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Topic: The Glen Cinema Disaster
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Graham Ritchie
Film God
Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted January 10, 2018 02:57 PM
I remember once at the cinema and just to see what it would be like, I brought the lights down to "complete darkness" standing at the back. The feeling I got was one of "disorientation", although you might think cinemas are dark places and they are, the projector lamp always will give some light even in a dark scene. If you take the projector out of the equation its a very different story.
I was on my own when I tried that out, and it was for only a minute or so, even with exit lights in the distance, the darkness in the place still made me uneasy. It was an "experiment" as to what it might feel like at that level of darkness, in a full cinema that "disorientation" could easily create panic, thats why "emergency lighting", that will come on automatic in a instant is so important.
Every morning before any of the sessions started, I would also check the ease of freedom of operation of all "outward facing" exit doors, any inward opening door would simply be a death trap when large numbers are on the move.
Getting large numbers of people out of a building quickly and safely was always in the back of my mind, and practiced with other staff during my time as a projectionist.
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