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Topic: Grain Elevator Movies!

Dave Bird
Jedi Master Film Handler

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

posted 07-30-2001 12:06 PM

Lately on the "drive-in's forum", we've discussed some of the various "outdoor park venues" across North America (including an ironic one in Tucson where they advertise the upcoming outdoor movie on the marquee of a closed indoor there!). Here's another classic outdoor revival, mixing our passion for drive-ins with an even older tradition from the days when movies were shown on barns etc. In Bentley Alberta, halfway between Calgary and Edmonton, their fourth annual "Kroozin West" Classic Car weekend features Drive-In Movies projected onto the local grain elevator! Sat. August 11 at dusk of course, a food donation requested. Bentley is not far from
Red Deer, population of under 1,000. It is in an area of lakes and provincial parks. Sounds like a natural for a permanent DI if not for the very late sunset in that part of the country! They advertise a double-feature. Wonder when the last time a movie was shown on a grain elevator????

Dave

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Bob Maar
(Maar stands for Maartini)

Posts: 28608
From: New York City & Newport, RI
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 07-30-2001 12:22 PM

For the past six or seven years HBO has sponsored Monday Night movies in Bryant Park. Located on 42nd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. The movie begins at dusk and is free to everyone. All film is 35mm and is shown on a large screen on the 6th Avenue side of the park.

In the getto areas of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx movies are shown against the side of building usually painted white. They are sponsored by the NYC Parks Department. There is no admission for the films and most of the films are donated for showing. I know this happened for several years. I don't know if they are doing it this year.

I guess a grain elevator would make a reverse curve screen?

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-30-2001 01:41 PM

Bob,

You're thinking of a silo or maybe a grain bin. A grain elevator is a nice rectangular-shaped, tall building. Often covered with corrugated tin though, so picture quality would be so-so!

See www.country-grain-elevator-historical-society.org for lotsa pictures.

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Bob Maar
(Maar stands for Maartini)

Posts: 28608
From: New York City & Newport, RI
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 07-30-2001 02:01 PM

Mike, Thanks.....you are correct. I was picturing a silo. Can't put us city kids in the country.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 07-30-2001 02:55 PM

Has anyone operated a drive-in theatre in conjunction with a shopping mall or other industry with a large parking lot that's not normally used later in the evening? Design the parking lot with properly sloped ramps, and project the film on the side of a large white-walled building with radio sound. Instead of drive-ins becoming parking lots and flea-markets, parking lots would now become drive-ins (at least at night). Multiple use of valuable land might be a way to bring drive-ins back into vogue, closer to population centers.

------------------
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
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 07-30-2001 03:09 PM

I thought the thread was going to be about movies that had grain elevators as part of the plot line...
"Witness" had a silo scene, and now I'm trying to remember others.

JP- Most parking lots now have to have landscaping, and trees tend to obscure sight lines. I can imagine a parking lot drive-in like you suggest here in FL. Our rainstorms can easily be a couple of inches of rain or more in just a few minutes. I think of all that water funneling towards the entrance doors of the building...

Hmmm, I guess in some ways the takeup mechanism of a platter is a grain elevator.

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Matthew Bailey
Master Film Handler

Posts: 461
From: Port Arthur,TX
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 07-30-2001 10:30 PM

I've had those ideas too. How about one wall of an abandoned building
meduim to high rise or a wall of a large grain elevator to hang
a temporary outdoor IMAX screen from? The speakers would have to
be placed on scaffolding or in the windows depending on the building
behind the screen. You would have to figure out where to place the IMAX projector and the temporary structure to place it on.
Also how about projecting outdoor films on white billboards?
In some locations,you would need to place the projector on top of the embankment of a nearby overpass next to the guard rail but out of the way of passing vehicles-in other words not on the traffic side of the guard rail.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 07-31-2001 02:16 AM

Hey Matthew -

Why not just place the IMAX projector on the median to the road? As you know, IMAX film is super tough and dirt and debris from passing cars won't cause any damage. There's not even a need for a tent over the projector. The hot xenon lamp will evaporate any precipitation before it hits the equipment. Of course, it may be a lost cause since most drive-ins already have IMAX anyway.

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Matthew Bailey
Master Film Handler

Posts: 461
From: Port Arthur,TX
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 07-31-2001 06:30 AM

I meant using non-Imax projectors to project onto billboards.
Sorry,but I don't accept that comment other than what I intend.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 07-31-2001 10:50 AM

I was joking. Note the "

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Dave Bird
Jedi Master Film Handler

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

posted 07-31-2001 11:31 AM

John, I believe it is (or was) done extensively in Japan, due to the fact that there never was any available land for a drive-in (high taxes and crowding). Also, let's not forget that Texas Stadium was once a multi-screened drive-in, one screen still there......It's sad to see when areas of parks, drive-in's get "developed" because they're the only tracts available, only to cause the older factories and stores to sit abandoned and decay. Maybe you could use the newly abandoned warehouses as a screen!

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Barry Floyd
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1079
From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 08-01-2001 11:37 AM

On another note.... about using abandoned buildings as a screen for a drive-in, and the valuable land for drive-ins becoming developed....

My wife & I just "closed" yesterday on a 12 acre parcel of land for our "new-build" drive-in theatre. It's in a rural area, but after doing some research of my own, I found out that the original drive-in for this town was located just a couple of miles down the road from where we intend to build. Of course the business that now occupies the old drive-in site is also out of business and abandoned as well.

Makes you think......

------------------
Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Nashville, Tennessee
(Drive-In Theatre - Start-Up)

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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-03-2001 12:52 AM

Bob Maar:

Dockside movies at Hudson River Park!

http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/11546026/

I always thought that way too much of showing movies - letting
the screen in & out, moving the speakers, humping the film
up the balcony to the booth - was way too much like stevedoring, anyway!

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