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Author Topic: Most Painful Mistake? Tony Bandiera Jr Film God Posts: 3067 From: Moreland Idaho Registered: Apr 2004 posted 05-12-2004 06:06 PM                     I think my worst mistake ever came during my first year as a projectionist in Tucson at the Air Force Base theatre. We had Simplex XL's with RCA 9030's, 2,000' magazines..and the old Ultra-Panatar "mirror box" 'scope attachments. Feature was "Conan The Barbarian", with a flat trailer/policy reel on the #2 machine. Did my changeover to the feature, BAM! Picture on SIDE WALL of the auditorium!! One "Holy F--in S--t!" heard by everyone in the house,shutdown, manager racing up the stairs ripping the still-turning reel off the machine (he thought I had the film in backwards). Manager winding film like a madman, me pissed and puzzled by why pic's nowhere near the sheet ...finally found I hadn't seated the Ultra Panatar on the top crossbar right. Started the machine, shifted the attachment as the house saw the rectangle of light magically move to the screen. Luckily for me the two-star General movie buff wasn't there that night.! Same theatre, opened the Peerless Lamphouse with the xenon conversion operating. Still have the burn in my left eye. Again, same theatre..ran preview (green band) for a movie about a woman's talking privates to a kiddy matinee ..official policy was quickly changed to pre-screen ALL trailers before public showing!  |  IP: Logged Richard Greco Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1180 From: Plant City, FL Registered: Nov 2003 posted 05-20-2004 06:55 AM                     I almost chopped the tip of my finger off last night. I just finished MEan Girls and was spinning the platter to take up the film to tuck it when my finger got caught inbetween the fin and the outside edge of the platter. It hurt like a MF. Now I can truly say that I have my blood and sweat in my work.  |  IP: Logged Roy Martinez Film Handler Posts: 8 From: Miami, FL, USA Registered: Apr 2004 posted 05-22-2004 02:21 AM                        The most painful mistake I made at my theatre was becoming a floor manager... the pain! What was I thinking...  |  IP: Logged System Notices Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi Posts: 215 Registered: Apr 2004 posted 01-17-2008 01:05 AM                 It has been 1334 days since the last post.  |  IP: Logged Paul Van Dusen Film Handler Posts: 82 From: Roanoke, VA Registered: Feb 2006 posted 01-17-2008 01:05 AM                        Not really booth injury, but my assistant at my last theatre was a real moron. He went to drop the deposit one night, and despite there being a handle to grab that keeps your hand far away from the pinch point, he managed to break two of his fingers by slamming them into it. Of course this meant he could build, break down, or thread. I still think to this day he did it on purpose so i'd have to do all the booth work again. lol  |  IP: Logged Benjamin John Doman Film Handler Posts: 35 From: Slough, Berkshire, England Registered: Jun 2007 posted 01-18-2008 01:48 PM                     I also have had the ‘finger in the top sprocket of an FP20’ wound. Theses days working ‘in the field’ I just seem to attract soldering iron burns, although banging head on the sticking out sep mag head on an FP18 comes a close second lately as I have just re-furbished & installed three. When I worked for Cannon Cinemas (UK) we used to get the minutes of the company Health & Safety committee. We always had a good laugh at the accidents reported. The best one was from Bognor Regis – “projectionist poked self in eye whilst trying to swat fly”! Regards Ben  |  IP: Logged Eric Robinson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 538 From: Santa Rosa, CA Registered: Jan 2005 posted 01-19-2008 12:40 AM                     Back in the day before cordless drivers were popular I used my corded Skill drill to drive many a screw. Once I was using my trusty drill to attach some plywood on a deck high up behind the screen for a center speaker. For some reason I had my drill perched upon the deck while I was down below. Of course I stepped on the extension cord leading up to my drill which pulled it off the deck. Next thing I knew I felt a big bang on the back of my head. I could tell from the impact that something unnatural had happened something quite drastic. I decided then that I should run to the phone as quickly as possible and call someone to tell them in case something bad happened. I called my manager who found my story to be hilarious. I survived the incident with no repercussions (that I know of.) My manager joked about the phone call I made for months afterwards.  |  IP: Logged Peter David Bruce Expert Film Handler Posts: 187 From: East Anglia -England Registered: Aug 2007 posted 01-19-2008 05:07 AM                    okay one from the past... we had a guy in the business who wasnt able to easily reach the top platter, so ive heard. he had to stand with his feet on the edge of the bottom platter, so he could reach up to the top. needless to say over time he bent the platter so much that A) the prints couldnt be played on it, and B) he couldnt stand on it anymore. no physical injury, but one that makes me laugh when i think of it. pretty sure its true. most painful mistake? well, the bill.