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Author Topic: Do customers like curtains? Terry Monohan Master Film Handler Posts: 379 From: San Francisco CA USA Registered: May 2014 posted 01-06-2015 12:24 PM                     Another Idea I had on digital fake curtains projected on a blank white screen have them move a little on the bottom like a small draft or wind is blowing them. This will make them look more real. Also lets see who does the best digital tricks like a little dog or cat looking out once In a while out of the middle curtain seam. Your family crowd will love this added curtain feature. Please no rats or mice. Just before the movie starts turn the LED color on the bottom of the phony drapes to a dark Purple/Red/Blue and dim them.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-06-2015 02:02 PM                        Digital curtains would be cool IF they were video of real curtains. There are a couple of "curtains opening" videos on YouTube that are stupid-looking because it's just a picture of curtains that divides in the middle and the two halves just glide outwards. Not realistic at all.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-06-2015 04:48 PM                     Mike look at one of the Smilebox Blu-Rays...in particular the one for This Is Cinerama. They actually shot real curtains opening and then used them to open the video...they have the right amount of "flutter" and everything as they settle.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 01-06-2015 05:10 PM                     You will also need at least two versions of your phony digital curtains, a scope and a flat version, because I guess you don't want to change formats after the opening of your digital curtains?  |  IP: Logged Pravin Ratnam Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 844 From: Atlanta, GA,USA Registered: Sep 2002 posted 01-07-2015 08:39 PM                     As a guy who loved watching movies in the cinemas ever since I was a little kid, love the old style cinemas, and all, I gotta say while it is nice to have, it is not a major factor in allowing me to choose one theater over the other. Just give me a great projected image. A clean theater. Comfortable chairs. Good sight lines. Easy parking. And I am happy. Also, I hate it when some theaters used to close the curtains between previews and the main features. What's up with that? You can't do redo that affect. What is the screen? Some stripper who is already undressed, then dresses up again and then undresses? It is kind of classy to see the curtains open. But I don't give a damn to see them close. I am out of the theater before the closing credits end anway. The only time aesthetics of the screen bother me is those mini Imax screens that are unmasked and look like someone hung a huge piece of white drywall in front of the real screen. So I guess curtains are cool to have. But other than showcase screens in a multiplex or a single theater arthhouse which needs the ambience, I don't blame if owners want to some cost cutting on them.  |  IP: Logged Mark Hajducki Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 500 From: Edinburgh, UK Registered: May 2003 posted 01-08-2015 10:28 AM                     quote: Pravin Ratnam I hate it when some theaters used to close the curtains between previews and the main features. What's up with that? Closing the curtains between the preshow and feature is good showmanship, it is a good signal to the audience that the main feature is about to start. In one venue I worked the lens changes were manual, no turrets etc., so closing the curtains gave enough time to do that.  |  IP: Logged Pravin Ratnam Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 844 From: Atlanta, GA,USA Registered: Sep 2002 posted 01-08-2015 04:13 PM                     It just comes across as timeconsuming for me. We have already seen the screen.I would rather see fewer ads so that when we come on time, we are greeted by a screen covered with a curtain. Then it opens in a grand manner. Closing the curtain once you have already seen some previews and then opening them just seems contrived to me. More power to those who enjoy it.But I am just giving feedback as a consumer that even a traditional moviegoer likes me who appreciates aesthetics in the auditorium doesn't care for the curtains closing and then opening again. We have been watching that screen for 5-15 min already. So there is no mystique in anything getting revealed as those curtains close and reopen. Once before the promos is enough.  |  IP: Logged Rick Raskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1100 From: Manassas Virginia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 01-08-2015 04:34 PM                     It was policy to never let the audience see a white screen or adjustments to masking. Closing curtains between the shorts and the feature allowed the masking change to be invisible. Okay, so what about if everything was flat? The policy was to close the curtains anyway. It added a degree of showmanship sorely lacking in all but a few of today's theaters.