Lack of presentation in multiplexes (Mick Corfield)

Mick Corfield interviewed by Richard Wallace

Projectionist and BECTU representative Mick Corfield describes the erosion of presentation in multiplex cinemas.

The American idea was called floating screens. You have what’s called variable masking and that’s masking that comes into the side or can be lowered and it crops your picture. But what they wanted to do, they wanted to have a wow factor, so when you’d walk in you’d see a wall to wall screen. But the only problem with that is there’s no mechanism to put tabs there, or masking. Tabs are curtains, festoons are the ones that gather up and go up into the ceiling, tabs are the ones that swish along at the side. But there’s no mechanism, you see, because obviously if you’re going wall to wall there’s nowhere to put these things. So there’s your presentation for starters, ‘cause you’d go in there and you’d just start “bang” on the screen. You’ve got no tabs opening, you’ve got not the thrill of like the opening film saying ‘Your feature presentation’ and the lovely swish of the tabs opening and your house lights going down and your footlights going down and your sound building up. Well it’s not, it’s like you go in, the lights drop, “bang”, ‘cause no one’s there to mute the sound, as every join that goes through with a “tap,” “tap,” “bang,” “bang,” “bang,” “bang,” and you’re on screen, blurred away, sound hasn’t kicked in. All of a sudden you think, “Oh the sub hasn’t kicked in. Oh the sub’s kicked in now.” And of course if you’re doing twelve you can’t be – especially where there’s a few of them start at the same time – at every single one. So some would be out of rack where feet are at the top and heads at the bottom, some would be in the wrong ratio and then you’d have to... somebody would radio and you’d go along and then you’d rack it up or rack it down, like you might have a hair or the plate hasn’t gone over properly or stuff like that. So that’s the presentation side of it.

Title

Lack of presentation in multiplexes (Mick Corfield)

Subject

Americanisation of cinema
presentation
multiplexes

Description

Projectionist and BECTU representative Mick Corfield describes the erosion of presentation in multiplex cinemas.

Creator

The Projection Project

Source

Interview with Mick Corfield

Publisher

The University of Warwick

Date

08/12/2015

Contributor

Richard Wallace
Mick Corfield

Relation

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/25915

Format

.mp3

Language

English

Type

Sound recording
interview extract

Coverage

1989-

Interviewer

Richard Wallace

Interviewee

Mick Corfield

Date of Interview

03/08/2015

Location

Coventry

Transcription

The American idea was called floating screens. You have what’s called variable masking and that’s masking that comes into the side or can be lowered and it crops your picture. But what they wanted to do, they wanted to have a wow factor, so when you’d walk in you’d see a wall to wall screen. But the only problem with that is there’s no mechanism to put tabs there, or masking. Tabs are curtains, festoons are the ones that gather up and go up into the ceiling, tabs are the ones that swish along at the side. But there’s no mechanism, you see, because obviously if you’re going wall to wall there’s nowhere to put these things. So there’s your presentation for starters, ‘cause you’d go in there and you’d just start “bang” on the screen. You’ve got no tabs opening, you’ve got not the thrill of like the opening film saying ‘Your feature presentation’ and the lovely swish of the tabs opening and your house lights going down and your footlights going down and your sound building up. Well it’s not, it’s like you go in, the lights drop, “bang”, ‘cause no one’s there to mute the sound, as every join that goes through with a “tap,” “tap,” “bang,” “bang,” “bang,” “bang,” and you’re on screen, blurred away, sound hasn’t kicked in. All of a sudden you think, “Oh the sub hasn’t kicked in. Oh the sub’s kicked in now.” And of course if you’re doing twelve you can’t be – especially where there’s a few of them start at the same time – at every single one. So some would be out of rack where feet are at the top and heads at the bottom, some would be in the wrong ratio and then you’d have to... somebody would radio and you’d go along and then you’d rack it up or rack it down, like you might have a hair or the plate hasn’t gone over properly or stuff like that. So that’s the presentation side of it.

Original Format

One-to-one interview

Duration

00:01:20

Bit Rate/Frequency

320kbps

Cinema

MGM/Virgin/UGC, Arcadian Centre, Birmingham

Citation

The Projection Project, “Lack of presentation in multiplexes (Mick Corfield),” Cinema Projectionist, accessed April 25, 2024, https://projectionproject.warwick.ac.uk/items/show/413.

Output Formats