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Author Topic: Booth Clocks Cory Isemann Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 500 From: White Plains, MD, USA Registered: Jun 2004 posted 01-29-2005 11:43 AM                        Double starts? I just walk fast to the other start. The way our theater is set up, we have the old 14 plex front hallway and the 7 screen addition in the back. So I just love it when I have a double start of 8 and 18. It's one end of the building to the other. I gave up running to the second start because it's really not worth it. I have actually never gotten "chewed out" for having a late start, only sometimes will a customer complain that the "projector is frozen" if I didn't start it in time. Thomas, the animation stops after about 45 seconds.  |  IP: Logged Mike Olpin Chop Chop! Posts: 1852 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Jan 2002 posted 01-29-2005 12:40 PM                     No one gets bent out of shape about the late starts for double ups. Just be carefull not to get any early starts!  |  IP: Logged Cory Isemann Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 500 From: White Plains, MD, USA Registered: Jun 2004 posted 01-29-2005 01:05 PM                        Yes, a few times, I just hit Start out of habit and OOPS! It was in the policy!  |  IP: Logged Chris Brown Expert Film Handler Posts: 105 From: Fairport, NY, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-29-2005 01:29 PM                        They do keep logs of early and late starts...we get them sent to us every week, with DM comments on them. They dont seem to really care about late starts, but early starts are a bigger deal. Monte: it's not quite as bad as that. Of course, this could just be due to the fact that our DM is not what you would consider a "booth guy". He's much more concerned with per caps and payroll and such. But he does make comments on his weekly Early/Late start email to the theatres with more than 1 early start. And no, I'm not certified yet, but should be by May if all goes to plan. I usually don't have to deal with starting two movies at once (as I've pointed out the disadvantages to my GM, who does the bookings), but on the rare occasion that I do, I usually end up starting one, running to start the other, do my normal checks on the second one, then go back to the first one to make sure it's okay. That's the best way I can think of to ensure that both are running okay. It definitely sucks though. As for the clock...they are not tied into box office at all. It's just DCN time basically. Like I said, you'd think something like that would make it easier to start everything exactly on time, but that clock is so off that I never even glance at it anymore. I just set my watch to be at the correct time when the frozen screen comes on, and I've found this to be a much better way to make sure I'm there on time. So my watch basically replaces the "official" clock. The only good thing though is that usually when I check my watch against box office, the two are pretty close...typically within a few minutes. So I guess in the end, its not so bad.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 01-29-2005 02:24 PM                    AMC almost has it right. Our clocks are ultimately syncronized to an atomic clock via an Internet time source. We have an 8 second "Outtro" snipe ("Thanks for watching!") which allows us to time our starts pretty easily. After the outtro, we have a two minute looping music bed and animation that plays during which time the little control box beeps to alert the projectionist that it's time to start. Some problems we face: Just because the clock is right, doesn't mean that the show ends exactly when its supposed to. So setting the timers is sloppy unless you purposefully set it 20 seconds later than the start time and count on the animation playing for a few seconds. Also, if there is only ten minutes between shows, and the pre show is 15 minutes long, the whole thing plays instead of just the last 10 minutes, making your feature start potentially five minutes late. But, the shows start on time here, so the commercials get axed at the show time if that happens. Which is unfortunate for somebody I guess, but not our customers. Hopefully, AMC will fix that down the road. There are a few little quirks with our system, but all things considered, its not bad. Being a computer engineer, and having change-over experience, and working in a radio station that had to time things perfectly, I have ideas to make it better, but I'm sure no one will ask me what they are. BTW, AMC projectionists, find yourself a watch that sets its own time, like the Timex 1440 radio controlled watch. You might find that helpful.