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So I thought I'd post BOTH sides of the story here and let you guys and gals decide how A theatres management should handle this sort of case. Note: In the original posts that I did not mention any names either. I will let the employee of this chain reveal who he and the chain are himself.....

The reply from the fired employee was received today in my e-mail. I had foreworded Sean's mail to him after reading it last night. I thought it fair that both sides of the story be known from each operators perspective...Geez, I feel like Rush Limbaugh here!
Mark Gulbrandsen
SLC, UT

Last Night's e-mail.....

Dear Mr. Gulbrandsen,
I am a member of the booth management here at Jordan Commons Megaplex
17. I have read your posting in the forum regarding the "Ben-Hur"
incident. I will have you know that you have been misinformed about this
whole thing. First of all, Kelsey was already under fire with us before
this occured. He was suspect of scratching several prints (oddly enough,
after firing him, the print scratching stopped). He also cut up leader
tapes??!! Now, down to the incident. I had myself AND yet one MORE
projectionist in addition to Kelsey himself. He never tried to call for
assistance. He ends up dropping it 20 minutes before showtime, and calls
no one to inform them, instead choosing to make an attempt to cover it
all up. Of course, this 16 reel monster is a disaster that would (and
did) take hours of cleanup and repair. Meanwhile, the projectionist on
the other end of the building responsibly realizes that showtime for Ben
Hur was approaching fast. Wondering why Kelsey had not yet called, he
went down to offer assistance with the print movement. He opens the
door, and BAAM!!! What a sight to see! Platter covers all over the
print spread nastily all over the booth floor. This is when I was called
to attention, and I, Yes I, had to spend hours of MY time to repair the
problems cause by HIS stupidity.

So....... Please dont trash anyone publicly on film tech when you dont
have both sides of the story. Thank You!

The Fired Employees response....

What topic is he referring to on film-tech? I haven't been reading it for
the past 2 weeks or so.

I think that it is easy to place blame for a lot of problems on the person
who gets the boot after they are gone. You terminate one person, and it
gives everyone else a wake up call by setting an example of them.

scratches - there were movies that were scratched prior to my employment
there, in particular a print of Toy Story 2 was in terrible shape. There
are 2 instances that I know of that I mis-threaded the failsafes, and
possibly scratched the prints, on one of them I had the opportunity to
watch it for a short time and didn't notice any scratches at that point.
the other incident I did not see myself but was informed of by Paul that it
happened and he had fixed it already. I did not get to see the print after
that incident either. as I recall, everyone there during my last week had
one-on-one time with paul for a shift to make sure that everyone was
threading correctly, as the scratched prints had not been linked to just any
one projectionist's shift. As I said before the print of Toy Story was
scratched prior to my employment.

cutting up leaders - I did not make up or tear down any prints. During my
employment at the Reel theater in Magna I made up threading leaders which
involved using outdated unused trailers and a 2' section of leader at the
startup point to thread in frame with, that envolved cutting leaders. but
as for this practice at Jordan Commons, I do not specifically recall doing
this, however I did not have any reason to as I was not envolved with print
make up.

The Ben Hur incident.
Sunday December 26, 1999.

I am going to just explain this, and I am not trying to put any blame on
anyone other than myself. I am trying to explain the circumstances.

