Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: showtime calculation software

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Posted by Matt Hefright (Member # 2470) on 06-22-2004, 02:37 PM:

does anyone know of a simple showtime calculator which could print out on an 8x11 page, detailing the useful information ( time, rating, etc...)for posting by the phone.

i know that some ticketing software does this, RTS ticketing has an unwanted format, and i don't have time to code my own at this time.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 06-23-2004, 02:28 PM:

Well, this is not a direct answer to what you are looking for Matt, but years ago I found a great little aid in preparing Time Schedules. I use a sexigesimal calculator to help in figuring out the times. This unit looks like a regular calculator, but it can be toggled to compute either in decimal or sexegesimal allowing you to input hours, minutes, and seconds and then do computations on those numbers. It is was made by Casio. So for example, if your starting time is say 12:30pm, you enter the hour, 12 and the minutes 30. Then you add the attraction reel running time, say 17m and then add the feature time, say 114m and you will get when the feature starts (12:47p) and the exit time (2:41p), and then you continue like that for the rest of the day. It doesn't print out anything and you would have to enter the times it computes in whatever program you do find, although I would think you could construct a spreadsheet in Excel that you could just plug the times in as you calculate them and print out from there.

It may seem silly to most that one would need such an aid, but for the unfortunate few like me who have a stunted right side of the brain and who have a hard enough time figuring regular decimal numbers in my head, let along figuring a 60 base system for time (which isn't two bad until you are figuring across the 12 to 1 hours), this little baby has been glued to my desk for decades.

I am not sure if Casio still makes this calculator, but with computers today, I can't imagine that you couldn't find a software sexegesimal calculator or more to the point, a small Time Schedule program designed specifically for this application without having to run (and purchase) a huge theatre operation software just to get a time schedule function.

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 06-23-2004, 02:34 PM:

I've often though about writing a program like that.
There are a lot of variables to take into consideration though if you're doing showtimes-done-right.

What I mean by that is, newer films should be given times that are on quarters of the hour, for example, it's easier for customers to remember 12:45 than 12:40, 12:45 is more of a mentally satisfying number.
In addition bigger houses need longer intermissions for cleaning etc. You must also take into account 'dead times'. Times from 5:00 to 6:00 seem to be a little harder for customers to remember.
For a long time we used a schedule that had 6 sets durring summer with sets beginning at 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, 4:00, 7:00, and 9:00, sometimes later, such as 10:00's or 11:00's.

An excel spreadsheet maybe the solution to your needs.
Hope this helps in some way.

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 06-30-2004, 10:20 PM:

Matt,

Could you give me an example of what kind of output you're looking for?

I've been looking to create something to provide a script for phone recordings, and I would appreciate a real-world example of what you would find useful.

Scott

Posted by Ky Boyd (Member # 23) on 06-30-2004, 11:23 PM:

How about using an Excel spreadsheet? Excel will do math functions with times and formatting an Excel spreadsheet to suit your individual liking is a snap.

oops, guess I should have read Dominic's entire post before I hit the post reply button. Sorry.

Posted by Christopher Duvall (Member # 284) on 07-01-2004, 02:53 AM:

I use Excel. The spread sheet I put together has titles, calculates the end times, it has ratings, house placement, length and whatever info I want.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 07-01-2004, 08:02 AM:

We use Excel at my theatre also.

But - I have another top secret [Razz]

formula that I use also. Although that formula was really for an extremly busy 24 screen theatre - I found that the formula works other places too....

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 07-01-2004, 08:31 AM:

I too created a spreadsheet to handle up to 30 prints.

Allows custom spreads between shows, can show bar graphs for a visual representation of the showtimes. Show # starts in 5 minute increments, show # drops in 5 minute increments.

Don't know if this is what you want but would be willing to share. Sorry, no documentation though.

Posted by Nicole Bischoff (Member # 2187) on 07-01-2004, 11:16 AM:

Matt,
If you have a format, we would be happy to add it to the software for you. Feel free to contact us.

Thank You,
Nicole Bischoff
Ready Theatre Systems
(269) 621-2555 (phone)
(707) 276-7222 (fax)
support@rts-solutions.com

Posted by Eric Hooper (Member # 1730) on 07-01-2004, 12:45 PM:

Scheduling showtimes is fun. I can often do it in my head, since I love mathmatical patterns and such. Oftentimes I look at the newspaper listings and go, WTF were they thinking at that theatre? Why is there a 1 hour intermission during the daytime shows, and then only a 10 minute intermission at night? (And usually I can clearly see the scheduler made a mistake and realize they're gonna pay for it at night showings. The showtimes are then 'corrected' the next day or the next week. [Razz]

)

It's also fun for me to analyze the showtimes at megaplexes where they share screens for one or two shows and are always moving prints around during the day and such. It's kind of a hobby of mine to figure out all the 'madness'. Kind of like solving a logic puzzle. And then I sometimes realize 'Gee, they could have done that soooooo much easier...'. [Big Grin]

Posted by Matt Hefright (Member # 2470) on 07-01-2004, 01:06 PM:

i'll email the format to you after i scan it. thanks

what i'm looking for is a software package to automagically adjust showtimes to allow for at least 15 min of cleaning time, then it will adjust the second time accordingly.

i'll also try the excel sheet too.