility we had in mind for their community. I added the landscaping items to the plans to "soften" the look of the overall site.
Sometimes what you show them and what you build are NOT the same thing.

Another "option" to be considered (however I don't like it), is to build a single story concessions/projection building in the center of the field for "each" screen.

There has to be a way to provide concessions service to the patrons without having to walk a mile to get it.