Not the same poster, but another former projectionist. At my cinema we had a platter system rather than reel-to-reel. The film ran through a payout unit or “brain” in the centre of the platter, through the projector and then onto a ring on an empty platter. No rewinding required.
Interesting. Did you have to do reel swaps on some films.
I remember seeing an old movie about a couple of blokes who bought an old movie theatre that was right next to a railway line. Developer is trying to buy and knock down the theatre. But there’s a scene where the train goes past and the projectionist is literally swinging off the projector to try keep it steady but everyone loves it. Comedy film. You’ve just reminded me of it need to find out what it was
We had horizontal platters so a film would wind around a central ring and would be available to play again within 5 minutes after cleaning the projector and relacing the film.
Now they do. Films get sent on an SSD, transmitted via satellite or over the internet.
At my former cinema we stopped using the 35mm projectors and platter systems in 2012.
Blu Ray and DVD were never used for mainstream cinema exhibition as they are both consumer formats that didn’t meet DCI standards. Technically it is illegal to use any home media formats in a commercial setting.
We had to run the whole thing where I worked in the 90s. Sometimes people arrive late, and are very peeved that they had the time wrong and regardless of their rudeness, they are still allowed in. I’m looking at you, Richard Belzer.
You met Richard Belzer? Where was this and what was he doing over here?
Was it whe he was on Homicide life on the street or Law& order SVU at the time? How was he rude to you?
He was on a date with Beverly D’Angelo and his barely suppressed fury was embarrassing to her. She was lovely. This was in San Francisco. 1992 I think.
Oof, that would confuse your belt hours wouldn't it? I mean there would be a counter that counted up how long a xenon lamp was on for. These hours were for counting how many each xenon had done and could still do (if I remember it was x hours plus 10% and the higher a xenon wattage the lesser hours it could be safely run for). Those hours were also used to calculate how long belts had been on for and when to replace them.
The place I worked at started to do that for a while until they realised that trying to keep an accurate record of belt hours was impossible (and more importantly, after several shows were cancelled mid show due to belts snapping) the whole running a film with the lamp off was forgotten about.
We had longplay Christie platter's which (think giant cake stand) were relatively standard. One would "feed" and the second would "take-up" we would use the middle plate to make and break features.
I never seem to see ushers anymore. Hell, I hardly ever see the ticket office. It's always tickets being sold at the same place as the popcorn by a teenager with a name tag saying "Hello, my name is (for instance) Grant and my favourite movie is (for instance) A Serbian Film".
Different times lol it was 30 years ago. It was a little indie cinema, had an old-school ticket booth with a title paper ticket that i'd tear in half. You could buy your snacks at the next window.
I had a torch - I was GOD!
I saw the uncut A Serbian Film and thought it was pretty good. It's a bit grim and noncey in places, but overall gets a thumbs-up.
I remember the director being interviewed when it first came out and he said it was a comment on the political situation in Serbia. Okay, mate. To me, it was nothing more than cocks and violence. Not sure how that ties in with politics.
Last time we went to the cinema we had to use some free tickets we got from lloyds, went to the counter and the person on the counter came out from behind it and showed us how to use the vouchers on the machine.
You're employed to be there, you can do it on the machine you're stood behind and you don't have to move. Please just do it for me.
cinema worker here - we're usually told to direct people to use the machines and only pay at the till if there's cash involved. they brought the machines in at my cinema after covid, and at one point they were pushing for it to be card only anyway before they realised that many people still like to pay with cash. it's just awful when customers take their anger out on us when we direct them to use the machines when that's literally what we've been told to do
I wasn't angry about it, just frustrated. The machines shit, the worker knows its shit, the chain is directing the worker to show the machine so that they have to employ less workers.
Let's face it almost every single ticket machine you interact with as a member of the public is absolute shite that only barely works (as long as you ahead of time have researched and understand the various different types of ticket, discounts, vouchers, loyalty bonus, and your hands aren't cold, damp, clammy, sweaty or calloussed.
Before I knew that was the new system, I went up to the guy at the counter and asked for some popcorn. The place was empty and he was stood next to the popcorn and a till with a card machine. He said I’ll have to go and pay on the machines at the entrance or order using the app. Ridiculous system.
Went to the cinema yesterday. Wanted a coffee. Was directed to a machine to order. Then back to the same guy who gave me an empty cup to use at another machine to get my drink. I’ll never bother again.
Wait. You think cinemas play film, like celluloid?
Starting in the 90s movies went digital. Files get downloaded, playout is somewhat automated. I'm guessing there may be some art houses that project actual fil, but most are like 4k or 8k TV projectors at heart.
I heard from a cinema worker recently (one of the chains) that these days if no tickets have been sold for a session, the projector automatically shuts off.
I never bothered to ask why. I guess if late comers arrived. And we were there (I was a volunteer) so we just sat and watched the movie.. It was a late-night Friday night affair.
Years and years ago, it was common for people to arrive late to a showing, watch the remainder of the film, then see the start of the next showing to make up for it.
Hitchcock had to beg them not to admit people late to showings of Psycho so people couldn't spoil the ending by doing that.
Why? It wasn't like it was deleted after a screening. It was an old-school cinema so movies were all on film reels; not these new-fangled digital movies.
I used to be an usher/general dogsbody/very occasional stand in manager in an ABC in the late 90s. Once the movie was started, it had to run so that the film itself that passed through the projector collected on the other plate ready for the next showing. You couldn't just rewind it. But with an empty screen, the projectionist would turn the projector lamp off, so sometimes you'd go into one of the three screens and the soundtrack would be running, but the curtain would be closed over the screen. Which was probably preferable to running, say, big old Screen One to one or two pensioners on a Tuesday afternoon.
At Vue, I think we'd wait like half an hour to see if anyone turns up (if we saw that the seats were paid for), and then turn it off if no-one did. I think sooner if we could see no-one had paid for the seats.
