This is topic Booth amenities in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Stephen Jones (Member # 16) on 01-11-2000, 09:33 PM:
All of the booths here in Oz that I have worked in new multiplexes have washrooms,refridgerators and microwaves, which is big improvement from the days of single screens and older twins which had nothing not even a hand basin.We have the unions to thank for these conveniences which no doubt we are all gratefull even those who are not members of the union,for the record I am still a union member even though some employers dont like the idea.I've even worked in the odd booth were the air con actually works properly.I would be interested to now how booths in the U.S rate as far as amenities go.As some of you may have noticed I have used the word
booth instead of projection room, on becoming a expert film handler I thought I'd better conform.------------------
Posted by Andrew D'Vrey (Member # 285) on 01-11-2000, 11:09 PM:
We have a microwave that looks like it was a hand-me-down from George Washington...takes about 20 minutes to nuke some pizza rolls. Also has a small fridge/freezer. It's in a mall, so there's AC/heat. There's a restroom in teh hallway between the East and West booth. Not much else...I'm still waiting for an answer on my requisition for a big screen tv.------------------
"And the monkey flips the switch."
- Major Don West, "Lost In Space"
Andrew D'Vrey
IATSE Local 219
Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 01-11-2000, 11:18 PM:
I work in a nine screen that was once a three screen. We have a small washroom about 12 square feet in size that doubles as the room in which the staff members change from uniform into street close for a night out on the town. This room was originally part of the oldest structure and was no doubt included in the plans because of the union. I also have an old microwave, but no frig. Last year, the staff planned to contribute $10 each into a pot and buy a good used frig, but that idea fell through. As for air conditioning and heat, we got that too, but after renovations and additions that brought us up to seven screens in 1996, I went without these for three years. Lamphouses make their own heat, but air conditioning was definetly a problem. All-in-all, I think our booth is fairly comfortable now and very easy to pull a 12 hour shift with no complaints from me.
Posted by Michael Barry (Member # 237) on 01-12-2000, 03:25 AM:
Andrew: "Still waiting for my requisition for my big screen TV"...uh, that would be DLP, perhaps?
Posted by Anthony Matarazzo (Member # 63) on 01-12-2000, 05:42 AM:
I work in old building, Greater Union, here is Brisbane Australia. We have 5 boxes
Booth 1 toilet and sink
Booth 2 toilet, sink fridge and microwave
Booth 3 sink
Booth 4 toilet sink and shower fridge and
microwave
Booth 5 sinkBut the air con is not the best. Well you can't have everything. 
Posted by Michael Cunningham (Member # 210) on 01-12-2000, 08:43 AM:
Arrgh!! I'm so jealous. Although I now work in the second newest booth in town, we have absolutely no ameneties upstairs. No washroom facilities of any kind (all of the older booths at the very least have a sink) and no cooking or food storage gear. We have AC but it can't keep up with the lamphouses (85 degrees by closing time in Alaska of all places!). We do have a coffee pot, but we had to acquire it and everything to go with it ouselves, and still barely got permission to set it up!-Mike
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-12-2000, 07:29 PM:
Our booth has 1 bathroom that is shared with the employee breakroom. I heard somewhere that it is code that any projection booth with 6 screens or more must have a bathroom, but I don't think that is true anymore. We also have a company provided microwave and ironing board, but those are not kept in the booth itself. We do have a projectionist provided b&w TV. But who needs that when you have 16 giant cameras showing that big tape all the while going "clickety clack clickety clak!"
Posted by Rick Long (Member # 213) on 01-12-2000, 08:21 PM:
The Ontario Theatres Act and one time mandated that each projection room be equipped with a toilet and basin. This went out the window, long ago. None of the booths we have built in the last 15 years feature washroom ammenities for the projectionist. Unless the projectionist is fortunate enough to be on the same level as the staff change rooms, he or she is forced to use the public washrooms. Come to think of it, not all of our booths feature projectionists nowadays, either.
Rick Long, Local 173, I.A.T.S.E.
