my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » Time machine (Page 1)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Author Topic: Time machine Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 09-02-2011 10:32 PM                     This one should be interesting. If you had a time machine and could go back in time to change ONE thing for the better about the cinema exhibition industry, what would that one thing be? (We all understand there is no such thing as a time machine, so it's ok to say something like "kill the guy who invented blah, blah, blah".)  |  IP: Logged Tom Petrov Five Guys Lover Posts: 1121 From: El Paso, TX Registered: Jan 2003 posted 09-02-2011 10:37 PM                    I don't know if I would change anything. But I would go back and visit and experience all of the old theatres of the past that closed. Maybe I would shoot the guy who invented the cookie cutter multi plex!  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 09-02-2011 11:02 PM                     quote: Tom Petrov invented the cookie cutter multi plex If history is correct, it was James Edwards Sr. who started the "multiscreen" idea. He started in the late silent era as a doorman/usher at one of the large houses in SoCal area of Newport Beach. Then, due to loving the business, in 1930 he bought a storefront and converted it into a small cinema. Being the penny pincher he was, he saved money up to buy the store next door two years later and also converted that one into a small cinema, but each had their own staff and manager. Thus to cut costs and still gain profits, he knocked down the common wall between the two so one manager could run both. Thus began the first operational twin cinema. ...and James Edwards Sr. grew his business into one of the largest SoCal businesses - Edwards Cinemas. as for the question: To make sure that Lightholler had his binoculars so he could have seen that iceberg a lot earlier so the "Titanic" would have steered away from creating history. or..found a way to create a distraction so that JFK would have gone a differnt route .. and NOT gone down Deely Plaza. or .. found a way to delay the flights that crashed into the Twin Towers ... which changed our lives forever.  |  IP: Logged Tom Petrov Five Guys Lover Posts: 1121 From: El Paso, TX Registered: Jan 2003 posted 09-02-2011 11:11 PM                    quote: Monte L Fullmer If history is correct I always thought it was the guys who started Cineplex. Dranbinsky and sometime, Nat Taylor I think.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 09-02-2011 11:44 PM                     Monte, the question was specifically what would you change in history to better the cinema industry.  |  IP: Logged Robert E. Allen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1078 From: Checotah, Oklahoma Registered: Jul 2002 posted 09-03-2011 12:54 AM                     I'm with Tom on the multiplex thing. However, that would be right after I shot the idiots that allowed vulgar language and sexual nudity in general release films.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 09-03-2011 02:15 AM                     (Whoops ... got a little carried away in other histories ....) Have owners and unions work together as a main operational force intead of them fighting against one another across the barganing table as who is better organized.  |  IP: Logged Edward Havens Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 614 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Mar 2008 posted 09-03-2011 02:42 AM                     The truth of the matter is, it doesn't matter who thought of multiplexing first. If it hadn't been Person X in 1914, it would have been Person Y in 1930, or Person Z in 1947, or someone else somewhere down the line. We might not have thirty screen monsterplexes, but there would be some kind of multiplex existing. Ditto snack bars, color film, sound on disc, sound on film, stereophonic sound, widescreen cinema processes, 3D, computerized box offices, stadium seating, digital sound, DLP projection, laser projection and any other evolution of the cinema process. Would the moviegoing experience be better today if Jon Duan and The Jazz Singer didn't have any kind of sound, and that process didn't become popular until the 1930s or 1940s? Would it have been better if Cinerama and Cinemascope hadn't shown up until the 1960s or 1970s? Or if Jaws and Star Wars hadn't ushered in the blockbuster mentality? It's a nice dream that some things would be better if someone else didn't happen. But I only dream at the movies.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-03-2011 06:33 AM                        I would un-invent television.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 09-03-2011 10:02 AM                     I would eliminate the Paramount Consent Decrees which forced the studios to divest themselves of their theatre chains. Once the studios no longer had the need to support the overhead of the retail end of distribution, they no longer had a reason to provide programming that would keep people coming to the theatres, or to keep their products off of competing formats (broadcast, cable, video, streaming, etc).  |  IP: Logged Stephen LaPadula Film Handler Posts: 50 From: New York, Ny Registered: Mar 2005 posted 09-03-2011 11:07 AM                     Mitchell: Amen to that. Splitting up production/distribution/exhibition exponentially increases eachs self serving interests. Barriers of entry into the industry would have been (and was) near impossible for entrepreneurs to break into even a decade or so ago....but look at how many independent filmmakers/theatres there are today. The ever evolving audio and video technology that fuels our business makes it increasingly easier for production and exhibition  |  IP: Logged Damien Taylor Master Film Handler Posts: 493 From: Perth, Western Australia Registered: Apr 2007 posted 09-03-2011 11:20 AM                     quote: Mitchell Dvoskin provide programming that would keep people coming to the theatres Maybe I'm misunderstanding block booking, but didn't it allow studios to produce overall lower quality content?  |  IP: Logged Tony Bandiera Jr Film God Posts: 3067 From: Moreland Idaho Registered: Apr 2004 posted 09-03-2011 04:04 PM                     I would go back and stop the demolition of the Grand Roxy Theatre in New York. Anyone who has ever seen the design of that theatre would understand why it was called "The Cathedral Of The Motion Picture". Gloria Swanson standing in the ruins of the demolished auditorium, picture courtesy of Cinematreasures: Old man Roxy knew how to do it right. LINKY to Photos  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 09-03-2011 04:28 PM                        Hmmm, this is a tough question. There are a few things I might consider: -Having the framerate be 30fps instead of 24. More temporal resolution, but still has a very similar temporal look to the framerate. -Somehow, with only my wits, make it so that 70mm was the standard for all theatrical presentations and 35mm was looked upon as a laughable hobbyists format. All motion pictures would be shot in that format as well. Hell, make it 71mm. A little extra quality never hurt. -Make it so that no screen was allowed to be smaller than 41.6 feet (measured vertically) and also that only common height screens would be allowed or the po po would come and shut your entire establishment down and shoot the theater owner in the face. -Make it so that owning a theater is actually profitable. As it has been for the last few decades, most theaters can't even afford projectionists. Times are tough. One wonders why companies even stay in the business if the income is that low.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 09-03-2011 05:02 PM                     If I could change things I would make it so THX, or rather the original idea behind it, was applied to ALL commercial movie theater screens no matter how big or small. Any new theater would be built from the ground up with room acoustics in mind and feature the level of amplification and speakers needed to get the damned job done absolutely right. I would also include militant high standards of sound system maintenance. Great movie theater sound should NOT be a premium priced experience reserved for only a few screens. One shouldn't have to search high and low for one of the few theaters doing a good job with the sound systems. This is in that "basics" category every theater needs, like bathrooms, a popcorn popping machine and electricity.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.