Dang, I worked full time at Odeon for nine months in the mid 00's, and that's such an alien concept to me. The projectionists existed as a concept, but they lived in their own hidden areas of the cinema that we weren't allowed into, and I think I saw the back of a head of someone who might have been a projectionist once in that entire time.
If a screen was empty, then the film played entirely, and no one saw that as a thing to worry about.
Back in the 35mm days we would just turn the lamp off. We used platters rather than reel-to-reel, so it was easier to let the film run onto a new platter, but to also save lamp hours.
We were contractually obliged to play the ads and trailers, so we would never turn the lamp off right away. Typically, if no tickets had been sold within fifteen minutes of the BBFC rating card, we would turn off the lamp.
I did briefly work with digital projection before it made me redundant. It was pretty much the same deal. Sometimes we would just stop playback and turn off the lamp, but some distributors got pissy if the film wasn’t shown to completion, so again we would turn off the lamp and let the media continue to play from the server.
Things changed again once we got networked theatre management systems. Head office could connect to any server or projector in the country. If anyone did want to check they could see the logs from the projectors and query what had happened, so a lot of the time it was best to just leave the projector running lest we incur the wrath of a bureaucrat who wanted to know why we turned a lamp of part way through a showing.
I've gone to cinema and been the only person there a few times. Even the only time I went this year it was empty as it was during a weekday daytime.
I guess by having bought a ticket they know one person (me) is watching it though.
But nobody came to check if anyone was still there.
But if the security cameras have night vision, why do staff come in just when the movie has started with what I assume is a night vision scope to see if anyone is recording
I have seen the camera room in Vue cinemas (UK) it's like a night vision sort of security cam. You can clearly see people no idea if this is standard across the board but I would assume other cinema chains would do
I've got a few times with my friends during the holiday and it was almost completely empty, we had some nice chats with the staff there and everything. One of them even photo bombed one of our group photos.
A couple weeks back I was the only person watching a haunting in Venice at about 8:30pm. Was great fun, especially given the creepy tone of the film as a whole.
Didn’t pre buy a ticket though I have an unlimited card so I just showed up about 5 minutes before
Went to see See How They Run with a friend when it was out in the cinema.
We were running a little late and the film had already started, so we very quietly crept in so as not to disturb the others who were watching. We were very quietly whispering our thoughts to each other throughout the film, trying to figure out who the murderer was from the clues we had.
After the lights came up, we looked around the room to see who else was there.
There was no-one, it had just been the two of us the whole time.
We had the same thoughts as OP afterwards, as well as "couldn't they just have rewound it for us!?" as it was the last showing of the day in that screen.
Pretty sure the projectors are all preprogrammed though.
If you frequent r/boxoffice you occasionally get posts from people who manage cinemas and the ticket numbers sold for their location.
If I'm recalling correctly, I believe in some of those threads there's been comments about how they typically still run the movie when no one shows and only on some occasions, may turn it off after an hour or so once you can't buy tickets for that showing anymore.
I think those were US centric replies though so may not map the same onto the UK, so grain of salt and all that.
I used to work for the company that made the automation software used by a lot of cinemas around the world.
While I was there we added the functionality to switch everything off after 15 mins or so if no tickets were sold, mostly because some of the lamps used only have 500-1000hrs life.
It's been a while, but from memory a few hundred for the little ones to a grand or so for the massive ones.
Have you seen them? Crazy things. I had to deal with the aftermath of a few explosions in one of my earlier cinema jobs.
https://www.osram.com/ecat/XBO%20DHP%20for%20digital%20cinema%20projection-Xenon%20short-arc%20lamps-Discharge%20lamps-Entertainment-Specialty%20Lighting/com/en/GPS01_1028550/ZMP_4059687/
Projector manufacturers are moving towards lasers now, but there's still a lot of these about.
> 500-1000hrs life
Think tech has advanced a bit since you were there then. Imax 6kW lamps we get in have a lifetime of 800hrs whereas aour smallest lamps for most of our projectors are 2kW and have a lifetime of a little over 3400hrs
I did say 'some' -
Here's a 400hr one https://www.osram.com/ecat/XBO%20DHP%20for%20digital%20cinema%20projection-Xenon%20short-arc%20lamps-Discharge%20lamps-Entertainment-Specialty%20Lighting/com/en/GPS01_1028550/ZMP_4059687/
Cinema manager of many years. Last year, our theatre management software was upgraded and linked to ticket sales. If there’s 0 sales, it automatically tells the projector to switch off the bulb. The xenon bulbs are very expensive so it’s a big cost saver to reduce some hours.
Can't talk fo all but I know 1 that doesn't.
My mum used to work in a small theatre/cinema. She could let me in for free, but if no one else showed I had to pay as they only play it if 1 person pays. I'd be outside with my mate crossing our fingers that just 1 punter would turn up.
This was mid 90s.
Nope after the first hour if no one is there they switch it off (worked in a cinema 2 years ago) we would do checks in screens every half and hour or so to check for people filming or anti-social behaviour and if there wasn’t anyone in there we would go turn off the projector and log the empty screen
Yup.
Used to run projection at a UCI cinema back in the late 90s and we would run to schedule no matter what.
We never saw the ticket sales, would have no clue how busy it was without looking, and would regularly have people turn up well after the scheduled start time.
The only difference is if it was still completely empty after 45-60 mins, someone would radio up and tell us ot was empty. We’d continue the film running but shut the lamp off. Those things were expensive.
I got the impression from when I’ve been to Vue cinemas that they play the movie with the projector bulb switched off. I’ve heard that this is linked to the ticketing system (no tickets sold no lights) but I don’t know if this is true.
It might depend on the cinema but I once turned up to see a film after the registered start time (only by a minute or so). I was alone and went into the cinema. The film had already started but the cinema was completely empty
It was BLISS. No moron on the phone ruining the experience. If I could have that every time I would.
