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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » Hey you, you suck! (AKA: Outing bad film handlers) Part 2 (Page 36)

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Author Topic: Hey you, you suck! (AKA: Outing bad film handlers) Part 2 Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 12-10-2009 02:49 AM                     quote: Jean-Marc Toussaint Over here, the film cans (up to 7 - films are never spooled, they're always on cores) are packed in a single box. They switched from deluxe fiber cases to cheap cardboard boxes many years ago. No handles. That orange container looks nice. It went the opposite way over here, used to be cardboard boxes, then a few years ago they changed to re-usable plastic ones with metal handles on two sides, and straps. They're not really robust enough for the job. Also, the cans inside are usually of terrible quality, very often broken, and sometimes totally shattered. Something else that I've complained about before is that the cans have no spigot to hold the core in place, though cans with this feature do exist, I've seen a few, so the roll moves about inside the can. this has become worse sine polyester came in, so the rolls are smaller than they were with triacetate. I've seen eight rolls in a box quite often.  |  IP: Logged Sean McKinnon Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1712 From: Peabody Massachusetts Registered: Sep 2000 posted 12-10-2009 07:36 PM                        Yeah... To who ever had our print of "Mrs. Moschovitz and the cats" before us you REALLY REALLY REALLY SUUUUUUCK!!!! I don't think I have ever seen more masking tape on a print in my entire career including when I worked at the second run dollar house! Why? Why? Why? put Looooooooong strips of masking tape down the leader? Really? Why did you put cue tape on every reel's leader? obviously this print was plattered? And WHY??? The 3 ID frames on every real??? And why can't you people figure out how to put the leader back on right instead of backwards and soundtrack opposite the film? This Print Was In Absolutely Terrible Condition! Never mind the Dirt, Scratches, shoe polish, and grease pencil. You suck! Totally FILM DONE WRONG!!!!  |  IP: Logged Jean-Marc Toussaint Film Handler Posts: 60 From: Paris, France Registered: May 2008 posted 12-14-2009 03:15 AM                        Sean: the theatre I was helping was kind of an 'end of run' place so we would sometimes get 6 weeks old prints. One time we had a wonderful set of "accordion" tails, where all previous projectionnists had carelessly cut their own ending matchframe and meticulously reattached them back... I remember that the print of Wall-E we got was missing a full minute at the end of reel #2 (luckily, I found it attached to the very end of the movie - WTF????). Stephen: I wish they would pack their reels better. When we screened POTC3, we got all nine reels one morning. The cans were loose (ie - not boxed) and we discovered during build-up that we had a nice pair of reel#3 and we were missing reel#5 (yes, the cans were labeled 1 thru 9). A mad rush back to the depot and we got a new print. The 2pm show started at 2:10.  |  IP: Logged Sean McKinnon Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1712 From: Peabody Massachusetts Registered: Sep 2000 posted 12-14-2009 12:15 PM                        It was just nuts... We were running an Israel film festival and most of the prints had no cues, some had no countdown leader what so ever (we are a c/o house).  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-14-2009 04:41 PM                     Welcome to New York City  |  IP: Logged Sean McKinnon Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1712 From: Peabody Massachusetts Registered: Sep 2000 posted 12-14-2009 05:58 PM                        Thanks Bill!  |  IP: Logged Paul Looker Film Handler Posts: 83 From: Pittsburgh, PA/United States Registered: Sep 2009 posted 12-21-2009 08:10 PM                     I've been dying for a really awesome one to put on here. I've read through all the others and up until now I just didn't have anything that seemed to go above and beyond at all but that all changed last Thursday. Here goes. My theater was picking up a print of Armored in its 3rd week. Deluxe calls up on Tuesday and says you can get the print from "other local theater". I call "other local theater" and talk to the manager/operator. I suggest to her that we break down the entirety of this 90 minute movie onto one of my 32 inch reels. Fifteen to twenty minutes at each location, tear down and make back up. She says: "No, really it would be easier to just clamp the print and I'll drive it over in the back seat of my car. I do it all the time. It comes off at 11:20 or so. I can have it over to you no later than 12:30." There was some slight argument between the two of us, but she finally won, mostly because I couldn't bear to argue with her anymore. It wasn't quite as bad as I was imagining it would be for the next couple of days, images of 8000 feet of film needing to be shoveled out of the back seat of a volvo when someone needs to hit the brakes to hard throws the print out of the clamps and it completely unspools on the floor of the car, but still. That 12:30 arrival. Try 2:45. That professional by the manager delivery, try handed off to one of the concession employees that likes to hang out after close and doesn't even know what I mean when I say screenvision ads. That no problem print. Rain, all over it, because they couldn't even bother to cover it up in ANY way shape or form. Just wanted to rant a little bit. Thank you for listening.