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Author Topic: Curtains do you use them? Mike Olpin Chop Chop! Posts: 1852 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Jan 2002 posted 10-10-2009 02:01 PM                     Curtains need to be maintained like any other piece of equipment. Catastrophic failure at showtime is usually preventable. Each week, we walk behind the curtain and inspect the hoist cables, travel loops, and the motor to ensure that there is no wear. Spare cabling is kept on hand and cables are replaced immediately upon the first sign of wear.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 10-10-2009 03:13 PM                        Michael, I got your PM asking me the same question you are asking here, so I will answer it here. I used curtains at the Mann Chinese 16 in Aurora Colorado. It was awesome. We would close the curtains 2 minutes before the trailers started and after the movie ended. I also used them once for the movie Man on the Moon where Jim Carrey pops on at the beginning and acts as if he is leaving (which he does for nearly a minute). I closed the curtains during that part and turned up the stage lights. The curtains would begin to open again right before Jim popped back onscreen. I programmed the automation to do this for each show. The audience loved it and it really added to the effect of the movie, too bad the audience was so small for that film. Most late 90's Mann Theater builds in Denver used curtains for most if not all screens. The Bowels Crossing 12 and Colony Square 12 have waterfall curtains on all screens and the Chinese 16 has side-moving curtains on 8 screens (not sure what the proper term for that type of curtain is). I also used curtains in a similar manner for the short time I worked at The Continental in Denver during its grand "reopening". I was probably one of the few if not the only UA theater ever to make use of the curtain close barcode cue. Unfortunately all of these theaters are owned by lesser, wimpier companies now and none of them use curtains any more.  |  IP: Logged Vern Dias Film Handler Posts: 28 From: AllenTX USA Registered: Apr 2009 posted 10-10-2009 03:39 PM                        quote: Joe Redifer has side-moving curtains on 8 screens (not sure what the proper term for that type of curtain is). Commonly called a traveller. Vern  |  IP: Logged Victor Liorentas Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: london ontario canada Registered: May 2009 posted 10-10-2009 08:38 PM                     Joe that's GREAT what you did for Man On The Moon!! We have curtains at the Hyland Cinema in London and i am very proud of it! I grew up watching curtains open and close! In fact these curtains did that for about 50 years at the now demolished Capitol. I saved them in 2006 just before the demolition! The Hyland was built in 1933 with 600ish seats, closed in 1989, reopened in 2005! Jarret and i got the curtains up and running in 2007! The only theater in London with working curtains and stage lighting! Showmanship lives here!  |  IP: Logged Jarret Chessell Master Film Handler Posts: 288 From: London, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jan 2009 posted 10-10-2009 09:03 PM                     stupid installing a reverse contacting relay! (still bitter about that)  |  IP: Logged Victor Liorentas Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: london ontario canada Registered: May 2009 posted 10-10-2009 09:17 PM                     You know you loved it, i have pictures! Getting the curtains to clear the bigger screen was tough too!  |  IP: Logged Bernie Anderson Jr Master Film Handler Posts: 435 From: Woodbridge, New Jersey Registered: Apr 2000 posted 10-11-2009 07:56 AM                        Can you guys post some of your pictures? I would love to see some of these theatres.  |  IP: Logged Damien Taylor Master Film Handler Posts: 493 From: Perth, Western Australia Registered: Apr 2007 posted 10-11-2009 09:23 AM                     Cinema one, and quite well recreated metal proscenium at the Piccadilly. Originally a 1100 seater, this pictured auditorium (originally the balcony) now seats just over 450. Left hand side of stalls and area behind this screen converted to a further two characterless boxes.  |  IP: Logged Caleb Johnstone-Cowan Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 593 From: London, UK Registered: Mar 2006 posted 10-11-2009 02:11 PM                     That is so nice, and it looks like a really sympathetic conversion unlike some of the carvery done in the UK.  |  IP: Logged Rick Raskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1100 From: Manassas Virginia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 10-11-2009 05:44 PM                     quote: Jarret Chessell stupid installing a reverse contacting relay! (still bitter about that) Educate me. What is a reverse contacting relay? Are you referring to a normally closed (NC) set of contacts as opposed to normally open (NO)? In Telco land they call 'em Make for NO or Break for NC and many variations thereof. On Topic: Practically every house I worked had curtains up until they began installing those with shadowbox screens. But even those screens had colored lights on dimmers. Most houses I ran had traveler curtains and only one or two had the waterfall. I never worked a house that had both. It was a sin to let the audience see a blank screen.  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 10-11-2009 07:13 PM                        quote: Rick Raskin It was a sin to let the audience see a blank screen. That's what the ads are for!  |  IP: Logged Michael Voiland Expert Film Handler Posts: 219 From: Naperville, IL US Registered: Aug 2009 posted 10-11-2009 11:02 PM                     The company I work for has 2 locations. one is an older general cinemas 4 or 6 or 5 plex i am still debating as theaters have been rearranged. One theater has full travelers with masking behind it the other has no curtains and is a late 80s cineaplex oden location 8 plex. I am hopefully going to be transferred back to the older location with the curtain. It needs help but it would be great to use it again.  |  IP: Logged Jarret Chessell Master Film Handler Posts: 288 From: London, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jan 2009 posted 10-12-2009 12:24 AM                     reverse contactor relay... It's two contactors together (they're mechanically joined so that only one contactor can operate at a time). The point of this is to be able to reverse your polarity to change the direction of the motor. One contactor is used for curtain open, the other is for close (we have micro switch stoppers to stop the motor or you can manually stop it during open and close). Depending on your type of motor you need to reverse the starting winding (as we did). Without the starting winding the motor just hums (60Hz) and doesn't know which way to turn. The installation was very difficult (for me anyways), as the original unit was nothing like the replacement we acquired, and I had to actually wrap my head around it while trying to install it lol.  |  IP: Logged Thomas Moore Film Handler Posts: 56 From: Imperial, Mo USA Registered: Oct 2005 posted 10-12-2009 12:48 AM                        you know if it wasn't for venetian blinds, it'd be curtains for all of us  |  IP: Logged Ron Curran Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 504 From: Springwood NSW Australia Registered: Feb 2006 posted 10-12-2009 01:38 AM                        We have draw curtains and we recently installed down lights to replace the spots that used to illuminate them. They look great but most people don't see them coz they come late to miss the ads we don't show. They do require maintenance just as our projection and sound equipment does. I was brought up in an era when all theatres had curtains. Some theatres understood the impact of the punctuation possibilities on their audience. A few weeks ago, we hosted a group of high school kids from a deprived area where they only have multiplexes. The teachers wrote to say how impressed the kids were. Our curtains formed a part of that impression. Our home cinema has curtains too. Unfortunately, the little motor burnt out in a storm and we are saving our pennies to buy a proper one. They don't make economic sense. Neither does parenthood. We love our kids and we love our curtains.  |  IP: Logged

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