To answer your question Bigjoe most films that were cut were cut to allow more shows per day. A few because the filmmakers felt it was too long. A Star is Born was butchered to allow more shows. The road show version of Mad World was just too long for a comedy so it was cut. The general release prints were cut even more. It was not unusual for the general release print to be quite different from the roadshow print.
Bigjoe most of the grand movie palaces that were built in the early part of the twentieth century are gone. The value of the real estate and the cost of heating and air conditioning coupled with the lack of interest in single theaters did them in. The grandest and most famous movie palace was the Roxy in NYC. The Roxy was demolished in 1960. The high cost of energy and the popularity of the multiplex closed most of the movie palaces in the 70’s and early 80’s. The are a few of these theaters and few are still first run. Most of the movie palaces that are left run special shows or are just dark. Do a google search for oldest running movie theaters and you will find a few.
For a while there were sixteen 16 inch Cerwin-Vega speakers in two banks powered by two 2,000 watt amps for the sub woof channel. Someone from Universal brought in a couple of reels of Jurassic Park and it sounded great.
Most people seem to agree that the seating and viewing is much better now. There is very little chance someone’s head will block your view.
A friend went to see the five o'clock show on Sunday. He is a film student and went with a group. From what he said the volume was set much too low. Doesn’t anyone set the volume where it is suppose to be anymore. I know that AMC runs the fader in most of their theaters at 5 and that is one quarter of the level it should be set at.
It was a wise decision to use LED lights. At one time there were three different lighting circuits in the ceiling with three different colored bulbs. Changing the intensity of each color would produce a different effect. All those incandescent bulbs took a lot of electricity.
Yes Chris some segments of some films are shot in 15/70 making the segments that are not shot in 15/70 stand out all the more but most of the IMAX shows are from originals with a much lower resolution than 15/70! I watched an IMAX film at Universal and the grain was so big is was distracting.
Chris, I agree that for $20 a seat the management shouldn’t be running ads but there could be some contractual thing where they must. It would be much nicer and give the place some class to go old school with the music and curtain but alas showmanship almost dead (still alive at the El Capitan). I want to thank all of you for the updates it saves me I trip into the city to check it out myself. I went to the “buy a ticket” site for the Chinese Theater and it requested credit card information before it let me select a seat. Yes it gives a chance to cancel if you don’t like the seat. I was just curious how well the site worked and didn’t buy a ticket. The Arclight site let’s you select a seat before entering the credit card info. Members might not have to do that step.
Cliff’s there was no big conversion to Cinemascope. The Cinemascope screen was installed on the stage and the original projection booth was used. The major renovation that changed the stage area of the theater to make room for a huge screen was to install Cinemiracle a three projector process very much like Cinerama. To install the 120 foot 120 degree curved Cinemiracle screen two columns were removed and most of the stage. The Cinemiracle projection booth was where the rear of the new concession stand is now. The Cinemiracle projectors were removed and three Todd-AO machines were installed with 13.6 carbon arcs. Star Wars ran in 70mm on water cooled Todd-AO machines with 13.6mm carbon arcs on a very big screen. Eventually xenon lamps and then automation was installed. The light from the xenon was no where near that of the carbons so the masking settings were changed and the 70mm picture reduced in size. Eventually one of the Todd-AO machines was removed and a platter installed.
Film IMAX is dead the theater at Universal will be digital soon. The Chinese looks like it is the new standard for IMAX.
Somebody had to help pay for the upgrade. So they put up a sign. The sign seems to blend in just find and like bigjoe59 said most people won’t notice it. Besides it’s what is inside the building that counts not some little sign on the outside.
Im waiting to see Avatar in IMAX 3D at the renovated Chinese. The Wizard of Oz in 3D may appeal to some and Im sure it will be a treat. I am waiting to be impressed.
Well I went on the tour of the theater today. This is now a state of the art all purpose theater. We were not taken to the projection suite but even from the auditorium one could tell it was huge. The projection suite is two stories with IMAX projectors on the lower level and conventional projection systems on the upper lever. The screen is big and the sight lines are much better than before. We can hope that they show a mix of new films and some of the big screen classics. A good clean print of 2001 or Avatar and many of the other big screen classics would be great now and then.
I was given a tour and demonstration of the main theater and was quite impressed. A pair of Todd-AO projectors restored back to factory specs. A chiller pump kept the gates cool to the touch. My host didn’t run any 70mm as the 70mm sound hadn’t been hooked up yet but the Todd-AO speed switch worked. The 35mm picture and optical sound from those projectors was the best I have seen in a long time. There was no question that the picture was bright enough and of course sharp. Sound was excellent. Of course they can run every aspect ratio known to cinema making this a prime venue to view a film presentation. Boston is fortunate to have this theater, I hope people appreciate it.
