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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » Change lens turret to Flat in between EVERY show? (Page 4)

 
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Author Topic: Change lens turret to Flat in between EVERY show?
Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"

Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002

- posted 07-03-2002 08:49 AM      Profile for Michael Schaffer   Author's Homepage   Email Michael Schaffer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I don`t understand how you can run the whole show in scope if the feature is in scope and in flat if the feature is flat. Don`t you show commercials? Or do you just have slides for ads and then start a trailer show and the feature? Over here, we always have about 20 minutes of flat commercials, then some trailers, a short break for ice cream sales, then the feature. So you can switch the format to scope during the break. Some theaters also play the trailers after the break, and since most of the trailers are flat, they "hotswitch" the format to scope after the trailers, but I abolished that in our new theater because I think after the break the show should start without any further nuisance from commercials or trailers. Personally, I hate trailers because they show you the whole movie. Nowadays slide shows are extremely rare in Germany, only some small theaters still have them for local ads.
Michael

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 07-03-2002 08:57 AM      Profile for Scott Norwood   Author's Homepage   Email Scott Norwood   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
In the US, trailers are available in both formats (flat and scope). Scope trailers of flat films either have black bars on the sides of the picture to mask it to 1.85 or use a sort of vertical pan-and-scan approach to the original film. Flat trailers of scope films are either "letterboxed" or panned-and-scanned from the source material.

Many of the larger chains do show commercials; these are often shot on video and printed in 35mm. Again, they are available in both formats.

Slides are quite common in the US, at least among the major theatre chains. Often the slide ads and film ads are provided by the same company. For example, NCN provides slides, film ads, non-sync music ("Movie Tunes"), and lobby brochures to AMC. There are a couple of other major ad companies as well. Some smaller theatres make up their own slides.

As you can see, it is very rare in the US to have a lens/masking change between ads/trailers and the feature.

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Ken Lackner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1907
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

- posted 07-03-2002 09:54 AM      Profile for Ken Lackner   Email Ken Lackner   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Cinema Screen Media has been renamed Regal CineMedia AFAIK.

So that's what that is! I've heard the name a few times and I've been wondering what the heck it is.

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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"

Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002

- posted 07-03-2002 07:25 PM      Profile for Michael Schaffer   Author's Homepage   Email Michael Schaffer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Thanks for the information.
I couldn`t understand the original post because it hadn`t occurred to me that you might have "ordinary" commercials in scope. It strikes me as a bit odd though to have the same commercials in two different formats. After all, the lens turrets are there to change formats qickly.
We change the format (by automation) to flat after every scope show so the masking is flat-ready at the beginning of the next show (which always starts in flat because that is the only format for comm. here). So the audience won`t see the masking move inwards when the show starts. Since more and more features are in the scope format, our turrets get a lot of exercise. That is also a bit problematic because here Kinoton projectors are very common and while they are generally good projectors, the turrets have been a weak spot on a number of different models. They would often get stuck while changing the format.
Doesn`t that mean that you have to have different commercial reels for the same screen if you play a flat movie in the afternooon and a scope one in the evening? Do you edit the reels yourselves or do you get them pre-edited every week? I also wonder why the commercial agencies take the trouble to keep dual inventories which can hardly be cost-effective.
Do you play the commercials in digital or analogue?
Michael

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Jesse Skeen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1517
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Aug 2000

- posted 07-03-2002 07:41 PM      Profile for Jesse Skeen   Email Jesse Skeen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
In the US most theaters that run ads have them on the platter at the beginning of the show. Where I worked each ad came on a separate piece of film (usually anywhere from 15 to 60 seconds long), and each ad was supposed to show a given number of weeks, starting on Friday and coming off after the last show Thursday. Most of them had Dolby Digital soundtracks, and they all came in both flat and scope formats, the scope versions were always matted on the sides (including one for Clairol that was 1.33 TV ratio!), which of course made it even sillier that they decided to have the top masking move up for the slides and move down when the first thing shown is matted on the sides!

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Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God

Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002

- posted 07-04-2002 02:21 AM      Profile for Daryl C. W. O'Shea   Author's Homepage   Email Daryl C. W. O'Shea   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Michael said:
quote:
After all, the lens turrets are there to change formats quickly. We change the format (by automation)...