Posted by Andrew D'Vrey (Member # 285) on 01-13-2000, 12:41 AM:
Mike: "...uh, that would be DLP, perhaps?"Heh heh, nope...just something to watch the game on . Of course I'd need two...one for the east side and one for the west side booths.
Besides, I got my GM hyped on MaxiVision, not that we're planning on throwing out our Victorias anytime soon.
------------------
"And the monkey flips the switch."
- Major Don West, "Lost In Space"
Andrew D'Vrey
IATSE Local 219
Posted by Reeve Byrne (Member # 295) on 01-13-2000, 08:24 AM:
Hey Mike we should ask Zack for something, after all we are the best booth in Alaska. We deserve... nay demand better work situations. Right like we'll ever get anything.
Posted by Joseph Pandolfi (Member # 223) on 01-13-2000, 06:58 PM:
The booth I work at is only 5 years old. So we are pretty set here. Microwave & Frig. Restroom and sink. A/C is not all that great in the summer. (80-degrees) Humidifiers in the winter (for static). TV.... oh yea, we have that, one at each end of the booth mounted on the ceiling, displaying closed circut video of each of our screens.
Posted by Erika Hellgren (Member # 22) on 01-14-2000, 05:20 PM:
In the booth I used to work at, we were loaded. We had a fridge, microwave, restroom, color TV and VCR, several LaserDisc players, a satellite dish (from which we were able to access a porn channel for a while), a cordless phone with our own private line, a computer on which we went online through yet another phone line ...OK, Joe and Ian - remind me why we all quit?!
Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 01-15-2000, 05:23 PM:
I quit because I was 35 years old and no longer wanted to have a job where I wore polyester uniform and a nametag. Besides I think 6 years at one job without the possibility of advancement was enough. After that I worked for an AV Rental house and then I worked for an AV installation company. Now I own my own theatre and do the exact same thing I did when I managed, but I am working for me.Our booth has one amenity that most of yours don't have. My booth comes with a warm pussy. While I am looking for a place to live, my cat Athena is living in the booth at the theatre. We also have a microwave and a sink.
And another thing, we have a DSL line. My business partner has promised me a stinking fast computer when we make some money.
Posted by Christopher A Kerr (Member # 151) on 01-15-2000, 09:59 PM:
The only thing i have in my booth is a TV with a satalite feed. I was showing a friend of mine the booth one day just after i first started here and had to run down to check a screen. As i was crossing the lobby, i heard the strangest music coming out of the speakers in the ceiling. Lots of bass and what sounded like a woman screaming. I went back up to the booth and, sure enough, found out that:1. My friend was watching porn on the tv.
2. The satalite was for our non-sync music feed
Now I only watch tv in the booth during late night make ups and breakdowns, AFTER the theatre is closed
Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 01-16-2000, 01:07 AM:
At an older theater we owned, (which was a real theater with a full stage, fly space, dressing rooms, etc.) there was a shower in the projection room. I was at that age when I would work until 12:30 or so, then go out drinking until 4:00, sleep until noon, then do it again. I could just see the projectors out of the shower, and once in a while I had to run out (sans clothing) to fix something.Before the ladies start to swoon, let me assure you that a naked projectionist, staggering around while recovering from a drinking bout, is not a pretty sight.
Posted by Ari Nordström (Member # 288) on 01-16-2000, 04:56 PM:
We have a sound monitor installed in the toilet. This is a very handy feature, especially when you simply have to go while running old archive prints on small reels.We also have a Cinerama synchronizer that is rather useful when checking the leaders of said archive prints for correct framing, much better than using an old sprocket. It's also an impressive-looking piece of hardware, always asked about during booth tours.
Posted by Chris Wootten (Member # 283) on 01-21-2000, 07:06 AM:
Amenities in the booth have dwindled over the years in line with the dwindling of qualified operators. I watched the decline of some theatres in the cities I have visited on my various postings....to the detriment of the customers I reckon. With the demise of the licence system in Australia, the owners/managers let anyone in the booths now. Of course they save money in wages initiially, but they will lose out in the long run.I went to a Cinema (7 plex brand new)in Darwin recently and the whole picture was out of focus..and the sound was way too high...I complained and was told that the operator must have been too busy to check.........whata joke......I still dream that sanity will prevail and that us operators(professionals) will one day be put back where we rightly belong, and that kids will not be let into the booths after 5 minutes of training....
