Granville 7 tour- 10th year closure anniversary tour.

 Today I am starting my 1st post, with a tour to one of the best places I have ever worked. The Granville 7 cinemas located once at 855 Granville st. in Vancouver B.C.

    I started to work at the concession in 2004 while it was under Cineplex, and then later the building was taken over by Empire Theaters. 

Back around 2005, Scotiabank Theater opened a new, and modern theater close by to us. This made our theater to have fewer costumers, and to compensate we offered lowered ticket prices.  I am not sure if it was because the low number of costumers walking in, or just simply because we were located in the heart of downtown, but once in a while we were happy to have a glimpse of famous actors walking by to watch a show. I plan to make a for part 2 with a topic relating to the celebrities in G7.

Our theater hosted many film festivals such as Chinese, Philipino, Jewish, Latino, queer, and the big VIFF.

I became a projectionist just a few months from starting to work there. I feel lucky to have worked right before the introduction of digital content. Just about a year later I became full time assistant manager.

I must say working here was a wonderful ride with amazing coworkers and costumers. we experienced scary moment such as being trapped inside during the hockey riot. We felt the thrilling collective joy of Canada defeating USA at hockey during the 2010 Olympic games. There was always a story to tell.

                                                                    The box office. 

Our Box Office is Closed. We had so many confused costumers at our doors, as our tickets were sold at the concession to encourage snack sales. 

Main Lobby

 Right after walking in, if you looked up, there was a glass mirror. To the right access to theater 5 and 6. To the left the main concession and theater 3 & 4. There was also an escalator that was always broken. The only time it was actually looked after, was during the VIFF. 

The theater had it's security system. I think it was from early 1980's, and it was terrible. Every day we had to change the VHS tape to start a new recording. It would record a frame every 5 seconds. Except for the live view, it was pretty much useless. We even had cameras pointing to nowhere. 

Concession - (Behind the scenes)

We had our walls covered with directions on the procedures from preparing snacks to how to properly clean. 

I don't really have any concessions secrets. If anything went wrong we all took care of if, to the point of throwing a whole bag of corn seeds if they ever got contaminated. The only thing we all found disgusting was the Becel. It was just a bowl of repulsive fat. Luckily, even though it was free and safe to give away, almost none wanted it. Most people always paid the 50 cents for the delicious butter. 

Mezzanine

This was the chill area to wait for your movie, or get a washroom break. It had access to our staff room, booth 3 and 4. The far end door would reach theater 6.  

Here you could get an ugly view of our concession. Right on the tall wall we had an art piece called the tree of life, as I remember. I don't have a better picture to display the full piece of art, nor I could find one online. (I actually didn't try hard, lol). The following is just a trimmed image.

This level gave us some nice Orpheum theater views. 

Main Projectionist Room

This was my favorite place to work. Here we prepared the trailers and advertisement packs every Thursday. Plus we build up the new films that came broken down usually in 6  to 8 reels. Those reels came in a cannister labeled with a fake movie names. There were special screenings before the official movie release. To protect from piracy, the cannisters would come with a lock. A code would be provided to us with a limited time to build the print before this special screening. 

 Each projector had a very special and expensive light bulb. It had to be changed with care, and  equipment had to be worn to avoid an explosion that could have glass spread all over our selves or the floor. 

The ad films were kept for about 6 months, an in case of movie trailers, they were kept until the movie was released. We had a regular who for many years asked us for a movie trailer reel. I wonder how many Dave actually got to save.

We turned on the sound panel on our side to confirm the audio was on. some other times to sneak and watch our favorite scenes during our brakes.

As projectionist we were always concern before starting a film. Many things could go wrong. Mistreating the film could cause tension on it, have no sound, or having the machine do a sudden stop. If the tape of the film was not safely folded, it could get cough in the platter brain and cause the film to burn at the end. The brain had to be looked at for a few minutest after the start of the machine. This piece regulates the speed for the unwrapping film that feeds into the projector. If the film comes out too fast or too slow, if could wrap in the center, and cause tension. Either tangling the film, or making it perform slow at the next screenings. 

We had to check the screen to ensure it was centered, and that the protective gate light would open. 

The film needs to gets foils attached while be build the trailer pack. As the foil passes through the projector, it will be read by a machine that would dims down the lights in the theater. If any projectionist forgot to add them, we had to dim the lights manually. This issue had to be fixed at the end of the screening, just before the next show. 

Many times we had enough time to pre-thread the film, but on busy nights we had 5 minutes to thread,  make sure the film runs smooth, and dash to the next projector as each film was scheduled with a small gap of time. 

