Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Ground Breaking Ceremony

This is topic Ground Breaking Ceremony - Stardust Drive-In Theatre in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 02-12-2003, 06:51 PM:

As many of you know, I've been lurking and posting on this site for several years. Today we took the leap of theatre ownership as we broke ground on the construction of the new Stardust Drive-In Theatre - located 35 miles east of Nashville, in Watertown, Tennessee.

Below you'll see some photos from this mornings ceremony with some of my comments below.

This is the "Coming Soon" sign I put up on Sunday afternoon in the snow. The sign's still there, but the snow has melted away.

It's great to have a supportive family. Pictured above from Left to Right:
My wife's Stepfather, my wife's mother, my lovely wife Dawn - holding our 5 month old son Wesley, Me and our 2 1/2 year old son Christopher (below), my mom, wife's sister, and wife's father (in the hat).

The official "breaking of the ground", pictured above.. the Watertown City Council members, Tennessee State Senator Stratton Bone, Me and Dawn and Christopher, Bill Schultz - President of the Watertown Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Jeff Tunks - Executive Director of the Watertown Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Ricky Rodrigues - Director of the Wilson County Tourism Board, and members of the Wilson County Joint Economic and Development Commission.

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 02-12-2003, 07:09 PM:

Great to hear, may the best of your past be the worst of your future.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 02-12-2003, 07:38 PM:

Barry,

I am glad to see that you have gotten your project to the building stage. I hope you have a succesfull and trouble free grand opening.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 02-12-2003, 08:12 PM:

Barry, Congratulations! Keep us up to date as construction progresses and the big day approaches.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 02-12-2003, 08:22 PM:

Hey, Barry...
You're not fooling me with those shovels!!!

I want to hear about the dynamite! [thumbsup]

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 02-12-2003, 08:32 PM:

Jack, your right about the dynamite. The shovels went in about 3 inches before hitting rock!!

Our engineer estimated the costs for the grading of the theatre to be somewhere around $75k - $85k. Our first bid came in at $389,000.00, our second bid was $313,200.00, and our third bid was a little more acceptable at $166,320.00. Still, the lowest bid is more than twice than what we had anticipated. We've gone back to the drawing board on the site grading and are lowering the entire site by 1.5 feet. It results in a litle more "cut" at the rear of the lot, but significantly reduces the total volume of fill material required.

Those dang parking ramps are EXPENSIVE!!!

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 02-12-2003, 09:26 PM:

Congratulations! May the stars shine brightly on your drive-in, and the cars there outnumber the stars. [Smile]

Posted by Justin West (Member # 920) on 02-12-2003, 09:32 PM:

Looks great, Barry...an inspiration to the rest of us!!! [Wink]

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-12-2003, 10:25 PM:

Congratulations! Keep us all informed of your progress. Good luck with the drive-in!

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-12-2003, 10:28 PM:

Congratulations!!! [thumbsup]

Don't forget to take LOTS of pictures all the way through the construction up to your grand opening. Send 'em in and we'll make a huge picture page.

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 02-13-2003, 12:59 AM:

Barry:

Good luck and I hope all your shows are sold out! Your drive-in theater should do very well with all the publicity surrounding the construction.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-13-2003, 03:29 AM:

Barry,

Good luck with your new drive in theatre when it opens in May. I have very fond memories of the many happy hours I had spent at our outdoor theatres here in Hawaii when I was a young man.

-Claude

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 02-13-2003, 04:20 AM:

Barry,

It is great to see your "Dream" come true. Wishing you all the best. I love it that you had the whole family standing by your side. Congratulations.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 02-13-2003, 05:20 PM:

Congratulations, Barry! I know it's going to be a fantastic theatre, with perfect sightlines from every space! You're really doing it up right.

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 02-13-2003, 06:49 PM:

Best Wishes to you and your family on your big new theatre!
I'm impressed by the backing and support you've achieved from family, friends, community and government! Planning Done Right!

Posted by Ray Brown (Member # 1449) on 02-13-2003, 11:25 PM:

Good luck. It's great to see a drive-in under construction these days instead of being demolished!

I can just imagine the smell of a freshly baked pizza drifting across the lot from the snackbar! [Cool]

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 02-14-2003, 02:45 AM:

...and hopefully it's from the snackbar and not to the snackbar.

