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Posted by Chris Garrett on January 5, 2003 at 10:45:17:
The last theatre I was in charge of had 16 screens and was kept at a very high level of tuning. It's a lot of work, no doubt.
As you say, there are flaps (raised/lowered on hinges) that can crop the screen, which is most common and then the side curtains move in/out much like your home. This is usually good enough and with the correct flat or scope lens, we're very close to being right on. The general rule is about six inches of overlap on the sides and top of the curtains/matting, from the booth. It's not a perfect edge.
Sometimes the Eurpoeans get itchy and throw a 1.66 into the mix and if there are subtitles lower in the frame, we have to frame high and this can cause some problems, but in my 7 years running a variety of multi-plexes, I only had this subtitle problem on one film. We had to cheat up on the top part of the frame to get the double lines of text in at the bottom. I think that one was 1.66 and a little bit was lost, however most of the cutomers preferred to read all the text and really didn't complain about the very, very most upper part of the scene sometimes not being there in some shots.
With my teenage projectionists, framing and sound quality were the two things that I had to be on top of, relative to their performances as booth teks. Many times you have factory splices that'll knock a the film out of frame and these splices weren't caught in the screening on Thursday, or they just didn't jump at that time. Plus, sound quality was a pain depending on the film, equipment and times that film was played.
All in all, they did a pretty good job. Not the same attention to detail that my 30 yr. Union Projectionist possessed (es) but if he were to run the shows at $20/hr, your ticket would probably be $20! He runs the Miami Film Festival every year and knows what he's doing, but we'd use him for repairs/adjustments, not running shows.
Another big problem with many multiplexes, with their sight and sound, is the fact that they run the bulbs for too long and the picture isn't bright enough. My company really didn't skimp on this aspect of the presentation.
Take care, Chris