(Picture credited to one of my ex-coworkers)

If the film got much tension from the previous screening, it could have made the removal of the center ring very difficult, either creating bumps that affect negatively the speed in the brain. The worst would be having the film spring out like crazy, creating a delay and very unhappy costumers.

We had another nightmare. Having a film fall to the floor, or completely spill out while transferring from theater to theater. Everyone was required to use a frame that would hold tight the film. It was A shaped with wheels at the bottom. Very few people, like my self, managed to perfectly move the film with out this frame by doing  a special hold. This hold was tricky, and many new projectionist tried it as it saved so much time. If the film would slowly slide out of our arms, we had to immediately stop, and ask for assistance. The ones who felt brave, had to pay the consequences of a messy film. It would take a really long time wrap back the film together again, making us cancel one or 2 shows at worst.  

I was lucky the first and only time it happened to me was after a last daily screening, so there was no need to cancel any shows. My nightmare was having to stay till 4 am putting it back together. I must say I was also lucky to have a very nice manager who helped me and stayed till that time with out being mad at me. 
 

There was a great feeling of accomplishment when it all went smooth.

Each Thursday night was my favorite time to spend in the booth building up new prints, and preparing trailer packs. There was something soothing about it, I miss being there.

(Picture credited to one of my ex-coworkers)

Top Floor and second concession.

The second concession place only opened during busy, or special screenings. It could go months closed and empty.

After a busy screening, people made huge lines to get into the washroom. I would tell them as a courtesy that the floor below had many more stalls and they were very much free. None would go, and they just gave me weird looks. I just gave up for the rest of my time working there after a few tries. 

Theater 7

If I remember well, it was the biggest movie theater in Vancouver, and it could hold 660 costumers. It had the best sound such as THX. 

After your show, you could take one of these fast exits. Many had forgotten to take a washroom brake, and they didn't know they couldn't be allowed back in. We made exceptions if we remembered the costumer's face, or if they seemed to be telling the truth. We had to be strict as we actually had people trying to sneak for a second show for free. 

Washrooms

Not much to say about this place. Even though they were clean, I never liked the smell of the air refreshers. 

Theater 6

Theater 6 was considered the haunted one. I heard many stories about some guy called Darrel. Some say he hung him self inside the booth. The legend always changed. This theater was the darkest and not many noticed the gargoyle faces on top of each wall pillar. It was the perfect place to scare that one coworker who believed in ghost. We simply turned the light off after he or she walked all the way to the end to pick up the daily check list. 

Outside of this theater we had a small elevator. hardly used by anyone. I learned from some managers that when they were ushers, they would sneak inside and take a nap. 

Roof top

This place was only accessible to managers. Only a few employees got to check this place and take pics of the Granville St. as it had a vey pretty view.

None was allowed to come up here, as the company was trying to avoid any kind of liability. I just didn't care, and on very boring days, and on very rare occasions like a special event, I would allow our staff to join me for a few minutes.

During the riots, we got trapped and couldn't go home. To kill time we all went to the roof to see the fights, fires, and commotion. 

Our theater manager saw us on the tv news taking a peek. Soon after I got a call to my cellphone with a scolding telling me to go down. 

I was banned from going up, unless it was really necessary. 

I still believe it was worth it. I will post later about some great shoots I got for the Olympics and other curiosities that occurred on the street.

The Office

I have more pics of this place, but it was crowded with staff and manages blocking most of the view.

Granville St

I loved Granville Street. from the quiet Sunday mornings to the crazy Friday nights with the people heading to the clubs. In the background almost every night the sound of the bass guitar playing stairway to heaven. I remember it playing since I started in 2004, and I am sure still play till this day. 

We saw the homeless and how they were pulling tricks to get cash. My favorite was the cup on the floor, jus a few feet away. Placed that way so distracted people would kick it, making the coins spill over the floor. The person walking by, would feel sorry, helped pick up the coins, and gave some cash as a form of apology. 

So much to see.

The end

Empire theaters was a company struggling to keep track of it's business on the west coast, and so many theaters like the one on Oakridge mall, had to close it's doors.

Like mentioned before, on November 4th, 2012, Granville had it's last screening and closed it's doors.

Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the basement area were we had theater 1 and 2.

We also had a concession that was closed and turned into storage for our posters.

 

Please keep an eye for future post. I will be talking about the celebrities that visited our doors, and will tell you my experience with some of them.

Check here: https://linktr.ee/visualmelodies to have access to my platforms across the net regarding my photography.

Thank you for reading!