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Topic: Theater treats kids expecting to see Chicken Little to the wrong movie

Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 11-06-2005 09:03 PM

..I guess that marking the end of the print with the show title and showtimes with masking tape or that artists tape didn't work too well... - in which we do all the time to teach people to read the showtitle and pay attention to the showtimes on the film itself, in as well on the schedule posted on the console.

Another goof is, okey you got the shows playing the right schedule, but did you switch the discs, if both are in DTS, since once in a while a data bit on one CD will be the same as the other movie and some nasty words can come out of Chicken littles mouth due to the other set of discs were left in the players.

-Monte

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Paul Konen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 981
From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-06-2005 09:29 PM

Monte said:

quote: Monte L Fullmer
Another goof is, okey you got the shows playing the right schedule, but did you switch the discs, if both are in DTS, since once in a while a data bit on one CD will be the same as the other movie and some nasty words can come out of Chicken littles mouth due to the other set of discs were left in the players.

I think it would take more than a single data bit to utter the wrong word from a DTS system. I would say that there are checksums involved in reading the timecode that would prevent that.

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-06-2005 09:37 PM

frank said "But when your a single projectionist at a 15-20 plex, you really dont have the time to sit and watch the previews. I am in full agreement that "R" and "G" movies shouldnt be in the same house. Mistakes happen.... "

I think one forgets the point the print should have been labled on the visable tail section
The operator should have checked it
It was still in my opinion a unforgivable mistake again booking policy should not be controled by the booth routine but the otherway around and if the operator can't handle the heat then get out of the kitchen

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Stephen LaPadula
Film Handler

Posts: 50
From: New York, Ny
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 11-06-2005 09:53 PM

quote: Dennis Benjamin
If the industry is going to book like the theatres are professionally run - then the theatres should be professionally run by operators getting paid a decent wage. AND NO - I don't think the AMC Empire 25 has a union projectionist running around up there.

Dave,

Your right. The Empire does not have a Union Proj running around up there....they have 2 at all times, making more than $25.00 an hour.

heres my rant...

Now sure everyone makes mistakes, but if your making that kind of money, and because Union guys are professional and perfect, and rip theatre chains for putting 'kids' in a professional job, than you can't afford to mess up like that.

Its no wonder these companies want the Union jobs cut. They can pay someone 1/3 of that and will still be taking the same chance of a screw up.

rant off

For the record, out of 250 people in that theatre only about 12 actually complained. Leave it to a b.s. NY newspaper to hype things up. The one person that did throw a fit ironically was by himself, without kids, and called the Daily News from the theatre lobby.

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Frank Dubrois
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 896
From: Cleveland, OH
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 11-06-2005 10:21 PM

Gordon, your right, it is a mistake that shouldnt have happened, but it did. If that projectionist makes that mistake again, I think it would be time to re-asses his worthiness as a projectionist. If he has any downstairs skills, perhaps a move back downstairs would be in order. I do firmly beleive that putting a "R" movie in the same house as a "G" movie is just inviting this kind of problem.

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 11-06-2005 10:37 PM

quote: Paul Konen
I think it would take more than a single data bit to utter the wrong word from a DTS system.

...LOL - give you a good example: At my 14 plex that I was presentation manager/company engineer at, we had a house with the classic Disney/"R"double,(can't remember the title for the "R", but the Disney was "Emperor's new Groove") and these shows alternated instead of the Disney being the matinee and the "R" for the night.

The "R" was a potty-mouth "R" movie, and the matinee operator forgot to swap discs and left the "R" discs in the drive with "Emperor" playing. Sure enough, the character in "Emperor" began to utter "F" words out like nobody's business! Talk about pandimonium that day. Customers came out left and right hollering to anyone who was in uniform, including the manager, on why this Disney had bad language encoded in the movie.

I immediately got called by the manager who was about ready to throttle me out of the business and told me to get down at the theatre on the double and get this situation solved out.

Course, right off, I knew what had happened, but had to get at the theatre to really found out. Sure enough, go to that console to the 6AD unit and found those "R" discs in the drive while the Disney was playing.

I bounced all over the matinee operator and gave him a written warning on making sure that the right discs are inserted in the drives for the right show and to pay attention to his operations or he'd be back downstairs shoveling popcorn for good.

I told the manager on what happened is that the timecoding on the film CAN match ANY discs in the drives and there isn't any checksum method to isolate discs to match the movies. It all depends on the awareness of the operator.

