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Topic: Booth amenities

Ari Nordström
Master Film Handler

Posts: 283
From: Göteborg, Sweden
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 01-16-2000 04:56 PM

We have a sound monitor installed in the toilet. This is a very handy feature, especially when you simply have to go while running old archive prints on small reels.

We also have a Cinerama synchronizer that is rather useful when checking the leaders of said archive prints for correct framing, much better than using an old sprocket. It's also an impressive-looking piece of hardware, always asked about during booth tours.

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Chris Wootten
Film Handler

Posts: 50
From: Moonlit Cinema, RAAF Tindal, N.T. Australia
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 01-21-2000 07:06 AM

Amenities in the booth have dwindled over the years in line with the dwindling of qualified operators. I watched the decline of some theatres in the cities I have visited on my various postings....to the detriment of the customers I reckon. With the demise of the licence system in Australia, the owners/managers let anyone in the booths now. Of course they save money in wages initiially, but they will lose out in the long run.I went to a Cinema (7 plex brand new)in Darwin recently and the whole picture was out of focus..and the sound was way too high...I complained and was told that the operator must have been too busy to check.........whata joke......I still dream that sanity will prevail and that us operators(professionals) will one day be put back where we rightly belong, and that kids will not be let into the booths after 5 minutes of training....

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Tom Kroening
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 214
From: Janesville, WI USA
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 01-24-2000 03:58 AM

Damn alot of you people have it made! I work at a 9 plex that really has nothing in the booths. 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6 are all shared booths. Lets go down the line here. 1-2 has 2 broken make up tables (yippie). 2-3 has 2 halfway descent makeup tables. 5-6 has a nice toolbox and a slew of spare parts. 7 has a desk with swivel chair (which is REALLY nice when the district manager comes in and i have no jobs to work on so i have somewhere to hide). It also has a tv/vcr combo that i use when i do filmwork - although its hard to hear even at full volume when the patters are going. booth 8 has a bunch of empty film cans, some spare parts like an old cp-50. booth 9 has a few spare seats. Thats all folks! I did have a chance to help salvage a 5-plex that was down town. The booth had a toilet and sink, and it also had a bedroom (one of the managers lived there for a while).If you guys ever get a chance to go salvage a theatre don't pass it up! We got to keep all teh speakers! It was pretty fun tearing teh screens and tossing old bulbs out the busted port windows and watching them go boom : ) Some idiot told us to get 2 BIG cast iron projector bases from there and take them to another theatre. Needless to say there are a few holes in the wall dispite the fact that 4 guys were trying to get that thing down out of the booth. The big auditorium there was a converted stage. You could go behind it and down a set of stairs to get to some sort of basement with an early 1900's toilet in it. Weird huh..

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 01-24-2000 04:28 AM

Erika--

Sorry I have taken so long to reply to this incredible thread.

I quit because UA sucks. I have never missed it. Those perks only helped keep my sanity a little longer.

The fridge and freezer were for storing consession items THAT THEY KEPT IN THE BOOTH! That booth also had another perk: You could root through the files of any employee who worked for UA in the Denver area for the last 20 years, as the District Office was in our building, and they didn't believe in throwing anything out. What better place to store it than in the middle of the booth? Everytime a theatre closed, we would get everything of theirs and it would be stored in the booth. I threw half of it away, maybe more. When they started laying people off from corporate office, we got all of their desks and stuff. Hell, that's what a booth is for, right?

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Erika Hellgren
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 168
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-25-2000 03:02 AM

Joe, I was referring to the fridge in the break room (which was IN the booth). Actually, I remember now why I quit -- it wasn't because of UA so much as the district manager who didn't give me a raise to go along with my "promotion" ... among other things.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 01-25-2000 03:53 AM

I don't remember a fridge in the breakroom. But that may be because I never went in there because of the horrid smell. I do remember that quite vividly. I also seem to remember a microwave.

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Erika Hellgren
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 168
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-25-2000 04:04 PM

The microwave was on top of the fridge

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Stephen Winner
Film Handler

Posts: 57
From: Richmond,VA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-25-2000 06:32 PM

Any of you guys have a computer with internet access in your booth? I put one up here to keep maintainence records on, and lo and behold found a modem, and a phone jack! I can hang out on Film-tech between reels!

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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-25-2000 07:09 PM

We had a computer for a while at the Greenwood. We spent a lot of time upgrading it and putting money in it. Then one of the managers took it to use as a time clock at another theatre.

I now have a DSL line at my theatre and probably spend too much time in Film-Tech.

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Stephen Jones
Master Film Handler

Posts: 314
From: Geelong Victoria Australia
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-25-2000 07:25 PM

Why not spend a lot of time here,it's a great place to be chewing the fat with other industry people from all over the world I'm always here and don't feel guilty so sit back and enjoy.Do you agree Ian? How's theatre going?

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Jeff Stricker
Master Film Handler

Posts: 481
From: Calumet, Mi USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 01-26-2000 05:07 PM

The booth in our high school - which was built in the early '50's (I graduated in '65) had a lavoratory, which was really needed during those long Saturday nites running classic foreign films with subtitles!

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