Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: It: Do you have a sewer grate in front of your theatre?

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Topic: It: Do you have a sewer grate in front of your theatre?

Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 09-05-2017 07:13 PM

Reading this article gave me an idea.

Do you have any storm sewer grates near the front of your theatre? If so, you could tie a red balloon to the grate when playing It.

The nearest grate to my theatre is at the far end of the block, so it won't work here, unfortunately.

quote:
LITITZ, Pa. — Police officers in a small Pennsylvania town are evidently afraid of a certain homicidal clown.

The Lititz police department on Tuesday posted photos of red balloons a prankster tied to a pair of sewer grates.

A red balloon is the calling card of Pennywise, the sewer-dwelling, child-eating clown in Stephen King’s horror novel “It.” The hotly anticipated movie version opens in theatres Friday.

In a playful Facebook post, police write they admire the prankster’s creativity but were “completely terrified” while removing the balloons and “respectfully request they do not do that again.”

Police also suggest people watch previews of the movie with the lights turned on and the volume turned low.

The police department’s post ends with a famous line from the book: “You’ll float too.”

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 09-05-2017 07:52 PM

Not really a sewer grate, but maybe you can "install" a temporary fake manhole cover like this one near your entrance and tie a red balloon to it. [Wink]

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Dave Bird
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 777
From: Perth, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 09-06-2017 08:45 AM

Great idea Frank! We have a creepy looking old 50's metal grate beside our entry lane at the drive-in! Really not sure what to expect, we usually draw flies this time of year, but our social media has exploded over this weekend's "IT/ANNABELLE" combo.

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 09-06-2017 04:59 PM

Anyone who does this in front of their theatre should post a photo of their installation here, of course. [Smile]

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Dave Bird
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 777
From: Perth, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 09-06-2017 06:41 PM

Our grate is actually inside the field Frank (and this being the one weekend all summer that none of my family is on-site), but we've got a really enthusiastic gal running the place this weekend (a film student to boot) who is going to make it happen and hopefully take some pix for us.....

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Dave Bird
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 777
From: Perth, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 09-08-2017 11:56 PM

Hope all you outdoor guys booked the "IT/ANNABELLE" combo this weekend (and you're all ok). Unbelievable. Bet our place hasn't seen a Friday in September crowd like this in 50 years. Normally get 50-75, and it rained today, so weren't expecting too much (maybe a bit more, social media was active). Got 502! Bet the indoors are killing with this as well.

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Philip Jones
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: England
Registered: Dec 2011

posted 09-10-2017 06:19 AM

We put one up outside. Got some great reactions [Smile]

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Dave Bird
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 777
From: Perth, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 09-10-2017 09:04 PM

My goodness, we'd have been happy with 160 paid all weekend for our typically "worst" weekend of the year. 502-777-238, almost 1,600. Best 3 days of the year. Of course it was the one weekend we weren't there. Took a lot of improvisation, texts, calling university students back from "seasonal retirement", hiring a new kid by text, shopping the dollar store for Sunday candy, paying a staffer's friend to bag popcorn, and plane tickets for wife + train tickets for daughter and another staffer at university booked for week 2, but we made it......I'll be damned, death of "movies" still exaggerated, given movies people actually want to see.

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Mark Strube
Master Film Handler

Posts: 322
From: Milwaukee, WI, United States
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 09-11-2017 02:54 AM

No sewer grate in front of my theater, but there is a statue...

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 09-11-2017 04:04 PM

Plain helium balloons are amazingly difficult to find here. This morning when I went to pick up the mail I thought if I could find a red balloon that I could pick up on Friday I would then ask at the city hall if I could borrow a spare storm sewer grate from the public works department (they are pretty cooperative with that sort of thing) and put that in my lobby for the weekend.

I went to both of the local flower shops, the hardware store and the dollar store. No luck anywhere. The closest thing I could find is red mylar "birthday balloons" that are the wrong shape and wouldn't have the right effect.

Shucks. It really isn't worth making a special trip anywhere else just to get a balloon, so I guess that idea is off.

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Mark Strube
Master Film Handler

Posts: 322
From: Milwaukee, WI, United States
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 09-11-2017 06:05 PM

Most "party stores" in the States have them. I got 12 for $14 including the helium at a Party City. Placed them in various areas of our theater.

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Buck Wilson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 894
From: St. Joseph MO, USA
Registered: Sep 2010

posted 09-11-2017 06:18 PM

We were incredibly busy as well. Over 2,000 on saturday. Sold out of 9 screenings of It between 6:20-10:25. Sunday night was interesting, several near-sellouts for It, but 5 of the other auditoriums ran empty.

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Jordan Feduniak
Film Handler

Posts: 4
From: Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada
Registered: Mar 2014

posted 09-15-2017 11:47 PM

Here is a storm drain at our location. One of my staff took this and even very faintly photoshopped in a Pennywise face. The image ended up being a bit too compressed to really see though.

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