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".

[Josh Jones]

Back in the days of running film, we had an automated way to do curtain calls. It worked by placing a close curtain cue at the end of the last trailer, timed so the curtains would close and dowser would shut at the last frame of the trailer. A black slug followed with a restart cue on it. We had a TA-10 with FM-37 cue detectors that was integrated into the strand lighting system and other auditorium stuff.

JJ

[Ryan Gallagher]

Back in the days of running film, we had an automated way to do curtain calls. It worked by placing a close curtain cue at the end of the last trailer, timed so the curtains would close and dowser would shut at the last frame of the trailer. A black slug followed with a restart cue on it. We had a TA-10 with FM-37 cue detectors that was integrated into the strand lighting system and other auditorium stuff.

JJ

Nice... so would you insert enough black to cover the close/open sequence for platters I assume. Being a changeover house... if we were to show trailers on film we'd probably do it on the other projector, but it would be pretty damn awkward cause the lights/curtain buttons are only next to Film-Tech Cinema Systems projector currently. We are certainly not adding/removing black in this era of running our studio/archival prints. If we ever re-introduce trailers into our series it will probably be via the digital projector anyhoo, despite having a decent collection of fun 35mm trailers in the booth.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Kinda related: When I worked the UA8 in Buena Park, we had Christie P-35's with the manual turrets and apertures (the ones you pulled out, flipped over and stuck them back in). In a few cases, I had flat trailers in front of a 'scope feature. (We had movable side maskings as well).

I would close the lamp dowser after a few seconds of the end card on the last trailer, spin the turret, flip the plate and trigger the scope masking stop then reopen onto the wider screen.

I had to stop doing it because the lame popcorn kids on my days off would either screw it up or just not bother doing it.

My first projectionist job was at an Air Force base theatre, we had no movable masking, mono sound, but we did have a side draw drape (with footlights) that doubled as our masking. Everything was manual and it was a changeover booth.

I loved doing flat trailer reels and doing a changeover into scope while fading footlights and opening the curtain to time it just right to the scope image.

The best? "The Right Stuff" Flat trailers, Opened to a roughly 1.37 for the opening sequence, and timing the opening of the curtain to the fireball opening to scope. All 5 shows I got a huge roar and applause during that transition.

I tried to program "The Right Stuff" when I worked at UC Irvine, but we couldn't make it happen.

I miss the good old days when film was fun to project.

[Ryan Gallagher]

I miss the good old days when film was fun to project.

Yeah good times. Single screens with all the trimmings. Back when aspect changes might had a whole host of things to trigger with it.

Our masking install was never intended for automation, the only reason the top mask is motorized is so you don’t have to climb up to the elevated fly-rail to move it. You could almost automate flat/scope/2.20 with it, but our widths vary slightly due to maximizing size relative to the arched prosc opening. If you gave up that extra size (and sourced new 35mm lenses) one might get part way there.

Maybe I can convince em it is worth it on the refit during renovations to add the appropriate masking mechanisms.

PS I think I bought a right stuff trailer on eBay. I need to put my space/sci-fi trailer reels together. ;-)