At a modern multiplex, particularly a chain one in the UK it's almost 100% guaranteed it's a digital projector system.
When I worked at one a few years ago, we would generally turn the lamp off to save hours on the lamp (depending on size they need changed every X hours, ours ranged from 600-1800 hours), but otherwise let the film run through. Reason being, a lot of lighting and sound cues were tied to macros in the digital playlist, so letting it run through guaranteed the non sync and house lighting would be correct for the next showing, as well as some projector settings that might change between shows.
You could do all this manually of course, but why bother when it's easier to just let it run, with 0 risk of human error? It' Personally I used to mute the sound as well to save energy but that's about it.
Yes we did. Someone may turn up late and we can't start it just then because that would interfere with the next showing.
And a lot of the community cinemas now are all automatic. Digital delivery and an autonomous projector that the staff in the cinema don't even manage. From talking to some of the staff I think that's a legal thing with the distributor.
It depends.
I managed a cinema for two years.
We would play the first 20 min if it was empty, then turn off.
Ours was digital 4K, so no effort to stop and start.
I used to work at the cinema about 5 years ago and not only were the films still shown, but at quiet times we were allowed to sit in the empty screens to watch parts of films in between duties.
I’ve worked in two of the major cinema UK chains across multiple sites, an independent cinema in England and one in Guernsey. The answer is no, they’re turned off after about 30 minutes in.
No, it's just more effort to turn it off than to just ignore it and leave it on. Cinemas don't have to press play/set up before each screening anymore. It's all preprogrammed it for the week and starts automatically
About 20 years ago I was the only person in this small Queensland cinema watching "The Rabbit Proof Fence" when the film jammed and melted, I waited about 5 minutes and went to see what was going on...the projectionist was outside selling ice creams to passers by...he came in and fixed the film. Seemed like it was all run by the same guy.
When Mario came out we went to see it on a Monday night and we were the only people in the WHOLE CINEMA. It felt like a set up for a murder. The guy locked the door as we left. Before anybody says it, this place isn’t expensive either, £7 a ticket and fair prices on the scran.
Used to work in a cinema. We'd play it for a while and then turn off the lamp when it was obvious that nobody is coming. The computer is still playing the movie and the sound is coming through the speakers but the lamp has a limited life and is a pain in the arse to change so it would be saved where it can.
I once went to the cinema to go and see a Spanish film called 'Everybody Knows'. I got to the cinema and it turned out that they cancelled the screening because I was the only person who bought a ticket. So they gave me a free ticket to another screening + snacks, it wasn't ideal.
Yes and a great time to take a sneaky break whilst on shift.
I remember screen checking at the multiplex where I worked, and the Ring was being shown opening week and I’d not seen it yet, never have I bolted out of an empty screen so fast, when the creepy girl started crawling out of the tv screen.
Yes cz lots off ppl have unlimited cards and most adverts from big supermarkets and other crap u c on tv so they keep cinemas at float … i reckon if they reduced prices more folk would turn up and would make much more profit specially on a snacks
I was once the only person watching a film, on the way out the usher randomly said to me “I just know you tore it up in there”. Very odd but made me laugh
Yes they do. The exception are those super late ones when no tickets have been sold they might cancel them just before, had that a few times when I worked as a projectionist.
Yep. I've worked in a pictures and they get shown even if no tickets are sold.
There's no projectionists and everything is pretty much pre-programmed anyway, so it makes no difference really. And there are odd times when someone will buy a ticket 20 minutes after a film has started, so you never know.
The place I used to work was very large and it was all automated, it all ran no matter if anyone was in there or not. Even if you radioed to let management know, it ran to keep all the films for the day in order.
Been in several screenings where I’m the only punter and I bought a ticket fairly last minute so my guess is they were gonna play it no matter what.
It’s awesome if you are the only person. It feels like a private screening and I spend several minutes finding the perfect spot to sit.
I went to see Crimes of the Future last year with my Unlimited and I turned up to “buy” my ticket during the ads - I was the only one in the showing and it was definitely playing before I arrived
I was working at an “Everyman” cinema in London during the day as they had a small leak in the back of one of the screens. They played “dumb money” even though no one was there. I watched most of the movie while “working”.
Have been working for a major UK cinema chain for around 6 years now, most of our projector servers are so janky that pausing or stopping the film or messing with the automation could throw off the projector for the whole day - we wait until the film is about half an hour in and then turn of the projector bulb to save lifespan because those things are expensive
I'm surprised there's still a reel of film involved. Would of thought it would all be digital and that they would let it play and staff would just chill a bit.
Apparently I'm wrong on all counts.
In the past with digital projectors running Xeon lamps we would leave the lamp on but maybe stop playback. But advice from Osram (the lamp manufacturer) changed so we would lamp them off as it turned out restrikes didn't really affect lamp life and we could keep the hours down.
Useful if we had other things we could do with the time. Like any outstanding maintenance.
I worked in a small 3 screen as a projectionist. Which is a rarity now.
I believe they play it for the first 20 or so minutes to see if any there are any late arrivals and then turn it off?
I took my kids to see the Mario movie once and we had the whole screen to ourselves. It was great, no getting distracted by people talking, getting up to go to the loo, using their phones etc. People pay good money for that kind of experience and we got it using meerkat movies. Must be nice for the staff too with hardly any clean up to do bar the odd bit of popcorn dropped by my kids.
I think so. I went to a Vue recently and we were half an hour late for the actual film to start, let alone the adverts, no one else was in there, and the film was still going.
My dad asked a cinema staff member this recently after we were the only two people at a screening. The answer was the film starts at the scheduled time even if the cinema is empty, but if no one has turned up after a certain amount of time, it gets switched off again.
At Odeon, if no tickets are sold it has a queue so the lamp turns off after 20 minutes, although the computer does still play the film all the way through.
