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Posted by Andrew McCrea (Member # 674) on 12-09-2000, 08:42 PM:
What do you think about theatres running slide shows before the actual show? I think theatre chains have ruined the theatre magic of skipping the curtains. What's next? The lights get flicked on and off?
It ticks me off. You?
Andrew
Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 12-09-2000, 09:25 PM:
I used to work at a single-screen theater that had to leave the curtains open all the time and stage lights off to show slides; it looked awful. I would let the curtains close at the end of the last show of the day, but the rest of the time they'd have to stay open. That theater has since closed and converted to retail space.
I personally don't like slides, but they do make money for the people who put them on, and very few customers complain about them so as long as that's the case they will stay around.
While we're on this subject, what does everyone here think about the practice of top-masking screens being in 'flat' position for the slides, then dropping when the film starts? I REALLY don't like this; it makes the movie look smaller than the slides (and thus the slides are more important than the movie) plus top-masking by its very nature is an embarrassment and shouldn't call attention to itself like this.
Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 12-09-2000, 09:47 PM:
I hate when I see flat previews on a scope feature with top masking. Nothing like squashing the screen for the feature.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-10-2000, 01:56 AM:
Let us all remember this whole "top masking" nonsense came about with the introduction of the whole "stadium seating" nonsense. My, what improvements this industry has made over the last several years! 
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-10-2000, 05:03 AM:
I don't get the whole "not many people complain, so they must not mind" logic. I really dislike on-screen advertising, but yet I have never actually complained about it to a theatre manager. Still, if there is an alternate theatre which provides a comparable level of presentation without the slides, I will go there instead, given the choice and assuming that they are showing the same film.As for curtains, the workaround with slides is to fade out the last slide before the film starts, close the curtain and bring up the curtain lights for a minute or so, then dim the lights, start the film, and open the curtain. There are automation systems that can do this very nicely based on timer settings.
Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 12-10-2000, 08:09 AM:
I didn't complain, but yes, the ad slides at the new Famous-plex irked me to no end. My wife, who's far less serious about movies than I, says "Jeez, we can get this at home." (Of course, we're all hypocrites, most of us LOVE cheezy intermission trailers at the Drive-In!) We generally try the smaller single theatres with curtains, and no "top-masking". Imagine the very thought, glorious 'Scope actually smaller than flat !?? Andrew, get yourself out to the Odeon DI next summer, starry nights have a way of compensating for the shortcomings that SOME theatre chains have.
Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 12-10-2000, 12:37 PM:
I know what stadium seating is . . . It's called a _balcony_! 
What an innovation!
Posted by Erik Schill (Member # 675) on 12-10-2000, 12:44 PM:
I'm not a big fan of the crappy slide shows either, or the people who come in every friday, and get in my way to mess with the slides. I don't know what you guys have for slides, but we have some of the worst slides of all time at my theatre, 8 out of 10 of them have beer in them (for the family resaraunts that encourage daddy getting wasted over a basket of fried shrimp) but then we have this other slide...it is for some dental group and has a before and after picture, it is perhaps the grossest thing I have ever seen, I damn near vomit everytime I see it, so I wounder what the 5 year olds in rug rats think. plus we only have like 15 slides in each theatre so after about 3 minutes you've seen them all
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 12-10-2000, 07:05 PM:
In defence of top masking, a cinema so designed makes Academy and 1-66 look decent. We have three screens here, one of which uses top masking. The biggest picture is Academy (top masking fully up, sides fully out), then 1-33 (top fully up, sides in a bit), then 1-85 (sides fully out but top at mid setting), and the smallest picture is scope (top fully down, sides fully out).For rep cinemas that show Academy and 1-66 every now and again, not having them look like a postage stamp in the middle of a mass of black fabric is quite a selling point...
Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 12-10-2000, 09:43 PM:
Good point, Leo. I suddenly remember what the rerelease of Wizard of Oz looked like after I got done draping extra masking and curtains over the screen frame to hide the blank space on the 1.85 print.
Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 12-10-2000, 11:54 PM:
I remember seeing moveable top masing back in the 1960's, when theaters were first trying to cram wide screens into houses built for 1.37:1!------------------
William Hooper
Junk drawer: http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/theater/3622
Theatre Empire: http://members.xoom.com/saenger.1
Posted by Rachel Carter (Member # 693) on 12-11-2000, 05:15 PM:
I think the slide shows are good. Maybe its just me but I like sitting there reading the really stupid quiz's that zip by. REALLY
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-11-2000, 05:56 PM:
Movable top masking goes back to the earliest CinemaScope days.The Williamsburg Theatre (check the picture warehouse) where I used to work converted to CinemaScope in 1954 and used top masking. The actual screen was 1.66:1 (17' x 30') and was masked differently for scope (mag and optical), Academy, and flat/widescreen (which was set up for 1.75).
