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Topic: Most Painful Mistake?

Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-21-2000 09:00 PM

How does one zap oneself using a Christie platter? Is there some "do not touch this part" part that is electrically live? Or is this a static problem with ESTAR-base film and the fiberglass decks of an AW-2?

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Ethan Harper
E-dawggg!!!

Posts: 325
From: Plano, TX, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 05-21-2000 11:01 PM

well, if there is electricity going to something and oh lets say someone said that the platters are powered off and you decide to try and change a motor control card well scott you kind of get shocked. and it is not pleasant. sorry if i seem harsh but im not in the best of moods (grouchy) if you read my latest post maybe you would partially understand.

how this one smart for you ?

when i was at cinemark. the ub's(projectionists) were the only ones allowed to dust the screens reason being we were the only ones who were trained to do so. well the dumb usher head manager, who thinks that the theater is the pentagon or something(real tight dumbass who hits and stare at 12 year old girls who is married and has a 10 year old daughter of his own) though it would be smnart for one of his ushers to do it. so he gets the screen brush and hands it to his usher. then what happens? Can you guess? if said that they put a hole in the screen you were correct. at least it was not the big house.

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--"That's my story and i'm sticking to it!"--

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Jason R. Weinsteiger
Film Handler

Posts: 34
From: Kutztown, PA, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 05-21-2000 11:39 PM

scott sayeth:

"How does one zap oneself using a Christie platter? Is there some "do not touch this part" part that is electrically live? Or is this a static problem with ESTAR-base film and the fiberglass decks of an AW-2?"

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it's not the platter, it's the lightswitch. The platter just provides a nice place for the current to go after it travels through me

jasoN

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"That's what life is - a series of down endings. All Jedi had was a bunch of muppets." -Dante Hicks

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Anthony Matarazzo
Film Handler

Posts: 30
From: Brisbane Australia
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-22-2000 06:53 AM

The worst projection disasters
I've had almost entire print go onto floor while I was on my meal break. I can't remember the movie but what a MESS!. Took about 45min to fix. I nearly vomited all over itwhen I first saw it tangled around the take-up on the Vic 8 base.

When I was training the projection dropped the print of "Das Boot" onto floor while moving it. It was impossible to pick up so I unscrewed a platter and we slid the print onto it. It worked .

While running the head program during a preview I noticed that the cinema tech didn't splice the perf holes on the foil tape for the lens change, when it went through, I showed the audience what film is like when it burns.

Lacing the wrong feature

While I was doing the ad changes on a Cinemaccanica 35/3CNR platter the grill next the light fell off and when I went to put it back on I got zapped.

The worst things I seen
Dirty Diapers under the seat after a children preview

Syringes

Vomit - all different mixtures

Human feces ( on the floor and in coke cups also urine in cups as well )

A young couple came in with a cooked chook and a loaf of bread.Lets have a picnic

The usual sex senses

Thanks all I can think of at the moment.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-22-2000 02:58 PM

A worker and I were installing a sound rack at a drive-inn one night. My worker was soldering some stuff inside the rack and when I flashed off a picture he about went through the top of the rack. He thought I'd applied the rack power too soon! Took about an hour to get him to come down off the stack blower.
Mark

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Jason Burroughs
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 654
From: Allen, TX
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-23-2000 01:34 PM

Brad,

I was working there at that time. Denton County Power lost a phase (out of 3) right at 6:00PM on a Sun evening, Opening weekend of the re-release of Empire Strikes back as I remember it, It went off RIGHT as I started the 6pm show. If I remember right the power stayed off for about 2 1/2 hrs. The fire Dept made us evacuate the entire building (20 screens remember) Customer were demanding refunds indstead of accepting rain checks (this is in a very high income part of town) Which due to the computers being down because of the power outage we were unable to fullfill. Once the power came back on we were back on schedule within about 20 minutes for the most part. Lesson learned here: An 8 screen theatre CANNOT take up the slack when a 20screen theatre loses its power, Brad when that happened wasn't it just you, the box office cashier and a concessionist? or was the concessionist still optional that day?

This was the 2nd time that the Pwr company had lost a phase, the first time was during construction, as we derperatly tried to find the electrician to find the main power cutoff to keep things from half-phasing to death. Well we found him, in the elevator stuck between the 3rd and 4th floors.

