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Topic: Theater owners lack focus

Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 12-12-2005 03:39 PM

OK... here's how you fix the problem! [evil]

As I understand the system, Regal's network reports the time that the booth is turned on and the digital ad stuff gets a "dry run". It also tattles on the "projectionist" by reporting the time the automation start button is pressed. Maybe what they also need is a keypad where the "projectionist" enters his employee number, then a series of "I really did it" buttons... one for focus, one for framing (yah I know, they shouldn't need it), one for volume, etc, etc. Then, if a complaint comes in, the info would be logged as to whom it was that should have actually checked those things. X complaints & yeroutathere!

... something like the bathroom checklist, y'know.

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Wolff King Morrow
Master Film Handler

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

posted 12-12-2005 03:57 PM

I emailed Steve and gave him some basics on how the lenses and aperture plates work. He was appreciative and wrote a followup to correct himself.

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Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God

Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 12-12-2005 04:42 PM

quote:
Then, if a complaint comes in, the info would be logged as to whom it was that should have actually checked those things. X complaints & yeroutathere!

Hell, if you're going to automate things, you might as well just connect mains to the automation start button through a relay that'll close and have them zapped if they fsck'd up the last show. [evil]

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Roger Manning Jr
Film Handler

Posts: 32
From: Encinitas, CA, USA
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 12-12-2005 04:55 PM

quote: Mike Blakesley
If people would just start avoiding that theatre and seek out ones with good presentation, the problem might be helped. The vast majority of people will choose convenience over quality, unfortunately.

There is no theater with "good presentation" around where I live.
The Encinitas AMC [puke]

is closing glad to see it go what a shitty place to see a movie, That leaves the Ultra Star La Costa witch is a little bit better but not much.
Roger

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

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

posted 12-12-2005 11:40 PM

Gee, I know of an easy fix: go digital...(RIGHT!!)

just like cars when they came out with an automatic transission option: took care of burnt out clutches, spun gears and stripped syncros.

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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-13-2005 01:53 AM

quote: Matt Fields
But, when you are AMC and you have 3000+ screens, each one with 4 or 5 screenings a day, each show becomes a small detail when you are in management, especially upper management. Thats the reality of having 15000 screenings a day as a company.

So the quality of each car coming off the assembly line at a plant is just a small detail?

The non-evasive way of saying it is that "The focus of the company is not on the quality of their product, but on keeping the operation cheap so as to maximize profit."

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

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

posted 12-13-2005 05:17 AM

matt said "But, when you are AMC and you have 3000+ screens, each one with 4 or 5 screenings a day, each show becomes a small detail when you are in management, especially upper management. Thats the reality of having 15000 screenings a day as a company"

It is the forgotten details that sink a company especially if the details are the ones that count
ask most of the car companys a few years back

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Wolff King Morrow
Master Film Handler

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

posted 12-13-2005 02:24 PM

But then again, if you're focused on paying cheap labor as a means to make more money, you accept the terms of the quality of that labor and the resulting presentation it comes with.

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Paul J. Neuhaus
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 126
From: Iraq.. Again!
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 12-13-2005 04:37 PM

Hot topic and definately the point of allot of agravation concerning the trend toward the multiplex.
But I do not agree about the argument of you get what you pay for in terms of labor!!
There are too many Great Managers right here in this forum that take good presentation too seriously to discount what it takes to get it.

PROPER TRAINING AND PERSONEL HELD TO THE HIGHEST STANDARDS!!

If good presentation is your standard you were probably taught it that way or made it your point to get it that way because you were given bad examples.

My point: There just is no good excuse to not show a show as intended.... Excellent

Yes equipment breaks down. But a quality Manager will take care of the guests and make sure that there employees keep with their high standards of quality presentation and guest satisfaction.

Responsibility at the lowest level is key and proper training is a must.

At the end of the day the multiplex manager has allot of responsibility as to delegate authority over colateral departments but you can only delegate authority not responsibility THE MANAGER IS STILL RESPONSIBLE AND SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE TO LESS THEN STELLAR PERFORMANCES!!

You can get allot out of a minimum wage employee if you expect it and hold them accountable!