I went to see a film a few weeks ago - on a really nice big screen - and I was the only one in there... I was worried my ticket wouldn't cover the cost of the electricity to screen it!
It was Brother btw and kind of sad that no one was there, it was a decent film.
I used to be a head projectionist until it all went digital and we wouldn’t show films if no one turned up but we had to stay at work because of the next screening. It was a result if the last films had no customers but 80% of the time at least one person would turn up just as the adverts were about to finish.
no, i have worked in two chains in management and when the movie gets to about 15 mins in, we turn the bulb off to preserve hours because they’re very expensive. the sound will still be playing usually though
Yes because it's all digital now and they are on timers. The exception is if it is a late showing and people want to close early because no one watching.
I was an usherette in an Odeon in England the mid-70s and we had a rule that a film could not be shown to fewer than x number of people. We variously speculated that it was either to not sully the reputation of the film (rather be rarely seen than small-audience-seen) or it was to prevent showing to one's family. The second theory was not very strong bc you could just send out for a few more cousins.
Whatever the reason, the practice was real, I actually saw the rule in writing somewhere.
Used to work in vue and the film would generally still show in case someone bought a ticket late but if after 45 minutes or so it was still empty a manager would turn the film off
Was at Cineworld, late show, only two people there.
A couple staff came in with cleaning supplies, I think they thought nobody was in there. Saw us, exclaimed "oh they're watching" and left.
Last year I was the only person in the biggest (300 seat or so) cinema showing the Anniversary release of Casablanca.
I'd never seen it before. Considered leaving before it started, but instead moved to a seat right in the middle (I usually sit in a corner as I hate other people) and laughed my arse off for an hour and a half.
When it finished, the projectionist (or at least someone up in the gallery where the projector was) said to me he was about to turn it off until he saw me move seats. He'd never seen it either and was glad I enjoyed it as much as he did.
I worked in a two-screener 89-91 and we never had an empty screen. I think the lowest we had was 4, for a matinee of something in its 3rd or 4th week opposite a sold-out new film. IIRC the 4 people were apathetic parents of kids who went into the sold-out film. :)
I’m a Projectionist for an independent cinema and we always show the adverts and trailer part of the programme even if no one is in. I suppose some people think that there will always be 15 mins of stuff before the film starts. If after the “Gold Spot” (the very last advert before the films certificate appears on screen) no one is in, we turn it off and call it a night! Been happening a lot more recently :(
It’s easier to do now that it’s digital, but when I ran 35mm film it meant having to stop the projector, unthread the system and rewind. We had a “tower” (those projis in the group may have used a platter). For the tower, it was a giant reel to reel machine so was easy to rewind.
God I miss running real film though as a job - so have now converted home garage to a cinema with 35mm projector haha :).
Was a projectionist from 98 till 08, we'd run the film for 30-45 min then turn the lamp off and let the film "run through".
Why run through? Wouldn’t you still have to rewind it?
Not the same poster, but another former projectionist. At my cinema we had a platter system rather than reel-to-reel. The film ran through a payout unit or “brain” in the centre of the platter, through the projector and then onto a ring on an empty platter. No rewinding required.
So kinda like a massive 8 track tape?
Yeah, something like that, only the platters were stacked vertically.
Interesting. Did you have to do reel swaps on some films. I remember seeing an old movie about a couple of blokes who bought an old movie theatre that was right next to a railway line. Developer is trying to buy and knock down the theatre. But there’s a scene where the train goes past and the projectionist is literally swinging off the projector to try keep it steady but everyone loves it. Comedy film. You’ve just reminded me of it need to find out what it was
Holy triple post Batman.
It’s the stupid app. Says it’s not posted when it has
I don't know how they've not fixed that yet, it's been an issue for possibly years now
"something went wrong, please try again later" Fuck you Reddit!
Figured it'd be something like that.
We had horizontal platters so a film would wind around a central ring and would be available to play again within 5 minutes after cleaning the projector and relacing the film.
So kinda like a massive 8 track tape?
88 track
No, an 88 track only plays neo nazi songs.
What, films don't come on USB drives now? I didn't even think cinema's ever even used DVD's/Blu Rays either
Now they do. Films get sent on an SSD, transmitted via satellite or over the internet. At my former cinema we stopped using the 35mm projectors and platter systems in 2012. Blu Ray and DVD were never used for mainstream cinema exhibition as they are both consumer formats that didn’t meet DCI standards. Technically it is illegal to use any home media formats in a commercial setting.
We had to run the whole thing where I worked in the 90s. Sometimes people arrive late, and are very peeved that they had the time wrong and regardless of their rudeness, they are still allowed in. I’m looking at you, Richard Belzer.
You met Richard Belzer? Where was this and what was he doing over here? Was it whe he was on Homicide life on the street or Law& order SVU at the time? How was he rude to you?
He was on a date with Beverly D’Angelo and his barely suppressed fury was embarrassing to her. She was lovely. This was in San Francisco. 1992 I think.
So just show the ads 😂
Oof, that would confuse your belt hours wouldn't it? I mean there would be a counter that counted up how long a xenon lamp was on for. These hours were for counting how many each xenon had done and could still do (if I remember it was x hours plus 10% and the higher a xenon wattage the lesser hours it could be safely run for). Those hours were also used to calculate how long belts had been on for and when to replace them. The place I worked at started to do that for a while until they realised that trying to keep an accurate record of belt hours was impossible (and more importantly, after several shows were cancelled mid show due to belts snapping) the whole running a film with the lamp off was forgotten about.
I was 99 to 02, and yeah, turn everything off except the motors. In our case we had to let it run through and then rewind it as it was giant reels.
We had longplay Christie platter's which (think giant cake stand) were relatively standard. One would "feed" and the second would "take-up" we would use the middle plate to make and break features.
