1970s Cinema History Guesser

What cinema looked like in the 1970s

Crews on real streets rather than backlots, shoulder-mounted cameras, and premieres with press pens and long lenses.

Cinema fronts have lost their palaces: look for boxy frontages, plastic signage and multi-screen listings.

1970s moments in the game

• Filming Mirrors Scene in Enter the Dragon1973
• Filming Sholay Among the Ramanagara Rocks1974
• Filming the Mechanical Shark for Jaws1974
• Filming Star Wars Tatooine Scenes in Matmata1976
• Filming Apocalypse Now Helicopter Attack Scene1976
• Filming The Shining at Timberline Lodge1979

Dating a cinema scene

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.

Other decades