Just my humble opinion
Paul

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 12-13-2005 05:58 PM

quote: Paul J. Neuhaus
At the end of the day the multiplex manager has allot of responsibility as to delegate authority over colateral departments but you can only delegate authority not responsibility THE MANAGER IS STILL RESPONSIBLE

That's pretty close, but not exactly how I recall the training...
The top of the food chain is ultimately responsible/accountable for the works, regardless of delegation... a concept that can be applied to levels above that of the individual site manager.

As for the people below him, there's a triad that I thought was a pretty good example. For an assignment to be successfully completed, the delegated person had to be given authority to carry out the task at hand, the responsibility to get it done as specified, and accept accountability for the results, good or bad. Eliminating any one of the three increases the potential for failure.

Seems to me a lot of gripes about staff performance can be traced to the lack of one or more of these elements.

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Paul J. Neuhaus
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 126
From: Iraq.. Again!
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 12-13-2005 07:36 PM

couldn't agree more

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Jon Miller
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 973
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 12-13-2005 08:18 PM

quote: Monte L Fullmer
just like cars when they came out with an automatic transission option: took care of burnt out clutches, spun gears and stripped syncros.

...but for those whose could drive a stick, it also took out the fun of driving. Boring. [Frown]

While in the booth of an "older" AMC theatre doing 16mm work for a film festival several years ago, I noticed posted signs reminding the operators not to use the start timer on the Strong CPA-10 automations and always manually start shows and check focus, framing, and turret action. Maybe the reminder signs were like most any other sign you'd see anywhere -- up for a reason, but frequently ignored.

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Steve Scott
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1300
From: Minneapolis, MN
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 12-13-2005 10:20 PM

I find it strange that AMC finds it necessary to spend X-thousands of dollars on "training programs" for its booth staff. Are their employees unable to one-on-one train their booth staff with a personal touch, specific to the equipment they're working with? What about quirks or tweaking in machinery? In my experience, a broad program will only interfere with and (in the long run) alienate booth staff as to the true nature of their job. The projection manuals from the UK are plenty of material, independent from the company, mind you, and still remain general enough to allow for location-specific training.

But the AMC theatres around Minneapolis have similar reputations as the one mentioned above, and I don't see AMC wising up in the near future. Patrons do care about quality presentation, though. We draw plenty a crowd away from the neighboring Har Mar & Pavillion theatres (AMC & Regal, respectively).

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Matt Fields
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 545
From: Ohio, United States
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 12-13-2005 10:33 PM

quote: William Hooper
So the quality of each car coming off the assembly line at a plant is just a small detail?

The non-evasive way of saying it is that "The focus of the company is not on the quality of their product, but on keeping the operation cheap so as to maximize profit."

Lets say you have 3,475 children. You want to take care of them as best you can, but you can't watch them all. So you hire babysitters and give them rules and pay them for their service. But not all of the babysitters follow the rules properly, or simply don't care, so some of your children don't get taken care of as well as the others. But that was never your intention, you wanted all of the children to be raised right.

It's not that AMC is trying to suck. It is that it is impossible for the management of any company with that many products to oversee each product and make sure every detail of the product is taken care of. That is the basic managerial challange of any large company, and it appears that AMC has some work to do.

All the company can do is set policies and try to enforce them.

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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-14-2005 01:01 AM

quote: Matt Fields
Lets say you have 3,475 children. You want to take care of them as best you can, but you can't watch them all. So you hire babysitters and give them rules and pay them for their service. But not all of the babysitters follow the rules properly, or simply don't care, so some of your children don't get taken care of as well as the others. But that was never your intention, you wanted all of the children to be raised right.

No, let's not use a father figure/authority figure allusion to distract from the issue. When they're used in politics or business, it's always creepy wondering if the person thought of them in a sort of scary personal Rorschach process or if they're being intentionally constructed for manipulation.

Instead, let's look at it as a business or mechanical operation.

quote: Matt Fields
It is that it is impossible for the management of any company with that many products to oversee each product and make sure every detail of the product is taken care of. That is the basic managerial challange of any large company, and it appears that AMC has some work to do.

And tell me what products on the shelf at Home Depot or Wal-Mart have the frequency of utter shoddiness of those shows described. Nobody else could stay in business putting out variably crappy product like that at the retail level; retailers wouldn't stock the goods due to their lack of quality control.

An effective quality control process is an expense, & the company's view is of quality issues being not being important enough to warrant the expense of effective quality control in favor of cheap operation. The result is variability & frequency of shoddy product, but low production costs.

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