Good luck and have fun! [thumbsup]

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 05-22-2003, 01:05 PM:

Update:

The grading contractor is almost finished. We blasted off the entire side of a hill 380' long x 22' deep (solid rock).

The screen from Selby Products was delivered to the job site two weeks ago and will be put up next Thursday.

Concesssions & Projection building had to be re-designed to fit within our cost projections. Bids are due back next Friday.

My Simplex XL & SH1012 soundhead are at Hadden Theatre Supply in Louisville getting their "check-up" and alignment. The Component Engineering LED reader is being installed by them as well.

Picked up my Strong AP-3 Platter & MUT, 4kw Xenex II Lamphouse and power supply about a month ago from Tri-State Theatre Supply in Memphis.

Picked up a brand new 32oz. Gold Medal "Pop-O-Gold" popcorn machine with a bag-in-a-box oil pump system about 3 weeks ago. It's a great looking machine.

Wall mounted sound rack from R.S. Engineering came in last week.

FM transmitter from Broadcast Warehouse arrived about a month ago.

Smart MOD II B-DIT is in and ready to go.

We're meeting with the banker(s) in the morning to borrow MORE money. Not much... just an additional $112,000.00 [Eek!]

I have added some of the construction progress photos on our web-site @ www.stardustdrivein.com - then click "PHOTOS".

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 05-22-2003, 03:07 PM:

Congrats Barry!

It's great to see a new ozoner going up. I know you'll do just fine. Gotta confess though, I'm a little jealous. Been working on my project for six years and it's still at the business plan stage while I wait for the landlord to say "go".

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 07-16-2003, 11:40 AM:

Here's where we are now... only 4-5 weeks to go!!!

From this.......

To this....

Concessions & Projection Building started last Friday, sorry no pictures yet.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-16-2003, 12:20 PM:

Barry - congratulations!

Question? How big is your screen? (Trying to put the whole picture in perspective.) Those deep curves on your rows look great. A shot of the theatre on opening night full of cars will be a great postcard.

On that additional money required...I can relate. We put in new seats here a year ago along with carpet, wallcoverings, etc and the total cost was nearly double the earliest estimates! [Eek!]

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 07-16-2003, 12:34 PM:

The screen surface measures 25' x 60' - with the bottom of the screen 16' off the ground.

There are more pictures of the on-going construction on our web-site.

Stardust Drive-In Construction Photos

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-16-2003, 12:51 PM:

quote:
The screen surface measures 25' x 60'

Which works out to a 2.4:1 aspect ratio when you fill the screen with a scope image. Bless you for "Caring About Composition". [Smile]

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/newsletters/pytlak/spring2001.shtml

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 07-16-2003, 05:27 PM:

Looks great!

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 07-17-2003, 07:26 AM:

Best of luck, Barry. I promise to come look you up when I come to Nashville again.

Posted by Steve Anderson (Member # 364) on 08-18-2003, 07:14 AM:

I stopped by the Drive-In yesterday, everything looks like it is falling into place. From the road it was hard to tell but was that your booth ports on the far right (closest to street)

I'm planning on coming up on the 27th for the free preview.

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 08-18-2003, 09:38 AM:

Yes, things are quite NUTS at our house right now. We're about 10 days from opening, and there's still alot left to be done.

The building is coming along great, and this week the contractor will have it finished up. They are painting the inside of the building today, the power company is coming to hook up the permenant power today, the HVAC guys will start and finish tomorrow. They are susposed to be running the water and sewer lines on Tuesday. Coca Cola is coming on Wednesday to install their equipment. The plumbers will be setting fixtures on either Wednesday or Thursday. They are building the boxoffice/ticket booth today. We're "moving in" Thursday night, and setting the projection booth equipment on Saturday.

Our projection tech will be in on Sunday afternoon to start the install, and hopefully have things ready by Monday night.

Gold Medal delivered their stuff a week early, so our living room at the house is "wall to wall" with candy, popcorn, nachos, etc. We have a path from the living room to the den in-between all the boxes.

We're having our first meeting with our employees tonight at the site. Don't have a clue yet as what I'm going to say.

I've got to run down to the big electrical supply place in Nashville (next to the Titans Collesuim) today during lunch, to get the DC cables that run from the rectifier to the lamphouse.

