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Author Topic: Idiots who text at the movies Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-09-2009 05:16 PM                        quote: Chris Slycord To me, it's not any more of a distraction than someone getting up to get a refill on their drink or go to the bathroom. As Mike mentioned, people are more likely to try to "race" out of the auditorium to answer their phones. Also, even if the level of distraction is the same, allowing cell phones will increase the number of people who get up and disturb others during the film. At least, visits to the concession stand will benefit the theatre owner. I think that we will have to agree to disagree on this issue, since I don't think that either of us will change his opinion on the subject. I still say that anyone who cannot be more-or-less "unreachable" for 2-3 hours really shouldn't be going to the movies.  |  IP: Logged Chad Souder Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 962 From: Waterloo, IA, USA Registered: Feb 2000 posted 02-12-2009 06:56 PM                     quote: Chris Slycord And you say that kicking someone out solves nothing with respect to the distraction? Umm... it does stop the distraction from continuing. Yes, but again, the distraction has already occurred then magnified. We're going around and around here. Your idea of kicking people out after the fact will not work. It is not working. Yes, it stops that individual from further texting during that movie, but that is all it guarantees. The only long-term effect it has (and I repeat here) is making people look around to see if anyone is watching. I have to believe the majority of theatre managers don't just sit by and allow texting - yet it is problematic enough to warrant a newspaper article. The reason is (repeating again) it is too difficult to monitor all auditoriums of a multiplex at all times. It would take too much payroll. Texting is not like any other auditorium distraction we have ever experienced and therefore is not likely to be minimalized by any other method we have previously tried. Having a cell phone check or using a blocking device are extremes, but until someone here can recommend a reasonable, feasible solution that has a worthy effect, I hold they would be the best. That being said, neither will ever happen, so it is kind of pointless. We'll just keep warning people and kicking them out and having it distract everyone else.  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 02-13-2009 04:24 PM                        I don't think there's an easy solution. Not allowing cell phones and checking people at the door will drive many customers away, and would require a level of search (searching women's purses and all clothing pockets) that customers would find unacceptable. Many people would take the search as a challenge and come up with ways to get them in. When I go to the movies, I don't want to be contacted once I'm inside the auditorium. However, since I got my phone, I don't wear a watch, so my cell phone is used as my watch more than anything since I get so few calls. I carry it with me, either in a pocket or clipped on my belt and would resent being told I couldn't bring it in. It's always set to silent in the auditorium and I'd never answer it, text on it, or talk on it in there. It can keep track of incoming calls and when I leave, I can see if I missed any (rarely) on the way out. Pulling the phone out and looking at the time displayed on it (using it as a watch) does not require opening it or lighting it up in any way to cause a distraction. That being said, nobody else seems to think anything of pulling the phones out and opening them (lighting up the bright little screens) during the show. It's become as much of an epidemic as the use of AutoTune on current top 40 music.  |  IP: Logged Sally Ann Burgess Expert Film Handler Posts: 120 From: Queenstown, New Zealand Registered: Apr 2008 posted 02-19-2009 12:52 AM                     I just lean out of the porthole window (not too far) and shine my torch on whoever is texting. Works every time.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-19-2009 09:34 AM                        I had a good one last night. A lady was texting during the movie, so I gave her my standard "Turn off your phone, please...everyone behind you can see it." She proceeded to ignore me, so after a couple of seconds I said "Right now, please." She finally turned it off. Situation over, I thought. A few minutes later I had to go do a couple of errands so I left for about 30 minutes....came back to find out that the lady had come up to the concession stand and yelled at my employee about how "rude" I was. Then she left and vowed to come back to give me a piece of her mind. Of course, I haven't seen her yet.  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-19-2009 10:33 AM                     Mike, I have always found it ironic that so many people are willing to share what they have so little of. KEN  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 02-19-2009 12:34 PM                     I think the lady is an out and out coward for blowing her stack at a counter employee who wasn't even involved in the situation.  |  IP: Logged Chad Souder Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 962 From: Waterloo, IA, USA Registered: Feb 2000 posted 02-21-2009 11:58 AM                     Unfortunately they are who received 95% of the complaints and rudeness, while they may only be involved in 2% of the problems.  |  IP: Logged Galen Murphy-Fahlgren Master Film Handler Posts: 405 From: Canton, MI, USA Registered: Oct 2007 posted 02-21-2009 02:03 PM                     As much as being reactive to the problem doesn't actually solve it, we have nothing else. I don't have a cell phone problem at my current theater, but at my old theater, it was a pandemic. Even making announcements beforehand only completely alleviates you of having to give warnings and cuts down on ejected patrons arguing, but it doesn't ease the problem for the customer. The only way it can be effectively prevented (legally) is exerting social pressure on the offenders, and considering how large a percentage the offenders are in some key demographics, that is unlikely to happen.  |  IP: Logged Chad Souder Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 962 From: Waterloo, IA, USA Registered: Feb 2000 posted 02-23-2009 12:15 PM                     What would be illegal about having a cell phone check like Scott mentioned? That would be proactive and in theory 100% effective.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-23-2009 01:34 PM                        quote: Chad Souder What would be illegal about having a cell phone check like Scott mentioned? It wouldn't be illegal, but it would be an enormous pain in the ass. Even in my small one-screen, on a busy night there might be 100 or more cell phones in the auditorium. The amount of space, time and labor required to "check" all of those phones in and out for each show would be huge. Multiply that by 25 times or more in a busy multiplex and it's easy to see how that just wouldn't work. Then you'd also have legions of people who couldn't be bothered with "checking" their phone and would use them in the auditorium anyway. Ultimately that solution would just keep the good people good. The idiots would still be as big a problem as ever.  |  IP: Logged Galen Murphy-Fahlgren Master Film Handler Posts: 405 From: Canton, MI, USA Registered: Oct 2007 posted 02-23-2009 04:49 PM                     A cell phone check, like a coat check, if that's what you mean, would depend on voluntary action, much like compliance to the already existing cell phone rules. A cell phone search would be extremely intrusive, and you wouldn't have many customers after long. Creating interference to block the device is illegal. Those are the only proactive measures I've seen, and none of them are viable. I would really like to see a real solution to the problem, one that can be implemented in a multiplex, but it needs to be legal in more than a few jurisdictions, and can't piss off rule following patrons.  |  IP: Logged Hal Smith Film Handler Posts: 10 From: Edmond, OK US Registered: Jun 2007 posted 02-23-2009 08:24 PM                     From a movie going point of view I try to catch as many movies as possible on my "want to see" list at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art's Noble Theater. A very good selection of films from current releases to art films. From time to time they have a prerelease test showing, "Chicago" played there months before its limited release. Kinotron projectors, Dolby Digital, 250 seat auditorium with a very high seating rake...and most importantly...an audience of film buffs, young and old, who don't text, check email, talk, or otherwise ruin the experience for others.  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 02-24-2009 10:08 AM                     Not Exactly Off Topic, But. . . . Student Arrested for Refusing to Stop Texting in Class A 14-year old girl in Wisconsin, USA has been arrested by the police after she ignored requests from her school teacher to stop sending text messages during a math lesson. She was later charged with disorderly conduct and will appear in court in April. The police were called by the Wauwatosa East High School, and when confronted by the police she initially denied even owning a mobile phone. However, a search by a female police officer found the phone, concealed in a location more usually reserved for criminals in prisons - namely the "buttocks area". The unnamed student was issued a criminal citation for disorderly conduct, which carried "a bail of $298," and had her phone confiscated. The girl was also suspended from the school for a week, but sneaked back into school twice and was cited both times for trespassing. Speaking to the local news reporter, the girl's father said that he supported the school's actions as his daughter had crossed the line. "They were more than fair. They gave her a few chances, but for some reason she didn't abide by that," he said. <sent to me by a friend, so source link is unavailable>  |  IP: Logged Chad Souder Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 962 From: Waterloo, IA, USA Registered: Feb 2000 posted 02-24-2009 10:34 AM                     I understand a cell phone check would make some customers unhappy and would be difficult to implement, but I was simply responding to Galen's statement that the only way it can be effectively prevented legally is social pressure. A cell phone check would be both legal and effective, just not practical.  |  IP: Logged

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