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-29-2005 03:07 PM                     quote: Chris Brown fact that our DM is not what you would consider a "booth guy ...is why there is that chain of command from manager to ensure that his staff is well-trained upstairs so the DM doesn't have to worry in this department. -Monte [ 11-09-2005, 09:50 PM: Message edited by: Monte L Fullmer ]  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-29-2005 04:24 PM                     WTF?! If there is a computer generated report which automatically gets sent to HQ detailing what time every movie starts and ends then why the hell do they even BOTHER having employees in the booth?! Why don't they just put a timer on every projector and have a "manager" thread the machines? It would save them what?... Maybe a whole DOLLAR in payroll once you account for the cost of the technology! Empty suits!  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-29-2005 05:18 PM                     quote: why the hell do they even BOTHER having employees in the booth?! That's why CrapaPlex Odeon had the CPA-10 automations in their X-90 consoles in a lot of their early buildings just for that reason: Clock starts. Whereas these automations had an actual timer assembly inside to program all of the shows for that day and week, to whereas the floorstaff joker's responsiblities were to lace up the machines and head back downstairs and hope things upstairs ran by themselves. - in which they didn't half of the time, had enormous problems, to actual cancellations even for a few days. -Monte [ 11-09-2005, 09:51 PM: Message edited by: Monte L Fullmer ]  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-29-2005 05:34 PM                        Memo to self: never work for Regal. And don't work for AMC again. (not that either of these will ever happen) Seriously, if they're so concerned about late starts and early starts, why not just have the computer connected to the film automation so that it starts the film when the video crap ends. Problem solved. At the very least, they should configure the film automation to not respond when the "START" button is pressed until after the computer says that the ads have finished being shown. This should be defeatable in case something goes wrong, and then the only item that would need to be reported to their home office is that the interlock (no pun intended) was defeated and that the system probably needs maintenance as a result. Seriously, who designs this crap and writes these policies? No wonder they have trouble getting good employees.... (More off-topic comments: I wrote a letter to AMC about a month ago complaining about their new video pre-show advertising. They haven't responded yet. Their customer service stinks too.)  |  IP: Logged Mike Amici Film Handler Posts: 11 From: park city, utah Registered: Jan 2005 posted 01-29-2005 05:55 PM                     Just out of curiosity, what is a "talking trashcan"??  |  IP: Logged Chris Brown Expert Film Handler Posts: 105 From: Fairport, NY, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-29-2005 06:05 PM                        Monte: REG does indeed do some stupid things. Whenever our DM comes to visit the theatre, all he cares about in the booth is whether there are excessive shoe rubber marks on the floor! He knows how to check behind a framing bulb and inside the lamphouse, but thats about it. I dont believe that our Automation is capable of starting by itself like that (I could be wrong). If it were, then I'm sure that's what they'd be doing. Oh well...keeps my job safe for awhile anyways!  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-29-2005 10:18 PM                     With the correct application of a pair of wire clippers and a soldering iron, just about ANY automation is capable of remote/timer starting. You just have to know where to put the relay or timer circuit. When I worked at Tinseltown (Cinemark) we rigged up a remote start/kill switch for our CFS consoles. A couple pushbutton switches were mounted inside a Radio Shack projecto box and a 100 foot long piece of multi-conductor telephone cable was hooked into the start/stop switches with some miniature alligator clips. That way, when we pre-screened prints we could hook up the remote and pull the cable through the port window so that it could be right next to us in the seats. If something happened with the machine or the print we could immediately kill the projector. That would save us from having to "jet" up the stairs at top speed to hit the button in time to prevent damage. If we could do THAT to the CFS colsole... the monstrosity it is... it would be TRIVIAL to do the same to a good one. Heck, the Comp. Eng. "TA-10" even has terminals for a remote "Start/Stop" switch built right in! I don't see why other, even better, systems couldn't have the same. Seriously! Why DON'T they automate the starts?! And, like Scott said, they should have manual overrides or something. Just replace the START/STOP buttons with a 3 position key switch, similar to an automobile ignition... "OFF"-"RUN"-"START". It would take a "manager" with a key to override the system. It could take almost any one of us just a few hours to design such a system and a few days to put it in place.