)Second thing that I might suggest is not to let people see you get too bent out of shape about it. That makes YOU the bad guy. I just sort of shrug my shoulders and say, "Oh S***." (I save my steam-blowing-offing until I get home. -- I live in what many people would say is 'the country'. It's still legal to take a rifle out in the back yard and shoot tin cans off an old tree stump. That's my 'therapy')
------------------
If he's not up to snuff... can him. Ushers are (almost literally) a dime a dozen.
This puts me in mind of a relief projectionist I had who could never thread in-frame. He knew how, he just didn't bother. Every changeover would come up and you'd see him twisting the framing knob. To him, it was no big deal. To everyone else, it was a matter of finesse. As long as this guy kept the lamps trimmed, didn't have a film break and wasn't off the screen, he figured he'd done his job.
He'd come downstairs at the end of the night, with a dusting his-hands-off motion and say, "Well, another perfect show!"
The manager had a very good solution: he told me to fire him.
The best way to prevent such laziness is to lock the framing controls down or remove them! That'll put an end to that problem before it even starts.
We have a few bad "eggs," and the manager is reluctent to fire them because he thinks there won't be enough staff to operate the theater. I keep telling him that they are so bad, they don't help anything anyway; you won't miss them. Take the money they would have earned, and spread it around to the remaining staff.
Sorry. Steam blowing off. It ticks me off If off one spocket hole, others don't care and cranks away at the framing. Uh, stop me if I'm wrong, put doesn't this shorten the life of some of the projector parts on certain models? (Pro 35 comes to mind)
--Chris
I'm not a professional projectionist, but it seems to me staring at the 35mm projector here on the floor at my feet that it can't be too difficult to thread "in frame". Sure, it may take a little practice, but there's no excuse for doing things wrong after a year in the booth. Either the poor person received inadequate training or they just plain don't care. It should be fairly easy to tell which of those is at work in each individual situation. Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as saying "You're fired!" with all the laws governing employment. Maybe these people should just be ushers instead.
One time, he built one reel ,tails-up, into the middle of a movie. Nobody screened it and its first showing was a SNEAK. I made a big deal over it. (MAINLY becasue I had to fix it) People started acting like it was MY fault. The madder I got, the madder they got.
All I can say is to play it cool! (Documenting everything you do helps, too.)
Several years ago my wife and I visited a drive-in theatre (that's now closed) where the projectionist's "I don't care" attitude was quite evident.
The first sign of trouble was hearing one of the staff complaining before the first feature that the projectionist was not there and that it was almost show time. A little while later, while we sat in our car waiting for the movie to start, we saw a pick-up truck rushing through the entrance and across the ramps toward the concession stand/projection building (it was early in the season and raining so there weren't many cars there that night).
The "projectionist" jumped out of his truck and ran into the booth, and moments later the screen lit up with the film out-of-frame. After we were treated to seeing the frame line bounce up and down on the mammoth screen a few times, the guy got the picture in frame and the movie went on without any further hitches. Until the closing credits that is, when the screen went dark and the sound cut off just as the credits begin to scroll up the screen.
The screen was dark during intermission and when the second feature started it was ALSO out-of-frame. Then to make matters worse, during the closing credits for this film we not only saw the screen go dark and heard the sound abruptly cut-off, moments later we saw the projectionist's truck drive past us as he rushed to beat the patrons out of the theatre.
Every time I think of that theatre the first thing that comes to mind is the poor presentation that we experienced. That's sad because with a little effort the guy could have put on a good show.
A friend who owns theatres recently reminded me that some people don't experience a lot of different theatres and therefore can't differentiate the good from the bad. If they are used to only bad presentation in the theatre/s they attend, they simply assume that ALL theatres don't do a good job in that regard. It makes one wonder how many people that stay home and watch video-tapes would start coming back to the theatres if presentation was improved and they could see the benefits of film over video-tape or DVD.
The venue where I work is based on the Millennium Experience, which will be only open for one year,we have built a two screen 70mm cinemas, this prized "PRATT" of a chief projectionist has no experience in this field,and belive me this is real,this person has never set up a cinema and even lace up a 70mm projector, some wondered if he has ever worked in a cinema, unless you call a Booth manager at a UCI cinema a projectionist.
To date he has only insulted both myself and other projectionists in comments like "Do you have confidence in your projection", "Have you done this before- Do we need to do this", the same comments have been directed at various contractors while under construction from someone who has no real knowledge in this field!.
This same person tried to get us to lace up a 70mm print around a 35mm optical sound drum, to test the sound!, lace up on black leader and can not understand why it is not in rack.
ordered two botles of 'Blooping Ink' at a venue which will only run 70mm DTS prints (photos of this to follow), 10,000 cotton buds! and loads of 35mm leaders and parts.
The most prized comment is that "we should not run other peoples films on these projectors as they may damage them!" do we have special sprockets made just for this film?, can I then order other sprockets to run other peoples films?.
I did make a complaint, but to no avail, his manager is the AV Department who has no cinema experince, so no hope there!.
Is it me, are these idots who call them self's projectionts are making a mockery of our industry.
I will soon leave this job for a real projectionist job!.
So that's why the movie's on the ceiling, the audio sounds like it's underwater and your only answer is to "clean the heads"!!! Gee, if only I had known that years ago.
(Ben...ask your guy to show you how he wants you to clean the heads on the projectors and let us know what he says. )
I've come to expect the blank glazed look I get when I talk to the "button presser" on duty. The last place I visited had intermitents that reminded me of fuzzy pink slippers my wife has. While the "button presser" was yanking film through the rollers to thread the projector I saw the leader dip into a pool of projector oil on the floor that had been collecting the rest of the emulsion dust for however long it's been since the projectors have been cleaned.
The less-than-6-month-old Simplex was covered in crap. The lenses were hazzy from dirt and cigarette smoke, the apeture plates had fuzzy edges all over them, and the lamp hours meter read just over 3000 playing a 1.85:1 print that looked like the night scenes from Sleepy Hollow.
I wasn't even going to waste my time telling the kid what was wrong. He did his "button pressing" job and let the show go.
Here was a theater with brand spankin' new projectors and platters with CSP500 processors and all the goodies playing one of the worst shows I've ever seen in my life. Thank god the lamp was so dark or the dirt on the print would've been much more noticeable.
Upon trying to talk to the manager on duty, he hadn't a clue what I was talking about. After trying to force free passes on me for the fifth time I just gave up and left.
This booth could be imacculate. With the equipment they have there I would be in heaven. But at $7.00/hr I might as well be flipping burgers.
------------------
"And the monkey flips the switch."
- Major Don West, "Lost In Space"
Andrew D'Vrey
IATSE Local 219