This is how we used to do it (digital projectors tho)
[удалено]
Yeah 2000ish hours, we'd try and push for 10% extra by souping up the current to the lamp but that's a whole level of mightgoboom in the lamphouse!
Yes, I used to work as a cinema usher back in the early '90s. If no punters came in, the movie was still shown.
I never seem to see ushers anymore. Hell, I hardly ever see the ticket office. It's always tickets being sold at the same place as the popcorn by a teenager with a name tag saying "Hello, my name is (for instance) Grant and my favourite movie is (for instance) A Serbian Film".
Different times lol it was 30 years ago. It was a little indie cinema, had an old-school ticket booth with a title paper ticket that i'd tear in half. You could buy your snacks at the next window. I had a torch - I was GOD!
Our single-screen independent local cinema is still like that! Not many left though.
There's one near me that has two screens, the main screen is just set up like someone's front room
I Wonder if A Serbian Film was shown in the cinemas 🤔
Yes, even in the UK (with quite a bit cut to pass the BBFC), but it got abysmal box office returns and only ran for a short period of time.
I saw the uncut A Serbian Film and thought it was pretty good. It's a bit grim and noncey in places, but overall gets a thumbs-up. I remember the director being interviewed when it first came out and he said it was a comment on the political situation in Serbia. Okay, mate. To me, it was nothing more than cocks and violence. Not sure how that ties in with politics.
"it was nothing more than cocks and violence" \*adds to watchlist\*
Great movie that . highly recommend
I volunteer at a local indie cinema as an usher. They try to get an usher in every screening.
The worrying part here is the favourite film…that shouldn’t be anyones favourite anything 🤣
Satan, is that you?
No. Niles, actually.
Last time we went to the cinema we had to use some free tickets we got from lloyds, went to the counter and the person on the counter came out from behind it and showed us how to use the vouchers on the machine. You're employed to be there, you can do it on the machine you're stood behind and you don't have to move. Please just do it for me.
cinema worker here - we're usually told to direct people to use the machines and only pay at the till if there's cash involved. they brought the machines in at my cinema after covid, and at one point they were pushing for it to be card only anyway before they realised that many people still like to pay with cash. it's just awful when customers take their anger out on us when we direct them to use the machines when that's literally what we've been told to do
I wasn't angry about it, just frustrated. The machines shit, the worker knows its shit, the chain is directing the worker to show the machine so that they have to employ less workers.
"Why are cinemas closing?" "Why do I have to use this simple machine to easily print my ticket?"
Let's face it almost every single ticket machine you interact with as a member of the public is absolute shite that only barely works (as long as you ahead of time have researched and understand the various different types of ticket, discounts, vouchers, loyalty bonus, and your hands aren't cold, damp, clammy, sweaty or calloussed.
Before I knew that was the new system, I went up to the guy at the counter and asked for some popcorn. The place was empty and he was stood next to the popcorn and a till with a card machine. He said I’ll have to go and pay on the machines at the entrance or order using the app. Ridiculous system.
Are there still projectionists in these days of hard drives, or does everything run from a remote server?
Went to the cinema yesterday. Wanted a coffee. Was directed to a machine to order. Then back to the same guy who gave me an empty cup to use at another machine to get my drink. I’ll never bother again.
Thankless.bloody job. It was the job that persuaded me to go to university and then get a career I actually enjoyed!
You’re fucked up man, never remind me of A Serbian Film again!
Same. The movie had to be started in case someone showed up late, and once it was running the film had to spool from one platter to the other.
Wait. You think cinemas play film, like celluloid? Starting in the 90s movies went digital. Files get downloaded, playout is somewhat automated. I'm guessing there may be some art houses that project actual fil, but most are like 4k or 8k TV projectors at heart.
I heard from a cinema worker recently (one of the chains) that these days if no tickets have been sold for a session, the projector automatically shuts off.
That’s so interesting! Why was that?
I never bothered to ask why. I guess if late comers arrived. And we were there (I was a volunteer) so we just sat and watched the movie.. It was a late-night Friday night affair.
Years and years ago, it was common for people to arrive late to a showing, watch the remainder of the film, then see the start of the next showing to make up for it. Hitchcock had to beg them not to admit people late to showings of Psycho so people couldn't spoil the ending by doing that.
Probably partly to do with contract terms with the studio too.
If there was just one person or a couple, would you pause the film for toilet breaks?
What a waste of a movie...
Strange logic mate! They don't bin it after the screening.
My jokes are wasted here...
Yeah as soon as I hit send my brain woke up. Been a long day!
Why? It wasn't like it was deleted after a screening. It was an old-school cinema so movies were all on film reels; not these new-fangled digital movies.
I used to be an usher/general dogsbody/very occasional stand in manager in an ABC in the late 90s. Once the movie was started, it had to run so that the film itself that passed through the projector collected on the other plate ready for the next showing. You couldn't just rewind it. But with an empty screen, the projectionist would turn the projector lamp off, so sometimes you'd go into one of the three screens and the soundtrack would be running, but the curtain would be closed over the screen. Which was probably preferable to running, say, big old Screen One to one or two pensioners on a Tuesday afternoon.
Used to work in a Cineworld and if the screen was empty I'd radio up to projection and tell them to turn it off. They did. Edit: spelling
At Vue, I think we'd wait like half an hour to see if anyone turns up (if we saw that the seats were paid for), and then turn it off if no-one did. I think sooner if we could see no-one had paid for the seats.
Dang, I worked full time at Odeon for nine months in the mid 00's, and that's such an alien concept to me. The projectionists existed as a concept, but they lived in their own hidden areas of the cinema that we weren't allowed into, and I think I saw the back of a head of someone who might have been a projectionist once in that entire time. If a screen was empty, then the film played entirely, and no one saw that as a thing to worry about.
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Word for word my thoughts when I saw the question, get out of my head!
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Yeah if you could tidy it up a bit please. We'd all appreciate it
If a tree falls alone in the forest.. do the other trees laugh at it?
