Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Skyline Drive-in Theater (Or Other Drive-Ins)

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Posted by Andrew McCrea (Member # 674) on 03-24-2001, 07:49 PM:

I was browsing through the pics and I really liked this drive-in.

I love the way the projection booth is set-up on the second storey with an apartment... I'm guesing the owners of this drive-in live upstairs.

If I had a drive-in, I'd put a living quarters and projection room on the second floor. I'd also have a couch/La-Z-Boy for the projectionest to rest in during the shows.

If I had the 2 projectors like this drive-in, I might use the second projector for the second feature. I'd make sure the booth was automated, so that if i had one projector, I could splice the 2 movies together and have an automation system... or maybe not!

Anyways, I love going to the drive-in. If I owned a drive-in, I'd probably have a living quarters on the property year round to save money. I'd also rent the land to trailers for the closed season.

Can you imagine having to do change overs in a drive-in! Shoot me now! So, this is what hell's like!

------------------
Andrew McCrea

"I'm Not Bad, I'm Just Drawn That Way!" - Jessica Rabbit

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 03-24-2001, 08:34 PM:

At the Grandview Drive-In (Angola NY) where I worked from 1967-1970, we used Ashcraft 11 mm carbon arcs and 2000-foot reels, so we HAD to do alot of changeovers. The only problem we had was on really foggy or rainy nights, when it was hard to see the screen. Then we made the changeover looking at the frame in the gate of the projector, or the out of focus image on the port glass. (Yes we had people in the audience on these foggy/rainy nights, but I suspect they weren't watching the movie too closely.

)

BTW, at the high current used to burn the 11 mm carbons, the longest trim we could get with a 20-inch long carbon was a little over an hour.

------------------
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

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 03-24-2001, 09:27 PM:

>>If I had the 2 projectors like this drive-in, I might use the second projector for the second feature. I'd make sure the booth was automated, so that if i had one projector, I could splice the 2 movies together and have an automation system... or maybe not!<<

Your second point negates the first one. if its gonna be automated, why bother with the second projector? Or go with 6000' reels with an automatic changeover, for the best of both worlds.

>>Can you imagine having to do change overs in a drive-in! Shoot me now! So, this is what hell's like!<<

Changeovers in a drive-in are the same as changeovers in a hardtop... Been there, done that (see the first pic of 'Sonomarin Drive-In' in the warehouse for the drive-in changeover system I used to do...)

Aaron

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 03-24-2001, 11:58 PM:

Andrew:

I am the projectionist at the Skyline drive-in theater in Shelton, Washington.

That apartment on the top right of the building (just like the manager's office on the top left) are dinky. They are only 12 feet wide by 24 feet long. The apartment was last rented out more than ten years ago and is only used for theater supply storage now. Those big windows on the front of the booth face directly into the afternoon sun and turn the upper floor of the building into a greenhouse effect. There is ZERO insulation in the cinder block building and one day 3 years ago it got up to 110 degress in the projection booth and melted a plastic gear inside the Simplex E-7 DURING THE SHOW. It slammed the projector and I had to unthread the broken machine and rethread the film into the spare (right hand) machine. I was only off screen for about one minute. Since we are out in the middle of nowhere that second machine was handy to have. The owners NEVER lived on the property, but there is a rental double wide mobile home at the very far left rear of the property and the renters watch over the theater in the off season. The owner of the theater lives in White Rock (a suburb of Vancouver) B.C. and drives 3 hours down here to run the theater (we are only open Friday and Saturday).

That second projector is still used as a backup emergency machine in case something happens to the left-hand projector. Originally the theater opened in 1962 with carbon arc lamphouses and twenty minute reels with manual changeover. In 1973 the carbon arcs were removed and replaced with the Christie H-40 xenon lamphouses shown in the pictures along with large (6000 foot) reels so only one changeover per feature was needed. Because the projection/snack bar building is located at the very rear of the field, our throw to the screen is a whopping 485 feet! Needless to say, our picture is DARK! Our owner is too cheap to buy a decent lamphouse and lenses (we're still using 1950's era Bausch & Lomb lenses).

