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Topic: Hey you, you suck! (AKA: Outing bad film handlers)
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 01-04-2006 01:48 AM
Forgot to write this one up last week...
King Kong, Odeon Wimbledon, Tuesday 27 December 2005, screen 5 starting at either 7.00pm or 8.00pm (can't remember which).
- Framing was slightly off after the 'scope change, resulting in negative splices flashing just on the border between the screen and lower masking throughout the feature;
- Either the anamorph was not properly focused or the gate pressure was uneven, with the result that about the bottom third of the picture was clearly out of focus. The problem seemed worse toward the middle of the screen, suggesting that there might be a mirror alignment/heat issue too.
- The reel ends were a bit tatty, so much so that you knew that a reel change was coming from about 30 seconds out. To be fair, the print could have been used before for pre-release screenings at another venue, which did that to it; but given the massive number of prints that would have been made for this release, I doubt it. The digital sound dropped out over at least two of the reel changes.
- The policy trailers were seriously dirty and scratchy, so much so that they stood out like a sore thumb from the ads and trailers around them. This hardly gives Odeon a professional image!
- At the start of the show some customers didn't realise that they were supposed to sit in pre-assigned seating, and there were no ushers in the auditorium to sort out the confusion.
- It took 20 minutes of queueing up to buy the tickets, even though there were only 5-6 people in front of us. The problem was that neither of the two box office staff knew how to work their computers, and the one who served me barely spoke English. There was no duty manager anywhere in sight as they struggled with the booking system.
- There was a load of popcorn and sweet wrappers strewn all over the carpets in the main foyer and screen lobbies. In short, the place looked uncared for.
I know that these are minor whines compared with the what goes on in some places, but it does seem sad that what struck me as a quite well designed and installed theatre has gone downhill so much in only 2-3 years of operation. They could have been short-staffed between Christmas and the New Year; but even so, when you're paying £7.50 ($13.12) a ticket, I think you're entitled to expect a slightly more professional operation.
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Thomas Dieter
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 234
From: Yakima, WA
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted 02-03-2006 04:07 AM
Who ever had my print of Yours Mine and Ours last, YOU SUCK!!!
I received the 5 reel print with the tail of 5 (don't ask me why) on the head of 1, and the head of 5 on the tail of 1. The projectionist building it rewond the reel and threw it to the platter. He then found the Head of 2 on reel 4 and the tail of 4 on the tail of 2. Noticing that the frames didn't match, he questioned it. After 45 mins of attempting to figure out what reel was what, I told him to leave it and I would build it.
If you found it funny putting the heads and tails on a print incorrectly and not in the correct order, you go a head and have a laugh now, cause when I find out, don't plan on having a job much longer.
Here is the heads, tails and reels as I found them. Someone really wanted to play with somebodys brain. # Reel means Reel was Tails out, Reel # mean the Reel was Heads out.
T1 5 Reel H1
H2 Reel 4 T2
H3 3 Reel T3
H4 Reel 2 H4
T5 1 Reel H5
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Wolff King Morrow
Master Film Handler
Posts: 490
From: Denton, TX, USA
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted 02-08-2006 01:49 AM
A common story. It's too bad theater companies insist on paying projectionists such poverty-level wages. Then they wonder why there are so many problems after the good workers leave for better paying jobs like pizza delivery.
I often liken our position to a spider web with us in the center. Each of the different web spokes represent various oustide companies or individual forces like rolling stock ads, digital ads, slides, electrical, rentals involving computer presentations, customers, managers, district managers, auditors, trailers from studios, repairs, orders, etc. When each spoke "vibrates", the projectionist must not only do his/her best to dampen the vibration, but also take the blame for the vibration. Its an underappreciated job for those that do it well.
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