My shift that day was from open until 7 or 8pm. I got my schedule for the
screens that I would be in charge of that day and started on it. shortly
after 1 the print of pokemon was supposed to be moved from the platter that
ben hur was going to be played on later to another screen. I moved that
print alone without any need for assistance. However, I had never moved
prints on platters before and realize now that even moving a 5 reel movie
like Pokemon I should have asked for assistance. Having read Brad's then
recent page on how to move very large prints such as the Green Mile easily,
I felt confident that I could move ben hur as well.
the platter that Ben Hur was made up on was running Sleepy Hollow at the
time and was only a 30, maybe 50 foot sitance between platters (projectors
were back to back) when the time came that I had time to move it, I started
doing so, and made it all but the last 5-10 feet before any problems
started. the print started funneling and I laid it down on the floor at
that point. I want to make this clear that I did not try to cover it up,
and that I immediately called Sean (if I recall correctly, I believe that it
was Sean working the north end booths) on the radio for help. I wanted
to start trying to put it back together immediately, but Sean wanted to wait
for Paul to get there and have him decide what to do. Myself, Sean, Paul
and someone else who I don't remember put the print back together in 2
hours. (2 hours working on it. I believe it took around 45 minutes before
Paul showed up)
During the time that we were putting Ben Hur back together I had other shows
scheduled to start. being a nervous wreck at that point I did not pay the
attention that was necessary and apparently started the print of Galaxy
Quest mis-threaded. This is the incident that I do not have personal
confirmation on, I was just told about it by Paul after he fixed it. I was
not given the chance to see what I had done, I was just told to go home
until I had been contacted by Paul or Dick Cornell.

It was a very bad day-after-Christmas.

Take it as you wish, but that's the full truth to the best of my knowledge.
Now you have both sides of the story.

Kelsey

Use the recommended devices. I have seen this stupid "Tuck" thing snag some convolutions near the end of of the show.

There is lots of ways you can prevent your print from winding up on the floor.

Paul

Paul, and just what would the "recommended devices" be? Come visit me and I will prove to you the Christie platter cannot be beat along with a proper tail tuck.

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There are stickum devices that can be purchased through theater supply dealers. They do work very well to keep the tail from throwing, but they should be taller. A gust of wind from an A/C vent, power supply blower, or a gassy operator could dislodge the last convolution. If the platter timing and P/O heads are not too far out of kilter, they will usually keep the convolutions concentric.

I have used preview rolls taped "inside-out" with masking tape to keep prints from throwing on the CFS platters, Potts Platters, Strong Platters and other platters as well. When I ran Shindler's List on a Strong platter, I was able to mount the entire print on one platter disk. The final convolution was about 1 inch from the platter edge, and I used a bunch of inside-out masking taped preview cores to keep the print on the platter. Even a "Tuck" would not have worked.

I have also seen some Christie platters go ape shit and toss the print on the floor. Just recently, I had a Strong platter go so damn goofy that I had to use a bunch of 1 inch plastic boxes to keep the print from shifting. Once those prints shift, well, it is a disaster waiting and looking for a place to happen.

In Mindrot, North Dakota, (City name from the complements of a friend of mine on FT who lives in North Dakota) an AW3 went completely horse shit because someone left a screw out of a light module. When the roof hatch was open, and the sunlight hit the platter just right, the platter "took off". A hoola hoop would have saved the day several times for that projectionist. NO tuck would have stopped that one..

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, an AW2 went completely snake shit and became so spuratic in operation that the platter was in danger of throwing the print. Nobody could fix it. Just turned out there was a bad circuit breaker in the power panel that was allowing intermittant power to the platter. That was a rollercoaster ride for the film.

But the best one is the hoola hoop. There is no way in hell a platter will toss a print on the floor, even if the motor racked "full on" to 180RPM or better unless the inertia of the off-balance print was strong enough to tip the platter over.

Also, I have had some platters puke in the middle of the show where I had to use the MUT to power up a run-away pay-out head, and in some cases, the take-up. After some frantic placements of hocky pucks to keep the print on the platter, I have shown several operators how to use the MUT to keep the show on the screen, and on occassion, I have shown some operators how to use the MUT when the variac failed. Some operators were so amazed that they would scratch their butt and say, "Jeeze, I would have never thought of that."

In short, most thrown prints are caused by an electrical or mechanical malfunction, as well as some doofis threading it up wrong.

Yes, Christie platters and some others run very smooth, and won't cause any real problems. But when they do, a print tuck may not work.

These are just a few......Innovation works!
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Brad said:

"And no, platter timing has no effect on how tight the print winds."
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Brad is 100% correct in that statement.

Paul