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Author Topic: Hey you, you suck! (AKA: Outing bad film handlers) Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-13-2006 09:58 PM                     quote: Charles Greenlee ...evn though I do stuff that is technically beyond my training... If you never did anything beyond what you already know, how could you ever learn anything? What seperates the good operators/technicians from the cretins is the ability to know where the end of their knowledge lies and when to venture beyond it... and when NOT to venture beyond. I'm not a fan of teaching by "levels". I'm more of a teacher by pedagogy. (Learning from another more skilled than you.) But then, again, I work at a Liberal Arts college. In every booth there needs to be a person who is knowledgeable to handle the majority of the technical/operational issues and who is willing to teach those under him. This person should have a similar relationship to another person above him (the regional/chief tech.) and so on up the chain. I believe that it is the way theaters operate, in general, and especially in the South which leaves a "knowledge vacuum" in the booth which, in turn, creates the situation you are forced to work in. What I think you need to do is start studying your head off, not just reading the books your company gives you to study but reading the service manuals and any other things you can get your grubby hands on. You need to be the one who fills in the knowledge vacuum. You should get to know your tech. really well and learn everything you can from him. If people like you don't step up to the plate and take charge of the problem, in 20 years, there may not be movie theaters any more!  |  IP: Logged Charles Greenlee Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 801 From: Savannah, Ga, U.S. Registered: Jun 2006 posted 07-13-2006 10:28 PM                        Oh, trust me, I find a technical manual in the booth, that I haven't read yet, it isn't long before I do. And equipment we have, that we don't have manuals for, I go on the internet and find them, often here. And read them, and print them for others. This has led to all night sessions of reading sites, as I have the nasty ADHD, and tend to go on tangents, but that is how I get stuff done, oddly. More of a talent than a hinderance, usually. Yes, I've had my share of making do, and I'm good at it. I also have a near vertical learning curve, especially if I can take it apart. If ever I sem like a brash young punk on here, I apologize, and do be patient. There is almost always meaning behind my madness, you just got to get me to explain myself sometimes, if I can, or just wait to find out when it happens.  |  IP: Logged Jason Black Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1723 From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 07-14-2006 12:09 AM                        That's the thing with Carmike..and lots of other chains. They all seem to gravitate towards training the concessionists to 'push the large combo & upsell', but they lose focus on the REAL reason people come to the theatre... The MOVIES!!!!!!! The sad thing about most Carmikes is that if there IS anyone who knows their butt from a hole in the ground... They often don't have sufficient time to learn the booth. I had kids who were willing to come in on their off time just to be allowed to learn the booth. I NEVER allowed anyone in the booth who didn't express an interest to me personally. And I found that, for the most part, the guys, and girls, that I put in the booth were very good and did whatever I asked and trained them to do. Clear tape, clean splices, don't tinker with sound racks, use filmgaurd, clean the platters, wipe the projectors out after each show, and GOOD once a day, mop the booth, dust down sound racks and consoles weekly, THREAD IN FRAME!!!!! and the list goes on.. but they did it. Of course, I had to ask them sometimes, have you done ****, but they'd always get it done. I appreciated it, because it made my job easier. I always felt like MY job was to walk the floor and monitor the crowd, and the staff, anticpating what was going to happen next... Once the shows started, I allowed my shift leaders and assistants to handle things while I'd go to the booth, my office, or in the auditoriums to see what was happening during the shows. I enjoyed it, but the time came to move on into another career, and now the time has come in that 'career' to transition to yet another. You'll NEVER really get the theatre out of your blood.. but that isn't what this topic is about. Hey... YOU SUCK... somebody.. somewhere... Phil? LOL... quote: Dustin Mitchell These things are not prevented by corporate policy, they are just not encouraged  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-14-2006 12:10 AM                     quote: Charles Greenlee ...I have the nasty ADHD... I've got it too. The secret is knowing you have it and recognizing when it starts to get the better of you. I'm sure you know that "hazy" out of control feeling. Divide your daily tasks up into small chunks. I find 15 minute spurts to be best for me. I read my book or do my paperwork for 15 minutes then take a break. I go somewhere and fool around for a while then I come back and work some more. It may take a little longer but the work gets done. Remember this: A.D.D. is the inborn, genetic ability to pay attention to multiple mental stimulii at once. That is why you make such a good operator. You can pay attention to 20 projectors at once. Learn to recognize when you feel "out of control" and figure out a way to detach yourself from the things that trigger it. Once you learn that and know how to focus your attention better you'll find that your productivity in the booth goes way up! Finally, don't be afraid to take the drugs for ADD if you need them. They can really help. They take away that feeling like you are watching TV and somebody has the remote control and keeps changing channels. The drugs don't stop the channels from changing but they give you "Picture-In-Picture".  |  IP: Logged Charles Greenlee Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 801 From: Savannah, Ga, U.S. Registered: Jun 2006 posted 07-14-2006 01:38 AM                        Pip, wow. My TV doesn't have that. My parents' does, the family's doesn't. Mine barely has a 3 button remote that uses a 9v battery, and non-cable-ready. My other TV isn't even color. I susually just watch on the family TV, that is, after all, where my surround system is. Lets see, right now, I'm using clear tape, with the yellow H that goes across the cut. My splices are only as good as the splicer, which here is right on. Haven't tinkered with soundracks here, we have Kintek, which I'm not familiar with, but I suspect strongly it sucks. I think we have Dolby CP55 and CP65s on our digital houses, but still with Kintek amps and monitor. The other projectionists doo a good job at wiping the platters, so I don't have to worry about it. They don't clean the projectors every show, so I do when I'm there, and GOOD every show (only a 6 plex). Booth is 20yr old industrial carpeting, so can't mop, vacume yes. Dusting, the others typically do on a day I don't work. And in frame? Every time. Anyhow, we want film horror stories!  |  IP: Logged Jason Burroughs Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 654 From: Allen, TX Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-25-2006 01:23 PM                     Cinemark Tinseltown in Plano, TX - YOU SUCK! Went to see Clerks II for a 10:05 last night (Wife picked the theater). The lobby, and auditorium were filthy, popcorn all over the floor in the lobby and hallways. The auditorium wasn't even picked up between shows. Cups other trash was left behind by the previous audience. Now for the nightmare of a presentation they put on: Movie started out of frame Aperature plate was not in correct position - was showing a good 12" on the left side of the screen, picture on masking on opposite side Focus was very very poor, and had obvous alignment issues, about a 4ft square area in the center of the screen was in "OK" focus, and the rest of the screen was blurry has hell. Masking changed to scope (for a flat lens & flat movie - at least they had the lense right I suppose - 1 star for them) So after 2 trailers go by, and its apparent that the projectionist found that this presentation was acceptable, I went to the lobby, and pulled a manager aside to voice my complaints. He just looked at me like I had 3 heads or something, got on his radio and asked the projectionist to check the presentation - well they fixed the masking, and that was about it. The movie at this time was STILL out of frame, to the point that the tiles were cut off at the bottom of the screen. There was also plenty of print damage on their print, I don't know if they had a mishap(s?) or recieved the print in that condition. Several mid reel splices and scratches on reels 4 & 5.  |  IP: Logged Charles Greenlee Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 801 From: Savannah, Ga, U.S. Registered: Jun 2006 posted 07-25-2006 07:01 PM                        Cinemark? Sounds like a Carmike down here in Savannah.  |  IP: Logged Patrick Dunn Expert Film Handler Posts: 120 From: newark, DE, United states Registered: Aug 2005 posted 08-19-2006 07:04 PM                        Cinemark realy sucks with their film Presentations. I've encountered these problems there: 1. the movies start out of frame 2. dirt in the projector showed up on the edges of the screen for one presentation 3. none of their previews have green band (i guess they think it saves them time to cut it off, but i know for a fact they are just lazy) 4. the film has random spots that are realy dirty in the middle of reels, not always just in between reels.  |  IP: Logged Mike Spaeth Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1129 From: Marietta, GA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 08-21-2006 03:20 AM                        quote: Patrick Dunn 3. none of their previews have green band (i guess they think it saves them time to cut it off, but i know for a fact they are just lazy) Company policy....has nothing to do with the projectionists at any particular location. quote: Randy Stankey I spent nearly a WEEK fixing up a 20-plex outside of Atlanta. I cleaned and repaired and timed all the platters. When I left, EVERY ONE OF THEM worked PERFECTLY. The SAME DAY I left, I got calls about the platters not working. Do you mean a +/-3 20 screen?  |  IP: Logged Alexander Smith Expert Film Handler Posts: 128 From: Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Registered: Jun 2003 posted 08-21-2006 06:26 AM                     Another film mutilation report: "The Shaggy Dog" copy #314, all reels bar the final are affected by this: The previous user's splicer is badly adjusted (or broken) such that the sprocket holes are being cut by the perforation cutter. In the image, the foot is at the top. The top edge is therefore where the previous user cut and then spliced the reel. When I make a splice I don't want the frame to jump up and down in the gate, so I have no choice but to cut (yet another) frame from the end of the reel. If you are doing this to film, please don't. Alex.  |  IP: Logged Steve Anderson Expert Film Handler Posts: 168 From: Nashville, TN Registered: Feb 2000 posted 08-25-2006 02:53 PM                        Here’s my big one finger salute to once again some bad Carmike theaters.. Idiot number one is the Winsong 16 in Murfreesboro Tn, thanks for sending me the movie "Zoom" with no heads or tails on any of the reels….way to go! Number two is a real winner…it is the Oneida Theater, which sent me "JT Must Die". Well this ass**** basically killed the film by randomly picking places to cut the head and tails of each reel! Reel one’s tail was cut 17 frames from the end and every other reel was cut / slashed in the various ways. Reel three for some reason was cut about twenty feet past the start of the reel and completely cut out a scene! Reel four head was cut about ten feet into the reel and it kept going and going. Like I said there was no method to the madness…they would just cut the film at any place that they thought would be good. On top of that I didn’t get the damn thing till midnight…so that made it extra sweet!  |  IP: Logged Barry Floyd Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1079 From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 08-25-2006 03:56 PM                        Steve, We got in a print of Barnyard last Friday afternoon that was that way. Head and tails not attached, the tails to reels 2 & 3 we completely missing. What made it worse was whenever the booth-monkey at the "Bran Hollywood 20" in Bartlett, TN broke down the print the night before - just started filling reels until they were full, then randomly cutting the film whenever the reel got full. By doing this, they were actually able to completely eliminate the need for one entire shipping reel... which they did not enclose in the box. I open the box and about shit, thinking I'm missing reel 5, and hour and a half before I'm supposed to go on screen. Called ETS/Deluxe and tell them I'm missing a reel... While I was waiting for a return phone call from ETS/Deluxe, I finally figured out what had happened the night before and was able to get the print put together. After figuring it out, building the print and spinning Talladega back to the platter from 6k's, I had 10 minutes to spare before I went on screen.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-25-2006 04:16 PM                        You know, this just makes it very clear that as far as the distribs are concerned, the cost of prints is so insignificant that they don't care if a print that cost them thousands of dollars is turned into dog-doo. Yet, it is the billions of dollars it costs to make prints for distribution that we are told is supposedly the primary reasons for trying to get the world to move to digital. Yah, well if they were so concerned about print costs, you would think they would make SOMEONE pay for damage like this, but they never do. If the chains got bills every time a print was ruined in one of these Little Booth of Horrors, you can bet your sweet tuckus that their bean counters would soon discover that it would be cheaper for them to hire people who knew what they were doing in the booths instead of the film butchers they send up without fear of consequences no matter what the idiots do. If they made recalcitrant theatres PAY for this kind of damage, you sure as hell wouldn't see a thread with a title like this that has more than 1400 posts over 94 pages. So I lay it right at the feet of distribution. Of course that doesn't let the theatres off the hook who still SUCK! ....they're still OUTED.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 08-25-2006 05:01 PM                        Aw come on, distributors care very much about the cost of producing brand new prints. But once a print goes into general circulation, any signs of caring should be considered a bonus. There's no financial incentive for them to later retrieve 100% of the prints in perfect condition. Nobody is paying for that service and it would cost distributors money to effectively police the issue with exhibitors. Returned prints are probably dealt with similar to sorting the recyclable material from the garbage.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-25-2006 05:16 PM                        Initially, yes. But once the "print damage recoupment" start hitting exhibitors' CEO's desks, the world would get around pretty fast. And of course top management would figure out a way to deduct $$ from middle management's pay for theatres where damage is chronic. You'd be surprised how fast they would all start running for cover like roaches when the light is turned on if people started getting ducked pay for damage they cause. That's one powerful motivator! I mean, when we rent expensive theatrical stage equipment, everyone down the line to the crew who loads it off the truck, knows that if any damage occurs, it is sure as hell gonna be charged back to us. You wouldn't believe how big, brawny stagehands handle that equipment as daintily as they would a newborn baby. But you are right, once the picture goes wide, it's a done deal as far as they are concerned. Subruns can get just about any range of print quality....for us, it's play & pray.  |  IP: Logged

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