8mm Forum: Intermission in classic film (King and I)

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Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on June 14, 2013, 04:53 PM:

As you have just read, I was given by my wife a ton of prints and one of them is King and I.

Last night I screened it and found the intermission is very long. It is only black background on the screen with an accompany song.

What a waste for film stock that could be used for something else.

Is this a common thing for classic films to have such long intermission ?

Posted by Jonathan Trevithick (Member # 3066) on June 14, 2013, 05:35 PM:

Yes and we were still doing intermissions at the cinema I worked at in the 90s. We had to for "Titanic" because using a tower system,it wouldn't all fit on the one reel.
I guess it didn't have to be done in older cinemas using two projectors for changeovers but I suppose it was considered necessary for the theatre of its day (and an excuse for them to sell more food and ice cream).

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on June 15, 2013, 05:48 AM:

Well do I remember intermissions Winbert, when taken as a kid to see "Ben Hur" or "The Ten Commandments", remember that these
were very long epics and the seating in cinemas at the time were
not the comfortable seats nowadays,so patrons were allowed a
chance to stretch their legs and being Hollywood epics,there was
usually the pressbook for sale on the making of the film,so the
intermission was a useful point in the films presentation and also added to the showmanship, sadly missing these days.

Posted by Guy Taylor, Jr. (Member # 786) on June 15, 2013, 05:58 AM:

Many of the older musicals that were based on stage musicals had intermissions. There was usually intro music and exit music as well.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on June 15, 2013, 06:04 AM:

That's true Guy,but the main theme music was only played at
the time when the second half was due, giving people
warning that the film was about to start.Very clever when you think of it.

Posted by Jean-Christophe Deblock (Member # 792) on June 15, 2013, 06:43 AM:

Ben Hur has an overture music of 6 minutes.
Just like The 10 commandment.
The intermission music of Ben Hur is about 4 minutes.

Posted by Ricky Daniels (Member # 95) on June 15, 2013, 06:52 AM:

I'm now heavily involved with an independent cinema (basically I am it apart from the owners!) and we always insert an Intermission so the punters may take a pee break and spend some cash on refreshments. Personally I like the challenge of inserting an Intermission into a live screening. I always review the plot to find an appropriate point to 'break' and make up stills for the Intermission and switch to an 'entr'acte' with 5 mins of music and it's their cue to return to their seats. The punters love it, as do I, it's cinema presentation as it should be. Les Mis was a very theatrical experience for my audience, so much so they want it again! Great to do some classic showmanship from time to time.

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on June 15, 2013, 07:03 AM:

Hi thanks guys for the input.

What I was talking is in this super 8mm. Why at that time Derann did not just put 30 seconds frames saying "intermission" to save the stock and let the projectionist to turn off the projector and change to CD as the background.

6 minutes of black background can be nicely used for trailers or somethiong else.

In today's world when the frames arrive at intermission, I quickly turn off the projector to save the bulb too.

Everything and every second is counted now.... [Big Grin]

Was it because of the copyrights? Derann was compulsory to include the intemission in the print?

Posted by Paul Spinks (Member # 573) on June 15, 2013, 08:35 AM:

I personally like the overture, intermission and exit music to be included with the feature. You slowly dim the lights as the music comes to an end and it adds to the overall "cinema" experience. My "El Cid" feature contains all these musical sections and it's great to listen to Miklos Rozsa's wonderful music. Does anyone know if Derann included Ron Goodwin's excellent intermission theme medley in their release of "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines"?

Paul.

Posted by Ricky Daniels (Member # 95) on June 15, 2013, 10:23 AM:

Hi Paul,

Yes, "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines" has the intermission music used for the entr'acte to the second part...

Checkout the print review on the BFCC site, the Intermission music is noted too http://www.bfcc.biz/

Best,
Rick

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on June 15, 2013, 10:30 AM:

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has a great intermission break. The car is plummeting off a cliff, soon to hit the ground and......it's intermission time!

Doug

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 15, 2013, 04:40 PM:

I think its great to have overture and intermission, it adds so much to the atmosphere. I have never come across it on Super8 though, only at the cinema "intermission" both in digital "Sound Of Music" of late [Cool]

and when we ran a series of David Lean films on 35mm [Smile]

I think the start of second half of Dr Zhivago was very well done.

I remember telling the projectionist "now" listen on the sound monitor and when you hear the sound of train bring the lights down to total darkness as we are starting the second half in a tunnel and its "black" on the screen for quite a while..then....the next thing, you leave the tunnel and you are then into the second half....the intro into the second half of Dr Zhivago was brilliant [Big Grin]

A lot of 35mm film would run through the projector for the Overture and Intermission...but its well worth it, as its all part of the "presentation" of the movie [Smile]

Plus you make lot and lots of money at the intermission [Big Grin]

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on June 19, 2013, 12:40 PM:

My mate almost took the dvd of Lawrence Of Arabia back because it had an intermission of black.

The local cinema used to intermission, they got in the local papers might have got in the nationals too. The film companies didn't like it. Plus there's a bar.

I like the break on a long film, I also liked the double bills for real value. They are a crafty lot make the film longer only one film on, or now only one video, but charge them more.

"Goldfinger" when I only had only 1200ft reels, had an ideal fade out for the intermission. I just put instrumental bond music on for about five minutes.

An interesting bit on the blu-ray of "The Guns Of Naverone" you can watch one with or without, according to the doc not many had the break.

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