Yes Steve.... the ports are on the end of the building closest to the street. Stop by this weekend and I'll give you the dime tour. I will be there morning till night probably Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Posted by Nicholas Roznovsky (Member # 861) on 08-18-2003, 02:42 PM:

Oh man, those last two weeks before opening are the most hectic days imaginable. They're also a lot of fun too. Good luck Barry! You'll be able to catch up on sleep in a few months! [Smile]

Posted by Steve Anderson (Member # 364) on 08-31-2003, 08:59 AM:

Went to the Stardust last night and had a great time.
The field was full,the popcorn hot and buttery and the cokes were perfect! Great work Barry!!!! [thumbsup]

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 08-31-2003, 01:25 PM:

Pictures and updates, please! Did the tv news crews do a story? How were the crowds?

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-31-2003, 05:18 PM:

I'm sure that Barry is super-busy right now, but I, too, am looking forward to seeing his next update. It's exciting to hear about a newly constructed drive-in.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 09-01-2003, 11:20 PM:

Barry, in this thread please document the actual first night of business and first movie(s) shown so I can record it in the historical section of my WWW site.

I drove by the drive-in this past Saturday to look at it in the middle of the afternoon and didn't see any sign of life there. It looks really different than the last time I went by there.

Watertown is an interesting location for a drive-in since it seems to be in such an out-of-the-way place. I noticed that the 4-laning of SR 26 (signed as US 70) west of Smithville has progressed some. Do you suppose it will eventually be 4-laned all the way to Lebanon?

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 09-02-2003, 01:16 PM:

OK, guys and gals... here's the update.

You people never told me it was gonna be like this !!!

Installed the booth last Sunday afternoon with no electricity. We basically just got the equipment set in place, and the sound rack mounted and the equipment installed. We finally got power to the building on Tuesday by 11:00 a.m., and we were scheduled to open Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. Our cinema tech came out Tuesday afternoon, and by 1:30 a.m. we had a picture on the screen.

Our flat lens ended up being WAY wrong, but the Scope was dead-on perfect. The picture filled the screen top to bottom, left to right... no cropping anywhere. We built up GREASE on the platter, and left by 3:30 a.m.

Wednesday night, we had our first "FREE TO THE PUBLIC" Open House with 117 cars through the gates. It was a major success.
We had no water or sewer to the building, so we brought in 6 Porta-Potties and served bottled beverages. The electrical circuit to our 32 oz. Gold Medal popper was installed to small, or something, as we could only get enough power to heat the kettle if we turned off the warmer, oil pump, and neon lights. After we figured it out.... smooth sailing.

Thursday. Called Fred Blank at Tri-State Theatre Supply in Memphis and he over-nighted me my flat lens for my Friday night show. It showed up right on time and exactly the right size.

Watertown is known to be an old railroad town and still has a frieght line that runs through the middle of town. About 9:00 a.m. Thursday morning, the ONLY train coming thru town that day DE-RAILS, and it's carrying propane tankers. The emergency management agency evacuated the town, and didn't let anyone back in until 6:00 p.m. We opened with a skeleton crew and 71 cars for the last FREE Open House night of GREASE. While Grease was playing I started building Pirates of the Caribbean on the bottom platter, and finished it about 1:00 a.m. After I finished building Pirates, I opened the cans to FINDING NEMO only to discover the paper bands on the reels labeled Reel 2, Reel 2, Reel 3, Reel 4, Reel 5, and Reel 6. NO reel ONE! I about shit. I called Technicolor and went through a couple of people before I checked the reels. Paper bands were all labeled wrong and the reels were wound tails out. Since I don't have a real rewind table in the booth, I had to use the MUT from the platter and rewind each reel, then spin it off to the platter. I left the theatre at 5:12 a.m. [sleep]

Friday night....SOLD OUT, 213 cars... sold EVERYTHING we had to sell in the concessions stand! Learned the meaning of the term "BRAIN WRAP" about 20 minutes into Pirates. When threading up, I got the leader behind one of the rollers on the platter brain and didn't see it until after I started the show. I kept watching as it kept winding and winding around the brain. The film held the payout arm in the full open position and just kept spinning. Finally after about 20 minutes, all came to a screeching halt. Off screen for about 5 minutes, got it back on screen, then the rest of the night was fine. I was sick to my stomach the rest of the night.