If you want to see some more drive-ins (including shots of the field layout from the Terraserver satellite photos), try Arthur Allen's "Drive-ins of Western Washington" site at www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Pavillion/2216/driveins.html

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 03-25-2001, 07:10 AM:

The Terraserver site is a good way to get satellite aerial photos of landmarks like drive-ins. Here is a link to the site:
Link to Terraserver

Kodak also offers imaging services that can provide aerial photos of most any location:
Kodak Imaging Services
Kodak Special Imaging

Just for the fun of it, I looked up a Terraserver satellite photo of the Grandview Drive-In in Angola NY, where I worked from 1967 to 1970. This photo was taken by the satellite on April 21, 1994:
Terraserver Photo of Grandview Drive-In, Angola, NY

And here is a photo of Building 69 in Kodak Park in Rochester where I work. My building is the 8-story tall square one near the center of the photo, as you can see from the large shadow it casts:
Satellite Photo of Kodak B-69 where JP Works

And here's a photo of my house, with me in the backyard waving as the satellite passes overhead :
John Pytlak Waving at Satellite

"Big Bird" is watching!

Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 03-25-2001, 07:38 AM:

Ken, sorry to hear of your "greenhouse effect" (perhaps I could get my wife to sew you a curtain!). I know most of the crowds come on Fri-Sat anyway, does the fact of closing the rest of the week affect the films shown (further off release)? What indoor competition are you up against? I'd like to run a weekend-only in the right market (with new lenses of course!). Shelton looks like it's a tourist-type place, must make up a large portion of the crowd........

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-25-2001, 01:54 PM:

John that areial shot of your back yard was very revealing
Now we know where panaramma blue was shot we could see the mitchell BFC camera and all those women

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 03-26-2001, 12:38 PM:

Here's a good article that came out in today's Nashville newspaper. It features the Broadway Drive-In Theatre in Dickson, Tennessee which is about 35+/- miles west of Nashville.
http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/01/03/03611841.shtml?Element_ID=3611841

This is the theatre that my wife and I frequent the most. I've got booth pictures of the theatre @ http://members.nbci.com/bcfdj/tndrivein/photo.htm

------------------
Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Nashville, Tennessee
(Drive-In Theatre - Start-Up)

Posted by Randy Loy (Member # 112) on 03-26-2001, 03:26 PM:

If I'm not mistaken, the Broadway Drive-In Theatre at Dickson, Tennessee is where country music artist Vince Gill filmed the video to his song "Liza Jane." Am I right about that Barry?

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 03-26-2001, 03:53 PM:

Yes Randy, you are correct. Vince Gill filmed "Liza Jane" @ the Broadway in Dickson, Tennessee, and female country star (maybe Sherri Austin?) filmed a video at the Highway 50 in Lewisburg, Tennessee in the spring of 2000. I saw it on CMT last summer.
On another note: Clay Walker shot a video at a drive-in about a year or so ago. It featured some really cool close-ups of the projector in the booth.

------------------
Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Nashville, Tennessee
(Drive-In Theatre - Start-Up)

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 03-27-2001, 02:57 PM:

Andrew,

What's so bad about changeovers? I personally like them. The only drawback is someone has to constantly be in the booth.

Josh

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-27-2001, 03:18 PM:

Josh -- how is that a drawback?

I still say that every single-screen house ought to have two machines in the booth. Even with a platter, the second machine is important for redundancy; it's cheap insurance against having to refund a full house, plus it's important to have changeover capability for film fests, etc.

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 03-27-2001, 03:33 PM:

John, I was checking out the pictures of your office and your home. I see you waving but did you notice that Joe Redifer was down the block, hawking film-tech caps. You can tell it's him by the way he points his finger. I understand that's Brad driving the red car through the intersection. He must be scouting locations for his new distribution center.

Posted by Andrew McCrea (Member # 674) on 03-27-2001, 06:03 PM:

I don't know why I don't like change overs. I guess that if there's one projectionest at the drive-in and he's working hard to make sure the picture keeps going while doing change overs, and he doesn't make it to the start the next projector, there's going to be problems.

I think projectionests work should be challenging, but fun. Not to easy, not to hard.

**I love goign to the Odeon Drive-In! I bet many can agree with me that drive-in theatres have a 'unique' and exciting environment. It's fun to get out of the house and go to the drive-in.**

------------------
Andrew McCrea

"I'm Not Bad, I'm Just Drawn That Way!" - Jessica Rabbit

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-27-2001, 06:41 PM:

Actually up til the mid ninties we had many large multiplexes here useing automated changeovers
In fact in a small manager operated theatre changeovers are ideal since the first reel would already be threaded up during the intermission so the manager could work the floor not being in the booth rethreading

Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 03-27-2001, 09:51 PM:

Andrew, AFAIK the Odeon is for sale, buy it, there's your market, there's your niche.