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Author Topic: Uptown Theater ditches quality projectionists in search of a crappy presentation Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-20-2005 05:30 PM                     Unfair or not things still have to be handled in a legal and proper manner by both sides. Those on either side that choose not to make an ass out of them selves and just gain more bad publicity in the long run. Re Cinemark: They are no first class operation anyway....... Mark  |  IP: Logged Rick Raskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1100 From: Manassas Virginia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 01-21-2005 03:17 PM                     Quote Mark G: "... things still have to be handled in a legal and proper manner by both sides." I couldn't agree more. Not that anyone was planning to, but doing something stupid is likely to land someone in the Criminal Justice system. Let the lawyers fight it out. Unfortunately LCE seems to believe cutting booth cost is an effective way to achieve meaningful cost reduction. However, that seems somewhat misguided, given what has happened to presentation quality with M/O. As I stated in an earlier post, there are better ways to manage cost. Mgt 101: Best cost is not always least cost. Now, for some simple math: Given the Uptown was paying nearly $10.00 per hour when I was operating in DC some 30 years ago, the $14.00 they are now paying is a disgrace. Even by the most conservative estimates the prevailing wage should be well above $25.00 per hour. I hope the Union and LCE can resolve this without anyone getting burned. However, I'm not optimistic. Another aside: I emailed a local newscaster about this story. Previously he has been very high on the Uptown's presentation. He replied in due course but didn't leave the impression he was willing to air the story. I think he realizes that to take sides might bite the hand that feeds. Just my opinion.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-21-2005 06:31 PM                     Pssst. The Uptown only pays $12.00/hour and that increase only happened a year ago...prior to that...just the $10.00/hour you remember. We haven't exactly been pushy there. Steve  |  IP: Logged Rick Raskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1100 From: Manassas Virginia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 01-21-2005 06:42 PM                     Amazing. And there are those who wonder if they should get an education. Oops, that's another thread.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-21-2005 07:02 PM                     Rick, Believe me I'm on your side on this one. This is a prime example of the type of cost cutting that will quickly cause a loss of buisness income for LCE. My point was simply that both sides need to do things in a legal manner. Not try the arson or bombing methods as was the case recently with Local 110. I always thing os Forest Gumps line "Stupd is Is As Stupid Does" and that line fits the lengthy history of 110 to a tee. The thing I watched happen in Chicago was that the union never provided decent training (among other things) for their operators hence alot of them were not very capable... except for the one booth they operated. Machines never got cleaned in alot of locations(at all!), I could go on and on. They even sent a one armed man to run a 70mm booth! He was a nice guy though..... But being nice doesn't make you a good projectionist or technician. When a Union lets things fall apart like that then they don't have a leg to stand on when legal matters do happen. And that I am afraid is what has happened to alot of locals. Had I had the opportunity or if I ever do to belong to a more progressive local that is strong in at least several areas then I would jump at the chance. As it was my short stint in local 110 kept another person at home on layoff. That sort of reasoning just doesn't make sense to me. Mark  |  IP: Logged Jim Ziegler Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 753 From: West Hollywood, CA Registered: Jul 99 posted 01-21-2005 10:48 PM                     From what we were told, the problems between Cinemark and the Chicago union started when Cinemark would not hire union operators for their new complex in Melrose Park a few years back. In addition to the acts that the FBI spokesman in Kansas City refered to as domestic terrorism, they also did things to sabotage the theatre both during construction and after the opening. The manager they nearly killed was the GM of the Melrose Park theatre. For the sake of argument, however, say they were disgruntled at the way they were treated by Cinemark, how can they justify the use of terror tactics against people who had nothing to do with this? No one in Cinemark's home office had to evacuate customers as their complex was filling with a deadly gas. That task fell on the rank and file staff and management who had no say in anything done in Chicago. It was ushers and managers who were sent to the ER, not Cinemark execs.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 01-22-2005 12:47 AM                        Damn Steve, I got paid more than that in a platter booth and I was non-union! Hell yeah! No union dues AND higher pay, plus the worry about striking or being ousted wasn't there. Yay unions!  |  IP: Logged Jim Ziegler Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 753 From: West Hollywood, CA Registered: Jul 99 posted 01-22-2005 04:53 AM                     Several of my non-union booth staff in Kansas City were making more than the union guy Cinemark had in Omaha..  |  IP: Logged Jim Bedford Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 597 From: Telluride, CO, USA (733 mi. WNW of Rockwall, TX but it seems much, much longer) Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-22-2005 10:00 AM                        Ah, the Uptown. I sort of feel I grew up in that theatre. Certainly I cut eye film teeth there. Huge classic wrap screen, 70mm, and over 1000 seats. It was the best a movie theatre could be. I saw MMMM World and Clockwork Orange there, among many, many others. I took a date to see 2001: A Space Odyssey in '68. We sat in the balcony. I was so blown away I returned the next day with a bunch of pals I dragged to the show and we sat in, or laid in front of, the front row. The next time I saw the film there, I contained mind-altering substances. It got better each time I saw it. The films I saw in the Uptown changed my life.  