Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Black box auditorium

This is topic Black box auditorium in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Amanda Mundin (Member # 3386) on 10-17-2005, 09:51 AM:

Hi i'm renovating a cinema for opening in January next year and will be using a material covered mineral fibre/foam on the 3 visible auditorium walls above dado level, my idea was to use a black fabric to cover the fibre/foam this giving the least amount of light reflection and distraction to the audience during the film, and also maximising contrast & picture quality etc.
Any opinions on the above would be greatly appreciated, also anyone who has or know of any 'black box' auditoriums what are they like?

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 10-17-2005, 10:22 AM:

Your idea is valid on the screen wall and maybe 20 feet down the side wall.

However, an all black cinema will be one of the most depressing rooms you have ever visited. Not only is side lighting mostly dependent on some localized reflections to cover, but point-source lighting will be perceived as all glare.....like in a mine.

Your idea is good to consider, but I think the perceived problem (reflections) is not a real problem unless there is some major flaw in the projection engineering.

You have a number of decent dealers in the UK. They should be consulted during the design phase. Louis

Posted by Dan Harris (Member # 1759) on 10-17-2005, 10:58 AM:

Amanda, who are you using for acoustic wall coverings? We use Soundcheck UK for most projects - they have a lot of cinema experience and have a huge range of appropriate fabrics.

Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 10-17-2005, 11:11 AM:

Some of the new build Odeon sites in the UK have been built as 'blue box' auditoria without decerative features. They use overhead (led) lighting and downlighters on the row ends.

These auditoria feel cold and the overhead lighting feels harsh (this may be because they have a very fast fade up time).

If you have a very unrelfective auditorium then you will need to have some lights to help latecomers find their seats so the overall distraction level may be unchanged.

Does you cinema have any existing features that you could make use of (they may have been covered up in a previous 'modernisation') that would give your cinema some character?

Posted by Dan Harris (Member # 1759) on 10-17-2005, 11:35 AM:

Not wishing to distract too much from the point of the thread...! The problem is that installation guys just install the power packs and don't bother to tell anyone that you can adjust the fade times. The LED ceiling light system, designed exclusively for Odeon by PLM Illumination, uses two power packs - primary and secondary, and has a series of contactors for cleaners lights use and emergency backup. The primary part of the system has an adjustable fade rate from 1 to 10 seconds, and the secondary part has a preset level, at which it can remain all the time. Once you've had a look around the power pack, it's easy to adjust, just like any other dimmer.

Very helpfully, you can have the secondary preset really low for minimum intrusion during a feature, as in the event of a power failure/fire alarm etc, all the auditoria lights - pri, sec and aisle, switch over to 110v backup.

If you get it set up correctly, it can be very effective. Here, some of the ceiling lights double up as wallwashers, and in another neighboring site, there are wallwashers above and below the surround speaker enclosures illuminating the walls.

Not sure what Lothian Road is like compared to, say, Bath (being the newest) though.

Posted by Amanda Mundin (Member # 3386) on 10-18-2005, 04:03 AM:

Dan, we've had a few quotes, 1 from Camstage, 1 from Hodgson & Hodgson. Talked to Soundcheck a while back now and they seemed expensive, i'll perhaps try them again for a quote

Posted by David Graham Rose (Member # 1450) on 10-18-2005, 11:39 AM:

Greetings Amanda

You could also try Cinema Screens Ltd

www.cinemaservices.co.uk

David

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-18-2005, 12:14 PM:

Please don't use black. It'll be like sitting in a hole. You can use dark colors and light colors mixed, but keep the dark colors nearest the screen. When we redid our wall coverings, we used forest green and amazingly, you can still tell it's green even when a movie is in progress. I thought it would look black, but it's fine.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 10-19-2005, 12:40 AM:

A "Black Box Theatre" usually is a reference to a particular type of small or small-ish perfoming arts (live, stage, whatever) theatre. Is this going to be Black Box Theatre that will also be able to run movies?

The others are right about movie theaters that are all black, they don't fit well with whatever the moviegoing mindset is. If you can't get away from the Black Box format/genre/style because of theatre use requirements, I'd steal from the Movie Theatre Deco designs & make sure your sconces & other light fixtures have primary color bulbs (or use white bulbs & gel the inside of the globes) & throw geometric patterns of light. That will work on black walls; the lights define the space if they're placed well. In period use, though, they were often placed over walls with curtains hanging with vertical folds to create even more interesting shapes.

Modern theater sconces pretty much are the same as home/bathroom/whatever sconces & just cast blobs of light to minimally cover the requirement of general illumination. But even the plain-looking cylinder sconces on the walls in the Movie Theatre Deco days were designed to actually throw very complicated light patterns (which unfortunately due to film exposure requirements in photos just show up as blobs of light). If you can't get anything else going, at least use cylinder or half-cylinder sconces & cut out some gobos to stick in the open bottom & top of each fixture.

When you have to strip things down to minimum, always steal from the Movie Theatre Deco style. It's all lines & shapes & colors of light, & was actually done because it was cheaper, more stripped down & bare from previous decoration schemes. A bare, plain auditorium with just a chandelier or baseline sconce here & there still looks like a bare, plain auditorium.