The theatre is currently under renovation and it will be interesting to see what they end up doing with the masking system.
Here are the pics (not on the Film-Tech site) of the 1.75 and scope/optical positions (as designed in 1954 for a procenium built in 1933):
Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 12-11-2000, 07:40 PM:
Unfortunately, slides have become a necessary part of our economic picture. The slides start with our theatre logo on the curtain, curtain rises then 20-24 slides two times thru, ending with the logo which is faded out as the feature starts. Slides start so that the movie will start 5 min. after the advertized time. Occasionally we get complaints and we explain that the ads help keep admission and concession prices down. All ads are for local merchants, churches, politicians etc. National ads require too much paper work and long waits for payment so we don't take them. Slides run on the flat screen and when the film is scope we open the side masking as the studio logo starts in order that they can see the difference in width (about 13 feet) and no reduction in height. Scope is 40 ft. We try to make it as inofensive as possible
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-12-2000, 01:29 AM:
Beautiful theatre, except anyone who puts an aisle down the middle should be slugged!
Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 12-13-2000, 08:17 AM:
From the pictures above, it looks like those exit signs at the front doors would be pretty bright once the lights are turned out. Do they dim or anything? I don't mind aisles as much if the auditoriums is large enough, but I really hate center aisles when it is the only aisle and the auditorium is only 28 feet wide. The auditorium in the above pictures appears to be about 60 feet wide (if the screen is 30 feet wide in scope mode).Evans
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-13-2000, 10:01 AM:
The exit signs aren't (weren't) too bad, actually. They used little 4 1/2-watt lightbulbs that look like golf balls. They look bad in the pictures because each photo is a time exposure of a couple of seconds each, which causes the highlights to "blow out" a bit. In reality, there was only a problem if someone stupidly replaced a burned-out bulb with a 60-watt full-size bulb or something like that. 
Center aisles do stink, though they are OK if very few people are in the theatre and everyone can sit close to the center. Again, it will be interesting to see what happens during the renovation...they may keep the center aisle for historical reasons or may go for a two-aisles-with-center-section approach.
Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 12-15-2000, 12:08 AM:
quote:
Beautiful theatre, except anyone who puts an aisle down the middle should be slugged!
You wouldn't slug the guy who built the Avalon on Catalina Island, would you?
There's a page with more Avalon pictures & a 3D Ipix-like thing at
http://www.catalinaconservancy.org/general/casino/casino.htm
Oh! Remembered another one!
You wouldn't slug John Eberson, would you?
That's the Chicago Paradise.
Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 12-22-2000, 10:15 PM:
Since I have never worked at a theater that uses curtains the slides do not bother me. However, I see your point when it comes to leaving the curtains open. We have a theater here that still uses curtains and they refuse to run slides. As far as lens changes I never do them anymore. However what is anoying is when they print the 1.85 aspect ration on a scope trailer and you have the black bars on the sides. This just looks rediculous no matter if you use top or side maskings.
Posted by Jeff Newman (Member # 752) on 01-29-2001, 02:25 PM:
The slides don't bother me as much as the new practice of putting actual COMMERCIALS before the trailors. I come to see a movie, not to see a commercial. I mean it's like first they said:Hey! We can make some money showing some slides before a movie!
And then they said:
Hey if we show some actual commercials before the movie commercials (trailors) and before the theatre commercials (visit our concession stand/Buy our gift certificates) We can make even more money!
Im starting to feel like in 10 years we will watch 30 minutes of commercials/trailors before we even get to the movie ;-)
-Jeff "Box office God" Newman
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 01-29-2001, 02:42 PM:
Jeff Newman said: "I'm starting to feel like in 10 years we will watch 30 minutes of commercials/trailors before we even get to the movie".I hope you're wrong, but for some circuits, that seems to be the way it's headed. I've heard that some Digital Cinema proponents feel commercials may be a way to offset the heavy investment required for Digital Cinema, as the ability to instantly update on-screen commercials and "proof of play" are real desires of advertising agencies.
------------------
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 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion