Mareel - Cinema & Music Venue

[Fatal Paper Cut]

@ Fatal Paper Cut: Its good to hear that its deemed suitable by some with disability, but you're rather missing a point. Stairs, period, are a problem for some, and there really was no need to have any, had there been less gradient on the cinema floor. By all appearances they're not perfectly normal stairs either, every third tread is in effect an extension of an aisle of seating, and as such has a wider tread than their two neighbours in either direction. Maybe I'm missing something, but I cannot see what the advantage of having such a steep gradient is, unless to minimise the footprint of the cinema area within the building.

 

I'm not missing the point at all. I'm perfectly aware that stairs can be a problem for some folk, be they wheelchair users, OAPs or a three year old but yes, they absolutely needed to build the thing with stairs. You absolutely hit the nail on the head when you said it's to minimise the footprint of the building.

 

The steep gradient is to accommodate the height of the screen. They could have a shallow gradient and stretch the seating area back, but to accommodate the same size of screen on a gradient shallow enough walk comfortably on - similar to the Garrison's - and accommodate the larger screen would mean the length of the room would be immense. Remember, the screen is about three times the total area of the one used in the Garrison and the ceiling of Screen 1 would still have to be the same height it currently is. Now try and imagine how far back the the Screen 1 cinema would have to stretch to accommodate that height of a screen AND have a gradient shallow enough to walk on. You're going to be stretching the building quite some distance.

 

The screen in Screen 1 is more or less against on of the exterior walls - the one facing toward the Museum & Archives if I remember rightly from the early construction phase. If you kept the back wall of Screen 1 as is, knocked out the exterior wall and and extended the length of the room, rebuilt the wall and re-hung the screen to accommodate a shallow floor gradient, it'd be sitting somewhere in the middle of the Museum car park. Simply put, they needed to use stairs. There's no way they couldn't use stairs. Even if they reused the Garrison screen instead you'd still have to have a long floor footprint to fit it all in.

 

Most modern cinema screens are built to a similar if not identical gradient. So are some theatres where the stage is in the bowels of the building. It also allows for a much more comfortable viewing angle as your able to see well over the head of the person sitting in front of you. Possibly every third step in Mareel's Screen 1 does have a wider tread - I neglected to take my tape measure - but I've climbed up and down them on several occasions, even at the end of a long day when my joints ache or there's damp in the air and I can feel myself paying for it - it hasn't been a problem.

 

Obviously I can't speak for everyone, but I have my share of mobility issues and I managed quite easily, as did my pensionable bionic colleague. If it's really a major issue - as I said, there's a lift up to the back. Problem solved. You won't have to contend with stairs and can sit in comfort.

[JohanofNess]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I cannot see what the advantage of having such a steep gradient is, unless to minimise the footprint of the cinema area within the building.

 

You're not missing anything the gradient is there to increase the height front to back to get more people in and prevent people in rows behind having an obstructed view.

[Ghostrider]

^ I don't recall there being any visibility issues with the old NS layout where the floor sloped much less, which, unless the lower edge of the screen is near floor level instead of raised a few feet as the NS one was, leads me to form the opinion that the gradient is un-necessarily excessive for what is needed, and driven primarily to squeeze more bums on seats on the minimum footprint at the cost of more difficult access.

[GypsyScy]

You know, whatever misery and begrudgery is sprouted on this thread the fact is, there is a sprawling sea of children, teens and young adults all eagerly anticipating the opening of Mareel . ..and that is who counts, thats where the future of Mareel will lie. They are the ones who will eventually have the building and provisions in thier hands, the ones who willbe inspired to organise, imagine and create while having the back up and resouces to do so....

Looking forward to it

[Ghostrider]

^ You're in danger of making us older duffers sound like a bunch of washed up and written off has beens. Give us a chance, some of us are still hell bent to rock with the best of them yet as best we can.

 

Certainly someone like me has much shorter time to play with the place than the younger whippersnappers, and the body may be a corpse, but the mind can still imagine and create as well as it ever did. I can imagine the possible potential of the venue area at least, and would not be averse to organising and creating a few speaker blowing gigs in the place, if I was convinced it could deliver and I'd at least break even when the accounts were all settled. I've been around the block too many times though to move on that one until I have a whole heap more techy data, and feedback from shows those a tad more rash with their cash than myself put on in the early days.

[unlinkedstudent]

...

Obviously I can't speak for everyone, but I have my share of mobility issues and I managed quite easily, as did my pensionable bionic colleague. If it's really a major issue - as I said, there's a lift up to the back. Problem solved. You won't have to contend with stairs and can sit in comfort.

