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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: Another cell-phone user attacks
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 03-25-2016 11:17 AM
I "might" ask someone to stop using their phone once. Maybe. I'll get a manager otherwise, even if I don't give the idiot a chance to put away the damned phone. Violent incidents, such as the one Buck described, are yet another reason why ALL movie theaters need to have zero tolerance policies for mobile phone use.
Theaters could build auditoriums as functioning Faraday Cages by incorporating wire or mesh made out of aluminum, copper or zinc into the cinder blocks often used in the building structure. People would give up pretty quickly trying to check Facebook in there. A doctor on call who insists on being able to take and make calls in the auditorium could come back when he's not on call. The only real disadvantages Faraday Cage enhanced auditoriums would have is extra cost for the materials and theater staff not being able to communicate via walkie-talkies or phones in the auditoriums.
quote: Buck Wilson
That is the ideal procedure and protocol. It's too bad 90% of the theaters in this country simply don't even remotely have the staffing to watch for things like that.
That's really the thing though isn't it? Theaters just don't have the staff to properly maintain order in the auditoriums. With all the mergers and acquisitions taking place, like AMC buying Carmike, I expect the staffing games to get considerably worse.
As a customer I have to say it is a giant pain in the ass to go get a manager when I see an asshole playing with a phone during the movie.
First of all, if you have to get a manager you're going to miss a significant chunk of the movie. I already have a food and drink strategy to avoid having to take a piss break in the middle of a show. Getting a manager may take more time than visiting the restroom. If I'm forced to go get a manager I might be inclined to just ask for a refund and leave.
Next thing, unless you're sitting near an aisle it's not easy to leave your seat when the movie is playing. This is especially true for most stadium seated theaters. I like to sit in the sweet spot of the auditorium, which unfortunately leaves me the most seats in either direction to hurdle. It's dark. There's barely any leg room to walk. My stumbling and stooping for the aisle causes its own annoying disruption to other viewers.
In the end most people are stuck having to endure the distraction taking place. Mobile phone using jerks know this and take advantage of it. They know most people will just grit their teeth and put up with the bullshit rather than do anything about it. Unfortunately for the movie theaters customers will use those negative experiences as another reason on the checklist for watching movies at home instead.
I wouldn't be surprised if the couple who got assaulted never visit a commercial movie theater ever again.
quote: Justin Hamaker
I can't help but note the irony of the movie this happened in.
No kidding! A Sunday afternoon show of The Young Messiah is host to this kind of crap?
Another thing that amazes me is how the perpetrator was able to escape without getting his ass beaten by other people or at least photographed or videotaped. If I saw an incident like that unfold in front of me at a movie theater I'd photograph and videotape the shit out of that guy. I'd follow him out into the theater lobby, yelling for staff and keep clicking photos or video until he tried driving away in his vehicle. I'd photograph the shit out of his vehicle too. Why didn't anyone else do that?
If my girlfriend was in a situation like that and some guy punched her in the face I'd be liable to kill the guy if she didn't do so first. She's no shrinking violet. Even if the guy managed to beat me up he sure as hell wouldn't be escaping and certainly not doing so without getting badly wounded in the process. That's not even bringing in the possibility of conceal carrying a gun at the time.
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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 03-25-2016 01:14 PM
How many times must incidents like this happen before movie theaters decide that it is in their best interest to deal with issues like this? A strict no cellphone/smartphone/texting use policy backed up by enforcement so the word gets out that it's completely unacceptable and won't be tolerated.
These customers had to do the theater's job and paid the price when its paying customer assaulted two other paying customers.
The ramifications are wide-reaching. How many people in that audience came away with a positive impression of that movie theater, in movie theaters in general? How many people reading that story or watching that newscast will have a positive impression of that movie theater and movie theaters in general?
I know that I would avoid going to a theater which had such an incident. Word gets around fast, and pretty soon, the theater is left wondering why business is down.
There's probably a lot about this story that wasn't reported on, but one wonders why the woman returned without an employee in tow? Was she told that someone would check on it, but it wasn't an urgent enough situation to deal with right away? If staff was alerted to this situation, how was she able to return to her seat, the guy able to assault two people and leave the theater without an employee identifying the man?
And no security cameras? In this day and age? Wow. Even if you can't afford to staff your theater well enough to detect such things in person, technology exists to allow a central location to monitor and record what's happening in the auditoriums, the lobby/hallways, and exterior. Such footage would be invaluable in this situation, and it sure makes the conversation short if this guy were to say that the couple was making everything up.
Such stories hurt the entire industry, and every theater that allows such incidents to occur is responsible for perpetuating it in the future.