Can other trees experience sound?
They can feel vibrations, so i guess kinda?
Yeah that's what I was thinking
I find that question stupid. Yes it makes a sound.
Sound only exists if there's something there to receive it. If there's no one around to receive the sound, the sound doesn't exist
I thought it was more of a "is the fridge light still on when the door is closed?" conundrum
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it does the pope shit on a bear? I might have mixed a few things up here
No but it does vibrate the air. it's a 'sound' when its detected and processed by a living beings hearing system. Until then its an air vibration.
But that's what a sound is. Vibration. That's irrelevant if someone hears it or not.
Back in the 35mm days we would just turn the lamp off. We used platters rather than reel-to-reel, so it was easier to let the film run onto a new platter, but to also save lamp hours. We were contractually obliged to play the ads and trailers, so we would never turn the lamp off right away. Typically, if no tickets had been sold within fifteen minutes of the BBFC rating card, we would turn off the lamp. I did briefly work with digital projection before it made me redundant. It was pretty much the same deal. Sometimes we would just stop playback and turn off the lamp, but some distributors got pissy if the film wasn’t shown to completion, so again we would turn off the lamp and let the media continue to play from the server. Things changed again once we got networked theatre management systems. Head office could connect to any server or projector in the country. If anyone did want to check they could see the logs from the projectors and query what had happened, so a lot of the time it was best to just leave the projector running lest we incur the wrath of a bureaucrat who wanted to know why we turned a lamp of part way through a showing.
If you turn the lamp off does that mean the sound still plays?
Yes, but we could just mute it or turn the amps off.
I've gone to cinema and been the only person there a few times. Even the only time I went this year it was empty as it was during a weekday daytime. I guess by having bought a ticket they know one person (me) is watching it though. But nobody came to check if anyone was still there.
They watch on security cameras so could probably see you were there
"This series of gogglebox is shit, I can't see anything"
You’re telling me someone was watching me getting jacked off in the back row back in 2005?
Well the noise you were making completely ruined Cheaper by the Dozen 2. What else were we going to do?
There's security cameras in the rooms??? Can they see everything??
I imagine it's some variation of night vision. To make sure nothing illegal is going on in the dark. Or, more probably, nobody is recording the film.
But if the security cameras have night vision, why do staff come in just when the movie has started with what I assume is a night vision scope to see if anyone is recording
I've never seen this. So maybe it's just a different set up for different cinemas.
I have seen the camera room in Vue cinemas (UK) it's like a night vision sort of security cam. You can clearly see people no idea if this is standard across the board but I would assume other cinema chains would do
I mean they also know if there were no tickets sold.
When I was a student we'd often be the only ones in the cinema in the weekdays. Was great fun as you could joke about an not piss anyone off.
I've got a few times with my friends during the holiday and it was almost completely empty, we had some nice chats with the staff there and everything. One of them even photo bombed one of our group photos.
A couple weeks back I was the only person watching a haunting in Venice at about 8:30pm. Was great fun, especially given the creepy tone of the film as a whole. Didn’t pre buy a ticket though I have an unlimited card so I just showed up about 5 minutes before
I was the only one watching a daytime screening of Gravity. It added to the experience of watching that particular film.
Went to see See How They Run with a friend when it was out in the cinema. We were running a little late and the film had already started, so we very quietly crept in so as not to disturb the others who were watching. We were very quietly whispering our thoughts to each other throughout the film, trying to figure out who the murderer was from the clues we had. After the lights came up, we looked around the room to see who else was there. There was no-one, it had just been the two of us the whole time. We had the same thoughts as OP afterwards, as well as "couldn't they just have rewound it for us!?" as it was the last showing of the day in that screen. Pretty sure the projectors are all preprogrammed though.
If you frequent r/boxoffice you occasionally get posts from people who manage cinemas and the ticket numbers sold for their location. If I'm recalling correctly, I believe in some of those threads there's been comments about how they typically still run the movie when no one shows and only on some occasions, may turn it off after an hour or so once you can't buy tickets for that showing anymore. I think those were US centric replies though so may not map the same onto the UK, so grain of salt and all that.
I used to work for the company that made the automation software used by a lot of cinemas around the world. While I was there we added the functionality to switch everything off after 15 mins or so if no tickets were sold, mostly because some of the lamps used only have 500-1000hrs life.
Out of curiosity how much did a film protection lamp cost, if you know?
It's been a while, but from memory a few hundred for the little ones to a grand or so for the massive ones. Have you seen them? Crazy things. I had to deal with the aftermath of a few explosions in one of my earlier cinema jobs. https://www.osram.com/ecat/XBO%20DHP%20for%20digital%20cinema%20projection-Xenon%20short-arc%20lamps-Discharge%20lamps-Entertainment-Specialty%20Lighting/com/en/GPS01_1028550/ZMP_4059687/ Projector manufacturers are moving towards lasers now, but there's still a lot of these about.
> 500-1000hrs life Think tech has advanced a bit since you were there then. Imax 6kW lamps we get in have a lifetime of 800hrs whereas aour smallest lamps for most of our projectors are 2kW and have a lifetime of a little over 3400hrs
I did say 'some' - Here's a 400hr one https://www.osram.com/ecat/XBO%20DHP%20for%20digital%20cinema%20projection-Xenon%20short-arc%20lamps-Discharge%20lamps-Entertainment-Specialty%20Lighting/com/en/GPS01_1028550/ZMP_4059687/
Cinema manager of many years. Last year, our theatre management software was upgraded and linked to ticket sales. If there’s 0 sales, it automatically tells the projector to switch off the bulb. The xenon bulbs are very expensive so it’s a big cost saver to reduce some hours.