Most of our theatres have had all the motors removed from their turrets on V5's so that someone doesn't accidentally rotate the turret with the gate door open and smash a lense into the door. Therefore automatically switching formats is not possible since the turret must be rotated by hand (but still locks into position like with a motor).

In Canada we also get many of our ads in scope format that aren't matted at all. Bell Mobility and Deptartment of National Defense are a few ads (of many) that aren't matted. Coke's ads are always matted though. Nearly all ads run in Dolby Digital.

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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"

Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002

- posted 07-04-2002 03:53 PM      Profile for Michael Schaffer   Author's Homepage   Email Michael Schaffer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I have hammered it into the heads of our projectionists never to rotate the turret if the gate is open - which can only be the case if the operator is in the booth and has just opened it himself. There are a few platinum rules like this one that I make them recite several times over during training, so it has never happened. Another one is "I shall remove the tape holding the end of the print immediately after I have put the print on the platter or I will burn in hell forever." Still, it seems like a good precaution to disable the turret but it would be incompatible with the projection practice over here.
By the way, we always play the whole commercial reel and the trailers in analogue at -6dB to keep the processor from switching between analogue and digital all the time. It`s also a good way to deal with annoying trailer loudness.
Michael

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Charles Everett
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1470
From: New Jersey
Registered: May 2001

- posted 07-21-2002 12:20 PM      Profile for Charles Everett   Email Charles Everett   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
It's happened again -- flat for the slides, scope for rolling stock/trailers/feature.

Where? The AMC Hamilton, yesterday on the 2:30 PM matinee of Eight Legged Freaks. Same auditorium (#9) as when I saw Bad Company.

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James R. Hammonds, Jr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 931
From: Houston, TX, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

- posted 07-21-2002 01:06 PM      Profile for James R. Hammonds, Jr   Email James R. Hammonds, Jr   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
If youre going to AMC, get used to it.
You should be by now.


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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 07-21-2002 03:03 PM      Profile for Scott Norwood   Author's Homepage   Email Scott Norwood   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I fill in sometimes as an AMC projectionist (wow, does it hurt to say that!), and I've never heard of this practice. Is it new? Maybe they haven't issued the order to the former GCC houses, yet.


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Charles Everett
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1470
From: New Jersey
Registered: May 2001

- posted 07-21-2002 03:09 PM      Profile for Charles Everett   Email Charles Everett   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
This didn't happen at the AMC Hamilton when I saw In the Bedroom (aud. #21 on 1/5), Gosford Park (aud. #2 on 1/26) or All About the Benjamins (aud. #12 on 3/9).

AFAIK this might be only in aud. #9 or -- as James speculates -- a new AMC policy.

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 07-21-2002 03:20 PM      Profile for Gordon McLeod   Email Gordon McLeod   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
It is possible that the theatres with fix side masking need to raise the top masking to flat for the slide presentations

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Jesse Skeen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1517
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Aug 2000

- posted 07-21-2002 03:22 PM      Profile for Jesse Skeen   Email Jesse Skeen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
How nice to see this come back up exactly one year after this all went down, eventually causing me to get out of the theatre business for the first time in 10 years. I'm still at my new job and pretty happy, but miss the theatre business and will get back in as soon as the right thing comes along (a few months ago I got an offer to come back to my old theatre but they weren't able to give me health benefits so I had to turn them down.)
If anyone knows how this theatre is doing these days, please let me know, as I still care about the place believe it or not. I still think the practice of changing the masking for slides is just plain wrong, though.

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John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

- posted 07-21-2002 07:00 PM      Profile for John Walsh   Email John Walsh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
At our chain, most of our projector automations change the lens turret to flat at the end of every show. It's done to make the slide projector ads look better. This would be tough to *not* do, since one "flat" relay has the contacts for both the turret and the masking.

Some of our theaters use the CineQ automation. With these, the masking and the turret can be controlled separately. This automation has a microprocessor that executes script files. I'm currently re-writing the script files for several things, one of which is to return the masking to flat without rotating the turret.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

- posted 07-21-2002 08:26 PM      Profile for Brad Miller   Author's Homepage   Email Brad Miller       Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
"I shall remove the tape holding the end of the print immediately after I have put the print on the platter or I will burn in hell forever."

And that's why I make it mandatory for a minimum of 20 feet of acetate tail leader on any plattered print. Even if they do forget and leave the tail taped, it won't knock rollers out of alignment and cause damage. Being acetate tail, it will just snap.


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