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

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Digital Cinema Forum   » cinema screen size to small? (Page 2)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Author Topic: cinema screen size to small? Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 04-02-2016 07:13 AM                     There are small screens like this that receive praise from patrons and are sold out every night. However, only after having spent a decent amount of money into a club-like surrounding, chairs, not as shown just the bare essentials. It is not the screen size that makes a cinema worth attending. Of course, even with a luxury outfit, it will always be a niche. And even if you can charge twice or three times as much for tickets, you will only be able to sell maybe 20 to 30 per show... - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Mark Ogden Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 943 From: Little Falls, N.J. Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-02-2016 08:52 AM                     A screen that size can make reasonable bank playing exclusive runs of art/alternative/foreign/repertory titles where the audience doesn’t expect or need the whole big-screen experience, and is just happy for the ability to see the picture at all. Nobody in their right mind would go there to see Star Wars or Batman v. Superman, but you may just go to see Mountains May Depart, or Cemetery of Splendor, or Embrace of the Serpent, or any other obscure, low distribution title. In New York City, the enormously popular Film Forum has some screens that are not much larger than the one in the above picture (which for the record is Screen #2 at the Four Star Cinema on Clement Street in San Francisco). Nevertheless, the audience that the theatre gets doesn’t mind, because the kind of programming they show doesn’t lend itself to the whole PLF/IMAX/AMCPrime/RPX/Atmos/DolbyVision thing anyway. I saw the shot-on-16mm Carol on a screen just a little larger than this, and it worked fine. You wouldn't want an immersive big-screen experience for something like that anyway, it would probably even work against the picture given the intimate content.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 04-04-2016 04:33 PM                     To me, it's not really the screen size that matters, it's the field of view that's covered which counts most. Theater geometry matters much more than size. An unobstructed view at the screen is also very important as is a comfortable viewing position. Nobody likes to raise their head for two hours or more. Most people have a hard time guessing how big a screen actually is. IMAX figured that one out, they design their theater geometry to make their screens look bigger than they actually are.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-04-2016 04:50 PM                     The name IMAX stands for Image Maximization  |  IP: Logged Mike Schulz Expert Film Handler Posts: 122 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: May 2007 posted 04-04-2016 06:27 PM                     quote: Mark Ogden Here is an actual US cinema auditorium that does a fair amount of business. Will it be any smaller that this? Holy crap! That has to be the Los Feliz 3. It used to be a single screen theatre that got butchered into a 3-plex in the 90's according to Cinema Treasures. I saw a screening in a room that looked exactly like this picture and it was quite hilarious. I think it was Atonement so it's been a while since I was there. They were also running mono+surround DTS so that just made the experience so much more incredible. Anyway, I hope your room doesn't turn out like that, it was pretty awful. It was extremely narrow and they had to put the screen way up high so it could go above an exit if I remember correctly.  |  IP: Logged Mark Strube Master Film Handler Posts: 322 From: Milwaukee, WI, United States Registered: Feb 2007 posted 04-05-2016 07:19 PM                        Mono + Surround DTS? How strange. So does that mean it's a DTS soundtrack with the 3 front channels collapsed to one mono channel?  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 04-06-2016 04:02 PM                     If you design your auditorium like a tunnel, you probably are not helping anybody by adding more than a single front speaker. As a bonus to the experience, you might want to hand out some of those classy binoculars.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-06-2016 11:16 PM                        I remember arguing with my old business partner about that. He didn't think our screen/auditorium was wide enough to warrant stereo sound. (The screen is 30 feet and the auditorium's about 32 feet wide.) He said, "you won't even be able to tell it's stereo unless you're sitting in the front half." So after he was gone I went ahead and put the stereo in and proved him wrong.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 04-11-2016 04:20 PM                        There is no shame in refusing to build a crappy cinema. There IS shame in paying for and building a room that you know in advance is low grade. All of your rooms will be judged by the bad ones. Consider your reputation. The best seat has always been defined as 1.5 times the width in scope. Where do you want that to be? The front row? The back row? I always liked it to be about 3/4 of the way back. In a 100 foot room, a 50 ft screen would put the best seats at 75 feet. Usually for film it was 85mm on the scope lens.  |  IP: Logged Lyle Romer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1400 From: Davie, FL, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 04-12-2016 05:37 AM                     quote: Marcel Birgelen Most people have a hard time guessing how big a screen actually is. IMAX figured that one out, they design their theater geometry to make their screens look bigger than they actually are. You can get a pretty accurate guess by counting the ceiling tiles and noting the orientation. I guess a lot of people don't pay attention to the standard ceiling tile sizes.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 04-12-2016 12:46 PM                        quote: Marcel Birgelen To me, it's not really the screen size that matters, it's the field of view that's covered which counts most. My thoughts exactly. My feeling is the screen size relative to the auditorium should be such that when sitting in the middle of the auditorium I can view the entire screen without having to turn my head side to side, but the screen will pretty much fill my field of view. The problem with the picture on page one isn't so much the screen size as the distance from the screen for some of those seats.  |  IP: Logged Gary Lightfoot Film Handler Posts: 20 From: Caterham, Surrey, UK Registered: Apr 2015 posted 04-21-2016 05:45 AM                     THX recommends that the furthest seat be no more than 3.68 x the screen height (of a scope screen), which gives a 36 degree horizontal viewing angle. They say that a 26 degree viewing angle is the furthest acceptable. This diagram is often used and shows many of the recommended seating/viewing recommendations along with screen height relationship and horizontal viewing angles.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

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.