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-08-2015 06:14 PM                     quote: Steve Moore It's good when changing from w/s/flat/1.85 etc to scope to close the curtains and then open out to the wider picture for impact -if you are lucky enough to have common height. I was Chief Projectionist at our 1100 seat palace and we had scribs and waterfall curtains. Plus, we had full adjustable maskings - vertical and horizontal maskings with numerous stops to go from full 1.37:1 academy down to 2.55:1 for full Mag Scope releases. Course, we had the preview reel in flat. Thus, on CinemaScope features, the curtain cues were added to the last trailer for us to close the scribs (title curtains), do the masking change, then the changeover would show the trademark on the scribs as they were opening. Feature ending was the same: curtain cues to bring in the scribs and when the scribs were halfway closed, to drop the main waterfall curtain. It was a total and unforgivable sin to have a bare screen exposed. To the public, the screen never existed, but a "portal" of sorts to be opened for the public for their viewing entertainment. THAT was showmanship to the letter handed down for generations at this theatre. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-08-2015 06:57 PM                        quote: Monte L Fullmer It was a total and unforgivable sin to have a bare screen exposed. Yes. I can still hear my old boss lecturing me: "You absolutely NEVER, EVER let the audience see a blank screen." He put the same importance on that as keeping the carbon arcs steady. As a kid I never quite got why it was so important but now I do and to this day I hate it if the screen ever goes blank or if patrons happen to start coming in before I get the "curtain lights" turned on.  |  IP: Logged David J Hilsgen Expert Film Handler Posts: 192 From: SAUK RAPIDS,MN . USA Registered: Aug 2004 posted 01-08-2015 07:09 PM                     I have curtains in all 12 screens here at the willow creek in plymouth, mn. all still working.do all my own repair work ,the last 25 years. they are the water fall type ,the audience loves them.i also have top & side motorize masking, , i do the curtain calls ,this use to be a cineplex odeon theatre & was 8 screens. when mullers bought it & added 4, they did right & put curtains in the new 4 theatres even though we have screen ads.  |  IP: Logged Geoff Jones Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 579 From: Broomfield, CO, USA Registered: Feb 2006 posted 01-08-2015 08:02 PM                        David, I was in MN late last year for business and arranged my trip so that I could see Interstellar at your theater. I was staying at the La Quinta around the corner. Frontier screwed up my flight and I got in too late. Now I'm even more bummed. It sounds like a classy place. I love curtains. They add to the magic. I hate screen ads before a movie. They feel cheap. But what I really hate are marks on the screen. It's terribly distracting when there is a scratch or blotch or smear or something. It's also very common. And I suspect that most of those marks would not be there if a curtain was protecting the screen between shows.  |  IP: Logged Pravin Ratnam Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 844 From: Atlanta, GA,USA Registered: Sep 2002 posted 01-08-2015 08:03 PM                     I think the customers seeing the masking expand the width of the screen in common height screens is actually a good effect. Whenever the screen gets wider, I remember my friends and others around me being impressed that the screen got much bigger. It doesn't work so good when the top and bottom masking is used for common width screens though.  |  IP: Logged Mark Hajducki Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 500 From: Edinburgh, UK Registered: May 2003 posted 01-08-2015 08:46 PM                     quote: David J Hilsgen I have curtains in all 12 screens here at the willow creek in plymouth, mn. all still working.do all my own repair work ,the last 25 years. they are the water fall type Can you make some videos of these? Film_Tech would probably host these (and a theatre tour) if you don't want to youtube them. I have only seen rail based transverse and flown curtains (in live theatre). When was this site built (the 8 and the final 4)? My local 1930 former (UK) Odeon had curtains in all 5 post-split screens until its close, including the (now demolished) screens built on its former stage area in 1990.  |  IP: Logged David J Hilsgen Expert Film Handler Posts: 192 From: SAUK RAPIDS,MN . USA Registered: Aug 2004 posted 01-08-2015 09:53 PM                     Mark it started construction in dec 1987 opened may 5 1989 the other 4 opened dec 2002 i`ll have my co worker in the booth do some videos sometime  |  IP: Logged

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