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Author Topic: Projectionist's manual James Westbrook Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1133 From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa Registered: Mar 2006 posted 12-12-2007 03:57 PM                     "Roller-blading?" If I catch any member of my staff doing that in my theatre, I will write them up.  |  IP: Logged Peter David Bruce Expert Film Handler Posts: 187 From: East Anglia -England Registered: Aug 2007 posted 12-12-2007 04:12 PM                    ooh i dont know.... i can picture that working..... up until cleaning the screens and tackling the escalator...  |  IP: Logged Steve Beverly Film Handler Posts: 83 From: El Paso, Tx., Registered: Nov 2007 posted 12-12-2007 08:15 PM                     Hey Randy, mail or email that stuff to me an I guarentee IIIII'LLLL read it!  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-12-2007 10:29 PM                     Do you have a Tascam CD-R 2000 recorder and a Mackie 32 X 8-bus mixer? They wouldn't do you much good if you didn't have the equipment they describe? I could send you the movie projector manual I wrote but our C.E. automation is custom wired. Even if you had that same model, my manual wouldn't do you much good because if I told you to "Press button 'X.'" it wouldn't do the same thing on your system. A cross cue on my automation does something completely different that it does on yours. Sure, if I can dig up my old files I might send you something if you REALLY want to read it.  |  IP: Logged Steve Beverly Film Handler Posts: 83 From: El Paso, Tx., Registered: Nov 2007 posted 12-12-2007 11:15 PM                     Oh I thought you had written a general projectionist's manual. I can see how the stuff you wrote would be of little use for anyone who does not have the specific equipment they were written for but I do appreciate the offer, thanks much anyway.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-12-2007 11:52 PM                     I wrote a lot of stuff that ended up in Cinemark's training manual. Never got so much as a F-U for doing it, either.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 12-13-2007 04:00 AM                     People like to see pictures on how any task is done for it's too complicated to read on how to do that task since they don't want to take the time (or desire in that fact) to think things out - like Randy's "Finalize" story - and I know how that one goes when Audio CD recorders first came out and wonder why on earth their newly burnt CD's aren't playing in their players when it's clearly marked of that pre-play instruction...no pictures to tell them how it is ... True, a laughable manual for booth clowns...(and you think that they'll read this...?)  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-13-2007 03:39 PM                     I scanned pictures of the control panel on that CD recorder right out of the instruction manual. Then I used Illustrator to superimpose big red numbers on the buttons that the user needed to press in order to operate the player. I used red electrical tape, marked with a Sharpie marker to make labels on the control panel of the player itself. To use the player, all you had to do was look at the instruction sheet and read: To finalize a disk. 1) Press <FINALIZE> button. (A) 2) Press <ACCEPT> button. (B) etc, etc... Then you pressed buttons "A" and "B" just like in the picture. I went around to about a half dozen different people to ask them to read my instructions and try to operate the player without me telling them how to do it. They had to do it just by reading the sheet. I did have to change a few mistakes and clarify a few steps but, by the time I had the second or third person test my instructions, it was clear that anybody who could read and follow a simple instruction sheet could operate the thing. Next, I went to Staples and had them laminate the instructions in plastic. I posted them right next to the machine. ANYBODY who needed to use that machine could simply read the instructions, 1...2...3... and produce a disk. STILL, I got people who couldn't do it because they didn't read the instuctions! It is always ME who has to interrupt my dinner and drive 20 minutes to work (and 20 minutes home again) just to push a little red button! This happens regularly, at least once or twice per month! And people wonder why I seem like I'm barking mad!  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 12-13-2007 06:32 PM                     ..and talking to them over the phone on how to finalize doesn't work either? I'd be charging them time and fuel expenses for your evening interruptions. ...Don't blame you for being like a dog wanting to jump down their throats and rip their lungs out... -Monte  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-13-2007 11:19 PM                     No. It doesn't. They'll just stand there and stare while you try to talk them through it. Do you know how you have to press "Alt-F8" to get a laptop PC to switch its video output to the external port so you can display a PowerPoint show on a video screen? I had to drive in to work, one night, just to press "Alt-F8." I hit the button, turned around, walked out, got in my car and drove right home.  |  IP: Logged Steve Beverly Film Handler Posts: 83 From: El Paso, Tx., Registered: Nov 2007 posted 12-14-2007 12:56 AM                     I woulda charged overtime for that! What were you dealing with over there, chimps?  |  IP: Logged James Westbrook Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1133 From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa Registered: Mar 2006 posted 12-14-2007 01:00 AM                     (cough cough)...managers.  |  IP: Logged Steve Beverly Film Handler Posts: 83 From: El Paso, Tx., Registered: Nov 2007 posted 12-14-2007 01:06 AM                     OH so he WAS dealing with chimps (just kidding if there are any managers out there)  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-14-2007 08:35 AM                     Actually, chimps probably could have done it by themselves. It was two guys from the Navy. I shit you NOT!  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-14-2007 12:28 PM                        Problem with narrative manuals is that it takes a very special talent to write a manual well. Just knowning the equipment and a good command of the English language (which isn't as easily come by as one might think) isn't good enough. The big problem that is very difficult to overcome and which is the difference between a really talented techical writer and just an ordinary one and an excellent manual and one not so good, is that the writer must not assume anything. Knowing a procedure inside and out makes it difficult not to skip points that you are aware of almost unconsciously, know but that the reader does not. It really is a specialized talent. If you don't think so, just look at "Help" instructions in any Microsoft product -- perfect example of writers who haven't a CLUE how to write manuals well.  |  IP: Logged

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