- The camera
- A hand-cranked camera on a wooden tripod is pre-1930. Blimped sound cameras and boom poles arrive with the talkies; shoulder rigs and video assist are 1970s onward; digital cinema bodies after 2005.
- The marquee
- Hand-set letter marquees, painted hoardings and neon vertical signs date a cinema front to the decade almost on their own, and the film titles on them are a direct year check.
- The building
- Picture palaces with terracotta facades and balconies are 1910s to 1930s. Modernist single screens follow; multiplex boxes in car parks are 1980s onward.
- The street
- Cars at the kerb are the sharpest clock in any cinema scene, and shop fronts, signage and script beside the entrance usually give away the country.
- The crowd
- Queues in hats and coats read pre-1960. Red carpets with press pens and long lens cameras are a later, more televised kind of premiere.