Saturday Night... SOLD OUT, 225 car... sold everything we went and bought at Sams earlier in the afternoon. The Middle Tennessee Mazda Miata Collectors Club came with about 30 of their members. About 30 minutes into Pirates.. RAIN..., not just rain, but Monsoon rain. Roof leaks, blowing water, and MUD. My God the MUD. People were litterally taking off their shoes, and scraping them against the split-faced block walls of the concessions lobby. I was furious!! The tow truck service from Lebanon came down and yanked out the last of the Miata's and SUV's by 1:30 a.m. and $140.00 later. I spent Sunday afternoon at the theatre with a pressure washer.

SUNDAY Night... SOLD OUT with 237 cars. We had'em parked everywhere. No rain, and most of the mud had dried up.

Instead of banning Outside Food & Beverages totally like most indoor theatres do, we sell our patrons an "Outside Food & Beverage Permit" that entitles them to bring in their own food from home for only $4.00 per car. Everybody told me that would kill off our business. On the contrary...We sold 143 of the things at $4.00 a pop over the weekend. Only one complaint... and he bought one anyway!

Monday Night, a relaxing 31 cars, $400.00 concessions till, and almost a full 5 hours of sleep.

So far, our lost and found box has 4 lawn chairs, 2 radios, a pair of "gorilla-faced" house slippers, one baseball hat, one pair of panties [sex]

, two flash lights, one flip-flop,and an orange and black rubber lizard. Dawn wouldn't let me keep the panties.

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 09-02-2003, 05:54 PM:

Congratulations, Barry!

You've received your Monsoon Drive-In Baptism, and survived the
worst Murphy's Law can fling at you! Starting with freebie admission, seems you won over your patrons, and after their experiences become the Talk of the Town, I think they'll not only return, but the word of mouth will bring a lot more.
"That was back in 2003, the year the drive-in opened, the whole town was evacuated because of the train wreck, and the freak storm got us stuck in the mud. Land Sakes, we love that drive-in!"

Looks like you're off to a good start financially.

Best Wishes,
Gerard

Posted by Mike Williams (Member # 1140) on 09-02-2003, 07:23 PM:

Any pictures?

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 09-03-2003, 09:21 AM:

Still don't have the photos back from being developed. I told Brad as soon as I do, I'll send him a copy for everyone to see.

Last night sucked... 5 cars, and one of them left after FINDING NEMO. I sat in a lawn chair in the breezeway through the entire second feature and watched PIRATES in the pouring down rain.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 09-03-2003, 10:15 AM:

It will be interesting to see how business does on weekends from now on. Weeknights tend to be slow at nearly every theatre. By the way, tomorrow night is the last night of business for the Cinemagic Drive-In at Athens, AL for this season.

The important thing is for people to know that your drive-in exists. One disadvantage of your location is that it isn't directly off a major highway, like SR 26 (US 70). You have to depend on word-of-mouth and advertising to spread the word to attract people from miles away, since people driving through on the main road don't see the drive-in.

Hopefully, your weekends will continue to "sell out" or come close to it. As of now, you're showing two very high-quality, popular movies. I guess what you have to worry about are time periods when there are no such movies out at the time.

Posted by Sam Hunter (Member # 1119) on 09-03-2003, 02:08 PM:

Barry,
Sorry I didn't get to make it but I promise I will soon.
I want to know what your Marquee looks like. Flashing Neon and art deco styling [Big Grin]

Looking forward to visiting.

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 09-03-2003, 02:13 PM:

Hey Sam...
Our Marquee is rather "plain jane". It's a 5' x 10' internally illuminated sign, white faced reader-board, with a blue band across the top with "STARDUST DRIVE-IN THEATRE" in white letters.
The sign is mounted between two 4" x 4" steel post columns, with some basic landscaping underneath.

As the money was dwindling away fast, we had to choose between Neon and lenses. Lenses won.

Evans mentioned relying on word-of-mouth advertising. Although word-of-mouth is the best "free advertsing" you can get, we ran newspaper ads in 4 newspapers last week for our grand opening, plus we have a 30 second radio spot every morning during drive-time on the "Coleman & Company" radio show for a month. The radio show is part of a small local radio station, but it did get the message out. We had cars with tags from 6 local surrounding counties, plus a couple from out-of-state.

