please empty your brain below
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Typo in para 13. More visitors than seats ?
dg writes: Fixed, thanks.
Christopher | 31.07.17 - 7:17 a.m. | #
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2 weeks ago I went to Mount Snowdon, at the mountain train station there is a cinema which shows a documentary movie of the the mountain railway, plus some Thomas the Tank Engine's to amuse the children.
On a sunny day walking in to the darkened auditorium -which had rows of cinema type seating- all you could do was stay by the entrance until you were able to make out where the seats were.
The cinema was free entry to anyone not just passengers so there was a regular coming and going and every time the entry door was used the screen was washed out by daylight as the door entrance was at the screen end!.
I think our eyes take longer to adjust to a change of light as we age dg....
John | 31.07.17 - 7:48 a.m. | #
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As for a loop and where to come in, all cinemas once had continuous programs where you could come and go at any time. Just stay until you got to the part in the show where you came in. Of course you could stay and watch the show twice. I preferred that type of presentation and do not like the system used today with separate performances. Probably that was the origin of the expression “This is where we came in”.
John again | 31.07.17 - 7:53 a.m. | #
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Darkened auditoriums for projected images are necessary as the screen material is white, so you can only get black by the absent of light falling on it. This is not the case with modern televisions where the screen is dark and so appears black even in a light room. However the day may soon come when cinemas use giant TV type screens instead of projection, so we may then have a softly lit auditorium. Samsung have already built a 34 foot wide LED 4K resolution screen.
Although whether that will distract from the “immersive experience” of watching a movie remains to be seen.
John again again | 31.07.17 - 7:54 a.m. | #
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Yes, John Again, this is where 'this is where we came in' comes from. I am in my early 50s and remember this from when I was I guess 6 or 7.
John Styles | 31.07.17 - 8:26 a.m. | #
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I'm having trouble picturing how you'd support yourself on upturned palms.
dg writes: Fixed, thanks.
Sir Garence | 31.07.17 - 8:35 a.m. | #
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With respect to para 16), most museums have a choreographed curator rotation procedure where they shuffle off to the next exhibit on being replaced. This can be quite frequent, and one place reminded me of bee pollen location dance routines, such was the intricacies of the handover.
Or, perhaps they were an exhibit too (I've suddenly realised...).
Ken | 31.07.17 - 8:37 a.m. | #
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Once upon a time cinemas opened at abou 2.00 pm. The full programme ould consist of a "feature" film, a shorter "b-movie", a news programme (15 to 20 minutes), trailer for next week's and next Sunday's films (with U classified trailers if this week's programme was all U and next week's had one A, X or H), maybe a cartoon or two, a short programme of adverts, and two intervals during which two or more ladies sold ice creams and lollies. The National Anthem was played at the end of the last film of the evening.
You could enter at any time and the auditorium would be very dark, so an usherette would use a torch to show you to your seat. Smoking was permitted in all areas and by the end of the evening there would be a cloud of smoke hovering over the audience!
strawbrick | 31.07.17 - 8:41 a.m. | #
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@ Strawbrick: those were the days, you could sit through a film as many times as you liked, good place to go on a cold day when you lived in a house with no central heating. Bring back the 50s, I say.
Nostalgia freak | 31.07.17 - 9:02 a.m. | #
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Why does the colour of the these comments sometimes change to what looks to me like brown (Pantone 994F14 - medium dark orange according to Encycolorpedia).
This seems to happen at random. Is it an art event?
Bob L-S | 31.07.17 - 9:35 a.m. | #
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@Bob
I'm using brown to separate out the "people who remember going to the cinema" thread.
If anyone has any comments about what happens when you go into a dark room in an art gallery to watch a looping film, they'd be non-brown.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 31.07.17 - 9:38 a.m. | #
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The projection versus TV screen (or back projection) is not quite as simple as that. Look at your TV screen when it is turned off. Is it black?
The eye perceives black wherever part of an image is objectively much darker than nearby areas. A projection system works fine in reasonably subdued daylight, but only with a powerful projector and a screen not far away.
The decision to show a particular movie in an art-gallery in a darkened room is an artistic decision. The same movie could be shown on individual screens, or on slightly bigger screens to gather round, in ambient light. The effect on the audience would be different though.
Malcolm | 31.07.17 - 9:45 a.m. | #
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cf. Point 20, yes, I wonder about this as well. I think of all those expensive and valuable pieces of art that are in store that curators always used to complain they had but didn't have the space to display. I've seen some galleries use dedicated TV screens to loop the loopy stuff. I am not convinced cavernous, dark, empty rooms create an immersive experience. You have given pretty much the experience one gets irrespective of the individual screening loopy stuff's content. Seems some curators are giving us what we pay for...i.e. you get in for nothing, they'll show us nothing.
B | 31.07.17 - 10:07 a.m. | #
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Born 1952. There were also News Theatres where Pathé news was shown over and over interleaved with cartoons and adverts. My uncle took me to visit one in London on a day trip there when I was about 11 (so 1963 I guess).
It remained almost dark, you find your own way to seats, stay as long as you like. There were usually a few tramps (gentlemen of the road) sleeping in the back corners.
Joho | 31.07.17 - 10:30 a.m. | #
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Some years ago when visiting the newly-opened 'Tanks' area at Tate Modern, my then 11yo daughter and I stumbled into a deserted dark area showing a similar film.
As our eyes adjusted, it was immediately apparent that the artsy B&W film held no interest for us, so we delighted for several minutes in casting monster shapes in the beam of projected light onto the screen.
Eventually, from somewhere to the rear a disembodied voice spoke loudly: "Excuse me! There are people TRYING to watch this..."
Our now-fully adjusted eyes revealed around 10 people sat on the floor by the rear wall. We left immediately, apologetically but giggling.
Frank F | 31.07.17 - 10:40 a.m. | #
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Perhaps if you've made the effort to go there (even if it's part of trip to do other stuff), you'll have a different expectation.
Some go for the sake of going, or to experience something with others at the same time.
Do you still remember the film a day/week/month/year later?
On another point, the expectation of watching a film has changed, remember when the stories before Christmas were what films the BBC and ITV would be showing for the first time, remember before video recorders when you could only watch the film when it was being broadcast.
I think the effort/inconvenience made the film more special, now with so many alternatives the BBC no longer bothers with late night horror films, or has a curated season of films.
I can watch almost anything now, but I feel that makes it less special.
Still anon | 31.07.17 - 10:53 a.m. | #
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Just remembered, the News Theatres cost 6d to get in, same price for all, stay as long as you like (some were 24 hours - no facilities at all as I remember.
Joho | 31.07.17 - 11:05 a.m. | #
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Last time I was in the concrete bunkers the bottom of the Tate, there was an installation in a darkened room, with spotlights that went on and off, where visitors were intended to walk through and cast changing shadows on the rear wall.
Many people came in, hovered around the entrance, and left again, without walking through. But children marched through with great glee.
Andrew | 31.07.17 - 5:32 p.m. | #
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Yet another 'I remember the cinema long ago' post; in the very cold winter of 1962/3 I lived in a draughty bedsit in Notting Hill, it cost about the same (3/6d) to go to the cinema as to heat my room for the evening via the shilling-in -the-slot gasmeter, so I saw a lot of films. Yes there was the cold walk there and back, but if I kept moving it was better.
amber | 31.07.17 - 6:46 p.m. | #
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I don't know whether you are disappointingly normal, or that I am. But, whatever.
Pete_LL | 31.07.17 - 9:04 p.m. | #
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