2B | SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 | SIUSLAW NEWS
Theater
from 1B
your computer to your
TV. There was some-
thing just deeply unsat-
isfying watching a film
on a computer screen or
even TV.”
The films needed to
be on the big screen, but
how to get there during
a pandemic was a chal-
lenge. As of right now,
only a handful of the-
aters in the entire state
have ventured to
reopen.
“I hadn’t been in the
theater for weeks after
the shutdown,” Falter
said. “When we came
in, it was just the sad-
dest thing. Susan and I
were depressed. We
were like, ‘This can’t be
it. This just can’t go
away.’”
Falter would walk
around the neighbor-
hood, asking people
they knew if they would
ever come back again if
the theater reopened.
“Some people said,
‘We’re ready to come
back now.’ And then
other people were,
‘You’ll do the right
things to make it feel
safe.’ So, we just decided
at one point we needed
to do it.”
The question was
how.
Some theaters were
blocking out entire
rows, hoping that peo-
ple would keep their
distance. Others were
relying on private show-
ings.
“A lot just wanted to
get the lights turned on,”
Falter said. “Legally, we
could have opened June
5 during Phase 2 in
Lane County. But it felt
like we needed to do the
work — we needed to
research what the best
practices were.”
While taking seats out
was possible, the seat
anchors were more chal-
lenging to remove while
keeping the theater feel-
ing comfortable.
“I don’t have to figure
out how to make tables,
I just have to figure out
how to make a table top.
And that was huge,”
Falter said.
Instead seeing the
restrictions as a hin-
drance, he used them as
a map to rework the
many issues that cus-
tomers have had with
City Lights over the
years.
“And then I started
feeling like I did in 2014
when we first opened,”
Falter said. “Once we
started tearing out seats,
you can’t stop. And you
have to figure out what
the next step is. It’s a
combination of finding
the right awesome peo-
ple and an engineering
solution to the problem.
And then discovering
that the most elegant
solutions were already
here.”
One of the biggest
issues customers had
was how uncomfortable
the seats were. Either
the width was too small,
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from 1B
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or the leg room wasn’t
enough.
“There’s a lot of varia-
tion in how wide the
seats are, more than I
even recognized,” Falter
said. “They all look
roughly the same size.
But there’s 19-inch seats,
20-inch, 21-inch —
there’s actually some
pretty wide seats.”
Falter and Tive spent
only allow for a limited
number of people in
each movie theater per
showing. Only two the-
aters will be open at
first, and social distanc-
ing restrictions will only
allow for a limited audi-
ence — 30 customers
for the larger theater, 25
for the smaller theater.
Families and couples
will be able to sit next to
“It’s just the magic of
movies on the big
screen. That’s kind of
our thing.”
— Michael Falter, co-owner of City Lights
an entire day sitting in
every seat in the four
theaters testing to see
how narrow they were.
“That’s 500 chairs,”
Falter said. “I couldn’t
even walk the next day.
Susan said her hips were
so bruised because you’d
hit the cup holders on a
narrow seat.”
The narrow seats
were thrown out, the
wider ones were kept.
The other issue was
leg room.
“I felt the best thing
to do with limited seat
counts, in terms of state
guidelines, was to get
rid of every other row,”
Falter said. “Nobody can
sit next to you either in
front of you or behind
you. That was an easy
choice. But once I did
that, it was amazing.
There was so much leg
room. Not only do we
have a table top, we have
a foot rest,” Falter said.
“The other thing is just
being able to walk down
to the end of an aisle
without actually inter-
rupting anybody or
being in close proximity
to somebody.
Everything just started
feeling right.”
It also helps with the
viewing angle.
“Somebody could
actually be sitting in
front of you with the hat
on and you could still
see the screen perfectly,”
Falter said.
When they started
taking out the seats,
they realized that the
theater needed help in
cleaning.
“You had rust, you
had gum. There was so
much gum in here, it
was unbelievable,” Falter
said. “Pick up an arm
rest and there’s gum. I
was cleaning up the top
railing — gum. So much
gum.”
Floors and walls have
been repainted, the
floors steam cleaned,
the backs of the chairs
got a coat of Armor-All.
“And they won’t get
dirty now because peo-
ple can’t put their feet
on them,” Falter said.
“The theaters them-
selves will get sanitized
between shows. We have
the electrostatic mister.”
