Brat,I understand it’s just that sometimes with the Mag tracks EQ we were often able to do wonders with a so so tracks but I hear what you are saying its just anytime I can hope mag sound would be an improvement I cant help but say that; old school and all that rot ya know
The discussion about the number of 70mm reels for Interstellar must include the IMAX version; the 70mm IMAX 15/70 version requires 48 reels a total of 60,288 feet of film for the 169 min print. Which weigh some 800lb check out this video
Bill you understand the reason the cues appear oval on 35mm anamorphic prints and round on 70mm is that they are not photographed in and both 35mm and 70mm have round cues cut or punched into the original or negative so when the cues on 35mm are projected thru an anamorphic lens they appear oval where as the 70mm cues are round since 70mm is not anamorphic. You might notice that all in black and white movies the cues are always black that’s because when a cue is punched into the negative it will appear black in the print and with color prints the bath in development process makes the color of the cue; with Technicolor the cues will almost appear red were as Eastman color they turn up purple or green. I should mention that at one time The cues were added by the negative cutter along with the leaders I assume the same is true today but not sure of that. In addition projection rooms all have cue markers which allow for cues to be added to the print; sometimes a projectionist will go over the cues on the print with a scriber to make them easier to see especially on dark scenes something that has always been frowned upon by most decent projectionists those added cues to the print were also used to mark when to close the curtains and were usually at the bottom right corner as opposed to the changeover cues which are of course at the top of the frame. For a long time changeover cues ruled my professional life being very careful not to blink to long and miss one which was something you just could not do. Heaven forbid!
Thanks redt55b I would love to see some updated photos, as to the equipment being clean I found the entire booth immaculate including the polished floors. Clearly a lot of pride in that work space. Yes Mark us booth junkies are a special breed.
You all may recall the main reason for not the Hall not showing “Kiss Me Kate” in 3-D aside from dealing with distributing all those glasses was problems with light fall off form the silver screen for people sitting too far left or right of center. It was a problem for us back in the 50s in some movies palaces with wide auditoriums for those siting in seats too far from center. Mark, I visited the both back when 70mm was installed and what impressed me the most was how immaculately it was maintained, do they no longer have backstage tours which includes a visit to the booth?
I hear you Mark, perhaps “Interstellar” will be the start of something good for film again. Many industry people are not happy with Digital and would like to see more film. As to 70mm 3-D at the Hall I expect as long as the Santa opening remains so will the 70mmm 3-D It is very difficult for the Hall to project Digital from the booth does not work well and projecting form the mezzanine as they did with movies is surly not going to happen no way they close those to the public at Christmas time.
They had better have the show go on, cancelling again would be bad for the theatre’s reputation.
Last year they should have at least played the preview performances as we do on B'way where shows are occasionally cancelled after previews due to patrons dissatisfaction or interest. Let the people decide
I know I ask this every year but 70mm for the 3-D Christmas show?
Optimistic, the man in charge of that area is out of town for a while but I should be speaking with him in a week or two if anyone knows what is up with that location he does.
optimist008 I will ask about that and get back to you I should mention that retention of 70mm projectors at some NA locations does not apply to IMAX at City Center where the 70mm IMAX equipment was removed and replaced by Digital IMAX.
When National Amusements made the conversion to Digital they made the decision to retain at least two film projectors in each location. Most if not all NA theatres have a film projector as well as Digital side by side in two auditoriums which includes 70mm in some locations.
Thanks for that clarification. When it was told to me that mag tracks were back I questioned in my mind if that were even possible with most if not all labs basically no longer even geared up to produce the tracks let alone sound them. A call to a friend of mine at Deluxe who told me “We don’t do that any longer” I had thought the info about mag sound came from a good source however now cannot find anyone to confirm the return of mag sound and in fact a few locations I contacted conformed that the prints were not mag. Sorry for the confusion I will be more vigilant in confirming info posted here in future to ensure validity
Additional investigation has me confused the stories about the sound format are conflicting I shall look further and perhaps others will a well. I may have been given inaccurate information.
Also of great interest is the news that the sound on the 70mm prints is 6 track magnetic not DTS and 35mm four track prints are also available with the Carthay Circle Theatre planning on one of the prints being shown will be 35mm Magnetic, How fun!
