A tour of an old movie theater + Projection booth

This is a tour of the Regency Tamarac Square 6 movie theater in Denver, CO:

I was projection technician and also projectionist at this theater. The mall it was in shut down a few years ago so I made this video before we closed for good showing off the theater but mostly the projection booth. I shot this when I first got my DSLR and the Glidecam. This took a few weeks to shoot because I had to do it when I wasn't busy doing my job (which was only part-time here anyway). Done completely in FCP 7 and it took maybe a 4 or 5 hours total to edit.

Thanks for sharing, Redifer. Some months back Peter shared a similar projection booth film here . Perhaps, alas, many theaters are shutting down with changing times. Still, the booth is a mysterious place of interest to the average viewer who has never had the opportunity to venture inside. The other film has much older equipment & a bizarre circuitous route for the film to traverse. Yours is equally interesting with some modern tech accompanied by flashing lights & shadows which up interest levels. Since our real interest is piqued once inside the celluloid sanctum, I think the intro runs a tad long. We've all seen theatre lobbies, & though yours is beautifully decorated it holds far less magic than the booth. That goes double for the candy counter girls who both stare into the lens (one as she pulls up her pants). I'd trim that section by 30%. Maybe even add a slight effect to your tracking so we have an almost dreamlike crossfading glide thru the lobby until we reach our coveted destination in the booth.

The opening exterior shots could also benefit from a slight color & trim treatment. Loved your title sequence with the dangling marquee letter. The music also was perfect, harkening back to the golden age of cinema, nice touch. There's an odd cut when we're exterior & panning the marquee, the jump to the other side to continue the pan, I'd lose that second half. Some color grading outside could make things pop a bit. Everything appears very flat & video-like. The washed out sky (which you artistically replace in the closing credit), needs help, as does the building, landscape, etc. No depth of field here doesn't help either. We get lots of focal play in the booth, maybe even a tiny bit too much? Sort of cringing while typing that, we all love the focus pulls, but I'd rather see a few other tricks just to mix things up a bit. Almost every article here I tout the value of Alex's gentle zoom added to shots, unfortunately you can't use his plugin for FCP 7. Hey, why not upgrade...

All in all, a very enjoyable & engaging little film & an artful tribute to what must have been a fun job.
Looking forward to your next film.







J. Matthew
Global•Watch•Media•Consulting
www.GWM2.com

@GlobalWatchM3

Thanks for watching and providing your comments J. Matthew. Can I call you J? This video was shot and edited before Final Cut Pro X was released so that is why I didn't use a "gentle zoom" plug in. But I will check that plug in out. I can accomplish a gentle zoom in FCP7 pretty easily if I need to. There were a couple of scenes where I did zoom in a bit. As far as the video look goes, well yeah this was shot on video. I wasn't going for a film look really. No amount of color correction/grading can restore things that are washed out. I do find it funny how everyone always tries to go for a film look, as if they know deep down in their hearts that film is already better than any video. That's a good and a bad thing, I suppose. Good because film really is way better... WAAAAY better. Bad because I've never seen it replicated well with video. Just embrace the look you've got and work with it. Don't keep trying to make one thing look like another.

I agree that the booth is more interesting, but I don't feel that I spent too long on other things. That's all subjective depending on the viewer. It was made with the intention of sharing with the people who worked there as well as other people in the industry who enjoy movie theaters and they like to see the whole thing as do I. It was also about learning how to use the Glidecam and becoming familiar with the 7D. But there's something about this video that I still like, but that's probably nostalgia.

Nobody noticed the kick-ass wipe?