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Author Topic: Chain Theater Hiring Practices Dustin Mitchell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1865 From: Mondovi, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 08-12-2004 04:55 PM                     I wouldn't necessarily limit yourself to theatres withing driving distance of your school either (where are you going out of curiosity, Marquette, MSOE, UWM?). Milwaukee has a very good bus system, you can get pretty much anywhere riding the bus. Plus if you are a Marquette or UWM student you ride for free with your ID.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 08-12-2004 06:54 PM                    Huh? "Pennsylvania honey" is piss off a toilet seat? I musta misread. Just to be safe I better avoid honey mustard while in the Keystone State. I don't even want to know.  |  IP: Logged Shane Hoffmann Film Handler Posts: 68 From: Fond du Lac, WI, USA Registered: Feb 2003 posted 08-12-2004 07:28 PM                     Actually I'm going to Wisconsin Lutheran College. It's a small liberal arts school that my mom works at so I get tuition remission. It's bordered by Wisconsin on one side and Bluemound on the other-- just off of Hwy 45. I may come back here to Fond du Lac now and then as well. My boss told me he would still like me to do regular maintenance in the booth, and also said he would schedule me in concessions whenever I wanted. The only problem is the 60 mile drive to work...I might have to do it though if I don't find a job in Milwaukee.  |  IP: Logged Rachel Craven Madam Moderator Posts: 2190 From: Pensacola, FL Registered: Dec 2000 posted 08-12-2004 10:02 PM                     quote: Richard Cieplechowicz There are some theatre in Wisconsin that are in need of qualified managers. The Appleton 16 is in need of several hourly and salaried managers. The Regal in Appleton would be great to work at (I go there once a week even though its an hour drive, my favorite theater around here! ) but unless they are hiring weekend only managers that is too far away for me considering school is full-time from 8AM-4:30PM quote: Aaron Mehocic Rachel you need to live in Pennsylvania honey where you can't even get a job cleaning piss off a toilet seat unless you know somebody. Aaron, you need to live in Wisconsin where you can't even get a job cleaning piss off a toilet seat if you DO know somebody! I always had good luck finding a job in Massachusetts, word of mouth got around and I was getting offers to numerous theaters but around here I can't even get hired at one. It sucks.  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 08-12-2004 11:53 PM                       FWIW, a lot of places get pee'ed off if you try to call them when they tell you not to. They look at it like "how can we expect you to follow directives, when you can't even comply with the application instructions?" In today's throw away society, 'the squeaky wheel' doesn't always get the grease. Sometimes, it gets pitched in the trash. ------------------ BTW, I like that new photo, Rach'! You're a cute little baby-doll alright!  |  IP: Logged Richard Cieplechowicz Film Handler Posts: 16 From: San Antonio, TX Registered: May 2002 posted 08-13-2004 02:07 AM                     Rachel, Until recently I was the GM of Appleton but had to come back to IL for family reasons. The theatre does need people with strong management and projection experience. I'm sure any hours you could work would be very helpful. The district manager for Appleton is based out of my current theatre in IL. If you email me your resume I will get it to him. Let me know if you need any other information on the theatre.  |  IP: Logged Rachel Craven Madam Moderator Posts: 2190 From: Pensacola, FL Registered: Dec 2000 posted 08-13-2004 08:44 PM                     Richard, I've been in the theater business for over 10 years (I'm 24) and a manager/general manager for 6 so I have some experience. Projection on the other hand I CAN do and HAVE done for many years, I just don't pride myself on it. I'll email you.  |  IP: Logged Shane Hoffmann Film Handler Posts: 68 From: Fond du Lac, WI, USA Registered: Feb 2003 posted 08-13-2004 10:11 PM                     I just applied online for the Marcus Westown UltraScreen Cinemas in Waukesha, WI, and for the Marcus Ridge Cinemas in New Berlin. If anybody has connections to either of these theaters, I would love to hear from you. Just send me an email or post here.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-14-2004 12:22 AM                        Aaron--are you saying that your theatre would reject an application for "projectionist" from someone with (say) 10-20 years' worth of experience and excellent references just because you want him to "prove himself" by ripping tickets and sweeping floors? The whole idea of "we don't hire projectionists" is just silly in my opinion. If a theatre needs to fill the position, I don't see why they wouldn't try to hire the most qualified candidate, whether he comes from within the company or outside it. (As it happens, "projectionist" is the only position that I've ever officially held for any theatre. I will _not_ shovel popcorn or sweep floors, nor will any other projectionists I know who is any good at the job. Is this really so unusual?)  |  IP: Logged Aaron Mehocic Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 804 From: New Castle, PA, USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-14-2004 01:22 PM                     No, I didn't say that. I used the word "responsibility" in my post, and one way of judging a prospective candidate's responsibility is to give them temporary floor positions while monitoring their abilities from afar and in private with other operators. We look for the following: punctuality, respect for tools, basic knowledge of how simple things work, problem solving skills, and ability to work under pressure. Our customers are paying good money to be entertained at out theatre and we want to have qualified people capable of running the equipment. In our area we don't necessarily have an over abundance of trained projectionists jumping from house to house, so previous booth experience for most claiming to be "projectionists" is shoddy at best. Never have I seen a booth applicant in the past 14 years claim to be knowledgible with certain aspects of our equipment or offer anybody as professional-related references. I had a manager who once told me a monkey could be taught to lace a projector . . . he got fired by another theatre recently. Don't really know why, and really don't care why. Maybe he had monkeys upstairs with him - I don't know.