About 2 min. prior to showtime sound fades down, slide projector turns off. Manager in nice suit goes to front and quiets crowd.

"Thank you for coming...yada yada yada...please purchase concessions...yada yada yada...please don't talk, turn off cell phones, take noisy children outside...yada yada yada...enjoy the show." (lasts about 30 sec. to a minute)

Manager leaves, sound fades back up, slides go on, feature starts soon after.

I ran this by a manager friend of mine, and he said that many customers would find this a waste of time, unless there was something in it for them, i.e. promo items, gift certificates, etc.

Is this a feasible idea? Will customers get turned off by this? What extra things can I do (besides the obviously important elements of meticulously clean facility, courteous staff, flawless presentations) to get that showplace feeling? (keep in mind that renovations such as curtains, etc. are not an option due to the powers that be's iron grip on the wallet!)

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Kyle Abel
General Manager
Plano Movies 10

However, you may be exceeding policy by going into each one every show with announcements. Plus if slides go off screen for any reason other than blown bulb stuck slide or a reported down slide projector would probably be breaking contract agreement.

I would ask your region leader before attempting anything.
 

National Amusements does exactly what you are talking about all the time. They just leave the slides going all the time. Cinemark also does what you are wanting to do except the only time I remember doing that was at the opening of my theatre. I do agree with Darryl though ask your region leader first. Also if approved, in the beginning it may seem fun but when you are very busy 30 seconds in a theatre can seem like a lifetime. A loss of a manager on the floor on a busy Friday or Saturday can be detrimental. At National Amusements most of the time this is handled by an employee. The difference is that at National they use supervisors and customer service people within the employee ranks. One of the customer service employees usually does this task. Hope this helps you out and gives you more things to think about. You may want to have a couple of employees trained in what to say and do.

Something like this doesn't need to be done every show, either. The regular customers will like it the first few times, but you stand a chance of heckling if promises aren't fulfilled or it goes on too long.

 

The slides and accompanying audio track stopped and the user came in and said something like:

"Let me have your attention please. My name is xxxx and I will be your user for this show. If there are any problems with the movie, please find me and let me know. I'll be walking around in the hall."

He came in the auditoirium several times during the show.

I thought this was a neat touch. However, there was significant aperture shadow on 2 of the edges that should have been caught and fixed during an earlier show. If they're going to come in and check on things, they should be trained to notice such flaws, such as images fading out 6 inches from the edge of the screen.

This was the first time I'd ever been to a theatre where they did this. At first, when he said "Let me have your attention please", I thought he was going to tell us that the movie couldn't be run for some reason.

About the slide show: All theatres in my area either show the slides with no audio playing or show slides with background music playing, that is unrealated to the ads being shown. I've never objected to this, but the Shady Brooks Cinema not only had the slides, but they had an accompanying audio track synchronized with the slides! After a few minutes, I found the constant advertising chatter annoying as well as the repetitive background music used for this track. (It's like the kind of music they use for news programs). After 5 or 10 mintues, I was ready for it to end, but it kept repeating.

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Info Site

He then asks for the show to begin.

I felt this was a better way to make a collection than the passing of cannisters.

It was certainly a nice piece of "Showmanship."

Click here if you are a Joe Redifer fan

And/Or

Click here if you are a Brad Miller fan

And/Or

Click here if you are a Dwayne Caldwell fan

Yes, we all worked at the same theater.

You must be able to play MP3s to hear this. Also, if you right-click and "Download link to disk" your browser won't try to open it itself.

Let me know how you make out.
 

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Kyle Abel
General Manager
Plano Movies 10
 

Let me set the stage: Mann's Chinese Theatre
Projection Booth: Lights low...red glow to booth. Three men sitting on 5 gallon drums in a semi circle.

On the floor in the recording device together with a tape player and a synthseizer.

The three men are drinking beer and smoking weed. They feel no pain. They are dressed in comforable work clothes. They all wear a baseball cap with two words hyphenated on front. Camera can only capture "F-T).

The music gets louder and Louder and Louder. The three rise up out of their seats.

In Unison: They yell out: Welcome to the Mann's Chinese THEATRE waw, waw, waw......

The rest is history and Film-Tech is born.

It weighs in at about 485 Pounds.

Congratulations, Great Thread.

Aaron

The audience seemed happy...

Aaron

 

To clarify on what Joe said, we had a 6 disc cd changer in the booth running non-sync. The idea was to leave the normal non-sync disc in slot 1 and for whichever projectionist was working the shift to drop his/her cd into one of the other slots...then hit "random-repeat". That way the player would cycle between all 6 discs (of which there would only be 2) and between all tracks on each disc. Since the projectionist's personalized cd would only have the one track on it, it would play approximately between every track or two. (Evans can provide precise numbers. There were 16 tracks on the music cd.) At shift change, the projectionist just swapped the disc. And of course if anything went wrong, the projectionist would just run put the "Joe Redifer" disc into the machine and THEN worry about fixing the problem.

