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Topic: Hey you, you suck! (AKA: Outing bad film handlers) Part 2
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 03-18-2009 11:37 AM
quote: Scott Norwood
This generally happens at venues that aren't in the business of full-time motion-picture exhibition and whose employees tend to be on the nice-but-clueless end of things.....
Geez, Scott, are we in a parallel universe or what? This is EXACTLY what I find in exactly the same kind of college operations where I freelance. I love the "We can't find the keys to the room where we keep the movie." syndrome. And then there's the joy of finding equipment in the rack removed, unplugged, repatched and generally needing two hours to trouble shoot just to get sound in the theatre only to find the aperture plates missing. And when you phone "down stairs," try to explain to one of the sweet staff ladies what an aperture plate is and if she has any idea where they might be or WHY THEY ARE FREAKIN MISSING, only to hear this "uuuh" on the other end and you know you might as well be talking to a house plant.
This one booth was a such pleasure to work that I happily gave up my Saturday nights occasionally for a number of years just to run films for them. Then some college kid bozo was hired on a full-time basis as the A/V guy and who's main work space was the booth. The place was completely trashed within a six month period. Many times I would come into the booth to find that not only was there evidence of equipment in the rack being tampered with, but likewise the projectors were manhandled, and of course I complained loudly.
No one likes a complainer. Working the booth went from a pleasure to a dread -- the place literally became a pigsty -- garbage and left-over fast food all over the place, equipment trashed, even graffiti on the sound console table -- in short, a total disrespect for the booth and the equipment. Ah, youth. I was so disturbed by it that I took pictures of how the booth had deteriorated both in terms of the mess, not to mention how now the sound system had an audible hum due to all the tampering in the sound rack by someone who hadn't the faintest clue of what he was doing. I went to the higher-ups with pictures of the conditions and explained that it was adversely affecting presentation (can't they hear the damn 60 & 120hz dual hum every time the walk into the theatre?!). I complained enough that I could see they didn't want to hear it anymore and Bozo's solution to them about my pointing out the hum was that they needed to totally replace the entire sound rack "because it was too old." What a schmuck. Thing is, they seriously entertained that, so you see what I was working against.
Finally, recently actually, I just stopped answering their calls. Plus I see, instead of calling another projectionist in to replace me, they let Bozo convince them that they can save lots of money by using DVDs and their big bright video projector. They had asked me about doing that when I was still there and I tried to teach, explain, cajole, about what a terrible idea that was, that video at this level of resolution on that size screen is garbage. Their retort, "But, look, it's nice and bright." Yah, it's bright alright....if you don't mind watching bright turds on the screen.
This is parallel universe of once-in-awhile-we-wanna-run-a-movie college operations that Scott and I live in. And you think YOU'VE got it bad cause once in awhile you find a single frame of green band left on a leader....heh heh.
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 03-18-2009 11:54 AM
Agreed with everything that Frank said. This stuff can be fun, but annoying.
And, yes, clueless people like to muck around with sound racks here as well. I had a blown center channel amp last fall (it was humming when I walked into the room for the first time in a year), and someone had seen fit to remove and dispose of (!) the bypass power supply for the CP500 (problem solved with a temporary custom format). Evidently, no one had noticed the issue until then.
The biggest issue that I have, though, is with prints that get delivered somewhere other than the actual venue where they are to be shown, and students and/or staff who do not realize this, leaving it to me to find the print and retrieve it.
I can't really blame these people, since this isn't really something that they do on a regular basis, but I wish that more of them would show some common courtesy and learn from their past failures.
This stuff is a hobby for me. I don't need it to put food on the table and I do it because I enjoy it, but it really does get frustrating at times.
Now back to your regularly scheduled ranting about morons who destroy prints.
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John Hawkinson
Film God
Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 04-20-2009 03:13 PM
Whoever had Swank's print #1 (i.e. TES print SWANK\00001) of Paramount's Top Gun, YOU SUCK!
Did you really need to add nine splices to the middle of reel 3?
Did you really need to cut out pieces of the dogfight scene?
Did you really need to make your splices across the middle of the frame from two clearly dissimilar scenes? eight times?
Here are splices from 1516'13f, 1518'11f, and 1525'7f:
(Ignore, please, the paper tape used to tape the film to the glass)
wtf?
