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Author Topic: What is the most moronic beef you have with this industry? Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 03-15-2003 10:00 PM                    problem is all that had to be changed because of flash fires.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 03-15-2003 10:07 PM                        quote: problem is all that had to be changed because of flash fires I've never, ever had a fire in a kettle. Besides, the fire would be in a metal container with a metal lid. In the rare event that there were a 'large flash fire' in the kettle I know how to use a fire extinguisher. Gord, now that I think of it, the popper I had before the Twin Citation was a Manley and it too had the oil first directions.  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 03-15-2003 10:55 PM                       quote: I've got a Twin Citation popper that says 'oil first, corn second'. Agreed. I've never seen it any other way, the oil heats, then you put in the corn. The oil is everything to flavor and complete popping.  |  IP: Logged Barry Martin Expert Film Handler Posts: 203 From: Newington, CT USA Registered: Jul 2002 posted 03-15-2003 11:56 PM                        Michael West said: quote: public apathy, the dumbing up of the projectionists trade by corporations, Here, here. If you think about it, this is one of the main roots to all "evil" in the industry. If there were competent, caring, professionals in every theater across the country (even the world) then NOBODY would be cutting a foot of ID frames, using masking tape and opaque splice tape, dragging films across the floor and scratching because of poorly maintained/cleaned equipment. Also, if the customer would stand up for what they paid for and start a shit-storm whenever they were treated to truly poor presentations/service and getting their money back all the time perhaps the corporate offices would get the hint.  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 03-16-2003 12:13 AM                  I agree, oil 1st then the corn. While I do not have theatre type of popper, I use that method in my West Bend "Stir Crazy" popper! It's GREAT! >>> Phil  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-16-2003 12:24 AM                     I hate the concept of "Theater Checkers" or "Secret Shoppers" Well, maybe it would be a better concept if they weren't told to look for THESE DUMB THINGS: 1. Concessionist must upsell/suggestive sell -- Does the company even realize how many people get annoyed by this? For every one person that spends the extra $0.25 on the Large, there's ten that tell themselves they won't visit the stand again because they hate being hassled as if a pack of snowcaps is a used car. 2. Usher must "Walk" the auditorium at least twice -- Yeah, and be sure to make noise and walk in front of the screen and sign the little booklet/sheet/clipboard/whatever or they won't see you. And make sure you distract 30-40 customers from the movie in the process. 3. Concession stand must be "well stocked" -- What does this mean, exactly? We can't be out of anything? All the candy cases must be absolutely full? There must be at least three batches of popcorn made? There has to be at least 245,642 pieces of ice in the bin?? How does someone check this? Not to mention the myriad of other nonsense they have to look for. But for the "Film Presentation" section, all they write is, "The sound and picture was good." Excuse me, but isn't that the whole damn reason you came to this establishment in the first place? If all of our customers cared more about whether they were offered a larger size instead of if the picture had gobs of dirt all over it, then why do we bother to show movies? Unfortunately, this "fear of the checkers" works on the management as all they care about is the floor. What good is cleaning an auditorium if the people entering are going to watch a dirty print? =TMP=  |  IP: Logged George Roher Master Film Handler Posts: 266 From: Washington DC Registered: Jul 99 posted 03-16-2003 12:46 AM                     My main beef with this industry is the lack of interest in showmanship. But I have a more recent "moronic" beef: A theatre chain refusing to purchase Xenon lamps that a theatre desperately needs, and then giving the operators a hard time when lamps fail during shows and telling them they need to make more of an effort to get old lamps changed out (with new lamps that don't exist because the company won't pay for them) ...and simultaneously chastising the operators for ordering too many lamps. Does that make any sense? I didn't think so.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 03-16-2003 12:50 AM                        Projectionists should pay for at least half of the booth equipment & supplies out of their own pocket. Didn't you know that?  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 03-16-2003 01:09 AM                     My beef is manufacturers who are not willing to improve their products to make them more user friendly.  |  IP: Logged Nicholas Roznovsky Expert Film Handler Posts: 156 From: College Station, TX, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-16-2003 01:51 AM                        Although my rants against Technicolor probably account for 75% of my posts so far, I'd have to say my biggest problem with the whole exhibition thingee is the way the industry has spent the past few years cannibalizing itself. I mean, really. I've got a fairly new, very nice (all-digital, all-stadium, some THX) twelve-screen just down the road from me. Where did the same company build their new sixteen screen? Right across the street of course! Is there another decent theater in Lakewood, CO (a city of over 100,000)? No, they're both sitting across the street from each other on the extreme north end of town. To find another decent theater, I've got to drive down to the next super-suburb town and visit some of our fine Film-Tech friends at Bowles Crossing (A very quality operation, btw - keep up the good work ) It's the same thing all over America. When our chain decided to build a 16-screen in Amarillo (a town previously serviced by just eight decrepid screens), two other companies also announced plans weeks later to build 16-screens right down the road. I've seen it in Texas, Colorado, Virginia, Florida, and just about everywhere else I've been in the past few years. Stop building megaplexes right next to each other! My god, even 7-11 has the common sense to space out their 14 bizillion stores every few blocks. [ 03-17-2003, 12:46 PM: Message edited by: Nicholas Roznovsky ]  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 03-16-2003 02:23 AM                     I've got a billion of them, but the best one I can think of now is the people in charge caring more about the projection booths being clean than how the shows look and sound in the auditoriums (yes, it's important to keep the booth clean, but you shouldn't make newly-trained people nervous about that while they're already trying to keep 16 shows onscreen!)  |  IP: Logged Aaron Sisemore Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day! Posts: 3061 From: Rockwall TX USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 03-16-2003 02:39 AM                     quote: My god, even 7-11 has the common sense to space out their 14 bizillion stores every few blocks. I know where there are two 7-Eleven stores approximately 100 yards apart from each other... Back to the topic at hand: Trailers and posters with dates on them. Why not just a generic 'coming soon'?!? This really sucks in subrun, when you are running trailers that say 'This Christmas' for a movie you are just now getting in March. -Aaron  |  IP: Logged Jeff Skallan Film Handler Posts: 65 From: Littleton, CO, USA Registered: May 2001 posted 03-16-2003 03:18 AM                     Nicholas, Thanks for your kind words about our "quality operation." I too was perplexed over the idea of building a 16 giga-plex location across the street from the UA/Regal Denver West 12. I can only imagine what a nightmare it will be for the delivery couriers! My beef is simply how outrageous it is that millions and millions of dollars are spent on building theatre locations which are then staffed with unskilled, inexperienced operators who are often paid barely above minimum wage. It's a shame that at most theatres, the actual film operations have become such low priority with respect to showmanship, that it is almost an afterthought to theatre owners. It's not too often that we receive used prints, but I can easily say that at least 85% of them in the last few years had some kind of film damage. Even prints that have played once at other locations arrive in less than optimal conditions.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 03-16-2003 04:12 AM                        I wonder if a print moves between UA/Regal's Denver West 12 to the UA/Regal 16 screen across the street (forget what it is called, hard for me to care) if TES will make them break it down, have Sky Courier come pick it up and deliver to the next theater and then have them build it up again. I'd just move the print myself and load up the cans with bricks or whatnot. I doubt the 2 theaters even have compatible automation. Denver West has the UA "Gary Stanley" automation (as we've grown to call it) and the new theater probably has, well definitely has somehting else incompatible. My beef is that projection is not considered a priority anymore.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 03-16-2003 06:48 AM                        The multiplex madness has also struck here. In the late 90s, there was a multiplex building boom. But instead of nicely dividing up the market, the big companies had to build competing multiplexes right under each other`s noses. They all thought they would become "market leaders" and put their competitors out of business. Now they are all in big trouble. Maybe the only winners were Kinoton and Ernemann, they got to sell their equipment in large numbers. But even they are not very happy anymore, because now the exhibitors have no money left to pay for technical services. And of course, the overall quality of presentation sucks astronomic ass. Because they have overinvested, all the companies now let their theaters virtually fall apart again. There are still quite a few very good theaters, but they all depend on the initiative of their operators to keep up the standards. Since the work doesn`t pay off however, it is only a matter of time until these give up too.  |  IP: Logged

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