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Author Topic: Hey you, you suck! (AKA: Outing bad film handlers) Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 09-15-2006 05:21 PM                        This kind of thing is so annoying and even when SOMEone finally does fix a problem such as this, it usually only comes about after I had to get up to find someone who 1) gives a damn about it rather than making it clear to me that they hate their jobs and hate me even more for bringing this to their attention and 2) that the person you finally do ferrit out who tries to be helpful rather than showing you contempt, that this person actually knows how to fix the problem. Recently what I have taken to doing is to call the theatre beforehand and get the theatre manager's telephone number. Usually you'll have to listen through the whole list of movie showtimes before they get to giving the manager's telephone number. But it's worth it. I program the number into my cell phone so when that picture goes out of frame, or the sound is painfully too loud or too low, etc, etc., I just call the manager, tell him what screen I am in and tell him the problem. It's worked quite well a few times already for me.  |  IP: Logged Charles Greenlee Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 801 From: Savannah, Ga, U.S. Registered: Jun 2006 posted 09-16-2006 12:30 AM                        My friend does this. Unfortunatly, the min wage box eployee who answers the phone can never understand that your callnig from inside the offending auditorium. He's even had one employee, at the other Regal in town, bless him out for being on the phone in the auditoruim, and wouldn't listen to anything else. He was like "WTF? If he'd just have listened to me, I could have told him the problem, and hung up." There were few other people in the auditorium to bother, and they were also complaining about the same problem he was calling about. Needless to say, I got a phone call about it, like I work there, and I was on duty. He's called me plenty of times, even as a min wage projectionist at the Carmikes, and I've had to call up the theatre and explain what the problem is, and often how to fix it. Once I've even had to go up there myself and fix the problem. The things I do for my booth.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-21-2006 09:49 AM                    We had a premier of this at our theater. Knoxville was there, along with Bam whats-his-face, the director and a few other vips. Also, MTV, and a couple of TV stations and what not from what I'm told. I wasn't there. We also had problems with our sound. Apparently, they had to crank up the SDDS to over 3. Normally in that theater, we play movies at -2.0, unless it's Spiderman and we want to crank it up nice and loud, then we play it at 0 or 1. No DTS at our disposal. I guess the disks weren't ready yet. And of course, the print arrived that morning well in advance of the show time - pad locked. Had we been able to run the print through before the show, we would have known about the pathetic sound mix, and could have been ready for it, but no. Paramount couldn't have that. They'd rather wait and let us figure it out after we had 350 people (most of them drunk or at least buzzed) sitting in our theater with the director, and two stars of the movie. Bastards. Unlike the theater that Brad went to, we compensated for the bad sound pretty quickly, but not before the angry mob made a huge fuss about it. It's nice to know that we weren't the only ones that had that problem though. So, while I'm here... Hey Paramount: You suck.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 09-21-2006 12:40 PM                     Mark, there was nothing wrong with Cinemark's sound level, it was the quality of the sound that was godawful. This theater has never had good sound, although this one was just bad.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-21-2006 02:41 PM                    I hear what you're saying. But in their defence, part of it MIGHT have been the mix. Our people said that even after it was turned up to a sufficient level, the audience could hear it so they calmed down, but to our projectionist's trained ears, it still sounded like absolute shit. The director, who apparently also noticed the horrible sound, even inquired about switching formats, but without DTS disks, the only other option was Ultra Stereo "A" analog NR for the "SR" encoded track - which undoubtedly would have been worse. Our theater isn't THX certified or anything, but that auditorium's SDDS certainly doesn't sound like shit, even on a bad day. (The one down the hall does though. ) The event organizers said that they were playing that print again the next day at another theater and they would call us to tell us if it sounded better. Sounded like they were eager to prove us wrong, but they never did call as far as I know. I'll be curious to know if anyone else noticed a crappy sound problem. Or if the general release prints will sound that bad.  |  IP: Logged Dustin Mitchell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1865 From: Mondovi, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 09-22-2006 01:35 PM                     For what its worth our digital print had perfectly fine sound (played back through a CP-500). Not saying digital is better than film, just that this particular mix was good. Our 35mm print didn't come with disks, so we'll see how that sounds.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-25-2006 09:03 AM                    Our new print sounds ...ok. I didn't hear the sneak print though so I don't know what to compare it to. The SDDS is still running at 3.0. It's not Star Wars, but it's not too bad.  |  IP: Logged Mike Croaro Master Film Handler Posts: 394 From: Millbrae, CA Registered: Apr 2005 posted 09-30-2006 12:02 AM                     Hi Folks: Saw "The Science of Sleep" at the century Hyatt in Burlingame, CA tonight. Interesting film. I arrived just in time to hear someone complaining that the film was out of frame. Entered DOWNSTAIRS auditorium and quickly found a seat. Yes the film was out of frame. The "projectionist" fixes the problem but overcompensates thus causing the sub-titles to be cut off. A man left the auditorium to complain. Picture is once again re-framed and overcompensated. Now subtitles are VERY easy to read but the actors heads are being cut off! Went out to the concession stand to find a flustered employee telling the manager that the picture "slipped out again!". He tells her to cancel the showing and refund everyone. Then it's revealed that they're not even talking about the Downstairs/Science of Sleep audtorium. They're talking about the picture playing UPSTAIRS! TWO presentations screwed over simultaneously! Finally the woman marches upstairs and actually fixes the problem in the Downstairs/Science of Sleep auditorium and we all can finally sit back and enjoy. This is from the Company who a year back kept running ads in the SF Chronicle advertising what a great company they are. Mike  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-10-2006 01:28 PM                        Another wonderful Carmike story. This was related to me by an 18-year-old girl who is a frequent customer of ours. She was in Billings visiting relatives and they went to see "The Guardian" at the Carmike Wynnsong 10. From her description, the film got caught in the projector and eventually melted onscreen. This happened about 110 minutes into the film, so just before the ending. A Carmike person came into the auditorium and said, "The show's over, folks" and then walked out.... no apology, no refunds, no free passes or anything. I asked how many people were in there, she said "A lot, and there were a lot of really mad people." I'm amazed they didn't storm the managers office and demand some freebies. Anyway, she said she hopes we get the movie because she wants to see the whole thing. Congratulations on another great job, Carmike!  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 10-10-2006 06:30 PM                     That screams of a print toss resulting in the film jamming in the brain of the platter. I would say that a safety ring would have been FAR cheaper than refunding all of that money and having customers furious with the theater...but then again if they don't refund the money and they don't care, it really doesn't matter!  |  IP: Logged Charles Greenlee Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 801 From: Savannah, Ga, U.S. Registered: Jun 2006 posted 10-11-2006 12:01 AM                        How the frak does a print just get flung like that? Anyhow, I'd like to thank the wonderful M/O's at my own theatre. Sometime over the weekend, Flyboys, one of our best selling films, developed some nice scratches. They're fine little black ones, so they're not deep, but there are alot of them, all of the way though the film. Distracting? Ray Charles would be asking for a refund, and the man is not only totally blind, but dead too. I don't know what happened over the 2 days consisting the weekend, but the print went from "like new", to walk out after 5mins and go ahead and get your refund. Since I can't be this nasty in our own booth log because "Someone high up may read it and get offended" I will here. Not that anyone from my own theatre reads Film-tech. Thank you anyhow, for ruining a print I have been able to maintain in pristine condition. Also, thank you for the bad splices in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and not logging it. I didn't catch it in time during my only friday show, and came back to it on monday. You mean over the whole damned weekend, no one, not a single booth trained person could fix the splice. And lastly, thank you for leaving all of the trailer sets for me to do, I love rushing to try to break down all of them in a day's time. I have better things to be doing like maintaining the equipment, which, only I can seem to do. P.S. - Take 30seconds of your slacking time, and brush out the trap and gate at least once in your shift. The traps and gates looked horrible Yesterday, there were little kids making pink snowmen in the projectors. They obviously haven't been cleaned since my shift on Fri. This isn't a Carmike job.  |  IP: Logged Dustin Mitchell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1865 From: Mondovi, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 10-11-2006 01:24 AM                     Mike, I would encourage your daughter to send a complaint to Carmike via the feedback system on the website. Such behavior is NOT acceptable to Carmike and rest assured the manager(s) on duty that day would be disciplined if the district/division manager knew how they handled the situation.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-11-2006 02:31 AM                        quote: Brad Miller That screams of a print toss resulting in the film jamming in the brain of the platter. Yeah, or, my first guess was a splice sticking in the bottom of the projector, and the projector/soundhead filling up with film until no more would flow past the gate. Whatever, I just hope they ordered a new reel.  |  IP: Logged Chris Dugan Film Handler Posts: 18 From: Goodyear, AZ Registered: Jul 2006 posted 10-15-2006 09:22 PM                        Charles, I've got the same problem. Can't understand why I leave prints just fine on Friday afternoon and I come back Sunday night to find out that new prints have horrible scratches on them. *shrugs* It's easy to prevent, and I know they have the training, guess lazyness is overcoming them. Maybe it's time to find some new people for booth.  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 10-15-2006 10:24 PM                     Years ago, before I became a lacky, I ran my own booth. I went through "projectionists" like crazy to find a few good ones. I don't know what you are paying your people, but if you are not able to give them a decent wage you can still find motivated bodies. Be prepared to spend a lot of payroll on training though. It was not uncommon for me to train someone for a week and then never schedule them for booth again. I got to the point where if someone could not thread perfectly by the end of their first training day then they were out. It would be so easy if companies would pay people a decent wage and give them an incentive to do a good job in the booth. Most kids at the chain theaters see it as nothing more than a way to get away from customers and cleaning auditoriums.  |  IP: Logged

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