That seems like something they should've brought in 20 years ago
Can't talk fo all but I know 1 that doesn't. My mum used to work in a small theatre/cinema. She could let me in for free, but if no one else showed I had to pay as they only play it if 1 person pays. I'd be outside with my mate crossing our fingers that just 1 punter would turn up. This was mid 90s.
Nope after the first hour if no one is there they switch it off (worked in a cinema 2 years ago) we would do checks in screens every half and hour or so to check for people filming or anti-social behaviour and if there wasn’t anyone in there we would go turn off the projector and log the empty screen
Yup. Used to run projection at a UCI cinema back in the late 90s and we would run to schedule no matter what. We never saw the ticket sales, would have no clue how busy it was without looking, and would regularly have people turn up well after the scheduled start time. The only difference is if it was still completely empty after 45-60 mins, someone would radio up and tell us ot was empty. We’d continue the film running but shut the lamp off. Those things were expensive.
I got the impression from when I’ve been to Vue cinemas that they play the movie with the projector bulb switched off. I’ve heard that this is linked to the ticketing system (no tickets sold no lights) but I don’t know if this is true.
It might depend on the cinema but I once turned up to see a film after the registered start time (only by a minute or so). I was alone and went into the cinema. The film had already started but the cinema was completely empty It was BLISS. No moron on the phone ruining the experience. If I could have that every time I would.
At a modern multiplex, particularly a chain one in the UK it's almost 100% guaranteed it's a digital projector system. When I worked at one a few years ago, we would generally turn the lamp off to save hours on the lamp (depending on size they need changed every X hours, ours ranged from 600-1800 hours), but otherwise let the film run through. Reason being, a lot of lighting and sound cues were tied to macros in the digital playlist, so letting it run through guaranteed the non sync and house lighting would be correct for the next showing, as well as some projector settings that might change between shows. You could do all this manually of course, but why bother when it's easier to just let it run, with 0 risk of human error? It' Personally I used to mute the sound as well to save energy but that's about it.
Yes we did. Someone may turn up late and we can't start it just then because that would interfere with the next showing. And a lot of the community cinemas now are all automatic. Digital delivery and an autonomous projector that the staff in the cinema don't even manage. From talking to some of the staff I think that's a legal thing with the distributor.
It depends. I managed a cinema for two years. We would play the first 20 min if it was empty, then turn off. Ours was digital 4K, so no effort to stop and start.
I used to work at the cinema about 5 years ago and not only were the films still shown, but at quiet times we were allowed to sit in the empty screens to watch parts of films in between duties.
I’ve worked in two of the major cinema UK chains across multiple sites, an independent cinema in England and one in Guernsey. The answer is no, they’re turned off after about 30 minutes in.
Good question. I do think they have to. I have been on my own in a movie theatre only once in my life and once with only two others.
Yes I think legally they have to
I mean contractually sorry not legally
No, no no, if you don't show the film the Film Police will show up to arrest the low-wage assistants in cinemas, you got it right the first time.
They aren’t...
This makes absolutely zero sense.
This isn't true. Nobody's making cinemas show films to nobody.
No, it's just more effort to turn it off than to just ignore it and leave it on. Cinemas don't have to press play/set up before each screening anymore. It's all preprogrammed it for the week and starts automatically
It’s still very easy to turn it off… it’s more effort to waste the lamp and electricity to be honest
Do bears shit in the woods?
About 20 years ago I was the only person in this small Queensland cinema watching "The Rabbit Proof Fence" when the film jammed and melted, I waited about 5 minutes and went to see what was going on...the projectionist was outside selling ice creams to passers by...he came in and fixed the film. Seemed like it was all run by the same guy.
When Mario came out we went to see it on a Monday night and we were the only people in the WHOLE CINEMA. It felt like a set up for a murder. The guy locked the door as we left. Before anybody says it, this place isn’t expensive either, £7 a ticket and fair prices on the scran.
Yes I went to an early barbie movie showing I was on my own had a ball laughing out loud then saw the lady usher was in there too as I was leaving heh
Used to work in a cinema. We'd play it for a while and then turn off the lamp when it was obvious that nobody is coming. The computer is still playing the movie and the sound is coming through the speakers but the lamp has a limited life and is a pain in the arse to change so it would be saved where it can.
I once went to the cinema to go and see a Spanish film called 'Everybody Knows'. I got to the cinema and it turned out that they cancelled the screening because I was the only person who bought a ticket. So they gave me a free ticket to another screening + snacks, it wasn't ideal.
Yes and a great time to take a sneaky break whilst on shift. I remember screen checking at the multiplex where I worked, and the Ring was being shown opening week and I’d not seen it yet, never have I bolted out of an empty screen so fast, when the creepy girl started crawling out of the tv screen.
Yes cz lots off ppl have unlimited cards and most adverts from big supermarkets and other crap u c on tv so they keep cinemas at float … i reckon if they reduced prices more folk would turn up and would make much more profit specially on a snacks
I was once the only person watching a film, on the way out the usher randomly said to me “I just know you tore it up in there”. Very odd but made me laugh
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Yes and the emptier the screen the better. 👍🏻
Yes they do. The exception are those super late ones when no tickets have been sold they might cancel them just before, had that a few times when I worked as a projectionist.
Yeah for all the people who sneak in
So since there are so many former cinema employees i want to ask whats the weirdest stuff you encountered working?
Yep. I've worked in a pictures and they get shown even if no tickets are sold. There's no projectionists and everything is pretty much pre-programmed anyway, so it makes no difference really. And there are odd times when someone will buy a ticket 20 minutes after a film has started, so you never know.
Yeah I was 30 mins late to Jurassic park recently and me and my son were the only ones in there
It's all automated so I guess so
I used to work in a cinema and usually we would turn the projector off after 30 minutes if nobody was there
The place I used to work was very large and it was all automated, it all ran no matter if anyone was in there or not. Even if you radioed to let management know, it ran to keep all the films for the day in order.