I guess the object of the game is to let people know we're here, without spending more than we can take in.

I sent all the staff home last night because if they worked their full schedule of hours, labor would have cost more than what we made. We expected the weeknights to be dead, so it doesn't really bother me. I'm just tired of watching Pirates of the Caribbean already, and we still have 8 more days to go.

Posted by Sam Hunter (Member # 1119) on 09-03-2003, 02:29 PM:

How much more of the season do you have Barry?
I understand what you are saying about the situation. [Smile]

I hope that you do well and do so for a very long time, I wish I had some capaital as there is a closed down drive in down here I would love to get going again. A two screener at that!
Anyway, take care and happy trails..................................

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-03-2003, 02:33 PM:

quote:
As the money was dwindling away fast, we had to choose between Neon and lenses. Lenses won.

A wise choice. Presentation Quality over glitz. [Smile]

Posted by Travis Hubrig (Member # 1745) on 09-04-2003, 12:15 AM:

Congratulations Barry!!!

Best of luck, Travis

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 09-04-2003, 12:56 AM:

quote:
Evans mentioned relying on word-of-mouth advertising. Although word-of-mouth is the best "free advertsing" you can get, we ran newspaper ads in 4 newspapers last week for our grand opening, plus we have a 30 second radio spot every morning during drive-time on the "Coleman & Company" radio show for a month. The radio show is part of a small local radio station, but it did get the message out.

You need to talk to the morning guys & give them a pair of tickets to give away as a contest prize every day they'll take them. Radio shows love free prizes to give away for ratings, comps cost you nothing usually, & the advertisememt sticks better than in a spot (which some folks tune out & don't hear).

And give some passes to the air talent for their own use, or tell them that they're welcome anytime & are on a pass list. I've known a couple of radio stations where a local theater made sure the jocks were always welcome to come free, but there was an understanding that when they talked about going to the movie they'd say where they saw it (free).

If the grease is working where you put it, make sure it stays on there!

Posted by Steve Anderson (Member # 364) on 09-04-2003, 01:16 PM:

I just love the "barter system" when we need flyers printed up we just slap a couple of free passes to them ....no problem!
Now only if we could get the utility companies to see it that way.
[Wink]

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 09-05-2003, 02:20 PM:

Barry,
With the weather getting cooler, when can we expect the "Stardust Weekend Flea Market" to kick in?
With increased unemployment and a weak economy, the times should be right for people to want to buy cheap, and to sell things to help make ends meet.

You've already got the concessions working. Browsers get hungry and thirsty at flea markets, and when the weather turns cool, hot chocolate, coffee and tea might sell.

Stardust at night, Sunrise by day!

Best wishes,
Gerard

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 09-21-2003, 01:22 AM:

I went to the Stardust Drive-In today (actually, yesterday -- it's 1:15 AM now). I finally met Barry Floyd, the first film-techer I've ever met in person! I took photos at the drive-in while Barry was showing me around.

Remainder of Evans' post and followups deleted by Admin. This should have been a formal submission to the picture warehouse.

Note 2003/09/22 13:25 CDT: I sent Brad an apology about this at 10:25 AM CDT (hopefully he has it by now -- it had a nonfatal "transient delivery failure"). I had no idea that link would upset anyone, and certainly didn't intend it to be a "slap in the face" to Brad. I love this site and would never do anything to intentionally upset anyone running it. I've been participating here for a long time and the group here is like a family.

I haven't yet heard from Barry to find out if he got the pictures yet and was going to supply captions (the main thing needed for the actual submission -- his captions would be a lot better than mine since I can't remember all the details he told me). The pictures will be available when he submits them.

The URL I had posted was the mechanism by which I was giving Barry the pictures (I emailed him the link before making the post). I was so excited about the pictures from the new digital camera that I'd just bought on the 17th, meeting a Film-Techer for the first time, that I stayed up and spent an hour and a half getting the pictures ready for Barry to grab.

After doing all that, I made a big mistake (although I didn't know it at the time) by posting the URL that I'd emailed Barry. I apologize to all the admins here if I upset anyone other than Brad. I'm very upset about this whole thing, and wish I could go back and do it over.

[ 09-22-2003, 01:25 PM: Message edited by: Evans A Criswell ]