Pre Show Commercials

[Frank Angel]

We ran SHOAH when it first came out - if memory serves, it ran 9 1/2 hours and we showed it over two days with a 2 hour intermission for a formal dinner break arranged with a local restaurant. It came with 4 "Intermission" snipes in one of the cans although my memory is fuzzy on this, but I think there was a tear-sheet that suggested after what reels to use the Intermission titles, with the caveat that you could use them "as needed" but only at the end of a reel -- no inserting them in the middle of a reel. I think the total number of reels was 27 -- again, this was back in the mid 80s so my count may be off a bit, but let's just settle on, there were a LOT of reels. Luckily, very early on when I first got to that theatre (2500 seater) and after my first bout with carrying cans up to the 6th floor (no elevator), I installed a winch in the hang ceiling so reels could be hoisted up in a milk crate attached to a hook at the end of the winch cable. You pulled the milk crate with its load into the booth thru the followspot window. If I had access to the theatre records, I could find out exactly how many reels and where we placed the intermissions -- we kept a Projection Report on every print that we ran. But I no longer have access because I am just retired so, you know, not my problem anymore.: BTW, the inspiration for the winch idea came to me the first time we ran a double bill and I had to hump all 6 reels up there. The stagehands said, "Hey guys, getting the cans up there is easy now --.Frankie's got a wench up in the ceiling to help him out.

[Scott Norwood]

The advertising situation in mutiplexes is bad right now, and assigned seating makes it worse. People buy assigned seats in advance and then show up twenty minutes after the scheduled start time and climb over half of the people in the row in order to get to their seats. Then, they realize that they are in the wrong row, climb over those people again, and then do the same in the correct row. And they do this with house lights down after the feature has started. It is truly obnoxious.

[Frank Angel]

Add to that the new trend where instead of the usual snacks that seem to have been adequate from the dawn of exhibition until just a few years ago when the concept of the combo restaurant/cinema raised its ugly head. And with them came the specter of not only patrons climb over each other to get to assigned seats with the difficulty that you mentioned, trying to find those reserved seat number in the dark, but now you have waiters moving in and out of isles carrying trays of food and drinks. Maybe we should just strap horse feed bags to the patrons and be done with it. It certainly would make less of a mess. And thinking about that as I see hot food being delivered, wafting delicious odors in every direction thru the room, I mull over the problem of how difficult is that constant fight iwe have against crawly varmints and how exponentially more difficult that fight is going to be when I can smell those luscious barbeque ribs from four rows and 10 seats over. If I can smell that inviting food odor, imagine how irresistible all the drips and spills must be to roaches, mice and whatever other things crawl around under feet in the dark. .

If the exhibition's raison d'être is to present a motion picture as the best representation of the intent of its creators and with the least amount of external distractions, many of today's cinemas are failing miserably.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Luckily, very early on when I first got to that theatre (2500 seater) and after my first bout with carrying cans up to the 6th floor (no elevator), I installed a winch in the hang ceiling so reels could be hoisted up in a milk crate attached to a hook at the end of the winch cable. You pulled the milk crate with its load into the booth thru the followspot window.
[snip]
BTW, the inspiration for the winch idea came to me the first time we ran a double bill and I had to hump all 6 reels up there. The stagehands said, "Hey guys, getting the cans up there is easy now --.Frankie's got a wench up in the ceiling to help him out.

Wish we had something similar. The milk crate is a nice touch, certainly no trustworthy handles to rig to on these things anymore. Still doing the 6 flights of stairs method here. Whole crew joins in for 70mm cans, which thankfully is only 1 week per year.

There was once a head carpenter that agreed it is stupid, and rigged up a pulley from the top landing of the fire-alley escape, which gets you past 5 flights. Apparently management did not like this plan and it was short-lived.

After renovation there is in theory gonna be an elevator that gets you to the ballroom that is one floor under the booth. "Soon" (they have been saying for 10 years).

