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Topic: Booth Clocks

John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 12-03-1999 09:38 AM

We tried the radios, and they were a pain. We found that the "page" feature on the phone system works better. We have phones all over the place, so this seems to work better for us.

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John Wilson
Film God

Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 12-03-1999 08:49 PM

I instigated the use of walkie talkies in my ex-theater. I had three purchased. One for the projectionist, one for the box office and another for the duty manager. This worked VERY well.

Then the General manager thought they were SUCH a good idea, he went out and bought 5 more. One for him, one for the director's secretary, one for his dog, one for the accountant and another to randomly give to anyone else who could crank up a bit of annoying chatter and render the whole system useless.

Kept under control, they are invaluable and a great solution to a large complex's communication difficulties. But, it's very easy to stuff up the whole idea and end up with a useless system because people will just turn them down so they don't have to listen to the moronic chatter.

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Kenn Fong
Film Handler

Posts: 47
From: Oakland, CA 94610 USA
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 12-03-1999 10:04 PM

One of our local artists fashioned a clock for the snack bar using an empty reel and the works from a thrift store clock. It works great except our manager surmised that some of our patrons but especially most of our employees would not be smart enough to read an analog clock face without numbers... so he had the artist put numbers on it.

Perhaps such a clock -- sans numbers of course -- would make a nice addition to your booth.

------------------
Kenn Fong
http://qwertyuiop.net
Screenwriter's Home Page

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John Wilson
Film God

Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 12-03-1999 10:40 PM

A friend of mine made me a clock out of a Kodak slide carousel with the mechanism in the middle and filled it up with old slides. It looked great, but wasn't one to set your watch by.

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Greg Anderson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 766
From: Ogden Valley, Utah
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 12-04-1999 01:45 AM

As long as you're making neat clocks, you might as well pay a little extra for a radio controlled movement. There's a company called Klockit which sells them for around $25 or less. Suddenly, your homemade clock can be exactly correct!

(Can you tell what I do for a hobby?)

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Ken Layton
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1452
From: Olympia, Wash. USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 12-04-1999 02:28 AM

Randy:
I have 4 scanners: Uniden BC-8500, Uniden BC-200XLT, Radio Shack Pro-2042 (with computer interface conversion kit), and Radio Shack Pro-51. All pick up cell phones.
Most of the radios people have been using in the theaters are off the shelf business types which usually transmit on the colored dot freqs (low power, but good up to a mile away). Probably transmit on one of these:
151.625, 154.570, 154.600, 464.550, 464.500, 469.500, 469.550, or 151.9550.
And don't forget I can listen to most cordless phones (except digital or Spread Spectrum).

I mention this because the bad guys can listen to your operations and know when you've got money ready to deposit. NEVER, EVER mention anything about money, deposits, or being nearly alone at the theater on the air.

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-04-1999 11:57 AM

Ken,

(SIGH!....)

Every DAY!!!

Here's the ususal chain of event's...

"Manager!... There's a guy here to pick up the MONEY!" (The armored car pick up)

"Okay, I'll be right there..."

MY answer is "...so will every crook in a two mile radius!)

I've actually shown people that you can do it with a cheap RadioShack.

They just don't GETit!

PS: I KNEW I would be jealous!

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-30-2001 11:25 AM

For those who want to use the web to set there clocks here is the NRC in Ottawa Canada's atomic clock link http://www.nrc.ca/inms/time/cesium.shtml

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Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 08-30-2001 12:50 PM

Yeah, but it keeps going "Eh?" after giving the time...

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-30-2001 01:34 PM

You have to feed it beer and bacon sandwiches

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Steve Scott
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1300
From: Minneapolis, MN
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 08-30-2001 05:33 PM

At my place, we synchronize the timers on the slide projectors & start the projectors based on that time. We have a time clock that we could use, but we got it from a closed UA theater it's not the most reliable piece of electronics (It'll hardly punch the cards!)

We use FRS radios, but only for calling the box office to see what auditoriums have sold for during the last showtimes, and for telling ushers to change the masking (we have the rope & pulley system for screen measking). More over, the radios don't work near the projectors because the motors give off interference.
With this system we can get everything started on time, no problems.

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Andy Muirhead
Master Film Handler

Posts: 323
From: Galashiels, Scotland
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 08-30-2001 08:03 PM

For timings, i don't wear a watch, usually i go by the clock by the sweety counter. There are so many other considerations anyway. From what i gather from film-tech, is it true that over there you regard patrons coming in during ads&trailers as latecomers?

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Danny Hart
Film Handler

Posts: 50
From: St Andrews, Scotland
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 08-30-2001 08:48 PM

Greg, I know what you mean. Radio controlled clocks appealed to me because you could buy one, put the battery in, stick it on the wall and forget about it. You could then rely on it to show you the EXACT time without adjustment.

I bought one for our booth and we agreed it would be the time all projectionists adhered to.

One Saturday night, during a late-night movie, I was on duty by myself for the "late show" and the Duty Manager was up in the booth enjoying some "refreshment" with me, which we regularly did when on duty together for a late-night. I left him in the chair for a minute while I went to the fridge and when I came back, I saw a look of amazement on his face - the clock was changing from Grenwich Mean Time to British Summer Time by itself. I explained the concept to him and he promptly bought three of them for the public areas of the cinema.

And, Greg, I also had to make new faces for them - with the logo and Company font! Easily done with the right software.

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Danny Hart
Film Handler

Posts: 50
From: St Andrews, Scotland
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 08-30-2001 08:52 PM

By the way, the makers of Atomic Clock movements claim that they are "accurate to one second in a million years".

I wonder what they'd say if I asked them to prove it...

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Dick Vaughan
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1032
From: Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 08-31-2001 02:08 AM

Gordon said "You have to feed it beer and bacon sandwiches"

Now that sounds like a real sandwich.

So tell me do you feed the pigs on beer like they do with Kobe beef or do you soak the bread in beer before you make the sandwich?

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