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 08-14-2004 09:50 PM                     I tried to get a management/booth job at a theater a couple months ago, but was told they could only offer me an entry-level floor staff position to start with and then work my way up, despite having 10 years of booth experience. I found that rather shocking, since I probably have more experience than some of the people they have running that booth now (presentation there has been good but not perfect.) I wouldn't mind doing floor staff for a couple weeks, but that would require me to leave the full-time job I have right now that pays me more than minimum wage, and I just can't afford to do that. I'm willing to "prove myself" however they want me to, but obviously I can't leave my current job before I know if things would work out. (The last company I worked for hired me for booth immediately, since I was much more experienced than any of their other people.) I hid my disappointment but did remind them that I did have considerable booth experience and would definitely be an asset to their company, so they said they'd forward my info to someone higher up in the company but I never heard back from anyone, so I'm not sure what to do at this point. I'm pretty happy with the job I'm in now, but I miss the theater business and want to try and get back in after being out for nearly 3 years. It's always tough following up on a job application- if you do call to follow up you might be annoying, but if you don't then they might take it that you don't really care that much about getting the job.  |  IP: Logged Dave Williams Wet nipple scene Posts: 1836 From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA Registered: Jan 2000 posted 08-15-2004 08:09 AM                        As a manager I have always rejected any and all phone calls regarding applications. I would recieve up to 20 a day, and if all of them called I would never have gotten any work done. Also, in my management experience of 15 plus years, it is never pleasant to take a call regarding someones application and have them start questioning you as to why they haven't got the job yet. I do not like explaining myself to people that do not even work for me. And it is almost always the case. People tell these kids to follow up with a phone call, but none of them have ever been taught courtesy with that phone call. Saying the wrong thing to someone regarding thier application could get you sued. Imagine that someone comes in and is 485 pounds and puts in an application to run the snack bar. I do not want to tell them that they project an unappetizing image and my sales will go down, because I would get protested by some whacko rights group and sued into oblivion. So instead, I can make that judgement call at the time of application, and then leave that judgement in my head where it belongs, and the application in a pile that will never get hired. There are a million personal reasons that a manager will have to not hire someone. Most will not want to answer those questions as to why, because it begs to question thier motives in management and does not allow them personal discretion, one of the most valuable tools in management. I have come across thousands of people who projected some form of bad image and I would just not give them the time of day. Just because someone has experience or really wants to work there does not make one the best candidate for the job. It is nothing personal, just a management preference, good or bad. I personally never allowed an application to ever go out the door without me shaking the hand of the person taking it. I would never allow it to come back unless I took it personally. It allowed me to see what kind of person was applying. First impression is everything. If you go to the snack bar and some unkempt person is there helping you, you tend to be less enthusiastic about your purchase. But you put someone there that takes you mind off of them and on to your popcorn, good deal done there. So don't take it personally that you can't get a job there. Qualifications are fine and all, but I have always found that if you can find a manager that ISN'T busy at the moment, introduce yourself and talk about the theater. It always worked for me when I was a manager. people who werer interested in the actual workings and concerned about potential problems got my attention, and if they were interested in a job and not hideous to look at, then they would definately be put in the maybe pile. Ciao Dave  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 08-15-2004 11:55 AM                     quote: Scott Norwood Aaron--are you saying that your theatre would reject an application for "projectionist" from someone with (say) 10-20 years' worth of experience and excellent references just because you want him to "prove himself" by ripping tickets and sweeping floors? For the most part we do not hire projectionist from outside. However, on a few occasions when we were in a crunch we have done it and with the exception of one person they all were horrible. Some of these people hade experience some did not. Personally I get tired of wasting time training people and then having them walk out in the middle of a round a week later. If someone has already been on the floor for a few months then I feel more confident that thhey will be more stable. Also, it is difficult to get people to break old habits. I would much rather start with someone new.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 08-15-2004 02:50 PM                     If I were in charge of hiring people for the booth, I'd at least give them a written test with their application to see what their current attitudes and knowledge are. I worked with one guy who had previously worked at another theater, and he thought it was perfectly OK to not pay attention to threading in frame, and just adjust the framing onscreen once the show started! Obviously I would have rejected him right away. You have the same problem with training new people though; some of them decide they just don't care right off the bat, or they might care but not understand the right way to do things no matter how many times you tell them. It's definitely wrong to automatically assume someone with 10 years experience is going to have bad habits that make them worthless- see how they're used to doing things, and if there's anything dreadfully wrong that they're doing explain to them that you'd like them to do it your way, and explain why.  |  IP: Logged Jacob A. Velleman Film Handler Posts: 13 From: Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA Registered: Jul 2004 posted 08-18-2004 09:10 PM                     [ 08-19-2004, 01:23 AM: Message edited by: Jacob A. Velleman ]  |  IP: Logged

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