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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » The "What makes me go insane!" thread (Page 37)

 
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Author Topic: The "What makes me go insane!" thread
Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

- posted 12-24-2009 01:08 AM      Profile for Joe Redifer   Author's Homepage   Email Joe Redifer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
That's buyer error, not user error. The user just types shit in. He sees that he must spell a movie so it looks like SLUMDOG MILLION R 10:30 1:15 4:20 7:30 10:45. No amount of previewing will help him add more letters.

That is not the fault of the person who enters the data (re: the USER). There is no way to spell out the whole thing. It is the fault of the sign being too small.

But according to you, if you got a job at a theater (LOL) and had to enter the data in the sign, it would be YOUR fault for not inputting the entire title because it can't fit legibly or without scrolling. Just like it is the projectionists' fault when you don't hear 5.1 sound at a theater which only has a CP-55 with A-type... after all he is the user.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 12-24-2009 02:34 AM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
You're characterizing all LED signs as if they all have the same size, shape and pixel count. It's flat out ridiculous to dismiss LED-based electronic message center technology as a whole just because the folks managing a movie theater made a cheap-ass, completely cluttered decision in how they configured displays for their box office sign or signs above the door.

To repeat a previous point, the same fucking problem was already present with old fashioned manual changeable copy letters. Do you think you would be able to fit the same sized characters in the same space if they were made out of plastic instead of rendered via LEDs? You're only going to fit so many characters into a given space. This is an issue of basic geometry, not any failing of LED-based variable message signs.

quote: Joe Redifer
Just like it is the projectionists' fault when you don't hear 5.1 sound at a theater which only has a CP-55 with A-type... after all he is the user.
The way you're broad-brush dismissing LED signs in general, your criticisms are more in line with the complainer not getting 5.1 surround out of the old stereo CP-55.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 12-24-2009 03:23 AM      Profile for Mike Blakesley   Author's Homepage   Email Mike Blakesley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Well now Bobby, it isn't realistic to expect a theatre owner to put in a lobby marquee with enough space and adequate pixel count to display a title like "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" when almost all movies have titles that are far shorter.

But it IS dumb when an owner buys a sign that won't easily at least display the average title length -- plus a little more. I've seen lobby marquees where anything over 10 letters is truncated ... that's just dopey sign purchasing.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

- posted 12-24-2009 03:45 AM      Profile for Joe Redifer   Author's Homepage   Email Joe Redifer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Like I said before; buyer error, not user error. Managers rarely have control over what gets purchased.

quote: Bobby Henderson
You're only going to fit so many characters into a given space.
That's exactly my point. So if a title doesn't fit on the marquee whether it be digital or physical, it is not user error.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 12-24-2009 10:53 AM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Nevertheless that's still an issue of geometry, not a failing of LED technology.

At any rate, most people aren't going to care if a title like Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan doesn't fit in a 3' long 7 or 8 pixel tall single line LED module. They'll get the point by merely seeing "Borat" on the display.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 12-24-2009 11:06 AM      Profile for Mike Blakesley   Author's Homepage   Email Mike Blakesley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
True, but some titles are just long, like "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" or the like. Some people would just put "Lord of the Rings" on a sign and call it good, but you take a small risk doing that because sometimes the "old" movie will play along with the "new" one, such as what happened recently with Twilight. Other people would put up "Fellowship of" or something like that, but that might confuse people. It's a just no-win scenario with long titles, I guess.

We have an old fashioned 80-year-old marquee with zipchange type letters, but I would seriously love to replace the readerboards with some kind of electronic signs, if I could get ones that would look as close to the existing readers as possible. I'm sure it's doable but would be prohibitively expensive, probably.

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Jarret Chessell
Master Film Handler

Posts: 288
From: London, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Jan 2009

- posted 12-24-2009 11:14 AM      Profile for Jarret Chessell   Email Jarret Chessell   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
LOTR FELLOWSHIP (that's still 15 characters).
I find abbreviating very easy when you have a suction cup pole and it's -30 degrees Celsius outside during a windstorm. [Smile]
If the person were looking to see that specific movie, something like "FELLOWSHIP" might be enough to let them know you're showing it. If they just walk into the cinema to see what's playing they get to see all the posters anyways.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 12-24-2009 01:58 PM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Mike Blakesley
True, but some titles are just long, like "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" or the like. Some people would just put "Lord of the Rings" on a sign and call it good, but you take a small risk doing that because sometimes the "old" movie will play along with the "new" one, such as what happened recently with Twilight.
Most LED based message boards can do "page" changes, along with the other effects like horizontal scrolling (an effect that should be used sparingly because some people hate it and it can be ineffective with really long phrases). For something like simple page changes you can alter the hold times for each page so the whole message plays at the right pace.

