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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Ground Level   » 5 screens slashed in 18-plex (Regal Hollywood 18, Huntvsille, AL) (Page 2)

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Author Topic: 5 screens slashed in 18-plex (Regal Hollywood 18, Huntvsille, AL) Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 03-15-2008 07:21 PM                     Been there and done that with one circuit when we standardized on three sizes and only had to worry about an occaisonal special large screen. Their situation for emergency shipping was high coordination and a week in transit / clearance...so they had spare screens in the main warehouse.  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 03-17-2008 01:56 PM                        This is Regal we're talking about. I'll bet they have spare screens ready for such emergencies.  |  IP: Logged Tony L. Hernandez Expert Film Handler Posts: 158 From: Windsor, CO, USA Registered: Dec 2005 posted 03-18-2008 02:20 AM                     It always breaks my heart to hear of such Vandalism. Even though its a large chain that does not make it right. Screens seem to be the prime target of theater vandalism. They are accessible, fragile and the first thing that comes into sight when you enter an auditorium. Even kind intentioned but dim witted people who go up to "feel" the screen with their hand take their toll. I have seen people do this. A second-run multiplex I was involved in some years ago regularly had drinks and even objects thrown at them. All of my current theaters are single screens with the exception of twin screening rooms in one building. Henceforth, there is not much vandalism problems as there is almost always someone in the auditorium, even if it is just myself in the booth, to supervise. If I am projecting and no one else is in the auditorium, I make sure in a subtle way that my presence "up above" is known to the patrons. One theater that I project at dose not have a screen per se, but a curved drywall substitute painted with special paint and there has been a coffee looking stain on the middle of it that was there when I started working there. We plan to clean and repaint the surface soon.None of my other theaters have had screen damage. At the theater that I assist in the management of, I am sure to make regular walks down the isles before the show and a couple times during the show both to make sure everyone and everything is okay and also as a deterrent to vandalism and general misbehavior. That theater, I should mention, also stays very clean, undamaged and the audience behaves well. This is amazing considering there are not many regulars as it is a tourist town with thousands of strangers coming in and out of town on a weekly basis. I like to believe both the fact that we keep it looking very high quality and the fact I patrol it regularly helps. I too wish curtains would make there return. They ad a certain excitement and professional sense to the movie going experience. None of my theaters currently have a working curtain. One did and we used it but the motor has broken. It was working right up to the time we closed for the winter of 2006-2007. When we reopened in May of 2007, it was open and the motor would no longer close it. I had my mechanical genius father look at it, the owners engeneer husband look at it and I bleive even the director of a short musical play who rented the theater durring the morning for the month of June had someone check it out but no one knew what was wrong or how to fix it. So it sits.... Its a beautiful gold curtain. I love the color gold and I love the ambeance a curtain gives a theater as patrons get seated and as the show is starting. How I wish we could fix ours and how I wish all theaters would get back to using them. One reason I imagine the multiplexes shy away from them is the fact that with a curtain covering your screen until the show starts, you cannot have pre show slides or digital ads. No ads=less money. And we know too many chains are just in it for the money and not the experience of going to the movies. I tend to disagree to a slight extent about the slashed screens being a target of a former employee. Yes that is possible but wouldn't someone evil enough to break in to a theater and vandalize it who has been in the theater business know to go for the juggler and hit the projection booth with its many delicate, expensive and easy to break and/or screw up items?  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 03-18-2008 03:20 PM                        I didn't mean to imply that the vandalism happening to a large chain made it any less of a bad thing -- I was just saying since Regal is such a large company, they're likely to be able to get the screens repaired more quickly than a small chain or an independent theatre. This theatre tends to have some wild customers at times. Huntsville definitely has its share of wild teenagers. I remember being in the top row of the stadium seating in one auditorium and a teenager throwing a drink over the top of the back row from the back, wetting me and several people sitting around me. I've been in several shows where ushers would come in and get groups of them to stop talking. However, unless teenagers are loitering on the property and looking for ways in after hours to do mischievous things, it seems improbable that this was a random act, and think it's more likely to be an inside job.  