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-30-2005 01:53 AM                     quote: Randy Stankey know where to put the relay or timer circuit. ..prob an easy guess to put it in parallel with the start/run button. quote: If it were, then I'm sure that's what they'd be doing. Oh well...keeps my job safe for awhile anyways! I'm sure that you're safe in this area, since REG wants their presentations startups to be manually done at all times, since they know of bad starts, out-of-frame beginnings, focus problems, et.al. That's why they have certifiers - to see if you can start the show manually instead of hitting the "START" or "RUN" button. This is in the 1st level of certification, and the most important. (little tips for you, Chris for preparation: 1st level - is basic booth operation-knowledge of sound and lens formats, knowledge of manual starts incase of automation takes a dump, THREAD in FRAME!!, then small, stupid stuff that isn't necessary at all, like if you say that scope is 2.35/1, they will tell you that it's 2.39/1 (brother, let's get pickey!..I bamboozled my certifier told him of all of the scope ratios of 2.66, 2.55, 2.1, which is SuperScope, 2.20/1 for 70mm, et.al.). 2nd level - is knowing how to make and break the films. How to do a splice (their way).. et.al. ... 3rd level - is machine maintenance-knowledge of tearing down a machine, cleaning adjusting and putting the thing back together 4th level (optional) - is the knowledge of changing and focusing a bulb). Plus, with 4th level, you can make adjustments within the CP-500 processor to change output levels, change between standard and custom format and do adjustments within these formats, do "Dolby Tones" with the 1kz loop., et.al. 4th level almost gets your foot into the Technical Services area, for the REG tekkies love 4th level operation personnel, since they figure that the 4th level candidates DO have some brains and common sense after all. Whereas if you're not at this level, whoever sets the CP-500 levels, these levels are to be left alone-"no touchie" or big write-up. You get to 4th level, you will the opportunity to garnish a better wage than if you were only at the 1st or 2nd level. Good luck and thx - Monte - Monte [ 11-09-2005, 09:52 PM: Message edited by: Monte L Fullmer ]  |  IP: Logged Emma Tomiak Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Carrollton, TX, USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 01-30-2005 02:14 AM                        I've never had too much of a problem regarding starting films on time and in the 2wenty's small time window. We also have a clock on the main DCN computer which is and always has been off, usually by about 2 to 3 minutes. It can be inconvenient at times, but as long as you know when a film is scheduled to start, just be next to it and ready to go about a minute beforehand, and it's all gravy. I say that, but recently, the 2wenty ran about 4 minutes PAST the advertised start time for the feature. Say #9 is supposed to start at 10:00 pm. I'm chillin on the other side of booth, waiting until my watch says 10:03 so I can go over and start the film. That wasn't very cool at all. But they did cut it back, so it's all good for now. I've never had any trouble with corporate messing around with booth stuff at my theatre. My DM understands that I know how to do my job, and lets me do it. Hmmm, with everyone else's comments, maybe I'm the lucky one of the group.  |  IP: Logged John T. Hendrickson, Jr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 889 From: Freehold, NJ, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-30-2005 10:49 AM                     After reading all this that the people on this thread go through regarding show starts, I'm reminded that it's nice to be an independent. We do not run adds and have no pre-show presentation to deal with. We have an atomic clock in the operations center of our booth, and operators simply set their watches to it. Shows start 5 minutes before the advertised showtime, with a trailer pack and policy trailer that varries in length from 10 (minimum) to 14 (maximum) minutes. Hence, the feature ALWAYS starts 5-9 minutes after the advertised time, unless, of course, something unforseen happens. Our patrons have grown accustomed to this, and complaints are extremely rare. As far as double starts go, we take our time. Better to be a minute late on the second start of a double. Of course, the greatest sin would be to misread the schedule and start too early.  |  IP: Logged

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