Killers of the Flower Moon, suggested intermission time

[Jason Sharp]

Does anyone know of a good intermission time for Killers of the Flower moon?

[Ed Gordon]

The best time to take a bathroom break during Killers of the Flower Moon occurs when Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Ernest Burkhart, is taken into custody by the FBI. Although there is some relevant information that comes during the interrogation process, the scene goes on for quite a while and is set up for the actual trial that comes afterward. Viewers who take a pee break at this point should not miss too much from Killers of the Flower Moon unless the decision to step out of the theater takes longer than expected.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/cel...ak/ar-AA1ir4rZ

[Marcel Birgelen]

I simply don't understand why a new Scorsese movie with an average playtime of 5 days, 23 hours and 25 minutes, and clearly targeted at an older demographic (that may favor some extra toilet breaks) doesn't come with a dedicated intermission or at the very least an advice from the director at what timestamp to stage an intermission...

[Mike Blakesley]

Somebody should pinpoint an exact stop time and put it on here. Then a theatre could put up a sign saying the movie will stop for intermission at x:xx.

Yes I realize that doing this is probably a contract violation. But I doubt the future home video watchers will sit for three hours plus without stopping for a visit to the whiz palace.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Seems like I always need to visit that room once in a two hour movie. So I probably won't see that one in a theater... Even though the near by AMC has close by "rooms", That theater will ruin the experience of seeing the film.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Yes I realize that doing this is probably a contract violation.

You could argue that not allowing for a break is some kind of a "health code violation" as you're essentially not giving anybody the opportunity to visit "the backrooms" for a pretty lengthy time. Anyhow, there probably is a law somewhere covering this that can be used to your advantage and in absence of such a law, I'd claim force majeur... someone pushed the emergency shutdown button to avoid a cleanup-in-aisle-5 situation!

[Mike Blakesley]

It would look too "video-ish" though to just pause the movie. I'd hate to do that. I'm not sure why NATO (or some other well-meaning outfit) hasn't pushed for intermissions to at least be included as an option in movies over 150 minutes.

[Terry Monohan]

Many years ago (1970's) at the Syufy owned domed Cinerama type theatres in San Jose CA old man Ray Syufy was caught putting in a fake intermissions into a long non roadshow film to sell more candy, drinks and popcorn. He got caught by the distributors and was told to stop or they would pull all films in the future.

I believe theatre owners would like a intermission put in like the old roadshow days to sell concession items during extra long movies. It may cause trouble with people coming and going to the lobby with the hall ticket takers If they still have them and how long does a bathroom candy counter break need to be these days.

In the 70mm roadshow days (1950's - 60's) I think It was 15 minutes plus time for the pre show 2nd half music intro with curtains closed. Now in todays crowded lobby it may take longer to get food ,visit the rest room or walk down long halls or floors to reach the lobby. I hope If this does ever happen on a future 4 hour plus movie they don't start showing ads during the pre set intermission edited into the movie.

Very few cinemas don't have any showmanship and will just show a blank white screen instead of color lights on a screen during the short break. Forget curtains you will have to go to Europe to see these still used.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Around here, many exhibitors are putting in an intermission into almost every movie they play. It's an expected practice and a much appreciated one. Even though it increases sales for concessions, I'd say that most patrons don't really complain about that, as many actually like the opportunity to refill their drink or popcorn and nobody forces them to do so. So, this is a win-win.

The only party seemingly not bothering following that custom is ONE of the international chains operating around here, the other major two chains DO put in intermissions at MOST of their locations. If you would not put in a simple intermission of ~10 minutes into a movie like this, people will start to complain en-masse. It's seemingly also still a custom in some areas in the UK to put in an intermission, maybe Marco and/or Leo or someone else either from the U.K. or with some strong knowledge of local U.K. traditions may chime in.

