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Social distancing is bringing drive-in theaters back to life
- xwdv 6y agoIt won’t last. At the heart of great cinema is great audio, and you won’t find that in a vehicle.
- vidanay 6y agoPerhaps movies could be made with real dialog and stories and not just loud explosions and sound effects that necessitate "great audio" (a highly subjective definition to be sure.)
- A4ET8a8uTh0 6y agoI happen to agree about the movie quality, but that seems to be pretty subjective too since my wife thinks otherwise. I never really understood the fixation on sound either, but each to their own. I can tell you what I want from a movie night: long island to numb me to all this low quality entertainment and comfortable seats. Drive-in won't work for my use case, but I doubt I am a target audience.
- Mediterraneo10 6y agoStrange that you think great audio is something only action films need. As soon as 5.1 mixing and encoding tools became cheap and widely available, even independent filmmakers writing "real dialog and stories" rushed to adopt them. And film schools emphasize how careful audio editing (and appropriate playback equipment) can bring a rich new dimension to one’s filmmaking, and some of the textbook examples that are used are 1960s auteur cinema like Ingmar Bergman’s Persona.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- bsanr2 6y agoI don't think that's true. The audio experience in many movie theaters is markedly terrible, due to the lack of proper volume calibration these days. And for many people, their car's audio system is the best that they own. I suppose the bottleneck would be delivery, but there are high-end, low-latency networked audio solutions out there, so streaming to a decent quality should be possible.
- deeblering4 6y agoFwiw most drive-ins broadcast movie audio over FM radio. Audiophiles could bring a good tuner and nice headphones, or a high end portable speaker and get good sound in the car or outdoors.
- boardwaalk 6y agoI think people are less discerning than you think, and even non-premium car audio systems less bad than what most people watch content on regularly (laptop and tablet speakers, etc). I see people do it and I don’t understand how they can stand tinny sound that’s nails on a chalkboard to me, but hey...
- xwdv 6y agoIf a person is willing to watch a movie on a laptop with tinny speakers I don’t see why they’d bother going to a drive in. Is the whole point of theatres not to see a movie in a big screen with great sound? If it wasn’t for that I’d just stay home and watch a movie on my OLED TV screen and surround sound system. I would never watch a movie on a phone or laptop.
- Cerium 6y agoA drive in movie is a great social experience unlike going to a normal theater. You can prepare a full fancy dinner to eat while watching. Then since you are using your car audio you get to set the volume. And if you want to discuss something you won't be interrupting anyone else. So, while it may not be an experience that idolizes technical achievements I find the drive in a fulfilling experience that offers an alternative to the conventional movie theater.
- Swizec 6y agoMy laptop has better sound than my high school era 5.1 system had. It’s uncanny how good those tiny little speakers have gotten. Mostly I watch on a laptop because it’s convenient. And the lack of a TV in the house discourages passively plomping my ass down and flicking through shit when I really should be doing anything else.
- grosswait 6y agoMeh. For the last 10 years maybe two movies a year get me to a theater, otherwise, television, laptop or phone for me. The only movie in my life where the theater factors into my subjective memory of a movie was The Dark Knight. I'll never forget how immersive the open scene was on a giant IMAX screen. My memories of sounds in movies on the other hand are only of the bad, like some of the ridiculous sound effects in Transformers with overly accentuated bass
- milquetoastaf 6y agoWait until you hear about these new fangled "silent films"
- maxsilver 6y ago> At the heart of great cinema is great audio, We had cinema for decades, before any audio had even been introduced to films. And for the first decade or two, audio on films sounded atrocious -- roughly like an AM-radio track. Somehow, I think "great cinema" will survive a few years of a few drive-in theaters offering stereo-FM-radio audio quality.
- wl 6y agoThe audio in most movie theaters is so loud, I have to bring ear plugs. A knob on my dash that can turn it down is a superior experience.
- jussij 6y agoSome of the things that would always annoy me with cinemas would be people coming in late, leaving early, sitting near a group that is constantly talking, phones going off or people constantly checking their phones which shine bright in a darkened room. At least these kinds of problems don't exist at the drive in.
- jcims 6y agoUnfortunately 'great audio' has been replaced with those stupid butt beaters in the seats and some weird W shaped EQ cranked so high it starts clipping any time something moderately loud happens. They could just suction cup a little bluetooth job to your window and you'd be in complete control of the audio experience.
- mrlala 6y ago>At the heart of great cinema is great audio It's amazing that you, the audiophile, assume that 99.9% of people really care about audio as much as you do. Spoiler alert- they don't.