Posted by Tom Kroening (Member # 201) on 01-24-2000, 03:58 AM:
Damn alot of you people have it made! I work at a 9 plex that really has nothing in the booths. 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6 are all shared booths. Lets go down the line here. 1-2 has 2 broken make up tables (yippie). 2-3 has 2 halfway descent makeup tables. 5-6 has a nice toolbox and a slew of spare parts. 7 has a desk with swivel chair (which is REALLY nice when the district manager comes in and i have no jobs to work on so i have somewhere to hide). It also has a tv/vcr combo that i use when i do filmwork - although its hard to hear even at full volume when the patters are going. booth 8 has a bunch of empty film cans, some spare parts like an old cp-50. booth 9 has a few spare seats. Thats all folks! I did have a chance to help salvage a 5-plex that was down town. The booth had a toilet and sink, and it also had a bedroom (one of the managers lived there for a while).If you guys ever get a chance to go salvage a theatre don't pass it up! We got to keep all teh speakers! It was pretty fun tearing teh screens and tossing old bulbs out the busted port windows and watching them go boom : ) Some idiot told us to get 2 BIG cast iron projector bases from there and take them to another theatre. Needless to say there are a few holes in the wall dispite the fact that 4 guys were trying to get that thing down out of the booth. The big auditorium there was a converted stage. You could go behind it and down a set of stairs to get to some sort of basement with an early 1900's toilet in it. Weird huh..
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-24-2000, 04:28 AM:
Erika--Sorry I have taken so long to reply to this incredible thread.
I quit because UA sucks. I have never missed it. Those perks only helped keep my sanity a little longer.
The fridge and freezer were for storing consession items THAT THEY KEPT IN THE BOOTH! That booth also had another perk: You could root through the files of any employee who worked for UA in the Denver area for the last 20 years, as the District Office was in our building, and they didn't believe in throwing anything out. What better place to store it than in the middle of the booth? Everytime a theatre closed, we would get everything of theirs and it would be stored in the booth. I threw half of it away, maybe more. When they started laying people off from corporate office, we got all of their desks and stuff. Hell, that's what a booth is for, right?
Posted by Erika Hellgren (Member # 22) on 01-25-2000, 03:02 AM:
Joe, I was referring to the fridge in the break room (which was IN the booth). Actually, I remember now why I quit -- it wasn't because of UA so much as the district manager who didn't give me a raise to go along with my "promotion" ... among other things.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-25-2000, 03:53 AM:
I don't remember a fridge in the breakroom. But that may be because I never went in there because of the horrid smell. I do remember that quite vividly. I also seem to remember a microwave.
Posted by Erika Hellgren (Member # 22) on 01-25-2000, 04:04 PM:
The microwave was on top of the fridge
Posted by Stephen Winner (Member # 8) on 01-25-2000, 06:32 PM:
Any of you guys have a computer with internet access in your booth? I put one up here to keep maintainence records on, and lo and behold found a modem, and a phone jack! I can hang out on Film-tech between reels!
Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 01-25-2000, 07:09 PM:
We had a computer for a while at the Greenwood. We spent a lot of time upgrading it and putting money in it. Then one of the managers took it to use as a time clock at another theatre.I now have a DSL line at my theatre and probably spend too much time in Film-Tech.
Posted by Stephen Jones (Member # 16) on 01-25-2000, 07:25 PM:
Why not spend a lot of time here,it's a great place to be chewing the fat with other industry people from all over the world I'm always here and don't feel guilty so sit back and enjoy.Do you agree Ian? How's theatre going?------------------
Posted by Jeff Stricker (Member # 224) on 01-26-2000, 05:07 PM:
The booth in our high school - which was built in the early '50's (I graduated in '65) had a lavoratory, which was really needed during those long Saturday nites running classic foreign films with subtitles!