The remodel includes all new comfy seating which are larger causing a reduction of the number of seats in each auditorium. The theatre will also be getting a new concession stand. Photo of the installation of the new seats posted
I just loved the post from John Rice which gave me goose bumps about the good ole days in theaters. Curtains played a big part in the movie presentation, proper timing of the curtain to ensure that the two panels met or kissed just as the last note of the music played or the picture faded to black was very a very important part of the presentation. John mentioned never showing a white screen which was so true you simply never did that neither was the moving of the masking which had to be done while the curtain was closed. A Delux, as we called it back when, meant closing and reopening the curtain between all pre feature presentation films and when going from flat to scope audiences never saw the masking move. we had some pictures with overtures and intermissions and part of he presentation meant dimming the lights gradually with two or three different settings as the music played. Ah yes, we had fun in the booth back then and the audiences loved it.
Thanks for speaking out against that photo with the curtain open. I cringe every time I see it, a harsh reminder of what our theatres have changed for the worst. A naked screen must never be shown in a theatre like the Ziegfeld. Leave that to the little boxes they call theatres theses days. I too will click on to the proper picture to keep it alive thanks for the hint.
When NA had the theatre we disused adding stadium seating; perhaps that is being dome now. Adding IMAX as we did at White Plains would also be a good idea for that location
Mark, I am sorry to hear about the marquee change but today it’s all about money and time savings I guess. Sounds like a money saving move in the long run by eliminating the cost of labor and replacement letters. I always put a lot of effort into the look of that attraction board; my thinking was so many people saw it every day driving and walking by it had to always look sharp. I also insisted that the new movies were always listed first in the left panel meaning that no matter how many new movies opened that week most of the titles had to be shifted to make way for the new one. I just preferred it that way.Another rule was never use the single block substitute for words like THE, WITH, AND unless space was tight and the entire title could not fit words like those had to be spelled out completely. Lastly the look of the sign had to be kept in good working order and immaculately clean which meant removing all of the panels from time to time and replace the neon bulbs, care also had to be taken to be sure all the bulbs were cool white and not mixed with warm white. In addition the panels had to be completely removed and cleaned especially after a tough winter; no cost was too great for the look of that marquee.
Watching a sportscast last night the guys were talking about how the Football draft will no be at RCMH next year cause there is a new show featuring the Rockettes in the works for that time spot. If this is true hopefully it does not fall thru as the last one did. Anyone heard anything about this?
Yup Luis I shared the same thoughts watching the show.
I too loved “Gentleman’s guide” and plan on seeing it again. Let’s also give a big hurrah to Neil Patrick Harris for his outstanding performance and Tony win.
only thing missing was seeing the grand curtain go up oh well not that I have not seen that quite a times in the good ole days. Live live RCMH may she prosper and live on
Hey Rob I was just thinking we should have gotten together and modified a couple of those ole film lifts we had back in the three strip Cinerama days to lift those double 70mm reels which were made all the more difficult to handle with a full 70mm load on those floating hubs.
We had double 70mm reels at the D-150 on Long Island after 3 double shifts of “White Nights” I needed a couple of days off; ouch my acking back. A shame Rob did not get to play “Master” in 70mm which I hope would not have been the Music Halls 70mm swan song.
I had a different reaction to that commercial although I loved the old booth with reels hanging on the wall and the film projectors in the background but I had cold water splashed on my face when it showed the movie delivered in a single small box which is how unfortunately movies are delivered today. No more film cans just a box containing the media to load on to a computer. I am told that some theatres have already started to get the movie via satellite no need for any delivery. Just an old man feeling sorry once again for the loss of film I just can’t get my head around that. Oh well did not mean to bring down the conversation but seeing that projectionist receive a box instead of film cans just made me sad forgive me
So I am watching this ad on TV for the new spring show and there is a still shot of the stage completely covered by some sort of hideous set. The curtain cannot be seen at all Is that the look for that show and will the curtain not be used?
