April 19, 2005

This gives me the cross-eyed shits How many times have you been to the local multiplex and sat through an out-of-focus screening?

I put it down to multiple screens being run by one projectionist, however, there's more. From the linked article -- [...] theaters cut costs by employing just one projectionist to run several screens, with the frequent result that neglected machines jam, allowing the projection lamp to burn a hole in the film. "To prevent such costly mishaps," Epstein writes, "multiplexes frequently have their projectionists slightly expand the gap between the gate that supports the film and the lamp. As a result . . . films are often shown slightly out of focus." Likewise, theater owners are loath to change projection bulbs, which cost $1,000 apiece. So even the sunniest sequences look like nuclear winter.

posted by Wolof 19 years ago
  • my widescreen tv and dvds are always in focus, my couch is more comfortable than the theatre seats, i can pause to take a leak or get a snack from my kitchen, and i don't have to hear kids screaming or someone explaining the movie to their date. who wants to pay $10 per person for a crappy screen, another $15 for snacks, when you can get it from netflix or blockbuster 3 months after it was in theatres? i usually don't despair if i am not the first to see a movie, it helps me avoid the really crappy ones. with the quality movies available on dvd and HD channels, it's really difficult to rationalize moviegoing anymore. that being said, i will be seeing HHGG on the first day it's out.
  • I don't know if it's because of - or in spite of - the gastro that seems to be affecting most of LA, but 'This gives me the cross-eyed shits' is the funniest thing I've read all day.
  • Also, they employ underskilled younguns more often than not, who don't know what they're doing.
  • i've been a projectionist, at a four-plex. and even that sucked. you're under pressure all the time to get sessions changed over with more regard to sales than the actual effort involved. the downstairs staff are either a) not bloody there because your manager is under pressure to reduce staffing costs and therefore short-staffs the place with no allowance for covering breaks or b) they're a 15-year-old barely-sentient germ plasm with no conception of the fact that they're helping you with $80,000 worth of print on $100,000 equipment. At one point, I had to shift 3 prints every session, which means running each print onto a board about 2.5m in diameter, and then carrying it by hand to the other machine and threading up. now, imagine that all your sessions are starting at roughly the same time, and you have about 15 minutes between them if you are lucky. And you're under pressure to start them all on time because if you don't the advertisers get narky. THEN you have to make sure that all the sessions are in frame, in focus and the sound is right (often going into the cinema itself), that the loops are right on the machine and everything's ticking over. Once a week (or more often) you have to check each print all the way through, and you also have to take the advertising off the front of the print, and rearrange it - adding new ads and removing old ones. Sometimes you have to take ads out of one print and put them in another. Projectioning is a pain in the arse at a small cinema. At a 20-plex... a nightmare.
  • Whenever I see a movie, I expect perfection. If there is anything slightly wrong, I always complain and ask for a refund or passes to another showing. This is what consumers must do in order to cut down on crappy showings. The most recent time this happened was with Shrek2 which had something weird going on with the soundtrack, but luckily it doesn't happen too often anymore. I suggest anyone who has some problem like this, just complain! Loudly! Enough people complaining will get changes, although it doesn't give you the 2 hours of your life back or whatever.
  • Out of focus. Incorrect screen placement. Too high-too low audio. Interruptions. Obnoxious people around, chatting, laughing at the 'wrong' times', being rude, yapping on cellphones. Overpriced candy, coffee, popcorn, sodas. All of those things I've suffered and protested over one time or another, and while I have to accept that unconfortable events are much rarer nowadays, those times when the big screen, with its thunderous sound showers the audience, and you feel part of it, and an image bolts you down to the seat, and the whole room sighs, or laughs, or gasps, or stifles a tear, those rare moments when the screen fills your mind, those precious moments are worth all those shitty inconveniences. Yes, home theaters are great, and dissecting a dvd's hidden features is highly enjoyable, but there's still something about a big screen and an audience gathered as if in religious ceremony, that will draw me to a cinema.
  • Agreed Flagpole. Something about crowd psychology.