[Ryan Gallagher]

Add to that the new trend where instead of the usual snacks that seem to have been adequate from the dawn of exhibition until just a few years ago when the concept of the combo restaurant/cinema raised its ugly head. And with them came the specter of not only patrons climb over each other to get to assigned seats with the difficulty that you mentioned, trying to find those reserved seat number in the dark, but now you have waiters moving in and out of isles carrying trays of food and drinks. Maybe we should just strap horse feed bags to the patrons and be done with it. It certainly would make less of a mess. And thinking about that as I see hot food being delivered, wafting delicious odors in every direction thru the room, I mull over the problem of how difficult is that constant fight iwe have against crawly varmints and how exponentially more difficult that fight is going to be when I can smell those luscious barbeque ribs from four rows and 10 seats over. If I can smell that inviting food odor, imagine how irresistible all the drips and spills must be to roaches, mice and whatever other things crawl around under feet in the dark. .

If the exhibition's raison d'être is to present a motion picture as the best representation of the intent of its creators and with the least amount of external distractions, many of today's cinemas are failing miserably.

I actually think the food+cinema situation was one of innovations that actually worked. But it only worked in the early days when people were doing it "well". Rows were spaced with dedicated long tables and enough room for waitstaff to walk between the table and the next row closer, they even had dim under-table lighting so they could read their slips and compare it to the seat numbers which labeled on the floor or somewhere sensical (that and patrons could read menus without resorting to phones)... perhaps even with a step-down so they don't have to crouch the whole way. Before everyone started trying it, you only bought tickets to those cinemas if you didn't mind that format. If you hated the distractions you went elsewhere, but as it is now people are running out of those choices. The restaurant cinema might be the last one standing in their town.

It also admittedly worked way better for showing classics than for doing first runs. People are more tolerant of distractions on films they have seen more times than they can count. But as soon as they started serving beer or having full bar service in cinemas, intermissions needed to come back, cause everyone gotta go pee if they are drinking.

[Marcel Birgelen]

But as soon as they started serving beer or having full bar service in cinemas, intermissions needed to come back, cause everyone gotta go pee if they are drinking.

IMG_8890capitol_72.jpg
I've not been there since they implemented this, even though it's "practically around the corner"... Yeah, they do have a full bar in the room, right in front of the screen.

I've seen cinemas with bars in the back of the room before, as a matter of fact, I even worked in one about 25 years or so ago. But this is concept is more like a bar, where there happens to be a movie playing... The reason why I've never revisited this place ever since this make-over is because I actually really hate this concept.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Yeah, they do have a full bar in the room, right in front of the screen.

I've seen cinemas with bars in the back of the room before, as a matter of fact, I even worked in one about 25 years or so ago. But this is concept is more like a bar, where there happens to be a movie playing... The reason why I've never revisited this place ever since this make-over is because I actually really hate this concept.

Lol, yeah that was not what I was referring to, I just meant a full bar in the lobby... this is a whole other concept that starts to stray away from cinema. But in heavy drinking towns, I can see it working as a business model, I'm just not sure it counts as a cinema. I mean do you play the audio at cinema volumes? Or do you play it at a level where your night-life loving bar patrons can have a date conversation etc.

Also I feel like the room becomes less useful for earlier screenings... bar hours only.

[Brad Miller]

How do they stop all of the glass bottles from clattering during loud parts of the movie?

Also you just know there is "cool bar lighting" there that shines up on the screen and kills the picture quality, along with just generally being a distraction. Clearly the designers were incredibly greedy and wanted the bar to be a constant reminder to people watching the movie so they would get up and buy another. Putting the bar at the back of the auditorium would have been far more suitable.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Well, that's the thing... It just has to be extremely distracting, not just the light leakage, but also all the constant activity in front of the room. Back in the place where I worked ±25 years ago, every room had a small "bar" in the back, I already found that to be pretty annoying, due to the sound of clattering bottles and glasses coming from there. That's one reason why they were eventually phased out and all service was moved to a room behind the central lobby. This slowed down drinks service, but we seldomly had sufficient personnel on duty to put a dedicated waiter in every room anyway, which was the real reason to phase out those dedicated bars. Also, you sometimes had impatient people walking up to the bar during the movie, which was also pretty distracting.

