my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » Drive In / Outdoor Screen Material (Page 2)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Author Topic: Drive In / Outdoor Screen Material Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 08-22-2004 04:05 AM                        It's not very common, John. Drive-ins all have their own concession outlets, and depend on them to help pay the bills. It's bad enough that people bring in their own food (tradition!) without seeing them cooking it in the fields, too! We don't allow it because it's too darned blatant... not to mention the hazard of charcoal briquettes, carelessly dumped on the ground... or weekend warriors blowing 3 foot flames out of their gas-fired stoves! Some drive-ins have gone to a "no outside food" policy, only allowing it after purchase of a "permit"... something like $4 to $7. Their rationale is that you can't (officially) bring your own stuff into an indoor theatre, why should you be allowed to do the same in a drive-in? At other drive-ins, including mine, we prefer to rely on attracting food sales by having great products... not grossly overpriced. We find that this policy competes well enough with outside food that our snack bar does very good business. To each his own, I guess!  |  IP: Logged John Hegel Expert Film Handler Posts: 166 From: Lake Mills, Iowa Registered: Sep 2000 posted 08-22-2004 04:25 AM                        Good point that might be part of why out drive-in is not longer around. Well that and no one wanted to go through the troubles of finding a staff every year. On the same note anyone know of any abandoned drive-ins left in Iowa that are in fair condition?  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 08-22-2004 03:29 PM                     Jack, I know that Australia had drive-ins, I'll come back to that one later, and the one on my Pathe Pictorial film is in Rome, Italy, not Rome, New York! I thnk there are several reasons why they never caught on in England. I beleve there has been the odd temporary one. Firstly, our weather is not really right for it, too wet, too unpredictable. Sitting in a drive-in in the middle of Manchester, in the pouring rain would not attract many people. Secondly, they seem to have been mainly a '50s and '60s thing; Most people in Britain in those days did not own a car. There were a number of reasons for this, most journies were short, public transport systems were well-developed, and cheap, and parking space in major city centres, particularly in London, was in short supply. Also, many parts of Britain suffered major damage during the war, a great deal of reconstruction was needed, which had a higher priority than building cars and motorways. It was really in the later '60s, and early '70s that car ownership expanded rapidly. There were a number of reasons for this, some practical, and some political. Even today, there are many families in London who do not own a car. Few people who work in the centre of London drive to work. Even if they own a car, congestion on the roads, and lack of parking space mean that most people make the journey by public transport, unless they need the car as part of their job. This is in spite of the fact that public transport fares here, especially on the railways in the peak hours, are now very high. Thirdly, and probably the most important reason, because of our small size, and high population density, land values here are very high. To build a drive-in in a major city, even on the outskirts, would be extremely expensive. Drive-ins make very inefficient use of space, you need a large area per person or per ticket sold, I think it would be very difficult to make it pay here. Coming back to Australia, when I left school I became an Audio-Visual technician, for which I had to do a four year course, in the first year this was in six week blocks attending College, and working in a school. The other three years were working six month blocks at various schools, with day release to College. During that first year they sent me to work at a girls school in South London; one of the things they specialised in was gymnastics. One of the 'inmates', who had left a year or two previously, was called Elaine Willett, she had been in the British Gymnastics team at the 1972 Olympics. She was still active as a gymnast, and often used to come back to the school in the evenings to edit 8mm film which she had shot in various exotic parts of the World where this had taken her. There was another girl who was still at the school who was on the team at the 1980 Olympics, she later became a children's television presenter for a few years. This was the era of Olga Korbut, when gymgastics became very popular among young women, and major events drew large crowds. Quite often the Headmistress would come to see me just before I went home on a Friday evening. "Elaine and Suzanne are at the Albert Hall/Wembley/some other venue, on Sunday" she would say, "Go and take some pictures of them" There were plenty of other things which I would far rather have been doing on my Sunday. They always wanted the pictures in colour, the lighting wasn't very bright by photographic standards, we had to use fairly high shutter speeds and in those days 400 ASA was very fast for a colour film. We had to push it two stops to 1600. Anyway, one of the teachers had gone to Australia on holiday, and she sent us a postcard saying that the previous evening the had been to a drive-in cinema, and what should come up on the huge screen than the face of Elaine Willett; about as far from home as she could possibly get!  