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 01-19-2008 06:46 AM                        The very first time (1969) I saw/installed/operated a Century H (like an SA) projector, I pushed up the small glass on the shutter guard and inserted my right index finger, which the shutter blade smited righteously! I can still feel the indentation. One of my local projectionists was rewinding on a hand rewind at breakneck speed. The supply reel was an old Neumade wire reel. He had no sooner removed his hand when the weld broke and the outer "wire" uncurled and imbedded itself in a wall. Louis  |  IP: Logged Steve Wilson Expert Film Handler Posts: 109 From: Paoli, IN, USA Registered: May 2004 posted 01-19-2008 06:46 PM                        Louis will like these two, because both are about as dumb a move as his. Once upon a time, I flew a Cherokee 180 from my airport to another local airport and the guys stated calling me Towbar. One of the guys said, Wilson, did you fly that airplane all the way down here with the Towbar hooked to the front wheel, I turned around and took a look and said, Yes, I guess I did. Of course non of those guys ever made such a stupid mistake and I said, well guys, I admit my mistakes and you guys hide yours, thats the only differnce between me and you. Then we have the film path incident back last summer, where while the 4K bulb was burning during a test, I for some stupid, double dumb ass reason, stuck my finger in the film path with no film present and burned the hell out of my finger. Being an Old,Old Boy Scout, I headed directly to the ice bein and slapped a large chunk of ice on the wound for the next 5 hours. The Next day, all was fine except for a really hard blistered skin, created by the ice taking the heat out of the burn and there was no pain due to that advanced first aid treatment that I had learned so many years ago as a young man in the Scouts. Oh Well, those are 2 of my many mistakes an old man can make in his life~--  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 01-20-2008 12:18 AM                       Oh, one more. I remember I caught my index finger once in one of the old Wolk motorized benchtop rewinds. This is the one that had a crank handle attached to a big (12" or so dia.) pulley on the right-hand spindle, and a drive belt between the pulley and a motor. The idea was that you could use this device to either hand-crank film for inspection, or power rewind. If you weren't careful while cranking, it was very easy to get a wayward finger caught between the exposed belt and pulley!! What a dangerous, poorly-designed piece of junk. My finger smarted for a good long while.  |  IP: Logged Don Furr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 509 From: Sun City, Ca USA Registered: Nov 2002 posted 01-20-2008 07:40 AM                     In 1988 I was running a shrinking 70mm print of My Fair Lady on a V10 projector. The film wanted to roll off the top (BIG) sprocket and I was using my first finger (left hand) to keep the film on the sprocket. I pushed too hard and my finger was yanked down in the sprocket. Damn projector never slowed down but I had to go for stitches! That large V10 sprocket is like a meat grinder. It wasn't a pretty sight.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-20-2008 08:46 AM                        quote: Again, same theatre..ran preview (green band) for a movie about a woman's talking privates to a kiddy matinee [evil] ..official policy was quickly changed to pre-screen ALL trailers before public showing! Got a phone call on what I thought was a day off, early one Saturday morning. The previous evening had been spent, erm, ingesting a beverage or three. Projectionist was ill; I had to cover. Staggered into the booth feeling a little the worse for wear; kids' matinee was the first show, at 1100. Two cups of industrial strength coffee later I felt a bit better, and fired everything up. The kids were starting to go into the auditorium by then. Little did I know that the Pulp Fiction soundtrack had been left in the CD player running the non-sync, and that the fader had been left on 7 from the previous night's feature (the normal nonsync volume was 3-4). The noise of Uma Thurman screaming 'FREEZE, YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!' was so loud I heard it through the wall of the booth, even without any monitor speakers on! A few parents got a tad irate over that one...  |  IP: Logged Benjamin John Doman Film Handler Posts: 35 From: Slough, Berkshire, England Registered: Jun 2007 posted 01-21-2008 12:06 PM                     I had one projectionist run SET IT OFF instead of 102 DALMATIONS. In the first scene a man gets his head blown off. Two kids were too traumatised to go back into the screen. Not sure how a whole screen of people, plus two ushers, managed to sit through 20 mins of alcohol adverts and 15 / 18 rated trailers without noticing. I have been VERY lucky in my time in the box. I have only put the wrong film on twice, and both times it was a kid’s film instead of the adult one! Ben  |  IP: Logged Alban Birch Film Handler Posts: 63 From: Luxembourg-city , Luxembourg Registered: Jan 2007 posted 01-21-2008 02:23 PM                        @Don Furr The exact same thing happened to me on a Vic9 @Leo Enticknap "Freeze, you Motherfuckers" was said by Amanda Plummer playing Honey Bunny and not Uma Thurman playing Mia Wallace  |  IP: Logged

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