The end user just has to be willing to experiment with the message center software. Too often most workers at a business don't even want to fool around with it and the message editing job gets dumped off on someone who doesn't want to do it.

quote: Mike Blakesley
We have an old fashioned 80-year-old marquee with zipchange type letters, but I would seriously love to replace the readerboards with some kind of electronic signs, if I could get ones that would look as close to the existing readers as possible. I'm sure it's doable but would be prohibitively expensive, probably.
It doesn't cost anything to call reputable sign companies in your area to see what options are available.

Higher resolution message centers packing more LEDs into the available space will have a better capability to show lettering as actual letter styles instead of plain high school basketball scoreboard digits. The price does rise as more and more LEDs are added. And then the price goes up further when going from monochrome to color. Some theaters are able to go all out with the approach. The El Capitan theater in Hollywood had the static backlit faces on its fancy marquee replaced with full color LED message centers. Now they can show all sorts of graphics, animation and even video on the display.

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Jeremy Weigel
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1062
From: Edmond, OK, USA
Registered: Mar 2007

- posted 12-24-2009 04:32 PM      Profile for Jeremy Weigel   Email Jeremy Weigel   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Freaking a**holes who don't understand that there is a f**king blizzard outside and that is why we closed early. [fu]

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Jonathan Althaus
Master Film Handler

Posts: 435
From: Bedford, TX
Registered: Dec 2008

- posted 12-24-2009 05:12 PM      Profile for Jonathan Althaus   Email Jonathan Althaus   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Haha. We even got snow here in the Dallas area, but unfortunately not enough to close. It'd sure make changeover easier tonight.

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Richard Hamilton
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1341
From: Evansville, Indiana
Registered: Jan 2000

- posted 12-24-2009 05:29 PM      Profile for Richard Hamilton   Email Richard Hamilton   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Jeremy Weigel
blizzard outside and that is why we closed early.
years ago, we had a shitfull of snow dumped on us. The theaters closed and I was asked to come in to give rides to the workers. I had an oversized bronco and loved it. Over a foot of fresh snow on the streets, only a couple of other drivers on the streets:thumbsup:

As far as assholes who don't understand, we had a power outage one afternoon. The whole block was out. We put a sign in the window stating that the shows were cancelled because of the outage. I had to keep a person at the boxoffice because people still wanted to buy tickets. People even asked when the power would be back on. It got to the point I just wanted to reply, "how the fuck do I know, I'm not a power company employee!" The good thing was I got to check all of the emergency lights

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Phil Hill
I love my cootie bug

Posts: 7595
From: Hollywood, CA USA
Registered: Mar 2000

- posted 12-24-2009 05:59 PM      Profile for Phil Hill   Email Phil Hill       Edit/Delete Post 
When ya post or see a You Tube link in the "Post your random VIDEO links here" and then all of a sudden a few days later you look for it and you get some asinine message like:

"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim."
"This video has been removed by the user."
"This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."

WTF!!!!

If ya see something that you want to keep, download/capture it to Real Player B4 it goes Bye Bye.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 12-24-2009 06:06 PM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The snow has finally stopped here in Lawton. All the roads in and out of the Lawton Fort Sill area are closed. Pretty much all of I-44 from the Red River/Texas border up through Oklahoma City is closed. One fatal accident on I-44 happened just after noon south of Lawton near the Geronimo exit.

Most businesses shut down early here. Power outages were reported in various parts of town. Central Mall closed just after noon. The Wal-Mart Supercenter on Sheridan Road shut down this morning because of electrical problems.

I haven't been out to check closely, but from the view of the front door window it looks like my pickup's bed is nearly full of snow.

I can't really tell just how much snow we received because it has been blowing around and drifting all over the place. In a couple areas on my back yard patio where the wind is blocked the snow is about 8" deep.

I'm not driving anywhere tonight. The snow is fairly deep and there is a good layer of ice underneath it. Much of last night we had freezing rain and sleet before the blizzard moved in this morning. Trying to drive in the snow and getting stuck would make me go pretty insane.

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Richard Hamilton
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1341
From: Evansville, Indiana
Registered: Jan 2000

- posted 12-24-2009 07:26 PM      Profile for Richard Hamilton   Email Richard Hamilton   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
We even got snow here in the Dallas area,
A few years ago, I was doing an install in the Killeen/Fort Hood area and there was an ice storm. People in Texas don't know how to drive in bad weather [Wink] The people at the University all left early, and the contractor for the theater (on campus)sent everyone home early. I was busy pulling wires and terminating a sound rack and stayed for a few hours after everyone left. The drive back to my hotel was amazing. The interstate was icy, and there was a shitload of cars that had slid off the road. I think I saw half a dozen cars slide into the median during my 5 minute drive back to my hotel. Rookies [beer]

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Jonathan Althaus
Master Film Handler

Posts: 435
From: Bedford, TX
Registered: Dec 2008

- posted 12-24-2009 09:13 PM      Profile for Jonathan Althaus   Email Jonathan Althaus   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
It's not just bad weather, most people can't drive at all here in DFW. Luckily it was 60ish yesterday so nothing was sticking earlier today.

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