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Author Topic: Hey, everybody... let's show commercials... TWICE! John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 07-01-2004 03:12 PM                        quote: Corporate sponsors cannot be disappointed! Running ads without sound is "disappointing" and doesn't fulfill the contract. Checkers would likely report it.  |  IP: Logged Steve Scott Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1300 From: Minneapolis, MN Registered: Sep 2000 posted 07-01-2004 03:30 PM                     We keep getting calls from our advertising agency, Unique Screen Media, claiming that advertisers want their ads played louder on weekends. About a month ago, this led to a visit from one of USM's tech guys, one night, to do sound checks in our adutioriums of all non-sync levels. He reported back to me that most of the levels, as they were at the time, were just fine, but the advertisers just had different ideas of what patrons want, preshow: A sound level adequate to have a conversation and notice the ads; OR... to have the ads put right in your face, louder and more like a trailer sound setting. My guess is that the majority of people want to be able to talk with the people they came with if they came long enough before the show's start time, not to be advertised at. But there's still enough people that believe that the ads are coming from the same source as the film to want it loud... As the story goes, we raised a few auditorium levels, but the tech and I came to the consensus that most of the levels were just fine.  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 07-01-2004 03:37 PM                     quote: If there's any unplugging going on, we get the Big Brother calls from NCN headquarters ... "Hey, #14 isn't on ... oh, and the 2:00pm in #5 started too early!" They know!!! I would get those calls also. Usually after I have already called the problem in and told them that the projector was down. I just tell them that it is messed up and that we will run it again when it is fixed. OK, I will correct myself. turn off the projector with the power button, allow the bulb to cool and then unplug it so they cant turn it back on. Just to clarify, I dont just go turning off preshows because I dont like them. I prefer them 100%over running the ads in 35mm. But if it looks or sounds bad it will not run. Our support from Christie digital is actually pretty good down here, if it is an in house issue it will almost always be resolved within a day, it is the problems from whereever the central location is that seem to take weeks or months to fix.  |  IP: Logged Brian Michael Weidemann Expert cat molester Posts: 944 From: Costa Mesa, CA United States Registered: Feb 2004 posted 07-01-2004 03:47 PM                        quote: John Pytlak Running ads without sound is "disappointing" and doesn't fulfill the contract. Checkers would likely report it. No gripe there. But if there's an equipment issue such that it runs without sound, projection reports it to whatever control hub needs to know so it can be resolved. Hopefully this would happen way before any checker would file a report. But unplugging it to avoid the whole issue, of course, is worse ... because there exists a log somewhere of the pre-show not running, and as long as it looks good on paper, there's no problem, right?  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 07-01-2004 04:20 PM                     quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there's any unplugging going on, we get the Big Brother calls from NCN headquarters ... "Hey, #14 isn't on ... oh, and the 2:00pm in #5 started too early!" They know!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, I'd approve of that ONLY if they did the same with the actual movie- "Hey, the framing's off on Such-and-Such-movie, and the automation tape shows up onscreen on this one!" As for making it look like the projection staff doesn't know what they're doing, seems like that's the goal of some companies. (I thought green bands got cut off of trailers because whoever spliced them didn't know they were part of the trailer!) There's a lot worse things than running the same ad twice- I'd do that if ordered to, just don't ask me to cut out part of it or run it misframed or anything like that. As a booth operator I felt it wasn't my job to dictate content, but the more annoying an ad presentation gets, the sooner customers will finally get fed up enough with it to quit coming- I'm personally against advertising in theaters, but at this point the CUSTOMERS are as much to blame for it as everyone else, since they tolerate it without complaining and keep coming back. If enough people simply stopped going to theaters that run ads, or boycott the products advertised, the practice would stop.  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 07-01-2004 04:21 PM                     I think the bottom line on this issue is that it is your theater's and your company's reputation on the line. If running a show (preshow or feature) is acceptable presentation for your theater or company then that is fine. However, I want my theater to have a better reputation then that. I would rather nothing run at all then to run something with just audio or just video. As long as I have logged the problem with NCN then it is up to them to get it taken care of, in the meantime I will do what I need to do to maintain proper presentation. If that mean disabling the projector/sound, then so be it. There are plenty of other theaters in my chain/market that dont give a flip and I need to make sur eI set my self apart from them.