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Topic: Do customers like curtains?

Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 12-23-2014 03:16 AM

quote: Mike Blakesley
As most longtime readers know, my theater used to have curtains until they basically wore out and wouldn't work anymore.

I worked at a UCI 6-plex in London for a few months in 1991. All of the auditoria had curtains ("screen tabs" in British lingo), which were out of use, permanently open and disconnected from the automation system. The chief told me that they were used for about six weeks after the place opened, until the management had Carousel slide projectors installed to show adverts during the walk-in instead. At that point the curtains were left open and never used again.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 12-23-2014 05:56 AM

Mike...how much room do you have above your screen? If you have the stacking room...water-fall curtains are an option too. Just make sure you get a fast rise curtain motor speced in. Otherwise, it will take over a minute to get them to come up with typical motors/wench.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

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

posted 12-23-2014 07:23 AM

The Byrd Theatre in Richmond, VA. had (has? I have, sadly, not been there for a while) the classiest ad presentation ever, using their Brenograph slide projector. They would start with the theatre's logo opening with an "iris" effect onto the curtain, then they would raise the curtain and cycle through the ads. This would end with the theatre logo, the curtain closing, and then a "close-iris" effect as the curtain lights rose.

Mike--if/when you get curtains, try to find someone who is good with stage lighting to figure out how to light up the curtain and make it look super-classy. A creative lighting guy can do quite a bit for very little money.

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Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!

Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000

posted 12-23-2014 07:40 AM

Regarding today's audiences and curtains, I think of the reaction I saw at the El Capitan, Disney's premiere showplace theater in Hollywood, CA operated by Pacific. That theater had both a main drape and a second title curtain made out of shiny metallic streamer ribbons. During weekday screenings without the live-action stage preshow, the theater will screen a trailer package, then close the title curtain momentarily while changing the masking if needed, then open the curtain for the main feature, all accompanied with curtain lighting cues.

I attended a screening of the Studio Ghibli film Princess Mononoke there during its US first run in 1999. The bewildered audience laughed when the title curtain closed at the end of the trailer package. Guess they were unaccustomed to seeing such old-school technique leading into the feature presentation.

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Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006

posted 12-23-2014 10:15 AM

quote: Leo Enticknap
the air inside these auditoria must have been filled with tobacco smoke

Smoking in theaters was still commonplace when I started working in the 1970's.
Very often, in theatres without balconies, the return air plenum for the
heating & air conditiong systems was located either at the front of the
auditorium, or in worst case, backstage.
(causing the perforated screen to act as an ersatz air filter.

I recall that at one theater where they did this and if you went backstage
and rubbed your finger along the back of the screen, your fingertip
would actually be covered with a gummy-brown nicotine residue from
several decades of smoke-filled air.

Several years ago, I was brought in to do some work at an old San Francisco
theatre. While working, I made a comment asking if they still used their
curtain.
Not only was it never used, they didn't even know they HAD a curtain.
(and that manager had been there for at least 8 years)

So, while I was there, I did a quick check of the curtain motor and ropes,
etc, to make sure they were in functional condition, and closed the
curtain, for the first time in who-knows-how-many years.

D'oh! Unfortunately, the curtain, after being open for so many years,
had become both moth and mold-eaten. It had multiple stains and holes.
How unfortunate, as it looked like at one time it had been a nice piece
of drape. The theatre's owners were not interested in spending any money
to repair it, so we opened the curtain again & pulled the fuse outta
the curtain motor controller.

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Rick Raskin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1100
From: Manassas Virginia
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 12-23-2014 10:57 AM

Most of the theaters I worked had curtains. Open for the shorts and trailers then close to allow masking change (if needed) for the feature. It was a sin to allow the audience to ever see a blank screen. At the KB Baronet an usher would go backstage to drop the top masking for scope pictures as soon as the curtain was closed.

Then came the shadowbox screens, but those used colored lights instead of a curtain. Dim the lights 1/2 way, start the show then fade down and no lighting change after the trailers.

As Scott noted above, the Byrd did quite a classy presentation. The booth has an elaborate switchboard which is on the other end of the booth from the Brenograph. Bill would run the slides and Gary the board. On Saturday night they'd focus a spot on a mirror ball during the segue from the organ to the feature.

In my opinion a theater without curtains is just a screening room.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-23-2014 11:49 AM

quote: Scott Norwood
Mike--if/when you get curtains, try to find someone who is good with stage lighting to figure out how to light up the curtain and make it look super-classy. A creative lighting guy can do quite a bit for very little money.

Definitely. I kind of got fired up again about this a couple of months ago when we went to a comedy show at a "live" theater. This place has a black stage curtain, but they had red lights on it so it looked like a red curtain. It looked really classy. That's along the lines of what I want to do.

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Richard Orsak
Film Handler

Posts: 45
From: Hallettsville, TX USA
Registered: Sep 2007

posted 01-04-2015 02:42 PM

Hey Mike, are those Halogen lights you are using...spots?

Thanks!

Richard

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Sam Graham
AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues.

Posts: 1431
From: Waukee, IA
Registered: Dec 2004

posted 01-04-2015 02:58 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson

Warren Theaters does their curtain opening only once. They have no pre-show ad slides or dimly limit video commercials. They have house music playing between shows. That's all. Their pre-show consists of a policy trailer, maybe one or two movie trailers "attached" to the feature, a THX trailer and then the movie itself.

And the "Voice of the Theatre" a pre-show audio announcer who promotes upcoming events or movies or what not. He regularly notes "The curtain is going up" (and it does, right on cue).

The Warren IMAX has the most ridiculous curtain rising you'll ever see. There's fanfare music and a light show and everything short of pyro.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

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

posted 01-04-2015 03:06 PM

Have you had a chance to check out one of the two Grand Infinity screens at Warren's new Broken Arrow location? I'll bet the curtain opening is interesting on those screens.

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Sam Graham
AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues.

Posts: 1431
From: Waukee, IA
Registered: Dec 2004

posted 01-04-2015 06:45 PM

No. But I will later this month or next.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-04-2015 09:27 PM

Richard - they are just incandescent spots. The bulb is #4515. Those lights have been repurposed from my days as a dance DJ, we used to use them over the dance floor.

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David Buckley
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 525
From: Oxford, N. Canterbury, New Zealand
Registered: Aug 2004

posted 01-04-2015 09:29 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
Some theaters have a thin, translucent "bride's veil" like interior curtain precisely for that effect. The main curtains are one layer. The translucent curtains are on a second layer closer to the screen.

And with that you took me right back to my childhood. I can almost taste the cigarette smoke...

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Terry Monohan
Master Film Handler

Posts: 379
From: San Francisco CA USA
Registered: May 2014

posted 01-04-2015 09:50 PM

I was just thinking about all the multiplex or single screen large theatres without a nice set of moving curtains, some have no room on the top or sides so they say when I ask the owners. Now It seems like some smart digital creators can up with a digital set of curtains in all colors and styles to just sit and project on the boring white screen for what time you want after or before the ads or main feature then have them go up or sideways and show the feature. Are there any places out there to come up with something nice and easy to program in this no showmanship digital age?

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Terry Lynn-Stevens
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1081
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Dec 2012

posted 01-05-2015 10:48 AM

quote: Sam Graham
The Warren IMAX has the most ridiculous curtain rising you'll ever see. There's fanfare music and a light show and everything short of pyro.

Yikes, what's next? NBA style cheerleaders or a Warren Cinemas mascot jumping through the a flaming hoop before the show....

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