Why would anyone make splices like that? I don't know what the footage count on Top Gun is supposed to be. This reel counts out at 1789'11f.
I'm not even sure what kind of damage would result in this pattern. A properly-framed splice at 5', then these mid-frame garbage splices at 7', 27', 1449', 146', 1502', 1516', 1518', and 1525'.
(p.s.: 2000-datecoded polyester print. Aside from missing footage in R3, some missing footage at the heads and tails of reels (including all reels cut to 1/2 second after the changeover cue), and mild dirt on the heads/tails of the print, it would be fine. But the missing footage is REALLY ANNOYING. Not even a note or explanation?)
Even if you weren't the person to cause the damage, couldn't you have left a note about it?
--jhawk
[ 04-21-2009, 08:19 PM: Message edited by: John Hawkinson ]
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John Hawkinson
Film God
Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 04-21-2009 08:02 PM
I have to say, I'm pleased that some combination of Technicolor, Swank, Paramount, DFS, and my management were all able to talk and get me a replacement Top Gun today from Seattle. (Just wait until someone finds out how much that cost...) Hats off, guys! ![[thumbsup]](graemlins/thumbsup.gif)
Per DFS#7010 (see footage counts in the FITA), R3 should have been 1838'12F (possibly plus a few frames), not 1789'11F. So it was missing at least 49'01F or 33 seconds. Turns out the missing 33 seconds included the iconic phrase, "I feel the need...the need for speed!" Sure makes me wonder if the missing footage was not an accident.
--jhawk
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Tony L. Hernandez
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 158
From: Windsor, CO, USA
Registered: Dec 2005
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posted 04-25-2009 04:27 AM
Theater: NuArt Theater (Landmark), Los Angeles, Ca
Movie: "Tokyo!",print #9
Please Note: The problems listed below were 100x more stressful for me than they usually would be due to the fact that (for reasons beyond our control) the print did not arrive at the theater until one hour prior to the show. This means, that the last part of the print was being built while the show was running. For example, reel-5 was not ready for showing until about 2 minutes before my motor cue on reel-4 hit the screen! It is worth noting, however, that my showing went perfectly and the audience never knew what was going on up in the booth!
The physical condition of the print: Excellent. No scratches. Very little dirt. Good lab cue marks. Great color.
How we received it: Unacceptable, F-. The heads of each reel (it came in heads out) had no form of leader material attached. 2 of the reels were not properly taped down so they were unraveling in the can which created a mess. Upon winding the reels down to the tail, I discovered that each reel core had anywhere from 1-3 random heads and tails wrapped around the cores and assembled with masking tape. Reel-3's tail, reel-4's head and reel-7's head AND tail were nowhere to be found. I made new tails for reel-3 and reel-7 that will ship out with the print and spliced our Academy leaders on reels 4 & 7 so that we could sync our changeovers (we run 2k foot changeover) however these will have to be removed prior to shipout as these are the only two I have and we need them. Reels 5 & 6 were spliced together backwards and called "reel-5" and reel-7 was renamed reel-6. I broke these reels apart and corrected. It took me a few minutes to figure out just what happened here; It took me by surprise to find that my heads and tails for reel-5 did not match the reel nor any other reels in the print.
Some of the most inconsiderate and stupid film work I have ever seen in my 10+ years projecting. Had this gone to a theater with a less experienced operator, they most likely would have lost some showings.
Thank you, NuArt "projectionist" for giving me an evening from hell and sending my blood pressure thru the roof ![[fu]](graemlins/fu.gif)
**I am guessing the person who built and broke this print down was different that the actual operator considering that the print physically was in excellent condition.
[ 04-25-2009, 03:00 PM: Message edited by: Tony L. Hernandez ]
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John Hawkinson
Film God
Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 04-25-2009 08:56 AM
I've gotta say, Tony, if any correctable problem is the "worst film work" you've "ever seen," then you might not want to not toot your horn as much.
I'll take messed-up or missing leaders any day over scratched prints, missing footage, or bizarro splices.
That said, yeah, it's really annoying when prints arrive Just In Time and require a lot of attention.
On the spaghetti thing, probably you know this, but it's dramatically easier to deal with if you lift all the reels out of the can at once (squeeze horizontally and lift) rather than trying to take them out one at a time. Then it's just a few seconds to unravel; just stop and think about which way you're supposed to be turning a reel.
--jhawk
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