 

I'll attempt to be brief(er) and it could well be that the Facebook photographs (not Mareel page) make it look steeper than it actually is inside the cinema.

 

Do we know if there is a reservation policy in place or not? So whilst you state there is a lift at the back, if it is a popular film on say a Saturday night, then this may occur:

 

* computer allocates seating and you do or don't have a choice as to where you sit.

 

* first come, first served seating, join the queue and hope you are first in or arrive to find the only seats left are in the middle.

 

Some cinemas have ample staff around and if they see those less abled in the queue, do ask if they require assistance and move them to the front of the queue; if Mareel has such a policy then that would obviously be a plus.

 

Glad to hear you had no problems but you didn't mention if you used a walking aid ... plus toddlers, whilst perhaps weighing the same as your camera equipment, probably tend to wiggle a tad more.

[shetlandcars]

I've managed to get up and down the stairs in the cinema quite easily each time I've visited - once while carrying a heavy tripod and a large, heavy bag of camera gear

 

So thats who makes the dodgy film copies on the internet!

probably want to be more covert and loose the tripod

[Fatal Paper Cut]

I've managed to get up and down the stairs in the cinema quite easily each time I've visited - once while carrying a heavy tripod and a large, heavy bag of camera gear

 

So thats who makes the dodgy film copies on the internet!

probably want to be more covert and loose the tripod

 

Busted

 

Actually, the vast majority of film piracy these days occurs from within the film industry itself - leaked work prints for test audiences and executives that somehow manage to find their way onto a DVD. Or, someone in the DVD factory does an extra special pressing. You still get the odd camcorder-pointed-at-the-screen pirate copy, but they're few and far between these days. I managed to see Star Wars: Episode 1 the day before it's general release on a VHS that'd come off a workprint disc. I wasn't impressed, and it wasn't thanks to the poor picture and sound quality either. The X-Men spin-off movie Wolverine got uploaded to the internet a couple of years ago. It was also a work-print version, as some of the CGI hadn't been done at the time, so you had flat, textureless helicopters instead of photorealistic ones.

[Siccar]

Well de limbs manage ta synchronize ta type an aaaful lock o drivel. An AAAAAAAFUL lot. No sure dirs much wrang wi dee. (Physically)

We aa hiv mental problems sunshine.

Dats joost da tablets though

[unlinkedstudent]

Well de limbs manage ta synchronize ta type an aaaful lock o drivel. An AAAAAAAFUL lot. No sure dirs much wrang wi dee. (Physically)

 

Oh dear ... ... or should I pull up a chair and grab the popcorn?

[Ghostrider]

Well de limbs manage ta synchronize ta type an aaaful lock o drivel. An AAAAAAAFUL lot. No sure dirs much wrang wi dee. (Physically)

We aa hiv mental problems sunshine.

Dats joost da tablets though

 

Dir nae synchronization needed fur ee finger typin, an du's faily richt dir naethin muckle wrang wi me, idda sam wye is dir naethin muckle wrang wi onyeen wi weel advanced Multiple Sclerosis.

 

Is fur da idder, spaek fur desell....Keep du takkin dem, I tink dir hardly gotten da dose set richt yit, bit mebbe someday.

[DizzyKipper]

That was a conversation killer

[Russabell]

^ I don't recall there being any visibility issues with the old NS layout where the floor sloped much less, which, unless the lower edge of the screen is near floor level instead of raised a few feet as the NS one was, leads me to form the opinion that the gradient is un-necessarily excessive for what is needed, and driven primarily to squeeze more bums on seats on the minimum footprint at the cost of more difficult access.

 

If I had money to burn, I would have been tempted to buy a ticket for the seat directly in front of me as well as my own in the Garrison, as I could see sweet BA when someone sat in front of me. And the bairns could see nothing when there was an adult in front of them.

 

So really looking forward to Mareel opening. I've always had concerns that the Council will end up turning Shetland into one big home for the elderly/those that need looked after, so it's good to see something to help add variety.

[shetlandpeat]

Hope they do not put on any foreign films with subtitles, how would those with Dyslexia and other similar (me included) get to understand what is going right. The Garrison would have been great as the head in front would have blocked that part of the screen, now with this modern style of sloping floors and high up screens, be will be forced to try to understand WTF is going on.

AFAS

[justsomeguy]

 

I must say, it looks absolutely stunning. Roll on opening night!