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Author Topic: EP 3 print problems Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 05-20-2005 11:25 PM                    No sound problems, but one of our prints had big black spots every few minutes throught the entire movie. Sometimes the spots were small and looked like dirt, sometimes they were huge, sometimes we had black scratches come and go, and we had a nice green scratch near a lab splice. Wonderful. And to make it even better, the "print replacement lady" at Fox was a bitch to talk to. I don't know why she was so rude and condescending towards us. The kicker was when she said in a cocky tone "You know, we're going to need the other print back right away." No freakin shit, lady. What the hell does she think we're going to do with it?? Just send the damn replacement already! We did eventually get the replacement, but not in time for the midnite show. The "bad" print was certainly watchable, but way below an optimal presentation in our opinion. It will be interesting to hear what the lab says when they check it. The new print looks great... just like our other print.  |  IP: Logged Adam Wilbert Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 590 From: Bellingham, WA, USA Registered: Mar 2002 posted 05-21-2005 12:58 AM                        quote: Dylan Marchetti But if they had just "sold out" a 9pm show, that would've given them more than enough time to run the print so you're suggesting that another studio's product not be run because fox can't deliver a print early enough for a proper run through? Second, you're suggesting that you turn customers away that come to see the "sold out" film just because fox can't deliver a print early enough for a proper run through?  |  IP: Logged Dylan Marchetti Film Handler Posts: 27 From: New York, NY Registered: Oct 2004 posted 05-21-2005 12:47 PM                        Well, yes. It's certainly Fox's fault for not getting the print out (which is why I'd try to cut a Fox title if possible). But still, Fox isn't going to have to explain to 500 guests why they don't get to see the movie they picked. One thing I've learned by managing, and I don't like it, is that while the temptation is to say "hey, if Fox wanted us to screen it, they should have delivered it yesterday", in the end, it all comes back to "______ Theater screwed up Star Wars for me, and I'm never going back". Customers are going to hold it against you, not Fox, no matter how hard you try to explain it or whose fault it really is. So given a choice between possibly pissing off 500+ people who you won't be able to calm down, and cancelling a Wednesday late show that would maybe do 10 people (all of whom would be passed, of course), I see no contest. It's not the optimal situation, but it's certainly the better of the two options.  |  IP: Logged Bernie Anderson Jr Master Film Handler Posts: 435 From: Woodbridge, New Jersey Registered: Apr 2000 posted 05-21-2005 01:06 PM                        I agree with the prescreening process. I worked for AMC were it is maditory that all print be watched. I think that is true for National Amusements too. But as for Loews, ever since there was a piracy issue with The Hulk two years ago in California, it came down from the top that there is no screening of prints. I've never prescreened a print there. So needless to say I take special extra care in making sure my prints are all together right. But then again, and alot of people in the company has agreed, that my booth, New Brunswick, is the best booth in the region.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 05-21-2005 01:31 PM                    For what it's worth, I agree with Dylan. Cancel Kingdom Of Heaven and make sure Star Wars is ok.  |  IP: Logged Mike Spaeth Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1129 From: Marietta, GA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 05-21-2005 01:44 PM                        It is a violation of master license agreements to cancel shows for pre-screening. The only possible way to do that using "proper management" would be to cancel another Fox show. Why would you cancel a show of Crash to make sure Star Wars is OK. Just refund the audience, issue readmits, and FOX is happy. I would then argue the point with my branch manager at FOX that those readmits (would give him the exact number issued) would NOT count against my pass allowance. Therefore, FOX pays for the problem through not receiving their 70% (or 90%) of the $$ for that show.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 05-21-2005 02:08 PM                    quote: Mike Spaeth Why would you cancel a show of Crash to make sure Star Wars is OK Because I'd rather have 10 semi-irritated customers than 500 angry rabid star wars fans, and a front page story in the local news paper the next day about how my theater sucks. Maybe it's difficult for some people to cancel a late show, but for us it's easy as attendance at these shows is generally low anyway. Sometimes ZERO.