- deeblering4 6y agoI love the drive in, but in a time of pandemic I don’t understand how the common resources like restrooms and food could be considered safe. It seems like a place at high risk for transmission between the hundreds of patrons that use them each night.
- Robotbeat 6y agoConcessions closed. Single movies (on the short side) only. Go to bathroom at home.
- CydeWeys 6y agoA lot of people (me included) won't make it through a round-trip drive plus an entire movie. The bathrooms are non-negotiable. Also, cinemas make almost all of their profit from concessions, so if you remove those they're going to have to charge more for the tickets themselves to make up for it. Will people be willing to spend this much?
- Robotbeat 6y agoI read some articles about drive-in theaters last month during social distancing, and they closed the concessions and encouraged people to bring snacks from home. They compensated by increasing the price a bit. Still plenty of takers.
- em-bee 6y agowhen entertainment options are limited, people are likely willing to pay more. concessions can be sold drive through style without personal interaction. only restrooms are really a problem
- dawnerd 6y agoConcession income isn’t an issue when the option is not open and make no money/lose money or open and make a little money. Not to mention the smaller ones could qualify for the SBA PPP.
- pc86 6y ago
- yardie 6y agoThis could only happen in places out in the sticks, such as Ocala. Where I'm from, another south florida suburb, the drive ins were paved over and made into shopping malls decades ago. Our son has only seen them in a period movie/show, such as Stranger Things, so sometimes I would describe them in a bit of detail. No one is going to these things for nostalgia. They are going to because they are bored at home, under quarantine, and looking for something to do. If the governor didn't excempt drive-ins no one would even bother.
- take_a_breath 6y agoI think it could happen in cities. We have huge, empty parking lots outside of sports stadiums that aren’t being used right now.
- rubidium 6y agoLight pollution would be annoying though
- CydeWeys 6y agoDepends on the city. Wouldn't work for me or almost anyone I know because almost none of us own cars. Because of social distancing this is only workable if most people own cars. And you wouldn't be able to easily hang out with your friends anyway; you'd only be in the same car as whoever you already live with, at which point just watching from the couch, with the comforts of your own bathroom and refrigerator, sounds more appealing. There's also contagion potential with the shared bathrooms and concessions at an outdoor theater type setup.
- BurningFrog 6y ago> Because of social distancing this is only workable if most people own cars "Most people" don't need to go. You only need enough people to fill up the place. If 1% of people in a big city starts going to drive in theaters, that would support several venues.
- mseidl 6y agoI am really hoping for new releases to to be streamed digitally now. I'd pay for it.
- buckminster 6y agoHow much do you want it? https://www.redcarpethomecinema.com/ https://www.redcarpethomecinema.com/
- Reedx 6y agoFrom their FAQ: "Movies will be variably priced with the most current films in the low thousands - no movie will be priced below $500. This will permit two viewings within a 36 hour period." I was thinking $20, heh.
- mseidl 6y agoYeah I just saw that. WTF.
- ghaff 6y agoI mean, I know there are people for whom $500 is loose change in the seat cushions. But are there seriously enough of them who absolutely must see a new release right now (and who don't know someone who can knock loose a screener for them) to support this as a business?
- throwaway3neu94 6y agoOn their website, there is a "Fact Sheet" PDF with a 1-page business description linked at the bottom. It says: "Target consumer: wealthy individuals with home media rooms" Duh. It also says the two founders were CEO of ticketmaster, and home distribution president at Warner Bros. I suppose these two would know how to price this, and who to talk to for licensing.
- ZekeSulastin 6y agoAmazon just started a program that’s a bit more reasonable than the other one linked called Prime Video Cinema: https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Video/b?ie=UTF8&node=2858778011 https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Video/b?ie=UTF8&node=285877801...
- saalweachter 6y agoThere's a half dozen drive-ins or so around the Hudson Valley. They're great if you have small children and want to leave the house to see a movie -- your kids can bounce around the back seat without bothering anyone else.
- sircastor 6y agoI was just suggesting this idea to my wife the other day. She counter argued (and I think she's right) that this is still a risky proposition. If everyone arrives, stays in their car watching the movie and then leaves, great. But people see someone they know, or they want to let their kids out to run around, and those kids see other kids. And add others have mentioned: restrooms.
- LMYahooTFY 6y agoI suppose this is a practical counter argument if you're both trying to make a risk assessment, but you could go keep the family in the car.