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Jason Burroughs
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 654
From: Allen, TX
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-23-2000 01:35 PM

Joe,

I too have had a finger caught in a sprocket, althought mine was on a Century JJ-3. the film had wandered off the idler roller in the mag penhouse and I tried to use my index finger to nudge the film back into place when the 70mm sprocket grabbed my finger. I too had distinct sprocket holes on my finger. Kinda odd looking at first...

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 05-23-2000 02:07 PM

After the 20 screen opened, we went from selling out 7 out of 8 screens all weekends long to bringing in 10-20 customers during any given weekday. I always insisted on having 2 employees plus a manager, but as you well remember, most of the time it was one manager plus one employee because of little things like school. Also, when someone called in sick on a two man shift, there went half the staff. It was just me and one employee that day during that incident.

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Jason Burroughs
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 654
From: Allen, TX
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-23-2000 04:33 PM

I remember talking to you shortly after that happened, you got completely slaughtered over there, but we weren't happy campers either. People on Plano can be downright snotty, to put it lightly

Woohoo!!! this is post # 100 for me! YAY!! LOL

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Carl King
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 199
From: Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 05-24-2000 11:49 AM

Painful mistake? Only to my ego.

A whole lot of years ago when I was just a young projectionist I was running TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARAH starring Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLane (did I spell that right?). At the same time I was revising and animated TOM THUMB for a matinee the next day. Can you guess what I did? Yes , I mixed up the reels. When I made my changeover (manual changeover/carbon arcs)Shirley said to Clint. "What do we do now?" I made the change and Tom Thumb hit the screen yelling "Run everyone, run" Luckily no one did and I shut down and changed reels. The Manager (my father) only yelled at me for 15 or 20 minutes. I got off lucky

Presentation is everything

Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 05-24-2000 02:17 PM

But according to Steve Guttag in a debate he has apparently forefited, it is IMPOSSIBLE to get reels mixed up on a changeover situation! (Check it out in the thread "Miller vs. Guttag at the 30 plex".)

LONG LIVE PLATTERS!

Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays

Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 05-25-2000 01:06 PM

>>How does one zap oneself using a Christie platter? <<

Scott, I don't know about this case, but I lit myself up once on an AW-2 (and it only took once), by checking the brushes with the power on!

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Better Projection Pays!

Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays

Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 05-25-2000 01:25 PM

Here's one. I once talked a manager through changing an intermittent in a Century. He had me on the phone on his shoulder, and a screwdriver in hand (I was two states and a day or so away, working another emergency). Everything progressed fairly uneventfully, and after an hour and a half or so, he'd successfully reassembled the machine and run it in. "Great, I'll see you day after tomorrow, for the PM call."

Somewhere in the middle of the Texas panhandle I thought, "Oh, no! I forgot to have him TIME THE SHUTTER!" I figured he must've hit it perfectly, because he didn't call back and a whole day had passed. A few hours later, as I walked into the theatre, I told him about my oversight and how he'd evidently aced the shutter without knowing. He allowed that he guessed so, as it looked okay to him and no one had complained.

When I put the machine on the screen, however, I found it awash with travel ghost... top to bottom!

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Better Projection Pays!

John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 05-25-2000 01:51 PM

Tim:
In pre-historic times, when I worked at the Grandview Drive-In in Angola, NY (it's still operating), the other projectionist, Carl, and I used to hone and test our skills by changing "defective" projector, lamp, or sound system components between 2000-foot reel changeovers. At least twice each season, we would challenge each other to change the intermittent and retime the shutter on our Century C projectors. The pressure of having to do this, or change a silicon rectifier in the stack, or water-cooled silver carbon "jaws", or reflector, etc. in less than 15 minutes really kept us on our toes. The hardest part was that some of those things hadn't had a chance to cool down much before we "had" to work on them. Amazingly, we never missed the next changeover. If we had, we know we would have heard 300 horns honking in unison.

The stupid (but fun) things you do in your youth.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com

Jason Burroughs
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 654
From: Allen, TX
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-25-2000 03:23 PM

Annother stupid and potentially painfull mistake I've witnessed an experienced technician do is use a screwdriver to discharge a capasitor on a 4000W lamphouse. Needless to say the screwdriver became welded to the posts and a new capasitor had to be installed. Boy were the sparks a'flyin on that one!

Stupidest move I've done is change 7KW lamp in about 5 minutes. from the time the lamp was shut off to the time that the new one was back in and aligned and running. All without protective gear (as I'm ashamed to admit) This was done soly as an emergency situation though.

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