Filmgoers’ Fingerprints

This chapter focuses on fingerprinting stations, which, from the early 1920s until the late 1950s, were often located in the lobbies of movie theaters and used both in conjunction with crime films and as part of a broader push to collect Americans’ personal biometric information. An increasingly popular component of efforts to normalize civil identification, fingerprinting stations routinely functioned to promote both crime films and local police departments. They also raised alarming questions about the scope of police power in the United States. Fingerprinting stations were naturalized aspects of a cinematic assemblage that served police power, smuggling law enforcement into the local movie theater and making the collection of patrons’ personal biometric information seem continuous both with screen representations and with the wider work of advertising and publicity departments.

Case Study: Floating Jack-Up Slabs for Multi-Story Cinema in Manhattan

A review of a uniquely designed floated jack-up concrete slab to isolate fourteen movie theaters on multiple floors within a multi-use building. The jack-up boxes were engineered and custom tailored to increase airborne sound transmission loss performance while achieving a very high vibration isolation efficiency specified. Field test results were obtained to validate the floating jack-up concrete's acoustical performance.

Problems of digital transformation of film distribution

The article provides a brief overview of the emergence of the legal market of online cinemas in Russia. The paper reveals that the Governments of many countries have a national policy that is aimed at maintaining internal programming on traditional video platforms. Such policies range from licensing, which requires serving the “public interest” and defines rules for the distribution of certain types of content produced domestically, to requiring content distributors to contribute to the financing of the production of domestic content. The authors investigate that during the implementation of these rules, the Russian government decided on the allocation of limited resources. There was also regulation on whether platforms can solely decide what content to offer their users, or whether viewers should also participate directly. The study concludes that the transition from traditional platforms to online distribution can reduce the effectiveness of existing regulatory regimes and deprive traditional platforms of audience and revenue.The world and Russian experiences of using the Internet prove that today modern information and telecommunications technologies can contain real threats to the violation of fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens, as well as to question the security of society and the state. The only exceptions are progressive or innovative areas related to the provision of new services and the expansion of opportunities for socio-economic development.As a result of the study, the paper identified four problems of Russian film distribution on digital platforms. The authors chose piracy as the first problem of online cinemas. Pirate sites not only illegally copy content from online movie theaters, but they also create copies of their own services to transfer their servers to another platform in case of blocking. The second problem was highlighted by the requirement for foreign owners. The third problem was highlighted by the high cost of online movie theater subscriptions. The authors consider the fourth problem the lack of financial support from the state.

The Visually Induced Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (VIMSSQ): Estimating Individual Susceptibility to Motion Sickness-Like Symptoms When Using Visual Devices

Objective Two studies were conducted to develop and validate a questionnaire to estimate individual susceptibility to visually induced motion sickness (VIMS). Background VIMS is a common side-effect when watching dynamic visual content from various sources, such as virtual reality, movie theaters, or smartphones. A reliable questionnaire predicting individual susceptibility to VIMS is currently missing. The aim was to fill this gap by introducing the Visually Induced Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (VIMSSQ). Methods A survey and an experimental study were conducted. Survey: The VIMSSQ investigated the frequency of nausea, headache, dizziness, fatigue, and eyestrain when using different visual devices. Data were collected from a survey of 322 participants for the VIMSSQ and other related phenomena such as migraine. Experimental study: 23 participants were exposed to a VIMS-inducing visual stimulus. Participants filled out the VIMSSQ together with other questionnaires and rated their level of VIMS using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). Results Survey: The most prominent symptom when using visual devices was eyestrain, and females reported more VIMS than males. A one-factor solution with good scale reliability was found for the VIMSSQ. Experimental study: Regression analyses suggested that the VIMSSQ can be useful in predicting VIMS ( R2 = .34) as measured by the SSQ, particularly when combined with questions pertaining to the tendency to avoid visual displays and experience syncope ( R2 = .59). Conclusion We generated normative data for the VIMSSQ and demonstrated its validity. Application The VIMSSQ can become a valuable tool to estimate one’s susceptibility to VIMS based on self-reports.

