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Topic: rant on stupid customers

James Westbrook
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1133
From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa
Registered: Mar 2006

posted 08-25-2008 02:44 PM

The customers who chose to leave were refunded their tickets and concessions.
The cut and drop was employed so as I could start the movie WITHOUT the 15 minutes of trailers that I was certain the audience didn't want to be subjected to a second time. A leader was attached to the beginning, and when it started taking up strips of foam was inserted so the trailers could be dropped back in for subsequent showings.

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Thomas Pitt
Master Film Handler

Posts: 266
From: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
Registered: May 2007

posted 08-25-2008 03:46 PM

I've sometimes been surprised by the temperature difference between outdoors and the lobby, and even sometimes between the lobby and the auditorium! I've been to showings wearing a heavy coat, because the temperature outside was less than 10C - only to find that the auditorium is uncomfortably warm, and have to take the coat off!

Likewise, on hot summer days I've gone to the cinema wearing nothing but jeans and a T-shirt. When I get into the auditorium, I find they've cranked up the air-con to maximum and I feel cold - sometimes shivering! That reminds me of a sign I once saw in the Sheffield Cineworld, it said "We currently have a problem with the heating in screen 11 and it is very cold". I wonder how many people showed up without a heavy winter coat and were told to go in there? [Smile]

How easy is it to 'rewind' a digital movie? I'm just wondering, if someone showed up slightly late for a movie, and still happened to be the first one into the auditorium, would you restart the film for that one person? [Big Grin]

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 08-25-2008 05:05 PM

quote: Thomas Pitt
How easy is it to 'rewind' a digital movie? I'm just wondering, if someone showed up slightly late for a movie, and still happened to be the first one into the auditorium, would you restart the film for that one person?

It's very easy to rewind. With cinelister you could hit the pause button then click on the backwards-advance button that moves it back to a section a few minutes earlier in the movie and you could use that to skip back to the beginning. Another way would be just to click "stop" then start it up again, do the pause again then advance forward which will skip over trailers one by one.

And if instead, you had needed to start a movie up in a certain part of the movie (due to, say, a power outage) you could keep on clicking advance during the movie and someone inside the auditorium radios to you that you're within a few minutes of when it dropped.

But I'd be surprised if anyone would restart a movie since that'd screw up the exit time to start up the next showtime.

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Jesse Skeen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1517
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 08-25-2008 05:10 PM

quote: Matthew Kirwan
We have crappy top masking too, and had a similar incident. I drop masking, start the film, 30 seconds later on the radio: "Projection, a customer says the screen is falling off in 11."

The masking should just stay down all the time anyways! If you have to run pre-show junk, resize it to fit the screen- if it's big enough to show the movie, it's big enough to show the preshow too. Top masking is bad enough on its own, but don't make it so obvious to everyone that you have it!

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 08-25-2008 05:51 PM

Related to the above,

When we had a film festival in April, it included some 35mm short films and some of them alternated between flat and scope so we had someone stationed to be at the projector the whole time so he could switch the format when one ended and the next one began immediately.

One particular group of shorts played in a top-masking house and it switched from a scope short to a flat one. The guy switched everything just fine. Then we get a complaint over the radio that "the screen is too large" only to see that everything was running as it should.

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Patrick Dunn
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 120
From: newark, DE, United states
Registered: Aug 2005

posted 08-25-2008 06:30 PM

I hate the screens where the top comes down and cuts off the top of the screen, but it is a better solution than the 2 theaters where we have to go in and lift up the flap on the bottom of the screen. We don't have those digital preshows, but i would just resize it to fit the screen when it was set to scope so i wouldn't have to keep going in to adjust the flap, and in front of customers.

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Andy Muirhead
Master Film Handler

Posts: 323
From: Galashiels, Scotland
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 08-25-2008 07:47 PM

quote: Sean McKinnon
You can un-thread the projector and then pick up the take-up ring off the platter and wind the film onto the ring (you may have to pass the ring under conduits, or pipes etc...) and then drop it in without cutting any film.