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 03-23-2008 06:46 PM                       Are they having union trouble?  |  IP: Logged Scott McGuire Film Handler Posts: 94 From: Elmira, NY/United States Registered: Oct 2007 posted 03-24-2008 12:48 AM                     Does regal have ia projectionists?  |  IP: Logged Sean McKinnon Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1712 From: Peabody Massachusetts Registered: Sep 2000 posted 03-24-2008 09:30 AM                        quote: Scott McGuire Does regal have ia projectionists? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! I don't think regal has gotten as big as it has by bargaining in good faith!  |  IP: Logged Patrick Dunn Expert Film Handler Posts: 120 From: newark, DE, United states Registered: Aug 2005 posted 04-01-2008 10:34 PM                        It always makes me mad to hear when people damage screens. If anyone ever damaged one of our screens we're screwed since we don't have anywhere near enough money to replace one. One of our smaller screens has a dent from when a kid during the curious george movie was curious as to if the screen was fun to touch.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-01-2008 11:57 PM                        quote: Patrick Dunn If anyone ever damaged one of our screens we're screwed since we don't have anywhere near enough money to replace one. You're kidding, right? Your insurance should cover this sort of thing. If it doesn't, you've either got a bad insurance agent or a naive owner.  |  IP: Logged Patrick Dunn Expert Film Handler Posts: 120 From: newark, DE, United states Registered: Aug 2005 posted 04-09-2008 10:17 PM                        I'm sure the insurance would, but I don't know myself. I was never told wether or not they would. I know when people rent out our theaters we have a part in the contract saying that if the screens get damaged they are responsible for replacing them since they don't keep their kids from running around and trying to touch the screen. Does this stop them and make them take control of their kids? Of course not we still have to go in and tell them to get their kids away from the screen, or tell the kids our selves.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 04-10-2008 01:48 AM                     The reason that's put in the contract isn't because your insurance wouldn't cover it but because even when your insurance does cover something, having them cover "big ticket items" (like a huge screen) can lead them to ask for a higher premium.  |  IP: Logged Andy Frodsham Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK Registered: Nov 2006 posted 06-16-2008 03:11 AM                     We are fortunate enough to have screen masking which can be fully closed (leaving the screen reasonably protected). About fifteen years ago, however, the masking motors jammed and the screen was left open for about 24 hours. During this time someone burned a 1/2 inch hole dead-centre in the middle of the screen's surface. During the daytime our auditorium is used as a lecture theatre (we are based on a university campus - though a public theatre)so we think it may have been done by a student - very intelligent! I wouldn't like to tell you what I would have done if I'd have found the b*****d!  |  IP: Logged Phil Blake Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 558 From: esperance western australia Registered: Nov 2003 posted 06-16-2008 07:57 AM                        I have experienced this myself when we had the Drive In running , the deciding factor to close it down was not due to lack of customers but the fact the cost of vandalism was more than our takings. Each week there would be something , toilets trashed , they would throw rocks up and smash asbestos sheets on the screen, break $200 windows in the kiosk and steal 2 cans of coke. This mindless vandalism just does not make any sense to me.  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 06-24-2008 10:49 AM                     It's not that big a deal to make a screen. You (a screen maker) would have rolls of the prepared vinyl material. Measuring, cutting, welding the strips together, edging and eyeletting - 5 screens in a day should be well within your production capability. If you value Regal as a customer (the "largest movie theatre circuit in the world"... I think when they call somebody listens really hard) you'll work on an emergency order all night if necessary.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 06-24-2008 01:57 PM                        quote: Phil Blake when we had the Drive In running , the deciding factor to close it down was not due to lack of customers but the fact the cost of vandalism was more than our takings. This was the major factor in our decision to stop carload pricing at our drive-in... long before the studios made their attitudes known about the practice. Once we started charging admission for everybody, most of the vandals went somewhere else.  |  IP: Logged

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