I've never heard about a studio complaining about the practice. Also, I wouldn't really know why they would be bothered too much with the practice. Would they really bother about some random arrogant director breathing down their neck because the holy unity of their masterpiece has been slaughtered by splitting it into two? Are they losing any substantial money because movies now take 10 minutes longer to play? Or are they gaining potential revenue because people actually are coming back because they're getting what most of them want: An opportunity to take bathroom break without missing a potential substantial part of the movie?

So, I'd actually promote the practice, especially for movies exceeding the 130 to 150 minute threshold. The only thing that bothers me, is that those self-staged intermissions are now randomly chosen on behalf of the exhibitor and those choices aren't always the best (a slight understatement). Therefore I'd really love if the studio/director would consider reality to be a thing and give some advice regarding a preferred intermission time.

It would look too "video-ish" though to just pause the movie. I'd hate to do that. I'm not sure why NATO (or some other well-meaning outfit) hasn't pushed for intermissions to at least be included as an option in movies over 150 minutes.

You don't need to pause the movie on screen. All current servers support some form of intermission program that allows you to execute macros, so you can always close the dowser and mute the sound before stopping playback and you usually also can play a custom "intermission playlist" if you want to make it more sophisticated.

[Mike Blakesley]

Yeah but it will still not "look right." Very few movies have a fade-to-black with silence anymore. To just stop in the middle - even with a closed douser -- would look sloppy and jarring.

I do believe most studio master contracts insist that the movie be played all the way thru, including credits, without interruption or editing. (This may vary by country.) I doubt if any studio is going around checking, however. But if a director's second cousin happened to be in an audience and decided to complain to his famous relative, a stink could be raised.

[Marcel Birgelen]

My preferred way of doing so is roughly as follows:

- Start raising the house lights (hopefully on a progressive dimmer) and lower the sound about 4 seconds before you stop the movie. If there are curtains, start closing them around the same time.
- After ~4 seconds, first close the dowser, then stop/pause the movie.
- Reopen the dowser and start the intermission playlist, usually just containing the words "Intermission/Pause/Pauze" and a 10 or 15 minute timer. Preferably in the right format, scope or flat.
- Open the dowser back up, if there are curtains, project the "slide" with timer over the curtain. I think this looks great.
- Fade to 2 or 3 for the intermission soundtrack.

Before continuing the show:
- Close dowser.
- Rewind the movie about 10 seconds or what fits best.
- Fade sound to correct level
- Open curtains
- Open dowser
- Resume the movie. Even if parts of it are still projected on the opening curtains, I think it looks pretty classy..

Depending on your automation and particular equipment, this may need some fine-tuning, but you can make it look pretty professional, unless you choose a right timeslot for your intermission. The rest of your "showmanship" can be great, but it's like a DJ that missed the beat of the new track he's playing if you stop the movie at an inconvenient time: If you mess that part up, it's a messed up situation anyway, no matter how great the rest of the "show" is.

I do believe most studio master contracts insist that the movie be played all the way thru, including credits, without interruption or editing. (This may vary by country.) I doubt if any studio is going around checking, however. But if a director's second cousin happened to be in an audience and decided to complain to his famous relative, a stink could be raised.

I don't have access to all those contracts, but the ones I've seen, do have a similar clausule in them. I think they state something like "unnecessairy interruptions". It's an argument I've used against those who don't run the entire credits. There is some leeway in how you explain "unnecessairy".

[Mike Blakesley]

I never thought about doing it using multiple playlists. That's an idea I might have to try out.

[Philip Jones]

Depending on what server you have, you can just build it into the show - you just choose the point it goes to the intermission playlist and then have all the cues in there as well as an on screen 'Intermission' title or whatever you want. You can then have it pause on black until you are ready to restart the show for the second half and it'll do all the cues to put lights down, reopen curtains etc. Some places I've seen just go to a preset amount of time and even have a countdown on screen so the audience know how long they have.

On the DSS200 line you can schedule the intermission to the millisecond, but on the Dolby IMS line you can only use whole seconds. I don't have experience with the other servers out there

[Scotty Wright]

Schoonmaker is gonna come after y’all.

[Scotty Wright]

Paramount and Apple on the hunt too