Aaron, here's just the thing you need for your intermission. It's perfectly suited for ALL movies. As a plus, is the perfect length for an intermission! Download it and burn yourself a copy. You will want to use it on every film you ever run again.
INTERMISSION

Another time when announcements are good is special engagements. I saw Star Trek (Generations, I think) on one of our IMAX screens at 1 am. BTW, I know it wasnt released on IMAX, they rigged it to just play in the middle of the screen with the whacked out sound system. The manager plugged IMAX, and offered re-admission passes to anyone who snitched who was using the laser pointers. Worked like a charm, and anyone who dared use the pointers was mauled. Star Trek rules!
The annoucements are always a nice touch, but fairly inconvenient for the customers and staff for day to day operations.

edit: Just got the intermission file, I wish I could play the Offspring in the lobby or theatres. It would be more entertaining than classical jazz or theme songs and make the ushers clean faster. But alas, cant have Noodles screaming in the theatres.
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Jonathan Haglund
Edwards Theatre Circuit, Inc
Park Place 10

Like to download the one Brad posted specifically.
Thanks!
 

Left click on the link to the file. Your computer should connect to the file, then automatically open the program you use to play the clip. Of course you need Winamp, Media Player, Real Player, or the like installed to play it.

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Kyle Abel
General Manager
Plano Movies 10
 

I find it a little silly that known incompatability issues aren't addressed, either by MS or by the (not)Ultimate Bulletin Board developer or by Brad.

IE does just happen to be a major player, and I dumped my 3.x Netscape long ago, partly because IT had lousy non-standard formatting.

Putting in a link that won't download is like showing a PAL broadcast in the U.S. and demanding that potential viewers trash their current tvs. If Brad Allen wants a copy, I'll email it to him, but I think the cut is sadly missing the sound of water running into a urinal beneath the "aahhs."

I liked it?

Last intermission movie that came out was GWTW. (From what I can remember!)

Paul.
 

quote:

---

In NYC the only time I have seen announcements made is when they are collecting monies for "Variety Club and/or Will Rogers Hospital"

---

I was at a rep house showing of Taxi Driver in NYC, and a pre-show announcement was made. An unshaven guy wearing many layers of clothes came in from behind the screen carrying his belongings in a garbage bag, & from the apron addressed the audience in sentences that did not make a great deal of sense. After a few minutes of ranting & waving his arms passionately, he was escorted from the theater. The audience was very appreciative, & applauded him.

I'm sorry that I don't remember what he said; it sure went over well.

Additionally, I did it for every show the first couple of weeks our theater was open, after we upgraded our theaters to digital, and for all the people who waited in line for umpteen hours for "Phantom Menace".

For such special occassions, it makes the customers feel like their part of something exciting and lets them know what improvements we've made for their pleasure.

Plus it allows me to personally tell each and everyone of them to keep their feets off the seats!
 

The usher would notify the projectionist to kill the music and the usher would go down in front of the auditorium and say...

Good Afternoon/Evening my name is _______ and I will be your Usher for this performance. At this time we would like to remind you to please turn off cell phones and activate your pagers to silence during the presentation, if you are attending the movie with a child or someone who acts like one please make sure that they are kept quiet and in their seat. If you have a crying baby, please take them to the lobby area so others will not be disturbed. If you have any problems with the sound, picture or temperature please do not hesitate to inform me or a member of management. Also just a reminder that this theatre is a non smoking establishment and please refrain from keeping your feet off the seats and armrest. Thank you for coming to ________________theatre and please we hope you enjoy your show!

You would not believe the clapping and sometimes standing ovations my management team and ushers received when we did these announcements. And the customers really liked them. They said it showed really good showmanship and that it made them feel good that a theatre staff actually "cared" about their customers.
 

All right folks, now listen up and the next couple hours'll go just fine. There's to be no talking, cussin', or fightin' during this show. I don't wanna hear no cell phones or beepers, I don't wanna see any trash on the floor, and keep your eye on the emergency exits. Got it?
 

About the cell phones and babies: I wish theatres would just not admit children under 5 and not allow cell phones in the theatres. People are always going to let their children cry and leave their cell phones on. The announcements should say, "If you are caught using a cell phone or it rings during the show, you will be asked to leave." and ENFORCE IT. Being around little kids and babies is the best birth control there is.

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Info Site

Back in 1994 I saw Crooklyn at the GCC Somerville Circle. Before the trailers came on, the manager/usher/whatever explained that a certain scene in the middle would look "squeezed" and that it was part of the film. He was right: Spike Lee had that particular scene filmed with an anamorphic lens.

FWIW the GCC Somerville Circle was one of many with "Cinema I-II-III" on the front. It closed around 1995 because it was in a hard-to-get-to location near a traffic circle that saw many an accident. The theater was torn down and an appliance/TV store was built on that site.

Once a smart-ass teenager started heckling these 2 ushers. One of the ushers looked straight at the heckler and said loud enough for the entire audience to hear it "Guy, we're just doing our job so there's no need to hassle us". The heckler immediately shut up and the audience seemed pleased.

"ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming out this evening, now please go back in. Turn off your cell phones, your pagers, and your urge to speak. The part usually played by Joe Handy will instead be played by MR. Joe Handy. Thank you and you may return to adjusting your seating position."

WHen I did movies, pretty much the same thing.

Dave