To answer your question Bigjoe most films that were cut were cut to allow more shows per day. A few because the filmmakers felt it was too long. A Star is Born was butchered to allow more shows. The road show version of Mad World was just too long for a comedy so it was cut. The general release prints were cut even more. It was not unusual for the general release print to be quite different from the roadshow print.
the 6 channel mix sounded better 5 behind the screen and one surround channel with no sub. That is how is was released
Bigjoe most of the grand movie palaces that were built in the early part of the twentieth century are gone. The value of the real estate and the cost of heating and air conditioning coupled with the lack of interest in single theaters did them in. The grandest and most famous movie palace was the Roxy in NYC. The Roxy was demolished in 1960. The high cost of energy and the popularity of the multiplex closed most of the movie palaces in the 70’s and early 80’s. The are a few of these theaters and few are still first run. Most of the movie palaces that are left run special shows or are just dark. Do a google search for oldest running movie theaters and you will find a few.
I don’t think they have the laser light source installed yet.
For a while there were sixteen 16 inch Cerwin-Vega speakers in two banks powered by two 2,000 watt amps for the sub woof channel. Someone from Universal brought in a couple of reels of Jurassic Park and it sounded great.
Most people seem to agree that the seating and viewing is much better now. There is very little chance someone’s head will block your view.
A friend went to see the five o'clock show on Sunday. He is a film student and went with a group. From what he said the volume was set much too low. Doesn’t anyone set the volume where it is suppose to be anymore. I know that AMC runs the fader in most of their theaters at 5 and that is one quarter of the level it should be set at.
Things in the Chinese Theater do rattle with heavy base. It takes a lot of audio power to fill that theater and there are a lot of things to rattle.
The Chinese is an all purpose theater they can run non IMAX stuff too.
It was a wise decision to use LED lights. At one time there were three different lighting circuits in the ceiling with three different colored bulbs. Changing the intensity of each color would produce a different effect. All those incandescent bulbs took a lot of electricity.
Yes Chris some segments of some films are shot in 15/70 making the segments that are not shot in 15/70 stand out all the more but most of the IMAX shows are from originals with a much lower resolution than 15/70! I watched an IMAX film at Universal and the grain was so big is was distracting.
Has there ever been a feature film shot in 15/70? Most of the IMAX films are blow ups anyway.
They used the curtain, nice.
Chris, I agree that for $20 a seat the management shouldn’t be running ads but there could be some contractual thing where they must. It would be much nicer and give the place some class to go old school with the music and curtain but alas showmanship almost dead (still alive at the El Capitan). I want to thank all of you for the updates it saves me I trip into the city to check it out myself. I went to the “buy a ticket” site for the Chinese Theater and it requested credit card information before it let me select a seat. Yes it gives a chance to cancel if you don’t like the seat. I was just curious how well the site worked and didn’t buy a ticket. The Arclight site let’s you select a seat before entering the credit card info. Members might not have to do that step.
Well Chris glad to hear that there was enough of an audience to cheer.
Some people don’t like the curved screen at the Dome.
Cliff’s there was no big conversion to Cinemascope. The Cinemascope screen was installed on the stage and the original projection booth was used. The major renovation that changed the stage area of the theater to make room for a huge screen was to install Cinemiracle a three projector process very much like Cinerama. To install the 120 foot 120 degree curved Cinemiracle screen two columns were removed and most of the stage. The Cinemiracle projection booth was where the rear of the new concession stand is now. The Cinemiracle projectors were removed and three Todd-AO machines were installed with 13.6 carbon arcs. Star Wars ran in 70mm on water cooled Todd-AO machines with 13.6mm carbon arcs on a very big screen. Eventually xenon lamps and then automation was installed. The light from the xenon was no where near that of the carbons so the masking settings were changed and the 70mm picture reduced in size. Eventually one of the Todd-AO machines was removed and a platter installed.
Film IMAX is dead the theater at Universal will be digital soon. The Chinese looks like it is the new standard for IMAX.
Well I’m glad someone is going to see Gravity in IMAX when I read it was shot in 2K I put it on my watch at home list.
Somebody had to help pay for the upgrade. So they put up a sign. The sign seems to blend in just find and like bigjoe59 said most people won’t notice it. Besides it’s what is inside the building that counts not some little sign on the outside.
Im waiting to see Avatar in IMAX 3D at the renovated Chinese. The Wizard of Oz in 3D may appeal to some and Im sure it will be a treat. I am waiting to be impressed.
It doesnt look like they will be running much film but the video presentations should be stunning.
Who is bitching and about what?
Well I went on the tour of the theater today. This is now a state of the art all purpose theater. We were not taken to the projection suite but even from the auditorium one could tell it was huge. The projection suite is two stories with IMAX projectors on the lower level and conventional projection systems on the upper lever. The screen is big and the sight lines are much better than before. We can hope that they show a mix of new films and some of the big screen classics. A good clean print of 2001 or Avatar and many of the other big screen classics would be great now and then.
Well it seems they removed most of the auditorium floor and the plenum chamber underneath.
Chris that youtube link doesn’t work it has been taken down by the user
I was given a tour and demonstration of the main theater and was quite impressed. A pair of Todd-AO projectors restored back to factory specs. A chiller pump kept the gates cool to the touch. My host didn’t run any 70mm as the 70mm sound hadn’t been hooked up yet but the Todd-AO speed switch worked. The 35mm picture and optical sound from those projectors was the best I have seen in a long time. There was no question that the picture was bright enough and of course sharp. Sound was excellent. Of course they can run every aspect ratio known to cinema making this a prime venue to view a film presentation. Boston is fortunate to have this theater, I hope people appreciate it.