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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: DUNKIRK 70MM WITH CURTAINS
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Frank Angel
Film God
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Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 08-06-2017 07:54 AM
We have a deep wine-red velour main rag that flies and a cream satin traveler on the screen. I've only used them together a few times, but didn't quite like the effect. Since we always start every show with a WB cartoon followed by the trailers, the deep red velour main curtain sapped up too much of the projected image. We always project the opening WB Merry Melodies logo on the curtain (as Terry mention - first frames on the opening curtain is the way to do it), but the WB logo plays too fast and with the velour curtain, you don't see it well enough and it's gone before the curtain is full opened. Using just the cream satin screen curtain (traveler splits) you see the movie footage very well. And yes, of COURSE you have a curtain cue between everything before the feature and the feature. The curtain before the feature imparts the feeling that an important event is about to start...it creates a mood.
And yes, I know it's old school, but years ago, I was handed a Manager's Handbook at Interstate Theatres in Texas...Austin, actually -- the State Theatre there;I think it was on Main Street. Anyway, they had an entire chapter on use of the curtain and the curtain warmers; the heading was CURTAIN PROTOCOL. And there was a line in that chapter that never left me: "The mortal sin of presentation is for an audience to ever see a naked screen. The screen is a window to things wonderful, not a wall that ruins that illusion." And yes, one of the many rules in that chapter was that the curtain will be used in front of the feature regardless of what plays before it.
This stuff was so sacrosanct that when the curtain motor broke, the manager assigned TWO ushers to position themselves back stage at the curtain pull and 15min before the cues. Why, I asked do we need two guys back there? He told me (then a very green, assistant manager), you assign a second one just in case the first idiot forgets, and you get them there 15min before the cue because one time or another, one or even both of them will be late. He told me that if the regional manager comes in (evidently that guy could pop in unannounced at any time) and sees the curtain not working or not working properly or, yipes, is confronted with a Naked Screen, all hell will break loose and you'll wish you weren't the AM on duty.
BTW, that WB Merry Melodies logo hitting a shimmering curtain as it opens and with that great, uplifting logo music playing...it gets applause every time. Adverts, on the other hand, easily get booed (not at my thearte...we don't run adverts, just trailers...BIG difference). At DUNKIRK the other nite, we had to sit thru four effin TV commercials. Hey, Coke...you want to make me feel good about your diabetic-causing soda, give me a large Coke free when I walk in the theatre and it will make much more of an impression on me than making me sit thru your damn TV commercial...extended length no less!
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Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler
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Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006
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posted 08-06-2017 12:01 PM
quote: Frank Angel when the curtain motor broke, the manager assigned TWO ushers to position themselves back stage at the curtain pull and 15min before the cues
I too was taught the "no naked screen rule" when learning this biz.
So, once, many years ago, when the curtain motor broke down on opening weekend of a big flick, and I wanted to maintain the 'presentation standards', I wanted to have one of the house staff manually handle 'curtain duty', at least for that weekend, until we could get the motor fixed.
The house manager was OK with it, but "The Union" threw a fit. Opening the curtains, they said, was my "my job" and my responsibility. However, since, technically, I couldn't leave the booth to open them myself, nor could I be in two places at once, if the theater manager wanted the curtains opened/closed, we could bring in two guys @ $37.50/hr (or whatever the union minimum wage was at that time) to do so. Noooooo problem!
While it was frustrating, I certainly understood The Union's position.
. . . and I'm sure that had The Internet & Film-Tech been around back then, somebody attending the show that weekend would have gotten online and posted a comment noting that the presentation was flawless but whining about the curtains not opening or closing.
I'm just pointing out that sometimes, things happen, or don't happen, for a reason, & those reasons often aren't always as simple as they might seem.
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Monte L Fullmer
Film God
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Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted 08-07-2017 03:14 AM
We had the waterfall and the scrib curtains.
When the waterfall started to rise and about half way up, we opened the dowser.
After a few seconds, we would open the scrib curtain.
Now, since we had dual adjustable maskings, we had a cue on the last preview to close the scrib, change maskings, then changeover cue to the feature reel.
At start of feature, open the scrib again.
Closing, we closed the scrib about 20 sec before last image, then another cue to drop the waterfall.
No one was allowed to see a bare screen.
Showmanship at its best!
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