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Author Topic: ROTK Screening Screw-Up John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 12-08-2003 03:04 PM                        That's why I also feel "Film Done Right" ideally includes a pre-screening. Obviously, flipped orientation would have easily been caught with proper bench inspection.  |  IP: Logged Christian Appelt Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 505 From: Frankfurt, Germany Registered: Dec 2001 posted 12-08-2003 03:38 PM                     If distributors fear piracy when prints are delivered in advance, why don`t they send all reels except the last? Then, maybe an hour or two before the screening starts, the projectionist would just have to put one more reel to the platter, and which pirate would want to bootleg an incomplete feature?  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-08-2003 03:40 PM                     quote: Obviously, flipped orientation would have easily been caught with proper bench inspection. And seeing the words Head or Tail on the leader would have help too..  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-08-2003 05:57 PM                        I would have to agree on the reel handling. I was originally trained to build movies directly onto the platter. When I went to work for National Amusements they taught me the importance of carefully inspecting each reel and using the rewind bench to actually build the films onto hour-reels. That was the best training that I had recieved. They used to have a very rigorous two-week training seminar for all their management.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 12-09-2003 12:48 AM                     Well, two more ROTK screenings went off without a hitch locally today. Lots of customers were rudly probed and insulted (you should've seen the look on a couple of their faces!), and of course we had the token guy who has no friggin' clue as to what he is doing "watching the print". Allow me to vent. So the prints are sitting between #5 and 6, I walk down into the next booth toward #2 to get a center ring...the guy leaves the prints and follows me in another part of the building. I head to another booth to get a splicer, the guy leaves the prints and follows me. I go to another booth to get a MUT, the guy leaves the prints and follows me. I leave to go to the bathroom, the guy actually tries to follow me!!! (This was up until he saw I was actually entering the bathroom and was about to get a beating had he continued.) Really now, if the studios are going to send people to stay with and protect their prints, THEN STAY WITH THE FUCKING PRINT YOU IDIOT! DON'T WALK AWAY FROM IT! I certainly did not appreciate every time I walked by one of the machines running the screening how he stood up and started following me as I went to another auditorium to thread up something else. After awhile we started messing with the guy, by taking one step into the next booth and then turning around...just enough to make him get his butt out of the chair to "do his duty". Nothing beats being treated as if we are criminals. Next time this happens, I think I'll set up a tag team to have someone intentionally go into the booth and take the print into the back of the concession stand while I am being followed in another booth. Think that would teach them a lesson about not leaving the print that they are supposed to be protecting? On another note, Deluxe did a LOVELY job in putting a lab splice in reels 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 AND reel 10 in the ten reel print. Just marvelous! And how they managed to get 5 out of the 10 reels tails out is beyond me. A perfect 50%! And whatever mastermind decided to pack a 10 reel movie in two 7 slot "Fox boxes" should lose his job. 2/3 of the reels came in broken and one reel had it's core almost completely popped out of the center of the film roll. You know, when a print is delivered at the last minute for an important screening, I really don't have time to play fuck-around with broken reels! (I did replace all the broken reels with good ones and found that the reels could be placed in the box horizontally instead of vertically. It gave a perfect fit and will protect the reels from getting broken for the next theater.) And one last thing, New Line specified the second auditorium to be played in dts (since there was no Dolby Digital in there). Sure, no problem...if you'll send some discs. Regardless, the shows went smoothly to the audience.. If only Jack Valenti and Deluxe hadn't have been involved, it would've gone smoothly for the upstairs operation too.  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-09-2003 10:26 AM                     On all my screenings of the picture, I have had 3 security people checking people in and one person watching the print. The security people check bags and backpacks and they also check bags from stores like Macy's. Another thing they were asking was about Cell phones (like the ones that send pictures). Out of all the four people assigned to this screening. No one was allowed in the booth. The person assigned to watch the print had two chooses to sit outside of the booth or watch the movie. And the other 3 sat in the lobby, making sure the lobby was safe. I can't wait till the BIG PICTURES for next summer. Brad The guy assigned to watch the print misunderstood, he thought they said watch the projectionist. Remember they both start with P. Because the people that we have had had really no clue of what to do.  |  IP: Logged Rich Ferrando Film Handler Posts: 64 From: Royal Oak, MI Registered: Nov 2003 posted 12-09-2003 10:37 AM                       That has got to be annoying. I can't imagine being tailed at work. It's bad enough being followed by plainclothes officers at a department store. I'm glad I work in an arthouse theater - haven't yet had a print that the studio felt compelled to protect with armed guards (or at least was "important" enough to protect), and we always have at least 24 hours with which to pre-screen, sometimes more (we received our print of "Porn Theatre" over a week ago, and it doesn't open until Friday.) Splicing a reel in upside-down is one thing I have great fear of. Luckily, thusfar, the worst things I've done are the occasional bad splice during trailers, and once starting a film without a lens in the projector (which was just a stupid mistake on my part.) I guess I've lucked out thusfar - still haven't had a tail wrap or thrown a print (yet). I know that these will happen eventually, but for now I'll hold my breath and try not to panic when they do happen. The strangest thing I've seen occurred during a pre-screening of "The Hills Have Eyes," which we had for a Halloween Midnight movie. We got a brand-new print of it, and for some reason, in the middle of Reel 4, there were two copies of the SAME SCENE. Basically, two characters are talking to someone on a CB radio, they get close to the end of their conversation, and then POOF! back it cuts to the beginning of the scene! And it was actually like that in the print - no splices near it. Very weird.  |  IP: Logged Dennis M Dow Jr Expert Film Handler Posts: 141 From: Bloomfield NJ USA Registered: Oct 2003 posted 12-09-2003 04:56 PM                       John said quote: checking the film for bad splices and perforation damage that could cause a film break When making print up onto 6000' reels one should have been trained to detect these. Wearing white glove and just letting fingers ride over edge you can detect perf damage, lab splices, clear splices and any other damage on the print. If the chains can not train the operators correctly they deserve whatever they get. But no matter the Fuck Up still belongs to the operator and no amount of excuses can change that.  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-09-2003 07:20 PM                     Since no one else has mentioned it, I'll bring up the fact that it does no good for management to hover around the projectionist when a film gets delivered late doing a grammar school "I've gotta pee" dance and incessantly asking "Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet?" This only further distracts from the assembly/inspection process.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 12-09-2003 09:18 PM                        Just an aside, but somewhat topical: At a recent exhibitor screening of a film, the name and distributor of which shall not be divluged (looney, isn't it?) we were stopped inside the theatre and asked if we had cell phones with us. Those of us who did were required to return them to our cars... 4 floors down and a healthy walk from where we were. The theater would not hold them for us or allow us to turn them off and continue. Several of us headed for our cars, muchly miffed. Upon returning, we had discussed the advantage of just lying to the dweeb at the door. However, we were again accosted at the auditorium door, where the show had already begun, and were wanded and asked by yet another dweeb if we had any contriband cell phones on our person. Sheesh. Apparently, quite a few of us griped about it. The studio, in a world-class demonstration of face-saving technique, advised that the cell phone "ban" was only supposed to apply to those phones with BUILT-IN CAMERAS!, apparently fearing the result of the high-definition full-length images such attachments could record. But hey, I guess I can understand the paranoia. Team the output of a modern-day cell phone with an un-protected DTS disk & you've got instant Chinese-quality pirate copies... .... I guess... (Last Samurai Review):  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 12-09-2003 10:43 PM                        The next exhibitor screening I go to, I think I'll wrap myself in tinfoil before I go. Now if I could only find real tin foil...  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 12-09-2003 11:01 PM                        quote: I think I'll wrap myself in tinfoil before I go They'll let you in. Just don't take a cell phone with a camera with you!  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 12-09-2003 11:06 PM                        Noted.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 12-10-2003 12:22 AM                     Just show up butt naked. If anyone says anything, just start complaining about how the guards are going to do a full body search anyway, so you figured you would just save everybody the time.  |  IP: Logged Carl Martin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1424 From: Oakland, CA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-10-2003 02:52 AM                        quote: Those of us who did were required to return them to our cars. i would simply (and truthfully) have said that i didn't drive. now where in the hell could i leave the cellphone other than on my person? not that i have a cell phone. call me a luddite. carl  |  IP: Logged

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