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-21-2005 02:24 PM                     Up here pre screening usually specifically forbiden by the studio  |  IP: Logged Dylan Marchetti Film Handler Posts: 27 From: New York, NY Registered: Oct 2004 posted 05-21-2005 08:00 PM                        quote: Mike Spaeth Just refund the audience, issue readmits, and FOX is happy. I would then argue the point with my branch manager at FOX that those readmits (would give him the exact number issued) would NOT count against my pass allowance. Therefore, FOX pays for the problem through not receiving their 70% (or 90%) of the $$ for that show. But the problem with that is that while your pass allowance may turn out OK, your audience is not. Fox loses out on their 70% for one show, but you lose out on those 500 customers (plus everyone they tell about what happened, or who reads about it on the front page of the paper) indefinitely- both admission and concession dollars. If you were in that showing, would you go back for the next event picture? I wouldn't. Of course, this is a special occasion. For a film that's not opening at 12:01 that night, you just wait until everything's over, or show up early the next day to pre-screen. No decent manager will cancel a show just so they could get home a little earlier. Smaller theatres have their own rules, and with limited screens, they've gotta do what they've gotta do. But in most 10+ plexes, with multiple prints and usually one title from each distributor at any given point, I can't see any excuse for not pre-screening.  |  IP: Logged Robert John Jeromson Master Film Handler Posts: 264 From: Auckland, New Zealand Registered: Jul 2004 posted 05-22-2005 04:24 PM                     We had organised our film schedule for last week to include pre-screenings of Star Wars under the impression that they would arrive late and in split deliveries. Based on the delivery procedure for practically every other block-buster we had no reason to suspect otherwise. However they arrived early, on Tuesday and in one delivery so we managed an early "screentest" of one of the prints and did the other on Wednesday night before the midnights. They were both prestine, several lab splices but otherwise okay.  |  IP: Logged John T. Hendrickson, Jr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 889 From: Freehold, NJ, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 05-22-2005 06:32 PM                     Mike Marshall and Dylan Marchetti- You have to take note of Mike Spaeth's point: "It is a violation of master license agreements to cancel shows for pre-screening. The only possible way to do that using "proper management" would be to cancel another Fox show." I had four prints come in while shows were running. As Projection Operations Manager, I have a great deal of descretion as to what happens in the booth. But... cancel four regularly scheduled shows of other companies, ( or Kindom of Heaven, for that matter) to screen four Star Wars prints? Are you out of your mind? That's not my call, and it's not a building manager's call either That's a call that only our owner could make, and I know the answer without even asking. He has other studios to deal with 52 weeks a year. Life is not as simple as one may think in the multiplex.  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 05-22-2005 10:22 PM                     Incidently, one wonders what the leaders said on the Japanese(?) reel. To put it differently, if you can't pre-screen, esp. for an "event" movie, then you should take twice as much care during inspection. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Alan Dallas Film Handler Posts: 48 From: Prescott Valley, AZ Registered: Jul 2004 posted 05-23-2005 05:52 AM                     We got it lucky in our 14 Screener when it comes to trying to find a print with probelms by pre-screening. For some reason Harkins loves for us to hold onto movies longer than we should. Even to the point were the Movie in question hits DVD and we keep playing it for a week AFTER its DVD debut. And we're a First Run house!! So with that said, canceling the last showing which sells no tickets 30 mins after it was 'supposed to start' becuase the damn thing is on DVD already doesn't really matter. Wed and Thursday night it's so dead in the Theatre we only need 1 Usher, 1 Concessionist, 1 Box office member and a Manager on the floor to run the entire place(not counting Projectionist)... at a 14 screener.  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 05-23-2005 12:39 PM                        How come no one has mentioned that if they ran DTS, the language on the Dolby and SDDS tracks wouldn't have made a difference (assuming they got the correct CDs.) And the manager didn't understand what happened? It happened at a reel change - wouldn't that make it obvious?  |  IP: Logged Dominic Espinosa Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1172 From: California, U.S.A. Registered: Jan 2004 posted 05-23-2005 02:18 PM                     quote: Martin Brooks It happened at a reel change - wouldn't that make it obvious Some managers are completely unaware of anything that happens upstairs. If any shows should be canceled for screening, I'dve voted for Fever Pitch.  |  IP: Logged

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