- radicalbyte 6y agoCamera + fines for people getting out. The bigger problem for me will be that half of the car owners will keep their engines running so they can have AC and the idea of sitting for two hours breathing exhaust fumes..
- cglace 6y agoAren’t you just describing driving? What is the difference between thousands of cars crammed together on an interstate vs some cars watching a movie in a field?
- sv9 6y agoPresumably the cars crammed together in a field is supposed to be fun, whereas an interstate is supposed to be soul-crushing.
- saagarjha 6y agoWhen you're driving, you dump the fumes behind you and move away.
- servercobra 6y agoAnd drive right into the fumes of all the cars in front of you.
- hkchad 6y agoThey closed ours down here in MO just as we were about to go this weekend, oh well.
- skrebbel 6y agoI'm from a country that doesn't live in cars, can someone explain the drive-in to me? Does everybody have a cabriolet, or how do you see the screen at all? Is it visible through the windshield? How about the audio?
- cnasc 6y agoYou see it through the windshield, there is typically a short range radio transmitter that sends the audio so you can hear it over your car speakers. Source: had a college job that involved inflatable movie screens and occasional drive-in style experiences
- save_ferris 6y agoThere’s typically a large outdoor projection screen a few stories tall, and each car usually gets a set of speakers that rests on their front side windows. Although these days I bet more are moving to Bluetooth or something like that.
- hedora 6y agoThe audio moved to low power FM radio decades ago.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- BurningFrog 6y ago> Is it visible through the windshield? Do you not have transparent windshields in your country?
- caseysoftware 6y agoI'd love to go to a drive in. It'd be a blast and good way to get out. But when local/state governments can shut you down as "non-essential" even if you're following all the guidelines, no business can come back to life. They're just on a "stay of execution" until someone changes their mind the other way.
- agumonkey 6y agoThese sort of leisure would be the perfect opportunity to give some air to people and have some activity too. Employ people to check few people per car and same family and you're good to go.
- Zenst 6y agoThat's brilliant and certainly perfect for today's climate of health concerns. Makes you wonder how much of past practices in society we shall reinvent. Certainly know a few people who learned to make their own bread and others growing some of their own food, not enough to live on but enough to augment their needs.
- jrochkind1 6y agoThe drive-in theater near by me has not been allowed to be open. I don't think that is necessarily wrong, it's still too many people in one place. There was an article two weeks ago that mentioned more drive-in's that would like to be open but were not being allowed to be than ones that were open. And that was a couple weeks ago. I do think that after we have a handle on the pandemic (including observabiltiy from wide-scale quick-turn-around testing, although part of me thinks our country may be incapable of ever having that, which would be problematic, but anyway)-- anyway, when the curve has peaked, and we have observability we don't have now, which are the preconditions for gradually re-opening things -- at that point I do think it would make sense for drive-in's to be among the first things re-opened, they are relatively low-risk when it comes to gatherings of that size. But for now, when the interviewer asks "Do you think this surge in attendance at drive-ins around the country…" -- I don't think the article actually has any evidence to support there IS a "surge in drive-ins around the country", they are just assuming it because they like the story? That's not good journalism. I think most drive-ins remain closed by public health order, possibly appropriately. I think the several stories about "the surge in attendance" are just based on the journalist's imagination extrapolating from one drive-in they found that is open, and are irresponsible.
- standardUser 6y agoI'm having a very difficult time imagining how a drive-in theater could regularly result in transmission of the virus. It's not inconceivable, but the goal of physical distancing is not to prevent every conceivable situation that could result in transmission, but the activities that would normally be responsible for the vast majority of transmission. I suppose having the cars a little farther apart might be prudent.
- jrochkind1 6y agoAt the one by me, people get out of their cars a lot. To go to the concession stand, bathroom, etc. To talk to their friends. Kids running around. Closing the concession stand (which has indoor lines) would be the first obvious move, but the one by me makes a significant portion of it's profits from the concession stand, would probably have to raise prices non-trivially. I agree about "Activities that would normally be responsible for transmission" -- and I think that is mostly _being near other people_. We need to be ruthlessly minimizing that. Depending on the drive-in, it may be not be doing so as much as you would imagine, is all. Anyhow whether the health departments are right or wrong to not letting be open, I think the "surge in drive-in attendance nationally" may not actually be a thing.
- js2 6y agoHere’s one in NC which id currently closed per the NC stay-at-home order. http://www.raleighroaddrivein.com/ http://www.raleighroaddrivein.com/ It was briefly donating its location for Sunday prayers: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article241604316.html https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article2416043...
