Those idiots on the stage must be the architects. We actually bring architecture students through this theatre as an example of how NOT to design a cinema.

I've installed manually adjustable side masking, which does a nice job for 1.85, 1.66, and 1.37. But since the screen's opening is drywalled on all four sides, I fear I may have to "letterbox" scope images to get rid of fuzzy aperture lines.

That room cries for a wider screen for "scope". Looks like the present screen is about 8 feet high, so you would want a screen at least 19 feet wide.

It would also be a good idea to use black paint or carpeting on that shiny light wood stage, to avoid "contrast killing" reflection of light back to the screen.

To: Tom, As John suggested, please put a dark (black) carpet over the entire stage including the front facade.

However I cannot understand how a theater can thinks "one size fits all". If I'll go in a theater like that I'll go away immediately screaming and running!!! Unbelievable!

In Italy masking is not used often. In my theater, for example, when I project in 1:85 part of the screen is not used, white. In Florence there are more than 45 screens and one only has motorized masking.

Based on my previous experiences, nobody seems to complain if a flat movie is shown on a scope screen with several feet of black on both sides (although I will deduct 4 points for it), but every time a "letterboxed" scope trailer is printed to be shown in the flat format with black at the top and bottom, people start chattering when they see it and think something is wrong. I don't believe "letterboxing" scope onto a 1.85:1-only screen would go over well with the average customers, although it would be better than cropping to 1.85:1.

The only feasible cure for Cobb Syndrome (as I affectionately refer to it) in those long narrow auditoriums that are only 28 feet or less wide is to put adjustable top masking in place. I know top masking is disliked, but it's better than a fixed size of 1.85:1 for everything.

Evans A Criswell
http://home.hiwaay.net/~criswell/theatre/

Let me use as an example my favorite example, the Cobb Cinema 8 in Huntsville that closed last May. Read all of these details of the auditoriums and booth configuration and be amazed!

It was in a shopping center built for a grocery store. There was an A&P grocery store in the location, which Cobb Theatres chose to put an 8-screen multiplex. It was painfully obvious that the building was never intended to be a theatre. Some auditoriums were 24 feet wide with the big ones being 28 feet wide. All of the screens except one were fixed-sized with no adjustable masking and the screens were 20 feet by 10 feet to give that 2.00:1 aspect ratio for everything that we've come to love so much. One screen was 24 feet wide by 10 feet wide and had adjustable side masking, but the manager told me at the time that it stayed "out" all the time, and I guess that only scope movies were shown in that auditorium.

Every auditorium had a nice bright red exit sign right at one of the edges of the screen washing out a large portion of each screen in red light.

The port holes were not in the centers of the rears of the auditoriums, but in a rear corner of each, for maximum keystoning. One glance at the booth made it obvious why they did that. Projectors for pairs of auditoriums could be placed close to each other so that a single deck of 5 platters could feed both. That way, only 4 decks of platters were needed for the 8 projectors.

One of my favorite features of the theatre was the way the booth had to be built into the place. The walkway that went from the lobby straight back to the rear of the theatre, with 4 auditoriums on each side, did not have enough clearance between the hall ceiling and the building's ceiling to put the booth directly above the walkway. Instead, it was placed on the left side of the walkway and you went up a set of very unfinished looking steps to get to it, and the booth floor was about 4 feet higher than the walkway floor. This configuration caused the front and back auditoriums on the left side to be "L-shaped" since the booth ended at the right back corner of the front auditorium and the left rear corner of the rear auditorium. It felt very odd sitting in the rear section of those auditoriums due to the assymmetry. The 20 foot by 10 foot screens were not even centered on the front wall in those auditoriums. They were about a foot off center. There was room for 24 foot by 10 foot screens with side masking in every auditorium, but those 20 by 10s were put in every auditorium but one.

Anyway, now for the strange booth quirk: since the booth was to the left and up four feet from the walkway, running along it for most of the length of the walkway, you may wonder how the image was projected into the auditoriums on the right side of the complex. They projected the beam of light through the space over the walkway into the right auditoriums. The right auditoriums therefore probably had a 20 foot longer throw than did the left auditoriums.

Another feature of this theatre was a single aisle up the center of every auditorium, with seats going from both sides of it to the walls. There was not much slope and the seats actually started sloping upward toward the screen in the front portions of each auditoriums.

This place was a perfect example, in nearly every way, of how NOT to build a theatre. Can anyone think of ways to have so many undesirable features? Building in an old grocery store led to some of the shortcomings, but there was no excuse for others. This was a first-run theatre complex from 1982 until 1996, and then was a second-run theatre until 2000. I weep thinking of all the presentations that suffered in that place. I was actually ecstatic to see it close.

MORAL of the story: If you're going to build a theatre, do it right! The world does not need grocery store theatres!

Although Cobb's later theatres were actually designed and built as theatres from the start, the 28-foot wide auditorium with a fixed-size 1.85:1-only wall-to-wall screen was the norm in 20 of the 28 auditoriums that Cobb built here. Regal added 2 auditoriums to the Hollywood 16, making the ratio 20 out of 30 (two thirds). I wonder if we will be forever afflicted with Cobb Syndrome here. Roger Frazee, are you still around?

Evans A Criswell
http://home.hiwaay.net/~criswell/theatre/

I guess the only thing worse than a poorly designed theatre is ruining a really good theatre by crudely twinning it, as was too often done in the 70's and 80's.

One good thing about modern stadium designs is that the building is intended as a theatre right from the start. Although sometimes the smaller auditoriums in a stadium complex don't get the attention they deserve, and end up sparsely designed and unsatisfying.

About crudely twinning, look at this information given by a theatre manager in a certain small town. Since this was a private email, I have blocked out the theatre name and dates to protect the identity of the sender, since I don't want to cause any problems for him.

Here is some relevant information concerning the twinning of the theatre that was in the email message:

>I still use the original <brand deleted>
>Projectors. <irrelevant stuff deleted> I
>updated when I twinned. I use platters,
>and put in surround sound. <more deleted>
>The single screen ... was 20x40. The
>screens now are 14x28.

From this paragraph, it is clear that in the twinning, the theatre was switched from changeovers to platters. I'll bet that the two projectors being reused were aimed at the two new screens through the same portholes. I'll have to check this out and verify it if I have a chance to visit that theatre. Note the screen dimensions: 2.00:1 . Adjustable masking was not mentioned, but I'll not assume that unless I make a visit to the theatre.

Sound like a typical twinning job?

Evans

The worst twinning I ever saw was the Edwards Huntington Cinema in Huntington Beach, CA. As a single-screen, this was a wonderful theater with the seats arranged in an arc so they faced the center of the original screen. When it was twinned, they didn't bother to re-aim the seats, so they faced the end of the newly-constructed center wall. You had to turn your head to the side to view the center of the new screens. Also, the booths seemed to be constructed on plywood with little support (or something), because they acted as a sounding board and vibration from the projectors was clearly audible in the auditoriums.

I love it when the image is centered in the masking and there are four clean, crisp black borders. Hate those fuzzy edges where the image doesn't reach the masking.