Brat,I understand it’s just that sometimes with the Mag tracks EQ we were often able to do wonders with a so so tracks but I hear what you are saying its just anytime I can hope mag sound would be an improvement I cant help but say that; old school and all that rot ya know
Not so perfect sound sounds to me like a good argument to bring back 6 track mag
The discussion about the number of 70mm reels for Interstellar must include the IMAX version; the 70mm IMAX 15/70 version requires 48 reels a total of 60,288 feet of film for the 169 min print. Which weigh some 800lb check out this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn4zOZKKE4k
Bill you understand the reason the cues appear oval on 35mm anamorphic prints and round on 70mm is that they are not photographed in and both 35mm and 70mm have round cues cut or punched into the original or negative so when the cues on 35mm are projected thru an anamorphic lens they appear oval where as the 70mm cues are round since 70mm is not anamorphic. You might notice that all in black and white movies the cues are always black that’s because when a cue is punched into the negative it will appear black in the print and with color prints the bath in development process makes the color of the cue; with Technicolor the cues will almost appear red were as Eastman color they turn up purple or green. I should mention that at one time The cues were added by the negative cutter along with the leaders I assume the same is true today but not sure of that. In addition projection rooms all have cue markers which allow for cues to be added to the print; sometimes a projectionist will go over the cues on the print with a scriber to make them easier to see especially on dark scenes something that has always been frowned upon by most decent projectionists those added cues to the print were also used to mark when to close the curtains and were usually at the bottom right corner as opposed to the changeover cues which are of course at the top of the frame. For a long time changeover cues ruled my professional life being very careful not to blink to long and miss one which was something you just could not do. Heaven forbid!
Thanks redt55b I would love to see some updated photos, as to the equipment being clean I found the entire booth immaculate including the polished floors. Clearly a lot of pride in that work space. Yes Mark us booth junkies are a special breed.
You all may recall the main reason for not the Hall not showing “Kiss Me Kate” in 3-D aside from dealing with distributing all those glasses was problems with light fall off form the silver screen for people sitting too far left or right of center. It was a problem for us back in the 50s in some movies palaces with wide auditoriums for those siting in seats too far from center. Mark, I visited the both back when 70mm was installed and what impressed me the most was how immaculately it was maintained, do they no longer have backstage tours which includes a visit to the booth?
I hear you Mark, perhaps “Interstellar” will be the start of something good for film again. Many industry people are not happy with Digital and would like to see more film. As to 70mm 3-D at the Hall I expect as long as the Santa opening remains so will the 70mmm 3-D It is very difficult for the Hall to project Digital from the booth does not work well and projecting form the mezzanine as they did with movies is surly not going to happen no way they close those to the public at Christmas time.
They had better have the show go on, cancelling again would be bad for the theatre’s reputation. Last year they should have at least played the preview performances as we do on B'way where shows are occasionally cancelled after previews due to patrons dissatisfaction or interest. Let the people decide
I know I ask this every year but 70mm for the 3-D Christmas show?
Optimistic, the man in charge of that area is out of town for a while but I should be speaking with him in a week or two if anyone knows what is up with that location he does.
optimist008 I will ask about that and get back to you I should mention that retention of 70mm projectors at some NA locations does not apply to IMAX at City Center where the 70mm IMAX equipment was removed and replaced by Digital IMAX.
When National Amusements made the conversion to Digital they made the decision to retain at least two film projectors in each location. Most if not all NA theatres have a film projector as well as Digital side by side in two auditoriums which includes 70mm in some locations.
Thanks for that clarification. When it was told to me that mag tracks were back I questioned in my mind if that were even possible with most if not all labs basically no longer even geared up to produce the tracks let alone sound them. A call to a friend of mine at Deluxe who told me “We don’t do that any longer” I had thought the info about mag sound came from a good source however now cannot find anyone to confirm the return of mag sound and in fact a few locations I contacted conformed that the prints were not mag. Sorry for the confusion I will be more vigilant in confirming info posted here in future to ensure validity
Additional investigation has me confused the stories about the sound format are conflicting I shall look further and perhaps others will a well. I may have been given inaccurate information.