But getting back to the place described above: the place seems to get pretty good reviews, an average of 4,7 on Google. Maybe because it qualifies as a more hipster place to visit, but it's also been open for 9 years now, so the concept itself seems to work... Maybe, if I'm in the neighborhood again, I'll just give it a try... even though I'm not really in favor of sponsoring such concepts, maybe I'm missing something.

PS: You can actually walk around in the place on Google.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Based on the google walk through... seems like if you want to "watch the movie" you sit upstairs, bar is almost out of sight lines. If you want to socialize and drink you go downstairs.

But also in the google view you can tell there is "cool bar lighting" as well as POS kiosk screens that face the freaking audience, not much effort made to black out distracting lights. Hell I imagine they even have the houselights on at a glow the whole time since they expect people to be walking around. That or they need really good aisle lighting.

It's probably a vibe. And maybe the film is free with a minimum bar cover/tab? (Though not sure how that swings with all screening agreements).

Also worth noting it bills itself as a "Lounge", and not a cinema. So the purists can relax a little I guess.
EDIT: Nevermind. I forgot for a second what Kino meant. lol.

Actually this isn't so bad, from Cinema Treasuers:
The bar is open while the pre-programming is running. After the 20 minutes pre-pregramme is an intermission of 10 minutes for the last orders at the bar. The featurs film is then screened. Once the film is over, the bar is open again and Lounge music is played. The moviegoers love to stay a little bit longer at this nicely designed cinema.

[Barry Floyd]

Did the theatre program manager make a mistake and put these ads in the trailer section? Are some companies paying extra to promote their product close to the movie starting time? I tried to hunt the acting candy counter manager down after the movie but as usual he was not to found.

Nope, the theater program manager didn't make a mistake, he played the "marquee ad spot". We use the same advertising company (Screen Visions) and they will pay the theater more money to play the "marquee ad spot" if it's placed in the playlist directly before the movie. They have "checkers" to see if you really played the ad and really placed it in the "marquee spot".

I use the same company, but I don't play the "marquee ad spots". We have an older grandma aged lady who comes in every weekend to "watch movies", but always leaves as soon as the movies start. She's the checker.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Nope, the theater program manager didn't make a mistake, he played the "marquee ad spot". We use the same advertising company (Screen Visions) and they will pay the theater more money to play the "marquee ad spot" if it's placed in the playlist directly before the movie. They have "checkers" to see if you really played the ad and really placed it in the "marquee spot".

I use the same company, but I don't play the "marquee ad spots". We have an older grandma aged lady who comes in every weekend to "watch movies", but always leaves as soon as the movies start. She's the checker.

Not a bad retirement gig I guess. Stay if you are interested, bounce if you are not or have seen it. My mom dog-sits, but they go to a billion movies in theatres, will suggest this alternate retirement income. ;-)

[Barry Floyd]

Not a bad retirement gig I guess. Stay if you are interested, bounce if you are not or have seen it. My mom dog-sits, but they go to a billion movies in theatres, will suggest this alternate retirement income. ;-)

She always buys an order of cheese fries and a medium Dr. Pepper.. so at least she spends money while she's here.

[Frank Cox]

Real D used to send someone to count the boxes of glasses every year or so. The people they sent were contractors with some kind of market research company and it never amounted to more than a three-minute visit. "Looks like you've got ten boxes of glasses, sign this so I can prove I was here."

There was one old lady who did it three or four times, and then a different guy came here two or three times.

But the last few times I got the email saying that their glasses counter person was going to be coming on such-and-such a date, nobody came.

Since I've got the only Real D equipped theatre for many miles around, they must have figured out that it's not worth the gas to have someone drive all the way here from where-ever they come from to spent thirty seconds counting glasses.

I haven't seen anyone from that outfit for a few years now.