Current restrictions
• Schedule a DMV ap-
pointment
• Replace a lost, muti-
lated or stolen license/ID
card
• Upload a commercial
driver medical examiner
certificate
• Order a driving record
• Pay a reinstatement fee
• Begin a driver license
or identification card ap-
plication for an initial is-
suance
Customers can see all
the services DMV offers
online by visiting www.or-
one another, and they
will have an entire row
to themselves.
Revisions have also
been made to the the-
ater lobby. Before the
shutdown, standing in
line for tickets and con-
cessions could often be
confusing for people as
cashiers sold both tick-
ets and concessions.
This sometimes led to a
bottleneck where people
who just wanted a ticket
were stuck in line
behind someone taking
their time on what con-
cessions to get.
“The concession
counter is now much
more streamlined and
efficient,” Falter said.
“We’re going to have
one ticketing person.
The rest is going to be
three different conces-
sion stations six feet
apart. So, if you’re buy-
ing concessions, we can
still sell tickets to the
next person.”
Stanchions will clearly
delineate where to
stand, and the lines will
be separated six feet
apart.
“It will be really clear.
There will be a ton of
signage,” Falter said.
As for concessions,
the self-serve soda sta-
tion will be turned
around for staff to man-
age, and the popcorn
flavor station has been
removed.
“We’re still going to
have popcorn flavor-
ings, you’re just going to
have to get a little pack-
et. Or what we can
apply then,” Falter said.
“I don’t know how long
that’s going to last, but
aesthetically speaking,
we’re looking at the
soda turn around per-
manent. That, in a
roundabout way, gave us
some parameters on
what we can do with
that counter.”
The majority of tables
and chairs have been
removed from the
lobby, allowing for
more passage space.
Digital posters have
also been added in the
lobby, and the bath-
rooms now have touch-
less faucets and dryers.
“It’s going to be more
modern,” Falter said.
“That’s the thing. It’s
egondmv.com/dmv2u.
“Having new technology
in place means that DMV
is now more nimble. We
are able to share informa-
tion across different parts
of the division like never
before, creating a more
seamless experience for
our customers,” McClellan
said. “Modern technology
means we can offer more
contemporary service op-
tions like online sched-
uling which we launched
today.”
like every step of the
way, it’s made it a better
experience. Not just for
patrons, but for us too.
We’re excited to make it
super easy and clean for
the staff to deal with
too.”
As for what movies
the theater will be show-
ing, for now it will be a
mix of classics and
recently released inde-
pendent films.
Originally, most theaters
across the country had
planned to open on July
10, with the expectation
that Disney’s “Mulan”
live-action remake and
the Christopher Nolan
film “Tenet” would be
opening days after.
But after the virus
began spiking in areas
like Florida, California
and Texas and cities like
New York were still not
allowing theaters to
reopen, the blockbuster
releases were moved to
August. The national
theater chains moved
their reopening to coin-
cide.
“For us, we felt we’ve
been doing all this work
and we also have a real-
ly rich selection of inde-
pendent films and doc-
umentaries that we can
choose from that
nobody has seen yet,”
Falter said. “So, they are
new.”
Films include the civil
rights documentary
“John Lewis: Good
Trouble” and the Ethan
Hawke film “The
Truth.”
But there will be
blockbusters as well.
Yesterday (July 10), the
Star Wars sequel “The
Empire Strikes Back”
was screened.
“The following week
we have ‘Beauty and the
Beast’, which was a big
hit for us,” Falter said.
“Warner Brothers is
doing a similar thing,
they have a lot of clas-
sics like ‘Casablanca’
and ‘North by
Northwest.’ ‘The
Hobbit.’ ‘Batman.’
‘Citizen Kane.’ We’re
going to internally pick
five from the list and do
a Facebook poll of
films, see what kind of
interest there is.”
The classics will be
shown at a discount: $4
for members, $5 for
nonmembers.
“We’re trying to pass
the savings on and have
a little fun the first few
weeks,” Falter said.
“We’re also pushing pri-
vate partiesIt would be
25 people in your bub-
ble. That’s $175 flat,
$150 if you’re a mem-
ber.”
At first, showings and
seating will be limited.
Social distancing
restrictions only allow
30 people in the larger
theaters, 25 for the
smaller one. Falter
encourages people to
buy tickets online in
advance to ensure seat-
ing.
With the theater’s
improvements and well-
known classics being
shown, Falter hopes that
people will be able to
find a safe place in tur-
bulent times.
“We want people to
have fun and forget the
fact that we’re dealing
with a soul crushing,
once in a century pan-
demic, at least while
they’re here,” Falter said.
“It’s just the magic of
movies on the big
screen.
“That’s kind of our
thing.”
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