- baron816 6y agoI went to a drive in theater a few months ago with some friends. It was a pretty terrible experience. We tried sitting outside since it was be better than sitting in the cramped back seat of a sedan. That made it impossible to hear most of the movie since other cars would turn on their engines, or a low flying airplane would pass overhead, or a train would go by. Other problems: light pollution from cars driving by with their headlights on would fade the screen, other screens playing different movies was very distracting, and going to the bathroom would take 15-20 minutes since it was so far away. A car seat is never going to be more comfortable than a movie theater recliner, or your own couch. And listening to a film over the radio isn't going to produce as good a sound as your home theater system.
- catalogia 6y agoIt sounds like you were simply looking for a different sort of product. The point of a drive-in theater is not to produce a high-fidelity experience. You may as well go skiing and complain about the cold.
- 3stripe 6y agoWhy risk your life and the lives of others to go watch a movie? Not essential and therefore very questionable.
- standardUser 6y agoI think it's important to remember that the goal is not to reduce the transmission rate to zero. The goal is to make sure people don't die unnecessarily due to overwhelmed healthcare systems. So far, it seems the physically distancing efforts in many states and countries have been sufficient to bring the transmission rate down to manageable levels, even though these efforts are imperfect and come with many loopholes. Denmark, Austria and Czechia are all about to end their lockdowns and start reopening parts of their economies. They may be good test cases for how loose restrictions can get without having the transmission rate rise too high. But make no mistake, more people will get the virus and more people will die, which is currently the only way forward we have.
- sergiotapia 6y agoGood bot.
- detaro 6y agoWith a blanket rule like that you shouldn't do anything ever. What risk do you think isn't addressed properly here?
- 3stripe 6y agoHmmm let's see — restrooms, people sitting outside (like the kids in the photo) or passing close to each other, even cars parked closer than 2m together with the window open. I'm sure there are more. (Edit: I'm not saying that any of these are highly likely, but I do think it's impossible to rule them out).
- RickJWagner 6y agoOnce a summer or so, my family goes to the Kenda Drive In in Marshall, Arkansas. People usually play frisbee and socialize while we wait for darkness to arrive. Food and snacks are delicious and moderately priced. The ticket to get in is something like $20 a carload. I don't know how the owners make money. I figure it must be some kind of community service project, promoting a wholesome community. It is awesome.
- abetusk 6y agoMy friends have been doing a guerrilla drive-in by all driving up to the back of a closed down business off of the highway, projecting a movie onto the (white-painted) brick wall and using an FM transmitter for the audio. The projector plugs into an inverter and projects through the windshield. We're still trying to figure out how to all talk to each other during the movie. So far, cell phones with earbuds and microphones seems to work alright but anything on speaker phone gets feedback. The projector is something like 65W and is powered from the car on idle. It'd be nicer to run it off of batteries but that can get a bit expensive.
- auston 6y agoYou could use something like presence.so for a private group voice chat.
- abetusk 6y agoThe issue more is about feedback and getting a proper system in place that we can all (multiple people in one car) chat with everyone else in other cars while the movie plays over the transmitter. The simple solution of calling into a group hangout and setting speakerphone is that we quickly get feedback from the audio of the move from the other cars.
- otfc 6y agoOpen the Fucking Country! Social Distancing is commie bullshit! Open the Fucking Country!
- calaniz 6y agoIt’s sort of an odd turn about. My grandfather owned and operated several drive in theaters in Texas. The businesses were handed down to him by his mother, who ran the theaters herself with her husband. Technology like home tv and the vcr changed peoples theater habits. They socially distanced at home and we saw a near extinction of the drive in theater. It’s sort of ironic that now were moving in the opposite direction. So much time with Netflix and various streaming services that we’re seeking out the safety of a drive in theater today. What a resurgence. We closed our last theater in the 2000’s but I’ve got fond memories of working the box office with my grandfather weekend evenings.
- hkmurakami 6y agoApparently we have one drive-in theater in San Jose and one in Concord in the bay. I totally would have expected them to be extinct by now. Appatently the SJ theater is hosting an Easter service today https://www.mercurynews.com/san-jose-church-hosting-easter-services-at-drive-in-movie-theater https://www.mercurynews.com/san-jose-church-hosting-easter-s...
- justlexi93 6y agoI don't think that it is safe, it will be best to just stay home watch movies on netflix or home theater. I wouldn't want to go out unless it is safe and they find a cure.
- Jemm 6y agoI wonder how they handle having a hundred people needing access to a restroom. My memories of drive in included a line up 20 deep of women waiting to use the restroom.