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110
BRITISH KINEMATOGRAPHY
Vol. 18, No. 4
its sectional planning. Various considerations led me to adopt the section shown: these may be summarised as follows : — 1. The projection throw of the Cintel projector: about 40 to 45 feet was the maximum with existing equipment, or with any equipment which could be developed by 1951. •2. The adoption of 35 mm. safety stock, which released us from the normal regulations demanding special precautions against fire and explosion risks which so closely determine the sectional form of most kinemas, with the projection room at the top of the building.
"Lobster-claw" Section
Numerous geometries — as I call the early stages of planning — were tried and found wanting before it was possible to consider the problem quite freshly from first principles. I therefore started again, and quite simply set up the screen in section, marking off about 45 ft. and locating the television projector there, with zero angle of throw, and putting the two film projectors behind. It seemed obvious from previous investigation that about one-third of the seats would
Fig. 2. 3.
Section through Centre Line of the Telekinema, showing
The general form and dimensions of the site : the new ground level for the general exhibition terraces was to be some 10 feet above the existing " basement " level of the houses previously occupying the site ; this made it economical to build a lower ground level without excavations. It has always seemed to me that kinema design has too slavishly followed the principle : plan a theatre with stage, screen, stalls and circle seating, and then put the projection suite over, with a downward angle of projection of anything up to 18° or more. The adoption of such a sectional plan produced the familiar difficulty: how to locate the television projector, with its short throw, without cancelling a large number of seats and without interfering with film projection. It will be appreciated that the forced adoption of a parallel-sided plan increased this purely spacial difficulty.
position of the Stalls, the Balcony and the Projection Room.
have to be located on a balcony, so these were drawn in over the projectors, and a reversed ramped stalls floor completed this elementary diagram. This was the beginning of the really intricate business of fitting in everything to suit the diagram, and what may be termed a " lobster-claw " section was the result, the upper claw reaching to the back row of the circle seats, the lower claw to the back of the stalls, the projection room and its equipment being the tidy morsel tightly gripped in between.
A further feature became available to us at this stage : the back of the projection room faced the main entrance foyer and, as we were using safety stock, why not, it was asked, make a show of the projectors and associated equipment? A viewing window is therefore provided for the public as they pass through the foyer to stalls or circle seats.