Two Interesting articles on Interstellar
http://www.businessinsider.com/interstellar-different-format-to-see-the-movie-2014-10
http://www.slashfilm.com/interstellar-70mm-locations-imax/
Also of great interest is the news that the sound on the 70mm prints is 6 track magnetic not DTS and 35mm four track prints are also available with the Carthay Circle Theatre planning on one of the prints being shown will be 35mm Magnetic, How fun!
The remodel includes all new comfy seating which are larger causing a reduction of the number of seats in each auditorium. The theatre will also be getting a new concession stand. Photo of the installation of the new seats posted
I just loved the post from John Rice which gave me goose bumps about the good ole days in theaters. Curtains played a big part in the movie presentation, proper timing of the curtain to ensure that the two panels met or kissed just as the last note of the music played or the picture faded to black was very a very important part of the presentation. John mentioned never showing a white screen which was so true you simply never did that neither was the moving of the masking which had to be done while the curtain was closed. A Delux, as we called it back when, meant closing and reopening the curtain between all pre feature presentation films and when going from flat to scope audiences never saw the masking move. we had some pictures with overtures and intermissions and part of he presentation meant dimming the lights gradually with two or three different settings as the music played. Ah yes, we had fun in the booth back then and the audiences loved it.
Thanks for speaking out against that photo with the curtain open. I cringe every time I see it, a harsh reminder of what our theatres have changed for the worst. A naked screen must never be shown in a theatre like the Ziegfeld. Leave that to the little boxes they call theatres theses days. I too will click on to the proper picture to keep it alive thanks for the hint.
When NA had the theatre we disused adding stadium seating; perhaps that is being dome now. Adding IMAX as we did at White Plains would also be a good idea for that location
Mark, I am sorry to hear about the marquee change but today it’s all about money and time savings I guess. Sounds like a money saving move in the long run by eliminating the cost of labor and replacement letters. I always put a lot of effort into the look of that attraction board; my thinking was so many people saw it every day driving and walking by it had to always look sharp. I also insisted that the new movies were always listed first in the left panel meaning that no matter how many new movies opened that week most of the titles had to be shifted to make way for the new one. I just preferred it that way.Another rule was never use the single block substitute for words like THE, WITH, AND unless space was tight and the entire title could not fit words like those had to be spelled out completely. Lastly the look of the sign had to be kept in good working order and immaculately clean which meant removing all of the panels from time to time and replace the neon bulbs, care also had to be taken to be sure all the bulbs were cool white and not mixed with warm white. In addition the panels had to be completely removed and cleaned especially after a tough winter; no cost was too great for the look of that marquee.
Watching a sportscast last night the guys were talking about how the Football draft will no be at RCMH next year cause there is a new show featuring the Rockettes in the works for that time spot. If this is true hopefully it does not fall thru as the last one did. Anyone heard anything about this?
Yup Luis I shared the same thoughts watching the show.
I too loved “Gentleman’s guide” and plan on seeing it again. Let’s also give a big hurrah to Neil Patrick Harris for his outstanding performance and Tony win. only thing missing was seeing the grand curtain go up oh well not that I have not seen that quite a times in the good ole days. Live live RCMH may she prosper and live on
Hey Rob I was just thinking we should have gotten together and modified a couple of those ole film lifts we had back in the three strip Cinerama days to lift those double 70mm reels which were made all the more difficult to handle with a full 70mm load on those floating hubs.
We had double 70mm reels at the D-150 on Long Island after 3 double shifts of “White Nights” I needed a couple of days off; ouch my acking back. A shame Rob did not get to play “Master” in 70mm which I hope would not have been the Music Halls 70mm swan song.
I had a different reaction to that commercial although I loved the old booth with reels hanging on the wall and the film projectors in the background but I had cold water splashed on my face when it showed the movie delivered in a single small box which is how unfortunately movies are delivered today. No more film cans just a box containing the media to load on to a computer. I am told that some theatres have already started to get the movie via satellite no need for any delivery. Just an old man feeling sorry once again for the loss of film I just can’t get my head around that. Oh well did not mean to bring down the conversation but seeing that projectionist receive a box instead of film cans just made me sad forgive me
So I am watching this ad on TV for the new spring show and there is a still shot of the stage completely covered by some sort of hideous set. The curtain cannot be seen at all Is that the look for that show and will the curtain not be used?