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Author Topic: Uptown Theater ditches quality projectionists in search of a crappy presentation Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-16-2005 09:20 AM                     Nah, it doesn't prove it...it actually proves just the opposite. LCE has "managed" (get it) to scratch Reels, 2, 3, 6, 8, and 9. With just one replacement print, we have been able to return the show to scratch free...with a platter system, we would be on our 4th complete print. So, is your glass half-full? They've yet to scratch reel-1 with the previews and ads...R-1 we could change...we don't have spares of the ads...darn. This reminds me of Kelly's Hereos...we fix em by day, they blow em up by night.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-16-2005 04:46 PM                     So Steve, have you quit yet? How much longer will you continue to be a part of this?  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 01-16-2005 10:12 PM                        I simply don't get it. Although I'd still be opposed to eliminating professionals from the booth, I can sort of understand trying to cut expenses in a single-screen theatre if the place isn't doing well. But in a multiplex, let's say you have one projectionist for every 10 screens. Even if you're paying the guy/gal $50 an hour, we're only talking about $5 per hour per screen. How cheap can you get? Even if a tiny percentage of your audience sees one less move per year because presentation sucks, you've lost money. I've run businesses for large corporations and it just doesn't make sense to me. The studios insist on so much, why don't they insist on a professional in the booth?  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-16-2005 10:38 PM                     Just to be perfectly clear Martin, the Uptown is doing very well. It is no where near a marginal theatre, single screen or otherwise. Many a multiplex would love to have its numbers. Steve  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 01-16-2005 10:44 PM                    Steve, have you tried drumming up some interest in the local media...maybe a Washington Post columnist perhaps? I think it's unfortunate that the moderators have altered the thread title from the original which reflected the change from reel to reel operation to platter. As it was not a misleading or teaser title I think it's the right of the original poster to title the thread as they see fit even if others disagree with the implications.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-17-2005 09:23 AM                        >Just to be perfectly clear Martin, the Uptown is doing very well. It is no where near a marginal theatre, single screen or otherwise. Many a multiplex would love to have its numbers. I have no doubt the Uptown is doing well, I'm just curious if Lowe's may be trying to get it to do less well so it will have an excuse to bail out on it. My fear there is they will bail like they did at the Avalon and trash the place so no one else can use it as a theatre (though that eventually failed at the Avalon). Also, what's the story with the Cinema?  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-17-2005 09:25 AM                     Steve, I think the moderator that started the thread is the one that changed it. I, personally, think this title more acruately reflects that real issue. The other title isn't really the big picture, this one is. My opinion. Steve  |  IP: Logged Rick Raskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1100 From: Manassas Virginia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 01-17-2005 02:11 PM                     The only reason I went to the Uptown was for the quality of the presentation. Must I now call the local business agent to see when a real projectionist is on duty? I think not. The Uptown simply won't see my business anymore. And by the way if anyone from LCE should read this, there are better ways to reduce cost than by reducing quality. Best cost is not necessarily least cost.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-17-2005 04:14 PM                     Steve K - please wake up. Platters are not the cause of life's problems. MANY theaters put on flawless shows with them day in and day out. The issue here is the fact that the Uptown no longer has professional operators. If this thread continues to turn into another platters vs. changeover thread, I will lock it because that's not the problem at hand.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-17-2005 07:00 PM                     I agree Brad! The issue is how darn good the operators there were... literally among the best in the country and how bad its going to get without them! They wre not costing the Uptown that much $$ either as theor salarys were more than reasonable... in fact probably too reasonable. Those guys could put on just as good a show with a platter system if they had to. I consider myself a lucky individual to have seen a film there in 70MM. Mark  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Fuentes Mmmm, Dr. Pepper! Posts: 1168 From: Corpus Christi, TX United States Registered: Jan 2004 posted 01-18-2005 07:09 AM                     So have they figured out how much money exactly they are losing/saving with this switch? I mean thats what it boils down to is money..  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 01-18-2005 09:49 AM                     In many locations that have union contracts. It comes down to across the board cutting of labor with the local union operators. Like here in New York City, contracts with Loews Theatres has any location with under 6 screens is management operated. In some locations companies cut jobs or hours. And become what is called a "Limited Service Theatre". With that type of contract the theatre goes from two full-time jobs to one part-time job. Depending on the theatre and what the union & company decide to agree too. That operator would get a dollar or two added to the theatre's hourly pay rate. But would loss 20-30 hours of time each week. Most of the time operators work Thursday 6pm to close, Friday open to 8pm, Saturday all day or 8 hours, Sunday open till 7pm. Those work times are what Pacific Theatres had operators that worked limited service theatres. A limited service Pacific drive-ins had the operator drive between two theatres on their shift. Or the operator worked a limited service shared job. Which was he was employed by two companies at the same time. Example, you have two theatres located a block from each other. One is a 8 plex and the other is a tri-plex. You punch-in at the 8 and set up all the shows and then walk down to the tri-plex and get them ready. That was an example of what Pacific Theatres and Mann Theatres had operators doing at their Hastings Theatre and Hastings Ranch Theatre. Loews let their Century Plaza Theatre go downhill a few years before it was set to close in Los Angeles. When their Universal City Walk 18 Theatre location opened it was a three man booth. After a few years it was cutback to two operators a shift. It went back to three with the addition of a IMAX screen. They had the operator drive back and forth between the Fairfax Tri-plex and their Showcase Theatre for a time, before they sold both houses. Their Beverly Center Theatre is a true dump to First Run Movies. They let their Marina plex go limited and they out performed a near-by UA Marina 6 Theatre. In Los Angeles AMC has three Local 150 operators doing service for their theatres. [ 01-18-2005, 11:28 AM: Message edited by: Bill Gabel ]  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-18-2005 10:44 AM                        Sounds to me like Loews isn't looking at the Uptown specifically, they are just implimenting what, as Bill details, seems to be a corporate-wide policy to cut projectionists' salaries. It doesn't seem to matter if this or that individual theatre will not prosper as well because of the cuts, it's just that they've already decided that this policy will be their cost-cutting move and that it will be good for the company over all. We would all disagree, but that is probably the motivation, not that they singled out the Uptown and actually looked at every aspect of the change and what it would do and decided that it would be a better way to operate the theatre. Sadly, it's just all around bad management. Makes you wonder what they are teaching them in business school these days.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-19-2005 01:03 AM                     quote: Frank Angel Makes you wonder what they are teaching them in business school these days. 1-Ignorance 2-Stupidity 3-BS'ing the public (BS walks and money talks) 4-How to steal and lie with a blink of an eye 5-Unprofessionalism. 6-Greed 7-Disrespect ... to name a few -Monte  |  IP: Logged Sam D. Chavez Film God Posts: 2153 From: Martinez, CA USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 01-19-2005 09:57 PM                       What make anyone think that theatre owners actually budget money to send their ex popcorn poppers to business school? Is that incorrect enough politically?  |  IP: Logged

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