  • who wants to pay $10 per person for a crappy screen, another $15 for snacks, when you can get it from netflix or blockbuster 3 months after it was in theatres? I understand this viewpoint completely, but I will always love going to the cinema, and every time I do I recall the first time (that I remember) my mum took just me, when I was a wee lad, and we saw The Cat From Outer Space, and we had popcorn and choc-tops, and we got the bendy bus, and now I actually have tears in my eyes :(
  • I saw The Cat from Outer Space at the Whitstable Odeon, ate a whole Whitstable Rock and vomited afterwards on the pavement, creating a huge pink splash. Later, me & me mam saw Peter Cushing at the Spa doing his shopping. Meeeemoriiiiieees...
  • Uaed to enjoy going to moviehouses, but don't often nowadays because on several occaions I have been nearly blasted out of my seat by ill-regulated/untended sound-surrounds. The middle film of the Lord of the Rings trilogy here was so painfully loud over half the audience exited and demanded our money back. Since then I carry ear plugs if I go -- and have used 'em, too, sadly enough. Much prefer not to go into moviehouses these days -- I have no hearing loss and would like to keep it that way. /rant
  • The local theater I usually frequent (is that an appropriate choice of words if it's actually more infrequent than not?) seems to have things down pretty well. I only remember ever having issues with the advertising before the film; that seems to be the spot where the blurriness is happening. Near as I can tell, they have two sets of projectors - one with the film, pre-focused and ready to go, and a second one that cycles powerpoint-style advertising before the show. This one isn't in the optimal position and doesn't have the same resolution, so the image isn't crystal clear, but good enough for the advertisers to be happy. If more theaters did this they could fix the issue, giving the projectionist time to get the reel on straight and start rolling. If he/she is a little behind, the advertising projector cycles through once or twice more and nobody really notices the delay.
  • who wants to pay $10 per person for a crappy screen, another $15 for snacks, when you can get it from netflix or blockbuster 3 months after it was in theatres? I finally reached this point as well. $35 for two people for tix, snax and beverages finally put the kibosh on my cinema going. And remember the "half-price" matinee? Gone with the wind! Now matinees are like 80% of the full admittance. And one more thing: I can copy the movie at home and watch it as many times as I want.
  • clf, it's the same here with the unfocused ads. I guess it works the same way. In my town we've recently seen a new movie theatre chain arrive with plush soft seats and glasses of wine and reasonable prices, so all the other theatres are rushing to compete. For the same price you can sit in velvety comfort and get decent sound and a focused movie, or go to one of the older theatres and be less comfy but still get the decent sound and picture quality.
  • Wine at the theater? Wow. I don't even want to think of what would happen if Americans were served alcohol at the movies. Many of us simply can't be trusted with the stuff. And I just want to point out, you don't have to buy thier overpriced food. My friends and I generally bring snacks in purses and pockets. Actually many of my guy friends will duct tape a can of soda to thier leg (over the sock) and then let thier baggy teenage pants hide it.
  • I generally refuse to go to movie theatres because of the ridiculous number of advertisements that precede the (usually crappy) film, but then I went to see Sin City recently because of my love for Frank Miller's work, and the movie was good enough to override the awful ads, so anyway, the point is that you should go to a weedday matinee show—so you have seats—and enter the theatre about twenty minutes after the indicated "start" time, and yeah.
  • Every day is weed day.
  • I've heard that ArcLight Cinemas offers wine and beer, along with entrees (for around $30), but the handful of times I've been there (usually for a free advance screening or on their reduced admission offered to those who sign up for a free membership online), I haven't seen people drinking or eating. Wine/beer at movie theaters is supposedly more common outside of large cities, or at least that's what this article on "cinema pubs" says.
  • Wine at the theater? Wow. I don't even want to think of what would happen if Americans were served alcohol at the movies. Many of us simply can't be trusted with the stuff. This cinema features it. Here's a review from there: Sideways FINALLY, the perfect Parkway movie finally makes it to the Parkway. This one has all the proper ingredients for a Speakeasy hit: cult indie status, critical acclaim, quirky characters played by great actors (Paul Giamatti, Thomas Hayden Church Virgina Madsen and more), intelligent and witty Oscar winning screenplay, and best of all...WINE! And lots of it! When people aren't talking about it,they're drinking it. So pop those corks and enjoy.