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 03-25-2016 01:48 PM
quote: Frank Cox
I still don't understand why it is apparently impossible for every theatre in the world with the sole exception of mine to control cell phone use in the auditorium.
You're running a single screen, this one is a 14-plex. On slow days, there's probably not that much more staff around than in your theater.
Yeah, I'm exaggerating a bit, but that's essentially the problem. Another problem is that, while you're a business owner, holding a stake in the success of your own business, the minimum-wage monkeys employed at the average n-plex don't, so they probably couldn't care less about checking the auditoriums once in a while for signs of trouble.
Before digitization, you'd at least have the projectionist looking into an auditorium once in a while.
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Buck Wilson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 894
From: St. Joseph MO, USA
Registered: Sep 2010
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posted 03-25-2016 02:24 PM
As Bobby alluded to, it's not a customer's job to have to alert theater staff of cell phone users. They PAID to be there, so unless the theater refunds the ticket price and starts paying the customer, why in the sam hell should they be expected to miss the movie to alert the staff? That state of mind INFURIATES me. I have seen refunds/passes denied to patrons after the show simply because they never alerted staff. "They should've told us instead of watching the whole movie and then wanting a refund" and that's in response to ANYTHING- unsatisfactory volume, auditorium temp, presentation issues, loud kids, etc.
quote: Bobby Henderson
I wouldn't be surprised if the couple who got assaulted never visit a commercial movie theater ever again.
She said herself she'd never go back in the news video.
quote: Scott Jentsch
How many times must incidents like this happen before movie theaters decide that it is in their best interest to deal with issues like this?
Well, see, that'd require an investment of time, money, and energy. Not going to happen.
quote: Scott Jentsch
There's probably a lot about this story that wasn't reported on, but one wonders why the woman returned without an employee in tow? Was she told that someone would check on it, but it wasn't an urgent enough situation to deal with right away?
Quite likely, especially when all available staff members have their hands full and are tethered to their register or whatever they're doing.
quote: Scott Jentsch
And no security cameras? In this day and age? Wow.
Ha. That also requires money. Sure, it'd be worth it, but it's not going to happen. It may be easy enough to justify up to $1500 for one theater location, but the Regal overlords have hundreds of locations to account for and stockholders to answer to.....
quote:
You're running a single screen, this one is a 14-plex. On slow days, there's probably not that much more staff around than in your theater.
Yeah, I'm exaggerating a bit,
Mmmmmm not exaggerating so much.... I'd be REAL surprised to see more than 4 employees in the entire building on a given weekday. Have one person call in sick and you're crippled. It could be 20+ minutes before you could attend to a customer's request to monitor an auditorium.
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 04-06-2016 04:17 PM
The thing with security cameras still is that you need someone to watch them. Even then, the picture quality and refresh rate of many of those CCTV systems isn't all that good, especially not in poor light conditions.
quote: Mike Blakesley
Theaters could have one security camera per auditorium just under the booth port hole, focused on the audience. That way it'd be easy to spot a phone lighting up and dispatch somebody. I'm surprised there isn't simple software designed to "go off" when such a light is detected. It'd be pretty easy to do, I'd think.
There was this company that claimed it could detect recording equipment this way, but that never really went anywhere. Having gained some very limited experience with some "smart" CCTV software in the past, that supposedly detects fishy activity and monitors certain zones for certain types of activity, like people standing too long in a certain spot or leaving unattended luggage behind, I'd say it generally triggers way too many false-positives to be useful in an environment where you don't have dedicated people handling those incidents.
Maybe you could centralize supervision of many theaters into one remote site with dedicated personnel monitoring many auditoriums using some software assisted CCTV system, but I'm also not sure how well this would work.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 04-06-2016 09:06 PM
quote: Marcel Birgelen
The thing with security cameras still is that you need someone to watch them. Even then, the picture quality and refresh rate of many of those CCTV systems isn't all that good, especially not in poor light conditions.
The biggest problem I see present with security camera systems is many of the ones in use are old and outdated. Some of these still feature low resolution black and white video, often with poor focus quality. I think the tendency is to just keep using the outdated surveillance systems until some important component in the system breaks that can no longer be repaired.
Modern video surveillance systems are actually fairly impressive, and they're more affordable than ever. It's not going to break the bank to get a full color system with 4, 8 or even 16 cameras capturing 720p or 1080p quality. It's not going to be broadcast/cinema quality, but the footage will contain a whole lot more important detail than the old 240i/480i black and white garbage some people are still using. Some systems will do well in low light and/or use UV. Cloud based storage starting to come into play, as an added back-up to on site storage -but that really depends on a hell of a good Internet connection.
