Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How Tall is Your Storey?

This is topic How Tall is Your Storey? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Dick Vaughan (Member # 540) on 06-24-2003, 08:39 AM:

As you may know many IMAX and other large format theatres boast of screens which are "X" storeys high.

While reading the marketing blurb for several venues I have come across 8 storey high screens I know to be only 55 feet and a 65' high screen described as 4 storeys high [Confused]

Quick calculations give respectively a storey of just under 7 feet in the first case and over 16 feet in the second.

Even allowing for the well known lack of common sense that exists in some marketing companies these discrepancies are mind bogglng.

My best guess on a "standard" storey would be between 10 and 12 feet ( about 3.1 -3.7 metres).

Any one else care to take a stab?

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 06-24-2003, 08:59 AM:

Having worked in the field of Architecture and Engineering for the last 15 years, I've always seen a "rule of thumb" somewhere around 10 - 12 feet, just as you described above.

As for the marketing of screen size... I'll plead guilty to that as well. Our last advertisment we ran in the local paper (right after our screen tower at the drive-in went up) boasted our screen as "60 feet across and over 4 stories tall!!".

The truth is... the general public doesn't really know the "technical details" of exactly how tall a storey is. So when somebody like me or another theatre owner boast's screen size in a unit of measurement that they are generally not familiar with... it leads them to believe that it's bigger than it actually is.

What sounds bigger to "Joe Public".. a drive-in screen that is 41 feet tall.... or "60 feet across and over 4 stories tall!!"?

Most of the indoors locally are all single floor multiplexes, and although they do have stadium seating in most of them, the public still percieves them to be a one story building. You walk in from the parking lot on the ground level, and enter into the auditoriums from ground level, but the ceiling height in many of the newer ones probably are higher than my 41 foot tall screen. However, because no stairs or elevators are used to gain access to the auditoriums, it's still percieved as a one storey building.

It's all a matter of perception......

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 06-24-2003, 09:06 AM:

I would go with 10-12 feet also.

Imax supplies a single marketing package for all theaters, regardless of screen size or system type. I had to completely rewrite the package for the marketing department in Grand Rapids because they had the SR system and were giving out information based on the GT system (ie, 15,000 watt lamps and "no, I promise you that there are two projectors in our booth"). This is something that Imax needs to rectify or their brand image will continue to degrade. But who the hell listens to anyone who knows anything?

I have also caught marketing people dropping words from the phrase "Imax theatres with screens up to ten stories high" to come up with "our ten storey high screen". Boo!

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 06-24-2003, 09:56 AM:

Our screen at cinesphere is 62' high in the centre and we advertise a 6 story tall screen since the palce was built

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-24-2003, 10:33 AM:

Residential buildings (private homes) usually have a ceiling height of at least 7.5 feet. So the minimum height per story is about 8 feet. Commercial buildings usually have higher ceilings, anywhere from 10 to 20 feet high. The wise marketer will use the residential figure. [Wink]

You could also divide the published height of some tall buildings by the number of floors to find an average "story", a figure probably in the low teens (in feet).