And you're assuming all projection rooms are like yours? [Wink]

Like Mike said earlier, with my booth layout, I'd put a frameline cut in. In fact, that is what I do. Fair play with the obstacle course and all that though.

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Matthew Kirwan
Film Handler

Posts: 10
From: Salinas, CA, USA
Registered: Jul 2006

posted 08-25-2008 08:23 PM

Jesse: I agree, but preshow presentation is mandated by corporate, and they believe bigger is better.

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John Wilson
Film God

Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-25-2008 08:46 PM

Then corporate are idiots. [Razz]

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Matthew Kirwan
Film Handler

Posts: 10
From: Salinas, CA, USA
Registered: Jul 2006

posted 08-25-2008 09:02 PM

At times that may be, but a "Rant on stupid corporate" thread would probably cost a few jobs (everyone I know on the corporate level is aware of this site). [Razz]

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James Westbrook
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1133
From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa
Registered: Mar 2006

posted 08-26-2008 01:33 AM

And as employees, we have to do what we are told.

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Sean McKinnon
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1712
From: Peabody Massachusetts
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 08-28-2008 10:52 AM

quote: Andy Muirhead
And you're assuming all projection rooms are like yours?

No, that's why I said you may have to pass the ring under pipes, or rollers etc... I am sure there are some booths where due to poor design you would not be able to fit the take-up ring around obstacles. I presented the information for educational purposes so that next time the film would not have to be damaged, not to criticize.

This method also does NOT damage the film at all. You fingers should never come into contact with the picture area of the fime. You hold the take-up ring and film by the edge only.

I find it quicker to do that and then "Speed Wind" pass the trailers than go get the splicer and make a splice. I also think that cutting film unless it is damaged and needs to be removed, or you have no other choice is film done wrong. IMO, going the extra mile to ensure that the print is not damaged in anyway is what seperated button pushers from projectionists.

*****

I understand that corporations have thier policies and that for the most part local employees/managers have to follow them. If that was the case then your job was done the way your employer wanted and that makes you a very good and valuable employee. My disagreement is with the corporate policy which I feel is giving up dollars to save pennies but, if they tell you to follow a certain policy then you are doing the right thing by following it.

Fortunately when I was a manager for LCE there was no set policy for the number of passes/refunds to be given out and I always felt that the more you over deliver to the customer the happier they will be, the more people they will tell how well they were taken care of, and the more effort they will make to come back to my theatre.

Say a family of 4 sees 4 movies a year. If I give them a total of 8 passes I will only lose the ticketg revenue for those 8 tickets. If they choose not to come back I lose the ticket revenue for 16 tickets a year plus I also lose the concession revenue for those 4 people 4 times a year.

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John Wilson
Film God

Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-28-2008 05:29 PM

quote: James Westbrook
And as employees, we have to do what we are told.

That may be so, but it doesn't change the fact that with policies such as those (having the pre-show advertising on the largest possible screen, even if it means your real show won't be as big) they must indeed be idiots.

They know business, that doesn't mean they know THE business and what makes it really tick. Perhaps those corporate rule makers that make those dumb sort of rules should sit in one of their theatres sometime and watch a movie. It can do wonders to re-align their perspective on what's important.

I'll bet they never do though.

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Michael Brown
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1522
From: Bradford, England
Registered: May 2001

posted 08-29-2008 02:02 PM

Top masking coming down during a show is fairly common in england. This is mostly because all the pre-show adds and trailers are still usually on 35mm. So to "resize" the pre-show would mean buying new lenses and cutting new plates.

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 08-29-2008 08:05 PM

quote: Michael Brown
Top masking coming down during a show is fairly common in england. This is mostly because all the pre-show adds and trailers are still usually on 35mm. So to "resize" the pre-show would mean buying new lenses and cutting new plates.

Or couldn't you simply request your preshow ads to also be printed in scope. That's how it worked when my old theater had 35mm ads. They'd ship us both flat and scope versions.

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