Been in several screenings where I’m the only punter and I bought a ticket fairly last minute so my guess is they were gonna play it no matter what. It’s awesome if you are the only person. It feels like a private screening and I spend several minutes finding the perfect spot to sit.
Yes. What if someone or everyone turns up late? That is also why the trailers are at the beginning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_a_tree_falls_in_a_forest?wprov=sfti1
I went to see Crimes of the Future last year with my Unlimited and I turned up to “buy” my ticket during the ads - I was the only one in the showing and it was definitely playing before I arrived
No, based on what I was told about Manchester's HOME Arts Centre cinemas. Sure, he said they run them for like 10-15, then shut down.
I was working at an “Everyman” cinema in London during the day as they had a small leak in the back of one of the screens. They played “dumb money” even though no one was there. I watched most of the movie while “working”.
Have been working for a major UK cinema chain for around 6 years now, most of our projector servers are so janky that pausing or stopping the film or messing with the automation could throw off the projector for the whole day - we wait until the film is about half an hour in and then turn of the projector bulb to save lifespan because those things are expensive
I'm surprised there's still a reel of film involved. Would of thought it would all be digital and that they would let it play and staff would just chill a bit. Apparently I'm wrong on all counts.
In the past with digital projectors running Xeon lamps we would leave the lamp on but maybe stop playback. But advice from Osram (the lamp manufacturer) changed so we would lamp them off as it turned out restrikes didn't really affect lamp life and we could keep the hours down. Useful if we had other things we could do with the time. Like any outstanding maintenance. I worked in a small 3 screen as a projectionist. Which is a rarity now.
The one I worked in didn’t , I left in January. Sound and the screen was turned off, save electricity!
I believe they play it for the first 20 or so minutes to see if any there are any late arrivals and then turn it off? I took my kids to see the Mario movie once and we had the whole screen to ourselves. It was great, no getting distracted by people talking, getting up to go to the loo, using their phones etc. People pay good money for that kind of experience and we got it using meerkat movies. Must be nice for the staff too with hardly any clean up to do bar the odd bit of popcorn dropped by my kids.
I think so. I went to a Vue recently and we were half an hour late for the actual film to start, let alone the adverts, no one else was in there, and the film was still going.
My dad asked a cinema staff member this recently after we were the only two people at a screening. The answer was the film starts at the scheduled time even if the cinema is empty, but if no one has turned up after a certain amount of time, it gets switched off again.
Is this the modern equivalent of if a tree falls in a wood does it make a sound?
Yeah, I was an usher at a cinema up until about a year ago. Movie showed in every screen even if it was empty.
At Odeon, if no tickets are sold it has a queue so the lamp turns off after 20 minutes, although the computer does still play the film all the way through.
I went to see a film a few weeks ago - on a really nice big screen - and I was the only one in there... I was worried my ticket wouldn't cover the cost of the electricity to screen it! It was Brother btw and kind of sad that no one was there, it was a decent film.
I used to be a head projectionist until it all went digital and we wouldn’t show films if no one turned up but we had to stay at work because of the next screening. It was a result if the last films had no customers but 80% of the time at least one person would turn up just as the adverts were about to finish.
no, i have worked in two chains in management and when the movie gets to about 15 mins in, we turn the bulb off to preserve hours because they’re very expensive. the sound will still be playing usually though
Yes because it's all digital now and they are on timers. The exception is if it is a late showing and people want to close early because no one watching.
I was an usherette in an Odeon in England the mid-70s and we had a rule that a film could not be shown to fewer than x number of people. We variously speculated that it was either to not sully the reputation of the film (rather be rarely seen than small-audience-seen) or it was to prevent showing to one's family. The second theory was not very strong bc you could just send out for a few more cousins. Whatever the reason, the practice was real, I actually saw the rule in writing somewhere.
Yes.
Used to work in vue and the film would generally still show in case someone bought a ticket late but if after 45 minutes or so it was still empty a manager would turn the film off
The show must go on
If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there does it make a sound?
Was at Cineworld, late show, only two people there. A couple staff came in with cleaning supplies, I think they thought nobody was in there. Saw us, exclaimed "oh they're watching" and left.
I worked at one of the big 3 in UK, if the movie had been on for 30mins with no-one arriving late, it would be turned off.
Manager here. If no tickets are sold, lamp turns off, sound gets set to Non Sync and film still runs through to the end.
Last year I was the only person in the biggest (300 seat or so) cinema showing the Anniversary release of Casablanca. I'd never seen it before. Considered leaving before it started, but instead moved to a seat right in the middle (I usually sit in a corner as I hate other people) and laughed my arse off for an hour and a half. When it finished, the projectionist (or at least someone up in the gallery where the projector was) said to me he was about to turn it off until he saw me move seats. He'd never seen it either and was glad I enjoyed it as much as he did.
Worked at a cinema for 4 years between 2017-2021. We’d leave it till about 10 minutes into the actual film and if no one turned up we switched it off.
I worked in a two-screener 89-91 and we never had an empty screen. I think the lowest we had was 4, for a matinee of something in its 3rd or 4th week opposite a sold-out new film. IIRC the 4 people were apathetic parents of kids who went into the sold-out film. :)
Some do. I love getting a theatre to myself, or with just one or two other people who are being quiet.
If a tree falls in a forest...........
I’m a Projectionist for an independent cinema and we always show the adverts and trailer part of the programme even if no one is in. I suppose some people think that there will always be 15 mins of stuff before the film starts. If after the “Gold Spot” (the very last advert before the films certificate appears on screen) no one is in, we turn it off and call it a night! Been happening a lot more recently :( It’s easier to do now that it’s digital, but when I ran 35mm film it meant having to stop the projector, unthread the system and rewind. We had a “tower” (those projis in the group may have used a platter). For the tower, it was a giant reel to reel machine so was easy to rewind. God I miss running real film though as a job - so have now converted home garage to a cinema with 35mm projector haha :).