Cinema and New Media Possibilities in the Pandemic

Cinema, which started to digitalize in the 20th century, continues to be integrated with digital publishing platforms that emerged with the development of new media technologies in the 21st century. With the coronavirus pandemic that affected the whole world in 2019, digital broadcasting platforms became popular as an alternative cinema event in the quarantine process. Various precautions have been taken around the world for the coronavirus pandemic. As a result of the quarantine precaution, the local and global cinema industry was negatively affected. Cinema industry which is a collective production and screening process, has been interrupted by the suspension of the filming and the closing of the movie theaters during the quarantine. New media created a movement area for the cinema industry in this process. In this sense, the aim of this study is examining the researches on the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the cinema and the effect of new media tools and opportunities on the cinema sector.

Relationship Between Movie Theaters and Audience During the Pandemic: “Beyoğlu 1989 E-Bulletin” as an Example

Covid-19, a disease that transformed into a pandemic at the beginning of 2020, caused catastrophic results in the world and Turkey. There have been some restrictions on trade, education, tourism, and art. Daily life was not interrupted but some services and events that they have not primary functions (for some people) like “art” were on the verge of stopping and carried to the digital platforms. In this context, some corporations opened their archives and sometimes actual events to the public free of charge or for a certain amount of money. Art, which has always had “healing”, “mediating” and “unifying” effects, was consumed by the billions of people through digital devices. Considering art is both a sector and an industry, the unexpected phenomenon of Covid-19, which is a kind of crisis that occurs one in a hundred years and takes longer than expected, led to the temporary or permanent closure of some art and culture institutions. Due to these results, some supportive programs have been organized by official or non-official institutions to solve financial problems. In Turkey, all the movie theaters closed down on the 16th of March 2020 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Some halls opened in July and August, however, because of lack of audience and of the increasing number of patients they have closed down again in November. 2019 was a bad year for the sector yet 2020 was even worse with the decline of the audience by the ratio of %90. Before the pandemic, there were some problems in terms of halls. In this context, some movie theaters tried to find solutions not to lose the audience and find financial support. Beyoğlu Movie Theater that began operating in 1989, had some financial problems before the pandemic. The managers of the hall created a project called “Beyoğlu 1989”, which was a kind of electronic bulletin, and started sending e-mails to the subscribers. This project, which was implemented for the first time in Turkey, has reached the 57th issue and 800 subscribers today and has turned into a kind of weekly electronic-digital cinema newspaper that is also promoted on the Instagram account of the Beyoğlu cinema with 45 thousand followers. The broadcast also follows the cinema agenda and undertakes the task of a written-visual archive. In conclusion, a movie theater that started operating in the analog age, today use all the possibilities and utilities of the digital age and also with the help of its owners and followers, creates a communication ecology to prevent the shutdown. The aim of this article is to examine an electronic bulletin (also a film magazine) “1989”, which is first in Turkey, with the qualitative method.

Influences of wing gate turnstiles’ characteristics on pedestrian evacuation based on agent-based egress model

Wing gate turnstiles are widely used in airports, subway stations, railway stations, movie theaters, parks, etc., and influence the pedestrian evacuation greatly while accidents happen. Thus, doing some researches on how to improve the evacuation speed for wing gate turnstiles are meaningful and necessary. In response to this issue, the influences of the wing gate turnstiles on pedestrian evacuation are investigated by pathfinder in this paper. Pathfinder is an agent-based egress simulator that uses steering behaviors to model occupant motion. First of all, by Pathfinder, two evacuation models with flat-shaped and wedge-shaped hosts wing gate turnstiles, respectively, are established, and the simulations of pedestrian evacuation are carried out by computer. The results show the evacuation speed obtained by the wedge-shaped host is faster than that obtained by the flat-shaped host. Moreover, the longest evacuation time is obtained when the channels’ width is 90 cm, and the shortest is obtained when the channels’ width is 51.4 cm. For a small number of evacuees, the evacuation time is mainly influenced by the original distributions of the evacuees, however, as the number of the evacuees increases, the evacuation time is mainly influenced by the number of the evacuees. Furthermore, the wing gate turnstiles with widened hosts can get less evacuation time no matter whether the hosts are flat-shaped or wedge-shaped, however, the evacuation-time-saved rate obtained by wedge-shaped host is much higher than that obtained by flat-shaped host. Then, the influences of the wedge angle on the pedestrian evacuation are discussed, and the optimal wedge angle is obtained. The obtained results can not only provide helps for managers to evacuate crowds under emergency, but also offer some assistances for designers to design those gate turnstiles or building exits.