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-22-2005 10:47 AM                     Jim, that just goes to show you nothing compares to the theatrical experience! In the four times I've attempted to watch 2001 - mind altering substances or not - I've fallen asleep on it. I guess you can't really "take in" the movie letterboxed on a 25" screen. I notice many movies - Kill Bill most recently - where even if there's plenty of seats left, people are stretched out on the floor in front of the front row. I don't see how this would be visually more appealing, but the sound will hit you harder. It saddens me about the Uptown. I've never been there, or much less been to a single screen, or much less been in any movie auditorium over 450 seats, but from the pics here and memories shared, this place seems like another Northpark now that Northpark is gone. That's one trend I am seeing with these mammoth chains. They acquire these special, unique theaters that are special for one main reason - the presentation - and run them like your generic shoebox multiplex because that's all they know. I bet over half of those suits in the corporate office have never even SEEN a picture of the Uptown. All they see is the numbers on paper. "Hmmm. Why do we still own a single? How can we cut costs there before we close it?" They need to realize that presentation is the reason people seek out these theaters. They certainly don't drive several hours because it has more seats or less screens. There's a reason the customers came, and they ruined it. I also wonder if these chains seriously count losses like they count inventory at the theater level. If the Uptown throws away 5 bags and 10 cups one night (or puts them in "spoiled" or some other retarded form of counting inventory) does that mean that the Uptown just LOST $500 for the company?!? If this is the case, no wonder we had that onslaught of bankruptcies. A $20 case of empty nacho trays fell off a truck on the way to a Loews/Cineplex and cost the corporation $50,000 in sales. Wow! We need to bust a union, fire some people, and close a theater before there's still time!! =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Jim Ziegler Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 753 From: West Hollywood, CA Registered: Jul 99 posted 01-22-2005 01:56 PM                     Thomas, Theatres like the Uptown get ignored and then closed when chains are run by accountants and investment bankers.. The sad part is that a manager skilled in marketing with some corporate support can keep those older movie palaces running profitably. The short sightedness of the situation is that the company viewed what they were paying the projectionists as a large payroll expense rather than an investment in the image of thier company. If more companies viewed their old palaces like, say, Mann views the Chineese, there would be many more of them.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-22-2005 06:55 PM                     Mark organized crime and IATSE is nothing compared to links to organized crime and several film companys and theatre chain ownership  |  IP: Logged Jim Ziegler Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 753 From: West Hollywood, CA Registered: Jul 99 posted 01-22-2005 07:12 PM                     I am curious which circuits and distributors answer to mob bosses???  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-22-2005 08:41 PM                     Thats fine Gord.... And jopb wise I choose not to have anything to with any of them...... Mark  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-23-2005 03:08 AM                     quote: paying the projectionists as a large payroll expense rather than an investment in the image of their company ..just too bad that the theatre companies can't see past the end of their noses on this topic. Way mine is - worrying about spending money to make money. Thus the movie going public gets it in the short end most of the time. And why DVD movies and home theatre sales are climbing very well. Going back to the general topic of unions: my parents were both members of their respective unions and were taken care of with guaranteed wages, benefits and what ever the contracts were agreed with between the two parties. I joined the IA, mainly to have a better wage than what a non-union operator (high school student) would be getting, even though I was better in the booth than these high school students. I didn't join in a political sense to where to just to say that "I'm a member of a union so treat me special..cuz I can do anything that I want to." I just cared about my presentations, in as much as I knew how. Then, the union was disbanded in our area, but I was still allowed the wage and guaranteed yearly wage increases by the theatre owners that was set apart in the union contract by the company and the union local president. Why this special agreement was that I had the expertise in projection maintenance that they felt that I was worth something to keep around. For they know that if any other person was upstairs,the theatre would go downhill in a heartbeat (which it did eventually goto in the last year of operation that this theatre I worked at-being I had moved away). More or less, I proved myself of my qualities, where I agree with some of these comments: being a member of a union really doesn't make a better operator-it's just how the individual presents himself to the company for his reward of worth whether union, or non-union. Thus, my kudos to Steve G. - he really earned his merits - nobody gave them to him. thx-monte  |  IP: Logged

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