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 08-22-2004 10:15 PM                        Good points... and a great story, Stephen! I'm sorry if my comments indicated I didn't think there were drive-ins anywhere but the States. I do know about some of them in Australia... a couple of good ones, actually. It seems they were most popular here though, having been "invented" here, and taking advantage of the proliferation of cars. Just after the Soviet Union imploded, a drive-in was built in Russia... somewhere. I don't know if it's still around, but somebody gave it a try! Seems it would be a bit on the chilly side...  |  IP: Logged David Kilderry Master Film Handler Posts: 355 From: Melbourne Australia Registered: Sep 1999 posted 08-24-2004 08:37 PM                        OK, for the record.... I know of only one country in the world that had more drive-ins than Australia, and that was the USA. I have never seen figures for Canada, but I'm sure if they had more than the 340 that Australia had at their peak, it would not be too many more. One state, Western Australia, had 110! Here in Melbourne we had 23 and in the state of Victoria, 61. They pretty much copied their American cousins with snack bars selling hot food like hamburgers and hot dogs most had playgrounds and large screens. Ours, Lunar 3 screen Dandenong, even still has its original "walk-in". As the theatre was built in 1956, many surrounding residents did not own cars but still wanted to enjoy the drive-in experience. A walk-in was a large room with theatre seats and speakers, but with a large window at the front so the patrons could view the drive-in screen. Ours is now used as a maintenance shed, but is the only survivor I know of. Any left in the US? David Kilderry  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 08-24-2004 10:29 PM                        quote: David Kilderry Ours is now used as a maintenance shed, but is the only survivor I know of. Any left in the US? There are a couple, David... but not many. It's seen as a huge waste of space nowadays. One I'm most familiar with is the one I grew up working at. Pictures are here. It doesn't show much, but the left side of the building is the size of the projection booth on the far right. The concessions is in the middle. The Left section is a room with about 50 indoor theatre seats and a ceiling speaker. People can walk in and watch the show in that room. However, this particular drive-in is 5 miles from anywhere, so nobody would ever walk to the place. If they really wanted to watch the show from inside, they'd have to leave their cars. However, when it rains, the room actually does get some use, so some good there... I suppose.  |  IP: Logged Frank Jerkic Film Handler Posts: 77 From: Ayr Queensland Australia Registered: May 2004 posted 08-27-2004 08:35 PM                        In reply to Joshua Lott inquiry about the pinic area playground, well with my drive in I had to remove all the playground equipment from it as there seems to be this great risk of someone injuring themselves and suing. When the drive in was first built in 64 we used to have pony rides and a stable that went in the 70's, now all the swings, monkey bars,seasaw etc have had to removed or I could spend $6,000 on sum rubber matting to stop people hurting themselves, as far as a do it yourself Barbie-B-Q at the drive in its a big NONO as they might blow themselves up and its my fault failing in my duty of care or sum garbage. just offer people great food at a afforable price and change the menu monthly so they dont complain about SOS (Same old Sh**t) Combos work great here thats all I wrote Frank  |  IP: Logged Webster Colcord Film Handler Posts: 23 From: Alameda, California Registered: Oct 2003 posted 08-30-2004 03:27 PM                        I took these pictures during a trip up to Oregon a few years ago. This drive-in is right next to interstate 5 near Roseburg, and has been defunct for at least 25 years (I remember seeing it from the window of the car during a family trip when I was a kid, so I think it was still operating in the late 70's.) Keep in mind that these photos were taken from a moving car. In the first picture the building which housed the concession stand/projection booth is on the left: From a distance, the screen seems to have held up very well, considering that it's been standing in the damp Oregon weather for at least 30 years. It's made of wood, built like a barn, but I can't tell you what the screen is made of. I live in the San Francisco Bay area now, and one of only two drive-ins in this area was torn down at the peak of the internet boom ('99), to make space for some kind of office park/ mall. Well, now that commercial real estate is readily available, the construction project hasn't moved forward and in place of the Burlingame Drive-In's three screens and Dome-shaped concession stand is a big muddy hole. It took them awhile to tear down though, as the screen supports were constructed from solid steel, built to withstand the winds coming off of the bay.