On using the main curtain more often...

[Ryan Gallagher]

I am fortunate to run films in a cinema with a motorized main rag/curtain.

However ever since the pandemic, when we had many "pre-taped video" film introductions, marketing has grown fond of promoting the upcoming shows on the big screen during walkin, generally voiding the use of the main curtain ahead of a film. We still close it after credits but on anything but classics the audience is long gone by then.

This winter series we got back to the basics and it was enjoyable, because marketing decided to do an animated title+snow graphic shot onto the curtain itself during walkin. Film intros took place downstage of the curtain as they used to. And we got to do the full impact curtain moves at the top and end of films. "It's a Wonderful Life" was particularly pleasurable to operate and witness, cause I opened it to reveal the liberty films/bells card... and timed my closing of it perfectly with the last image of the crawl and final music beat.

Going forward i'm tempted to suggest we keep this theme rolling because it really is something that separates us from other theatres, but strike a compromise with marketing, and show the promotional slides up until 5 minutes before the film, then close the drape and do the whole intro sequence in front of the rag as a curtain speech as god intended.

My only gotchya with this compromise idea is when they throw other pre-roll at us, either season sponsor ads or series bumpers/trailers. It feels silly to open the curtain onto an advert or trailer. But it feels equally silly to play those early and then close the rag for the intro speech.

(Edit, okay it's silly if there is a pregnant gap, but I think bumpers directly into curtain close + speech is perhaps workable. The catch is there isn't always a speech, so there goes your curtain opportunity).

We'll also likely never get to use it during festivals, cause they always have their own on-screen plans and forget how good a properly lit main curtain looks.

Thoughts? What show flows would you suggest to maximize the use of the traditional curtain presentation methods?

[Steve Guttag]

Curtain Calls between segments isn't new and, in my opinion, classes up a show. When I was operating with preshow stuff, I would close the curtain between the ads and trailers. Depending on the room and its capabilities, I would also keep the preshow at a smaller ratio (e.g. 1.85) and then changeover to Scope (2.39) with the masking moving behind the curtain. If I didn't have motorized masking, I would stop the curtain on the preshow just beyond its image. Close it at the conclusion and then dim the lights an open up to the feature's size on the trailers. But, I always preferred to let the feature be the biggest format, though difficult when running classics with a 1.37:1 ratio unless you have vertical masking too.

I hate to bring it up but there is the other consideration with curtain calls. Have a plan for when the curtain/machine fails. When I was at the Uptown in DC, the curtain would, occasionally derail or otherwise come off of the machine (and it was no ordinary system. The chain that moved that curtain was the size of a motorcycle chain. It was so large that the weight of it made it so I could only move it but so far by hand before I would end up just climbing up the chain like it was a rope (nevermind that getting to the machine required some gymnastics and you have a seated audience of possibly 1000 or so...and then scamper back up to the booth. Keep your curtain in very good repair and if it is a draw curtain, don't let it drag the floor...that is the fastest way to kill a system.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Curtain Calls between segments isn't new and, in my opinion, classes up a show. When I was operating with preshow stuff, I would close the curtain between the ads and trailers. Depending on the room and its capabilities, I would also keep the preshow at a smaller ratio (e.g. 1.85) and then changeover to Scope (2.39) with the masking moving behind the curtain. If I didn't have motorized masking, I would stop the curtain on the preshow just beyond its image. Close it at the conclusion and then dim the lights an open up to the feature's size on the trailers. But, I always preferred to let the feature be the biggest format, though difficult when running classics with a 1.37:1 ratio unless you have vertical masking too.

I hate to bring it up but there is the other consideration with curtain calls. Have a plan for when the curtain/machine fails. When I was at the Uptown in DC, the curtain would, occasionally derail or otherwise come off of the machine (and it was no ordinary system. The chain that moved that curtain was the size of a motorcycle chain. It was so large that the weight of it made it so I could only move it but so far by hand before I would end up just climbing up the chain like it was a rope (nevermind that getting to the machine required some gymnastics and you have a seated audience of possibly 1000 or so...and then scamper back up to the booth. Keep your curtain in very good repair and if it is a draw curtain, don't let it drag the floor...that is the fastest way to kill a system.

Yeah we don't have all those options... but some of them perhaps. Our side masking is manual, not automated... so our normal is to manipulate any pre-roll to fit within the feature masking. Less than ideal when given 185 preroll for a 138 classic.

I'll have to give closing it and reopening it a shot in the transition between walkin and intro/pre-roll. We don't show traditional trailers but every so often marketing gets creative and gives us a sizzle reel for the series. We have done things like this for "roadshow" format classics that have overtures and demand the curtain etc. If every film had an overture this would be too easy to implement. lol

Yeah show stopping motor/track failure is a concern. Our curtain/track/motor are new as of last year (old one dry-rotted and was damaged beyond repair during a TV taping load out)... but unfortunately the motor is now mounted to the track overhead, and only accessible via genie lift. A manual bypass just really isn't an option right now because the drive-dog bolt that has to be removed is inaccessible without flying out the film screen and getting up on a genie. None of the traveler lines even come down to the ground anymore unlike our old system which was wall mounted SR. If curtain fails closed or part way, show is cancelled.

We don't yet have automation to the curtain controls... so stopping it at certain opening sizes really isn't in the cards yet. But automating the open/close/stop functions should be easy enough, I just need to convince mgmt to spend a little money on a industry suitable relay product to wire to the existing button panel in the booth. I picked up a JNIOR series4 I intend to sell them for this purpose eventually. But chances are all such changes are delayed until after the architectural restoration that is always on the "horizon".