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Author Topic: Intermissions in Digital Ross McLaughlin Film Handler Posts: 24 From: Worthing, West Sussex, UK Registered: Feb 2012 posted 12-04-2012 03:54 PM                     Just a quick question: is it possible to insert intermissions into digital showings. Not that I plan to, but I'm running shows that previously would have had them when we were on 35mm and some customers expect an intermission. I don't want to tell them we physichally can't if that's not the truth! Thanks.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-04-2012 04:19 PM                     You can press "pause" or "stop" at the appropriate time. Steve Guttag put forth the possibility of wiring one of the GPO's to the Pause input, thus creating a means of "self-pausing." Figure out your offset and program a cue. (IIRC this was for a Dolby server. I don't have experience with the others, so I'm not sure if it is possible with those.) Does anybody know for a fact if the distributors care whether there is/isn't an intermission? BTW, Steve's idea and others can be found in this thread.  |  IP: Logged Philip Jones Film Handler Posts: 90 From: England Registered: Dec 2011 posted 12-04-2012 05:44 PM                     With the dolby dss200 if you press stop the screen goes black and obviously the sound stops. if you only press stop ones the playback remains at the time it was stopped. have a slide projector with an "intermission slide". press stop and turn on the slide projector at the same time  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 12-04-2012 05:52 PM                     The Sonys have their own intermission feature in the show programming GUI. People using other servers do it manually. You can also switch to a DVI input on the projector and show an intermission slide from a notebook or media player. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-04-2012 06:56 PM                        Screw doing it manually. What are we, barbarians? That would require someone to actually watch the movie and press PAUSE or whatever at the right time every time it plays. This should be an automation feature so you can just run the show without worry. Any automation that can't do this is a sad and unworthy automation. I'm betting the Film-Tech DCS can do it. You guys do have that installed, right? I'm guessing for Indian prints they can just make them 2 different playlists for lesser systems so that it just stops and then some numbnuts runs upstairs and starts the second "movie" which is just the second part. But that's up to the issuing studio. I can't even imagine what dealing with keys would be like on an Indian movie if they used them.  |  IP: Logged Graham Ritchie Film Handler Posts: 54 From: Christchurch, New Zealand Registered: Apr 2009 posted 12-04-2012 07:18 PM                     It must be, as I watched "The Sound Of Music" at our local Reading Cinema of late using a Barco, a cinema staff member made an announcement just before the start, to say there would be a 15 minute intermission...brilliant idea. The place also did well $$$$ wise in sales during the break. Hope they do the same with "The Hobbit" Graham.  |  IP: Logged Jock Blakley Expert Film Handler Posts: 218 From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registered: Oct 2011 posted 12-05-2012 03:56 AM                     Our Doremi system came with a pause cue built-in. Very simple to find the appropriate point and set the cue. We then switch over to an intermission slide in the carbon-arc projector, or sometimes we run one of our 35mm intermission tags. Some DCPs come as one file with the intermission tag built-in followed after a few seconds by the entr'acte, in which case we simply pause after the tag has faded out. I also prepared a selection of intermission tag DCPs in a selection of typefaces for when we get a two-parter with no tag supplied.  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 12-05-2012 08:22 AM                     Just thinking off the top of my head here. Haven't actually tried it. This example requires an eCNA-5/10/200. Not sure of the capabilities of other digital automations. You could use one of the eCNA's timers as an intermission timer. Create a macro in the eCNA that would set Timer X (X is whichever number timer you wish to use) to the desired length of your intermission. Set up a trigger that would send a show start command to the server when Timer X expires. (I think the trigger would actually have to activate another macro that would contain the show start command.) The show would pause when it reaches the pause cue, and resume when Timer X expires in the automation. There would also need to be a cue right after the pause cue that would send a command to the automation to run the macro on the eCNA that sets the timer. Hmmm. I'll have to try this.  |  IP: Logged Tom Herendeen Film Handler Posts: 2 From: Lyons, NY USA Registered: Nov 2012 posted 12-12-2012 11:53 AM                     We had Gone With The Wind and it came as two seperate files so building an itermission was very easy. I made an Intermission "short" with DVD-o-matic that I programmed in but it wasn't really necessary because the feature had its own intermission frames. What was freaky was the feature started and ended with 2 minutes theme music and a blank screen. A few patrons thought the projector was broken... Beware that a lot of old features are 1.33-1 aspect ratio and the curtain set looks really bad  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 12-12-2012 01:37 PM                     If I recall, there was a title card that was to be placed in front of the feature explaining to patrons that the overture was no accompanied by picture and this was normal.  |  IP: Logged Antti Nayha Master Film Handler Posts: 268 From: Helsinki, Finland Registered: Oct 2008 posted 12-12-2012 01:46 PM                     So you didn't receive the projection instructions with the GwtW DCP?  |  IP: Logged Jock Blakley Expert Film Handler Posts: 218 From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registered: Oct 2011 posted 12-12-2012 04:26 PM                     quote: Tom Herendeen What was freaky was the feature started and ended with 2 minutes theme music and a blank screen. A few patrons thought the projector was broken This is normal for overtures, and also for entr'actes (the post-interval overture). One would have their curtains closed and house-lighting up then gradually fade it out. We usually end up with only the footlights left on, then quick-fade them as we open the curtain on the first picture. Seeing the concern from the people in the audience who don't know the overture concept is also good for a chuckle. The best for it is BEN-HUR with it's 6:33 overture and 4:33 entr'acte. That's 1250 feet of blank 70mm right there. Play-out music obviously needs no special lighting but a curtain is nice to have. I wish more films had play-outs - they give such a wonderful continuity between the film experience and real life - but nowadays end credit sequences are just jukeboxes for the shitty pop music the producers licensed...  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 12-12-2012 04:50 PM                        Everyone's long gone 37.2 seconds after the end credits hit the screen anyway.  |  IP: Logged

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