As for needing people to watch the cameras, yes that's a pretty difficult proposition in a movie theater. However, newer surveillance systems have ample storage capacity. With cameras positioned in the right places it wouldn't be very difficult to videotape serious offenses.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 05-02-2016 02:08 PM
Mike, that system was primarily to stop piracy, you know, to protect the STUDIO from piracy, not to protect the movie-going experience of the PAYING CUSTOMER...who pretty much is on his own. A system like that certainly could work to do both and as Bobby points out, they can be had now for very reasonable amounts of $$ considering that cost amortized over many years in theatre operations is pretty insignificant.
I really like Martin's idea of a laser that explodes the offender's cell phone. The laser could also scribe an L on the forehead of the turdbreath who was using that cell. L is for LOSER.
This problem has become so noxious to my enjoying a movie in a theatre that I have taken to:
1) never EVER going to show on a weekend,
2) ALWAYS going to either the first or last show on Monday or Tuesday or maybe a Wednesday
3) waiting until the film has played for two or more weeks so the crowds are thinned out -- at least if there is some cell lizard, I can move elsewhere in a 3/4 empty theatre. Plus, I don't see any advantage to going when a film first comes out -- people who think they MUST see a film on opening Friday or opening weekend have serious self-control issues.
And this goes directly to the business of needing to get the manager --
4) I have take to programming the theatre management office phone number into MY cell before I get my ticket so if there is a disturbance or even if the sound or picture is faulty, I don't need to get up and go wandering around the caverns of a multiplex for half an hour into my film to find the manager --I just call the dude up and tell him to get his ass into theatre number such and such.
Bottom line, as has been stated, the patron shouldn't have be the one doing what the management should be doing -- making SURE that the theatre environment is without distraction or annoyance, or worse threatening. Funny they USED to be able to operate theatres sans these issues years ago. So when did exhibition start to bury its head in the popcorn bin thinking that NOT providing a really conducive environment (which is what the patron PAID for) doesn't hurt his business and exhibition as a whole?
Proof -- even here on F-T where everyone to a person LOVES movies, you hear our people saying they rarely go to the theatre because it's so fraught with things that mar the presentation/experience.
When you hear one of us saying we HATE going to the movies, it has to tell you that exhibition is doing something very wrong. When I was a kid, I never EVER heard anyone say they hated going to the movies, not the young, not the old. How come? Did exhibition have some magic formula that has gotten lost in time?
I second what Scott says -- these kinds of incidents do significant damage to the already deteriorating reputation of the exhibition in general -- everyone is tainted. If exhibition, who cries incessantly about their shrinking bottom line and their supposedly paper-thin profit margins, can't see how letting these serious annoyances go unabated isn't more detrimental to those shrinking margins than hiring that extra usher or two, then they are just delusional. BTW, I am not so sure I believe that the exhibition conglomerates are skating on such thin profit ice as they like to allude, the movie industry is racking up billions and billions so I can't see how exhibition isn't swimming around in that money pool even if it is in the shallow end.
While this may not be the answer, it certainly was 100% effective and immediate. The Filmore East in the Village NYC, would hire four to six big burly wrestlers from Columbia U team and have them positioned in the auditorium in the front and rear; all carried very bright, heavy-duty flashlights. When some fool got rowdy during the show, whichever of these imposing "ushers" saw the offender, he hold his flashlight over his head and aim it at the jerk and used a wiggling motion, sure to catch the attention of the perp. This of course also caught the eye of the others who would then in turn also aim their flashlights over their heads at that same offender. Now he's got four to six light aimed at him from all angles. They would do that light dance on him for about a minute and then stop. Almost always, the offender would immediately stop whatever unacceptable activity he was doing from the intimidating and startling, glaring light and I suppose from the embarrassment too. However, if he was moronic enough to then continue the activity, all these guys would again turn their flickering flashlights back on him, but now also briskly make their way over to him, literally pick him up by the shoulders and carry him out of the theatre. It was swift, it was definitive, and for anyone who was being annoyed by this idiot, it was a beautiful sight to behold. Everyone was very aware of the fate that would befall them if they caused trouble. It didn't take long for it to be generally known the Filmore East was not a venue that tolerated shenanigans --you behaved or got thrown out, full body slam to the sidewalk.
Many times when I see a cell lizard babbling on a lit cell, I fantasize him being Filmored; it doesn't happen of course, theatre personnel are not about to even make an appearance so I, like so many others, sit there grit our teeth and take it. And then walking home mutter, "I HATE going to the movies."
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