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 12-21-2009 08:41 PM                     Paul- You forgot to name the offending theater. After all this thread is titled OUTING bad film handlers. Bill - Were you welcoming him to New York city in a "welcome to the city" sort of way, or a "get use to it, all projection in this town sucks" sort of way?  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-21-2009 08:46 PM                     Part of planning for a festival is being prepared for this kind of thing. And part of being in New York, more than anywhere else, is planning for the unexpected I think, however, neither of those are what Bill meant. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 12-21-2009 09:01 PM                     Paul should have gone over there to get the print himself instead of depending someone else for circuit moves. Ususally the safest way to handle circuits... I've done many circuits via clamp and board moves, and make sure that I'm, or someone who knows how to do this form of print moves. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Sean McKinnon Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1712 From: Peabody Massachusetts Registered: Sep 2000 posted 12-22-2009 11:28 AM                        I think you should be preparared for the unexpected/worst no matter if you're in Tim-buck-too or Manhattan, It is just sad to see the destruction and total disregard for someone's art... I am sure people worked very hard to write, produce, and film these films and it saddens me that others have such little regard for others hard work that they ship out prints in these conditions!  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-22-2009 12:13 PM                        What Sean said. Also, for those who move plattered prints from one theatre to another without breaking them down, do you not bother to inspect the film at the new location? If you have automation, how do you ensure that the other theatre's cues do not do something horrific on your setup? What about getting trailers (if any) and threading leader (and the center ring) back to the original theatre? Personally, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of this sort of thing unless I knew and trusted the operator(s) at the other theatre (I can count these people on one hand).  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 12-22-2009 01:05 PM                     quote: Scott Norwood how do you ensure that the other theatre's cues do not do something.... One advantage is to know what that theatre has when it comes to cue setup so you know where to look on the print to remove those cues and put yours on. If I get a circuit print that uses yellow tape splices, then I'll go through the print to remove those for clear splices. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-22-2009 01:47 PM                     Brad I was welcoming him to NYC. But he is going to see films coming into this market in all kinds of conditions. There is alot of good film handlers around this city, but there is alot of bad ones too here. I see and fix alot of pre-release screening prints a week that bad film handlers damage. Where I'm at it's like running a film festival 5 days a week all year long.  |  IP: Logged Laurie Higgins Film Handler Posts: 45 From: Norcross, GA, USA Registered: Jun 2008 posted 12-26-2009 02:14 PM                        During the off season (anything that isn't a holiday or summer) we adjust our hours and open later during weekdays but still open the doors at approx 10:30ish on Fri, Sat and Sun. Our UPS and even Fed Ex (Bollywood shipped, which often arrive on Fri morning) will often not even stop on Fri when we desperately need him to bring our film we arrive early and wait in the lobby to receive. We will track it online and it will say a delivery exception that we were not there to receive, even though we were and watch the truck just drive on past without stopping. This happens almost weekly and is getting old so UPS YOU SUCK!! Also, I don't know what the deal is, maybe it's because we are split half/half with Hollywood and Bollywood, but Technicolor has been not sending us all the one sheets we need and I have to call every other week to have one sent out to us. We got the giant Sherlock Holmes standee, but no one sheets, wtf Technicolor?  |  IP: Logged

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