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 07-01-2004 04:50 PM                     "There are plenty of other theaters in my chain/market that dont give a flip and I need to make sure I set my self apart from them." Did that- just seems to annoy everyone else in the chain though  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 07-09-2004 03:47 PM                        It's amazing how many different opinions we get on the digital pre-show thing. The first time I saw a digital preshow (The Regal 20), the sound was the same as during a movie (too loud for ads, since advertisers tend to push up the average loudness while peaks are still about the same). It was annoying. The second time I saw "The 20", there was picture, but no sound. I preferred this tremendously! I'd never complain about "The 20" with no sound! Yesterday, I saw a movie and "The 20" was there, with sound as loud as the movie, or louder. A commercial played twice while my friend and I were sitting there. It's a 20-minute thing, and they have to repeat a commercial within a couple of minutes of showing it the first time. Fucking annoying. That last time, they didn't even align the projector with the screen. Although the image top matched the screen, the left, bottom, and right all lacked about a foot reaching the screen edges in "flat" mode. (The screen was opened to scope mode when the film part started). Fuck "The 20". I think it's the most terrible, unprofessional thing ever done to hurt the theatre experience. If you sit in the front half of the auditorium, you can even see the pixels! And I'm so sick of Wanta Fanta, blah blah blah Wanta Fanta, blah blah blah Wanta Fanta, blah blah blah Wanta Fanta, blah blah blah ... .. .. . I'm thinking of starting to deduct for presentation problems with "The 20" in my theatre reviews on hsvmovies.com . I haven't yet, but I'm keeping notes in case I change my mind. The current problem is if I prefer "The 20" without sound, it's hard to deduct for that defect. I think it looks very unprofessional to have the digital projector not aligned with the screen, however, or to have the digital projector setup for "flat" before a "scope" movie in an auditorum with top/bottom masking, so the screen gets smaller for the movie. The Regal Hollywood 18, with its "20", now has the feel of a big-screen TV instead of a movie theatre. The problem is theatres' customers coming to see the movies are now secondary in importance. Companies paying to have the ads on the screen have more say in operations than the customers' preferences.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 07-09-2004 04:13 PM                        John Pytlak mentioned ad checkers. I've been doing monthly checks for Regal here for about a year. I just got a letter from them informing me that monthly checks will no longer be necessary. I guess everything is so close to perfection in theatres that there's no compelling reason to do any checking.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-09-2004 04:54 PM                     Either that or perhaps they don't approve of the fact that you have outed yourself by name and face to the managers of that region by talking about it here. The last time I checked, you are supposed to do that "undercover" and the management/staff should not know you are doing a check.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 07-09-2004 05:07 PM                        There's no secret about it whatsoever (at least not with Regal). Checkers interact with staff e.g. concessions, to see if they're using the right promo popcorn bags or whatever. Checkers are required to get the manager's signature if no ticket is purchased, or if some expected promo isn't there (standees, box office handouts, or concessions junk). And since the checkers have to theater-hop, the staff has to know who you are and why you're there (3 screens are ad-checked on each visit). If checkers were undercover, and trying to check 3 screens, there's no way they could get away with it (most of the time, not here anyway). Also, you'll note that I've never discussed the results of my checks -- I'm not a complete idiot (yet). At least I don't think I've ever done that...  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-09-2004 05:57 PM                     Ok. That just seems to defeat the purpose letting the staff know you are there checking up on them.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 07-09-2004 06:26 PM                        I guess it could be argued that the staff might be more careful about making sure the required promo stuff & ads are being used if they know someone is checking up on them periodically and reporting to "headquarters". The way it's set up, where everyone knows what's going on, it seems less adversarial and more motivational than if the checks were done in secret. About the 3rd time I did one of these, it was pretty obvious that everyone working there knew why I was there, not just the managers.  |  IP: Logged Daniel Fuentz Expert Film Handler Posts: 230 From: Fresno, CA, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 07-11-2004 09:39 PM                     My mom used to do checks several years ago, and we almost always got the blind checks. Mann always had pre-printed questions about the projection quality of the movie itself, while the UA checks we did we would always note scratches and bad sound in the "other comments" section. There weren't pre-show ads in those days, so we just had to remember the trailers that ran.  |  IP: Logged

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