rick@ucla-cs.UUCP (09/21/84)
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Does anybody know why they close the curtains in a movie theatre after
showing the "coming soons" and the main feature? They must stay closed for,
oh, say, 3 second.
Rick Gillespie
...!ucbvax!ucla-cs!rick
rick@ucla-cs
"Things are more like they are now than they ever have been before."rick@ucla-cs.UUCP (09/21/84)
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OOOOOOPS. I forgot the word "before" in my previous posting. It should
say:
after the "coming soons and before the main feature".
Sorry about that, the people responsible have been sacked.
Rick Gillespie
...!ucbvax!ucla-cs!rick
rick@ucla-cs
"Things are more like they are now than they ever have been before."moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (09/24/84)
>Does anybody know why they close the curtains in a movie theatre after >showing the "coming soons" and the main feature? They must stay closed for, >oh, say, 3 second. > > > Rick Gillespie This is a tradition, I believe, which is slowly dying out... "Let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown!" Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. UUCP: {cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsrgv}!uw-beaver \ {allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA
stein@fortune.UUCP (Mark Stein) (09/24/84)
> Does anybody know why they close the curtains in a movie theatre after > showing the "coming soons" and the main feature? They must stay closed for, > oh, say, 3 second. I used to work in a movie theater back in my school days. There are several reasons why the curtain might be closed between the trailers and the main feature: 1) If the trailers are in a different aspect ratio than the feature (flat vs cinemascope, for example), closing the curtain will provide a better transition when the changover is made. The audience won't notice that the picture just got twice as wide! 2) It provides a way of announcing to the audience that the feature is about to start. Of course, some chains now use elaborate teasers for this purpose. This separates the "commercials" from the program. 3) Some of the studio logos were designed to be shown on an opening curtain (notably the 20th Century Fox crossing searchlights and the MGM lion). 4) Pure theatrics! Why not? The customers paid to see a show -- why not give them a professional one? Closing the curtain is a nice touch. --Mark Stein
msc@qubix.UUCP (Mark Callow) (09/30/84)
> Does anybody know why they close the curtains in a movie theatre after > showing the "coming soons" and the main feature? They must stay closed for, > oh, say, 3 second. >> 1) If the trailers are in a different aspect ratio than the feature >> (flat vs cinemascope, for example), closing the curtain will >> provide a better transition when the changover is made. The >> audience won't notice that the picture just got twice as wide! This particular use of the curtains ("tabs" to the trade), in England at least, hides the motion of the automatic masking when changing from standard ratio to wide-screen or 'scope. Automatic masking is something I have never seen in a cinema in the U.S. More often than not the masking is permanently at the widest position and you have ugly expanses of white screen when a wide-screen or (very rare today) standard feature is shown. Or, much worse, the cinema shows all films at the same aspect ratio by using different levels of magnification and gate plates which chop off parts of the picture to make it fit the screen. That's as bad as television. It is just one more reason why I find the presentation quality so low in U.S. cinemas. I worked part-time as a projectionist for several years in England so I know something about how to put on a good presentation. -- From the TARDIS of Mark Callow msc@qubix.UUCP, qubix!msc@decwrl.ARPA ...{decvax,ucbvax}!decwrl!qubix!msc, ...{amd,ihnp4,ittvax}!qubix!msc "Nothing shocks me. I'm an Engineer."
ecl@hocsj.UUCP (10/02/84)
I had heard that closing the curtains was a fire law; it proved that the theatre (in England) or theater (in the U.S.) had an operational fire curtain. It may be a hold-over from live stage plays.
msc@qubix.UUCP (Mark Callow) (10/08/84)
> I had heard that closing the curtains was a fire law; it proved that the > theatre (in England) or theater (in the U.S.) had an operational fire > curtain. It may be a hold-over from live stage plays. In the live theatre (England) the safety curtain indeed has to be lowered (at the intermission) to prove they have one. The safety curtain is a completely different curtain from the main stage curtains. Cinemas don't generally have safety curtains since there's not much backstage to catch fire. -- From the TARDIS of Mark Callow msc@qubix.UUCP, qubix!msc@decwrl.ARPA ...{decvax,ucbvax}!decwrl!qubix!msc, ...{amd,ihnp4,ittvax}!qubix!msc "Nothing shocks me. I'm an Engineer."