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Author Topic: RUINED!!! Andrew McCrea Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 645 From: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-09-2000 08:42 PM                        What do you think about theatres running slide shows before the actual show? I think theatre chains have ruined the theatre magic of skipping the curtains. What's next? The lights get flicked on and off? It ticks me off. You? Andrew  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 12-09-2000 09:25 PM                     I used to work at a single-screen theater that had to leave the curtains open all the time and stage lights off to show slides; it looked awful. I would let the curtains close at the end of the last show of the day, but the rest of the time they'd have to stay open. That theater has since closed and converted to retail space. I personally don't like slides, but they do make money for the people who put them on, and very few customers complain about them so as long as that's the case they will stay around. While we're on this subject, what does everyone here think about the practice of top-masking screens being in 'flat' position for the slides, then dropping when the film starts? I REALLY don't like this; it makes the movie look smaller than the slides (and thus the slides are more important than the movie) plus top-masking by its very nature is an embarrassment and shouldn't call attention to itself like this.  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-09-2000 09:47 PM                     I hate when I see flat previews on a scope feature with top masking. Nothing like squashing the screen for the feature.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 12-10-2000 01:56 AM                     Let us all remember this whole "top masking" nonsense came about with the introduction of the whole "stadium seating" nonsense. My, what improvements this industry has made over the last several years!  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-10-2000 05:03 AM                        I don't get the whole "not many people complain, so they must not mind" logic. I really dislike on-screen advertising, but yet I have never actually complained about it to a theatre manager. Still, if there is an alternate theatre which provides a comparable level of presentation without the slides, I will go there instead, given the choice and assuming that they are showing the same film. As for curtains, the workaround with slides is to fade out the last slide before the film starts, close the curtain and bring up the curtain lights for a minute or so, then dim the lights, start the film, and open the curtain. There are automation systems that can do this very nicely based on timer settings.  |  IP: Logged Dave Bird Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 777 From: Perth, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jun 2000 posted 12-10-2000 08:09 AM                        I didn't complain, but yes, the ad slides at the new Famous-plex irked me to no end. My wife, who's far less serious about movies than I, says "Jeez, we can get this at home." (Of course, we're all hypocrites, most of us LOVE cheezy intermission trailers at the Drive-In!) We generally try the smaller single theatres with curtains, and no "top-masking". Imagine the very thought, glorious 'Scope actually smaller than flat !?? Andrew, get yourself out to the Odeon DI next summer, starry nights have a way of compensating for the shortcomings that SOME theatre chains have.  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-10-2000 12:37 PM                     I know what stadium seating is . . . It's called a _balcony_! What an innovation!  |  IP: Logged Erik Schill Film Handler Posts: 38 From: Rochester, NY, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-10-2000 12:44 PM                     I'm not a big fan of the crappy slide shows either, or the people who come in every friday, and get in my way to mess with the slides. I don't know what you guys have for slides, but we have some of the worst slides of all time at my theatre, 8 out of 10 of them have beer in them (for the family resaraunts that encourage daddy getting wasted over a basket of fried shrimp) but then we have this other slide...it is for some dental group and has a before and after picture, it is perhaps the grossest thing I have ever seen, I damn near vomit everytime I see it, so I wounder what the 5 year olds in rug rats think. plus we only have like 15 slides in each theatre so after about 3 minutes you've seen them all  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 12-10-2000 07:05 PM                        In defence of top masking, a cinema so designed makes Academy and 1-66 look decent. We have three screens here, one of which uses top masking. The biggest picture is Academy (top masking fully up, sides fully out), then 1-33 (top fully up, sides in a bit), then 1-85 (sides fully out but top at mid setting), and the smallest picture is scope (top fully down, sides fully out). For rep cinemas that show Academy and 1-66 every now and again, not having them look like a postage stamp in the middle of a mass of black fabric is quite a selling point...  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-10-2000 09:43 PM                     Good point, Leo. I suddenly remember what the rerelease of Wizard of Oz looked like after I got done draping extra masking and curtains over the screen frame to hide the blank space on the 1.85 print.  |  IP: Logged William Hooper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1879 From: Mobile, AL USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-10-2000 11:54 PM                        I remember seeing moveable top masing back in the 1960's, when theaters were first trying to cram wide screens into houses built for 1.37:1! ------------------ William Hooper Junk drawer: http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/theater/3622 Theatre Empire: http://members.xoom.com/saenger.1  |  IP: Logged Rachel Carter Expert Film Handler Posts: 248 From: Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 12-11-2000 05:15 PM                     I think the slide shows are good. Maybe its just me but I like sitting there reading the really stupid quiz's that zip by. REALLY  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-11-2000 05:56 PM                        Movable top masking goes back to the earliest CinemaScope days. The Williamsburg Theatre (check the picture warehouse) where I used to work converted to CinemaScope in 1954 and used top masking. The actual screen was 1.66:1 (17' x 30') and was masked differently for scope (mag and optical), Academy, and flat/widescreen (which was set up for 1.75). The theatre is currently under renovation and it will be interesting to see what they end up doing with the masking system. Here are the pics (not on the Film-Tech site) of the 1.75 and scope/optical positions (as designed in 1954 for a procenium built in 1933):  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 12-11-2000 07:40 PM                     Unfortunately, slides have become a necessary part of our economic picture. The slides start with our theatre logo on the curtain, curtain rises then 20-24 slides two times thru, ending with the logo which is faded out as the feature starts. Slides start so that the movie will start 5 min. after the advertized time. Occasionally we get complaints and we explain that the ads help keep admission and concession prices down. All ads are for local merchants, churches, politicians etc. National ads require too much paper work and long waits for payment so we don't take them. Slides run on the flat screen and when the film is scope we open the side masking as the studio logo starts in order that they can see the difference in width (about 13 feet) and no reduction in height. Scope is 40 ft. We try to make it as inofensive as possible  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-12-2000 01:29 AM                        Beautiful theatre, except anyone who puts an aisle down the middle should be slugged!  |  IP: Logged

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