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 08-31-2004 11:31 AM                        Webster, That's the old "Starlight" indoor/outdoor. It was closed in 1994 or 1995... somewhat less than 25 years ago! It was an independent operation until Tom Moyer's "Luxury Theatres" moved into town. At the time, it was just a drive-in. After a local indoor house was destroyed by fire, Moyer added a single indoor auditorium, which shared the drive-in's large concession. Ownership followed the Act III/Regal changes. Not being particularly adept at drive-in operations (not to mention being 'out-booked' by a new 7-plex in town), Regal closed the operation and eventually sold the property to the local (Cow Creek) Indian tribe. I've been expecting them to level the place and turn it into parking for their casino (a very successful one). My wife (who grew up there) reminds me that the drive-in is a handy 20-mile jaunt from there, though... so who knows what they'll do with it. She also says the Indians are just hoarding land... which takes it off the local tax roles and makes the county just "love-em more"!  |  IP: Logged Webster Colcord Film Handler Posts: 23 From: Alameda, California Registered: Oct 2003 posted 08-31-2004 06:39 PM                        Jack, Thanks for setting me straight. I guess I made the foolish error of assuming that it had been out of business since the last time I saw the theater during the drive between Eugene and San Fran, which would have been 20 some years ago. It had appeared to be out of business then, but it could have been the off-season. It's very disorienting to be driving through the country and turn the corner to suddenly see that huge casino, looking like some kind of gawdy spaceship that just flew in from Las Vegas.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 08-31-2004 06:50 PM                        Chances are it could have been off-season. Most drive-ins in this part of the country are seasonal operations (most... now there's a good one... lessee... 10?) . That casino is quite a place. With the demise of the nickel smelting and the logging industries down there, the owners have become major players in the local economy.  |  IP: Logged Webster Colcord Film Handler Posts: 23 From: Alameda, California Registered: Oct 2003 posted 08-31-2004 08:08 PM                        Jack, Once while driving through the apple-growing country up above the town of Hood River, Oregon- overlooking the Columbia River- I happened upon a really terrific-looking single screen drive-in, have you ever seen that one? Up the mountain from Hood River on the way to "Lost Lake", surrounded by orchards if memory serves me correctly. Also, the Beaverton drive-in is still going strong, as far as I know (we moved to out of Oregon in '97), showing first-run movies. The Springfield drive-in closed long ago, that's the one my dad took us to as kids (usually with two of the four kids hiding under a blanket in the back of the car, getting in for free).  |  IP: Logged Aaron Sisemore Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day! Posts: 3061 From: Rockwall TX USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 08-31-2004 09:23 PM                     I was on the Starlight D/I site in April 2003. I believe Jack is right, it hasn't been closed for very long (there were 'current' (within 5-7 years) 'Movie Cash' notices on the wall of the box office) Amazingly, the place is still powered and fully equipped!!! I have pics around here somewhere, I'll post them soon as I find them. -Aaron  |  IP: Logged Phil Blake Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 558 From: esperance western australia Registered: Nov 2003 posted 09-01-2004 11:22 AM                        Both the drive ins I was associated with in western australia had screens made of the same materials. The stand made from steel pipe with steel "C" channel with 6" x 4" wood frame work attached. The Screen surface was asbestos sheeting , nailled onto the wood and painted flat white. They stood fast with all sorts of wild weather for over 20 years with no problems.The larger on being almost 100' x 70' high. Although asbestos is now outlawed , I guess "Hardie plank" cement sheets would be the modern day equivilant.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 09-26-2004 04:30 AM                        quote: David Kilderry The structure should be designed to withstand winds of around 100mph before the panels blow off, hopefully leaving the perlons and tower in place. Like this?  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.