Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Drive-In Screen size

This is topic Drive-In Screen size in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Dave Marlow (Member # 8405) on 09-01-2014, 09:29 AM:

What would be the best aspect ratio for a Drive-in screen, Our screen is 27x50. It seems like some of the words are cut short on the sides sometimes, we have a Barco DP2K-23B digital projector. Is the movie cropped to fit the screen? We are using scope most of the time, we used Flat once.

Thanks Dave
Pheasant City Drive-In Redfield SD

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 09-01-2014, 11:59 AM:

Scope (digital) is 2.39:1 aspect ratio. 50 divided by 2.39 is 20.92 (approx).

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 09-01-2014, 03:10 PM:

Older legacy drive-in screens tended to be 1.33 "flat": many have had wings added to widen the image - but rarely to 'scope 2.39 width.
Newer screens are usually somewhere between 1.85 and 2.39 so neither format fits the screen.
Owners seem to hate screen without image on it and ask for both formats to fill the screen: flat 1.85 gets height cut off top and scope gets width cut off.
If you are OK with unused screen area, and your lens zoom ratio allows it, you can reprogram the lens and screen files to project more - even all! - of the available image.

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 09-02-2014, 02:36 PM:

Some folks use a simple 2:1 ratio because it's easy. Both of my screens are 2.39:1 with a surface dimension of 25x59. I don't crop anything - flat or scope. My scope image fills the entire screen top to bottom & side to side, whereas the flat image fills the screen top to bottom, but leaves about 6 feet of black unfilled space on either side of the image.

If someone asks why, we explain it's the same way at the indoor theatre, except they pull the curtains in on the sides. We just can't find any curtains big enough to fit the screen. [Roll Eyes]