..and last week, it happened again, but of course not there, but where I'm working now at a discount house-wrong discs in the drives, and a woman's voice came out instead of the action scene music and sound effects that was supposed to be on the screen.

It's a thing to watch out for...

quote: Amanda Jones
"I forgot to do print moves before I left last night..."

HUH? How could one forget to do print moves? Isn't this a mandantory procedure for the Thursday night people to do so the Friday's people are all ready to start the next day right?

Is this a good case of the classic "wanting to get the frik out of there when day is done" - like clowns using opaque tape to do their splices with so they can break the films down faster and more easier?

Sorry, Amanda - not to pick on you, since we do goof up once in a while, just that we should always have things ready for the next day's business so the finger doesn't get pointed backwards on the ones of the day before.

- Monte

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Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 11-06-2005 11:07 PM

quote: Monte L Fullmer
timecoding on the film CAN match ANY discs in the drives and there isn't any checksum method to isolate discs to match the movies

Isn't there individual title encoding on these discs? I thought that if the wrong discs were loaded, only the film's analog optical track played back. (Wasn't that protection system added really fast after Jurassic Park in 1993)?

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 11-06-2005 11:25 PM

True. Basically, wrong disc will send the system to optical since no timecode is present to match up with the discs, but the reader is still sending timecode info to the system and, once in a while, a timecode section (which is like the "zebrastripe" on a item, but only per each frame) on the film will match up to the disc and "BINGO", info sent from the disc to cache for playback and system switches over to DTS to playback from that cache.

I'm sure that once in a while, that a certain "zebrastripe" will be duplicated down the road for another disc, but the odds are tremendous for this to happen...but it DOES, and CAN happen.

Few ways of completely preventing this is: 1-don't thread through the reader, 2-turn DTS unit off, and the obvious 3-"PLEASE", make sure that you have the correct discs IN the drives.

-Monte

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Amanda Jones
Film Handler

Posts: 92
From: Indianapolis, IN, USA
Registered: Aug 2005

posted 11-07-2005 05:59 AM

Actually it was Saturday night. We had Chicken Little playing in a big house in the afternoon and Saw II playing in a moderate house in the afternoon and they flip flopped during the night show and then needed to be switched back for Sunday afternoon.

It's no excuse but I was being rushed by my other closing manager who wanted to get to the bar.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-07-2005 07:22 AM

Do we know that this was the operator's fault? I did this once (interchanged "Princess Diaries" and "Rock Star") because I was given an early revision of a schedule which had since changed. The two films were supposed to swap houses for the late shows, but it was later decided that this wasn't necessary, but I wasn't told. The problem was corrected in about five minutes, despite the manager's screaming at me.

If the schedule is correct, though, there's no excuse for this. A note taped to the port glass would save lots of complaints.

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Wolff King Morrow
Master Film Handler

Posts: 490
From: Denton, TX, USA
Registered: Feb 2004

posted 11-07-2005 08:01 AM

quote: Brad Miller
Simple policies like this if strictly enforced DO put an end to silly goofs like this.

Amen. Although I heard there's a new "digital" method being developed where the projectionist is given an electric shock if they attempt to start the wrong movie. It costs 50 grand to implement per screen, but it allows you to staff a booth for 2 bananas an hour.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-07-2005 01:14 PM

I'm amazed that the AMC theatre is being allowed to book some R-rated film on the same screen with Chicken Little. Disney is notorious for not allowing screen-sharing, at least in the early weeks of the run.

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Mike Spaeth
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1129
From: Marietta, GA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 11-07-2005 04:27 PM

When you get into 3rd and 4th prints, you can often double on the first week ...

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David Buckley
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 525
From: Oxford, N. Canterbury, New Zealand
Registered: Aug 2004

posted 11-07-2005 05:12 PM

quote: Mike Spaeth
There is no excuse for threading the wrong movie. I terminated for this once ... they started "Scary Movie 2" instead of "Shrek 2".

By that logic there is no excuse for any mistake in any field of endeavour.

Showing the wrong movie is a cock up, sure, but its not actually the end of the world. If it were, then you (as manager and ultimately responsible) would have procedures in place appropriate to the level of risk and damage, which would prevent such a catastrophe occuring. If anyone is gonna get fired, the manager should be first in the list, for failing to implement appropriate control mechanisms.

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Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 11-07-2005 05:46 PM

Who's Dave?

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