Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How does AMC get away with something like this? (projection off centre)

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

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Operations » Film Handlers' Forum » How does AMC get away with something like this? (projection off centre) (Page 2)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2

Author

Topic: How does AMC get away with something like this? (projection off centre)

Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 12-13-2010 01:54 PM

Doesn't it amaze you that this industry has SURVIVED this long with folks like this running things? Louis

| IP: Logged

Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover

Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 12-13-2010 01:59 PM

quote: Louis Bornwasser
Doesn't it amaze you that this industry has SURVIVED this long with folks like this running things? Louis

I will be honest, however they did it. It was hard to notice, and the presentation wasn't all that bad. I am surprised how far back most people like to sit and most people like to look down at the screen.

I sat centre of the screen and happened to look back and I noticed that the projector was not centre with me. It was quite a bit off centre.

| IP: Logged

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 12-13-2010 06:52 PM

I wrote this about the film projection setup of one auditorium at Cinemark's Carefree Circle in my Snakes on a Plane review a few years ago:

quote:
The projection sucked ass. Sure, the image was reasonably bright (at least a lot brighter than that very dim Cinemark First Look video thingie before the feature). But the damned image was badly keystoned on the screen. It was like a projected parallelogram slanting downward from left to right. On top of that, this was a fixed width auditorium with vertical masking. Guess what? About 15% of the freaking image at top was projected onto the curtains. And there was a nice blank space on the bottom of the screen. Yay! The projection port was way the hell above the last row of seats in this stadium seated auditorium.

I forgot to add the projection port appeared to be a bit off center. And the fixed width screen was noticeably curved, which made the keystone issue even more impossible to correct. That particular auditorium is one of the houses nearest the IMAX theater on the North side of the complex. So it seemed more important for the building designers to stick the 35mm projection setups on the same booth floor level as the IMAX setup. Never mind how it would affect the projection quality in those traditional houses!

I can understand (but can't really forgive) off center projector ports in a former single screen, but now twinned auditorium. I don't see the justification for sticking the projector/port in a less than optimal position in any new movie theater build. There is no excuse. The theater auditorium should be designed around the projector's most optimal position and distance from the screen. All other considerations should be secondary. That sort of thing has to be done with a special venue setup like an IMAX Dome theater because the setup just isn't going to work at all otherwise. It's too bad too many regular movie theaters are designed in whatever way and the projector/screen setup is just made to fit as an afterthought.

| IP: Logged

Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 12-14-2010 06:26 AM

Normally the building is built and I have to do the best I can.

Ideally, the seating plan and the projection dimensions are FIRST. All others are last.

Remember that sometimes the projection equipment isn't even ordered until the last 2-3 weeks or so. Really good stuff has a longer lead time. You sometimes have to take whatever will make the opening. Not a great way to run a railroad! In the heyday of National Amusements, the plans and the equipment never varied. I kept 40+ screens worth of equipment in stock so that we always had available what we needed. Louis

| IP: Logged

Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-14-2010 08:46 AM

Louis... I just went through just that... take what you can get to get open. Not even many of the big box vendors stock much equipment these days... In our case Franklin did the wall coverings but all we could get was black. And actually all black theaters are way cool to watch movies in and we'll probably do it again as a result... The rest of the gear... Projection, audio, and aisle lights arrived with plenty of time to spare.

| IP: Logged

Michael Brown
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1522
From: Bradford, England
Registered: May 2001

posted 12-14-2010 10:40 AM

Strangest thing I've ever seen was at an old tri-plex ABC cinema (My visit was about 15 years ago, the cinema is currently closed). The screen itself was off center. The actuall curtains in from of the screen were straight but once they opened the screen was off center (one side was closer to the audience than the other).

This was a sigle screen that has been trippled. Could this be to reduce a key-stone, if the projector was forced to be off-center possible they installed the screen off-center to match up?

| IP: Logged

James Westbrook
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1133
From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa
Registered: Mar 2006

posted 12-14-2010 11:36 AM

The long gone Winchester theater in Lubbock, which was modeled after the Pacific's Cinerama theater in Hollywood though it never had the capability of Cinerama - it did have 70mm capability - was an awesome round single screen building that was twinned in 1980 by Video Independent "in an effort to be competitive." It was here I discovered first hand the definition of "key stone" as both auditoriums suffered from it in flat and scope.
I asked the manager of the Winchester back then if they could run interlock and he replied "If we were wanting to do THAT we never would have twinned the auditorium!"

| IP: Logged

Rick Raskin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1100
From: Manassas Virginia
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 12-14-2010 01:39 PM

There were 3 theaters in DC that used periscopes to overcome projection problems. The Town overcame low height ports in the balcony, the Janus shot around a column and the Cerberus because the booth was on the floor above the auditoria. It seems that such could have been done in the theaters described above.

| IP: Logged

Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-15-2010 09:55 PM

I am pretty sure that I once owned the projectors that were in that theater... They were Vic-10s.

| IP: Logged

Andy Frodsham
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 238
From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK
Registered: Nov 2006

posted 05-30-2011 01:12 PM

Within reason, the use of persicopes is even worse than off-centre projection!

| IP: Logged

Andres Briano
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 162
From: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Registered: Jan 2008

posted 05-31-2011 01:11 PM

quote: Louis Bornwasser
In the heyday of National Amusements, the plans and the equipment never varied. I kept 40+ screens worth of equipment in stock so that we always had available what we needed.

Louis,
I was wondering what year you were talking about?
Andrés

| IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2

Printer-friendly view of this topic

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.