Personally, I like to let the credits establish themselves first, then bring the lights up to a low preset. I have also on certain occasions, gone back and moved the cue if I find a better spot for the lights to come up after I've run it.

What's the general consensus here?
 

I wish we did have a lights to mid feature. I worry about those little old ladies stumbling out of my theatre.
 

...especially if you're the one paying the insurance premiums.

 

What's worse, however, is when the lights are left up during the trailers. I really hate that!
 

I enjoy the credits also and used to leave the lights down until the curtains touched. (Ahhh...curtains...)

Unfortunately, the insurance factor is an anwinnable argument when fighting for the cause with management.
 

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To appease those who wanted to walk in during the trailers or walk out during the credits, I would raise the aisle lights to full intensity. We had strings of lights running down each edge of the carpet down each aisle and they could be quite bright with minimal effects on the screen. And everyone could see where their feet were! It was a perfect compromise. Either automation cannot handle a separate circuit for aisle lights or everyone's lazy, but I've never seen a house lighting system as nifty as the one I was operating manually at that theatre.
 

In theaters which have only one dimmer pack I prefer to at least go in and slow the dim rate a bit to make things more smooth. Half lights during the trailers and credits are a MUST for stadium seating theaters and insurance purposes.

There is nothing more annoying to me than ceiling lights that do not extinguish all the way, as I wear glasses and the lights can reflect on my lenses which is an incredible distraction. I also cannot stand wall lights that are placed too close to the screen so that they wash out the sides of the image. Those lights should be removed completely.

Ushers in my opinion should not even be allowed into the theater until the rating tag is over!
 

As for the lights to mid cue, I like to put mine after the director's name if that is the first credit. It works best when the director's name appears stationary, fades away, and then the rest of the credits start to roll. Slow fading of lights is a MUST. When they come up too quick, it literally jolts you back into reality instead of bringing you back softly and peacefully. Same with the lights fading out. If they fade too quickly, you don't experience the anticipation of seeing a cool movie.
 

Our automation uses a Center cue (Proximity) for lights up to 1/2. I HATE that! You can see it on the screen! I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to hide it. Here's what I've discovered:

1) If the end of the movie "hard cuts" to black, that's easy. The sudden darkness makes it very hard to notice if you make the cue small. Just put it on the first frame line after the "cut".

2) If the film is hard matte in FLAT, make the cues small enough to fit in the black space between frames. If your automation needs a sustained pulse put 3 or 4 of them right in a row. (Provided your automation doesn't interpret that as something else. -- My failsafe/detector (FM-35) interprets any string of cues that are less than 5 frames apart as if it were one long cue.)

3) If it's "Credits-over-picture" (I HATE that!) put your cue sideways along the frame line. If you think your fs/det will miss that, stack them as above.

As far as I know, most proximity sensors are capable of operating in the KHz range with a delay of =< 1 milisecond between pulses. A piece of 5/16 foil tape moving at 18 inches/sec is well within that range. The limiting factor is, "Can your automation pick up the pulse?"

...Opinions?
 

SWAP THE WIRES! That's it. Just swap the wires coming from the cue detector into the automation.

This way you can use an outboard to lower the lights/pulse into digital and an inboard to raise the lights at the end credits and save that obtrusive center cue for shutdown in the end credits.

 

I discussed "contrast killers" in the article I wrote for the December 1999 issue of "Film Notes for Reel People":
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/newsletters/reel/december99/pytlak.shtml

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Professional Motion Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
 

If you really want to get rid of that center cue you might consider our QX-10 accessory. This decodes binarily the various combinations of the three cues into seven outputs. You could then use a number "5" cue (an outboard plus an inboard) an have nothing in the center. Please note, however, that this circuit works differently than the FM-35 by itself and you would lose the ability to stretch our the cues by multiple applications. If this is a major problem, we could easily modify the time constants in the QX-10. There is more on this at:
http://www.componentengineering.com/webdocs/qx10instructions.pdf

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Bill Purdy
Comonent Engineering

 

Russ

 

I saw Scary Movie at a single screen independant cinema in Jindabyne (Australia). First of all, 5 mins into feature the house lights came up to half (even though the cinema was full) and stayed there for 2 mins. Then, at the end of the film, the cue brought the house lights up before the film had ended (Cindy is screaming no and twirling about on the road). But wait, the best is yet to come. After the "Written by" credits, a "please put your rubbish in the bins provided" slide came up on screen. Then the 'projectionist' shut the dowser plate, so the soundtrack kept going but the credits were not on screen (but that dumb slide was). This was with half the cinema still seated. In my opinion, doing this to any movie is criminal (is it illegal?), and considering Scary Movie has that scene at the end of the credits I think this is pathetic.

What's the go? I've seen better showmanship at a major chain 12-plex than this.

Michael.

Carefully remove adhesive residue with a film cleaner like FilmGuard.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
 

quote:

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will GREATLY lessen their chance of being seen onscreen and will still work if you have the sensitivity adjusted right.

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Better Projection Pays!