Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Belive it or Not (Theatre Recordings)

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Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 02-10-2000, 01:57 AM:

Call: (707) 256-0150

This is a real theatre recording.

What is wrong with it? (I'm told they do it as a regular course of business.) Why?

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 02-10-2000, 03:25 AM:

Its the Uptown Theatre in Napa, CA.

After listening to this recording I have made the following observations:

1. the speaker is speaking in a pleasant, conversational (informational?) tone, and not rattling the movies off like an autioneer on crank.

2. Just about *everything* you wanted to know about the movie save for its synopsis and cast listing (what theatre its in, whether that auditorium is up or downstairs, running time IN MINUTES, rating, whether its part of a separate-admission split, starting times, yada yada yada. Very informative.

3. They admit that their upstairs auditoriums are not accessible by wheelchairs...

Aside from the recording being unusally long due to the large amount of information offered, I could not find anything wrong with it.

This theatre, for those not in the area is owned by the same circuit that formerly was the tenant of the Lakeside (Ian and Ky's 'new' theatre). Is there a point to this?

regards,
Aaron

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-10-2000, 08:08 AM:

I haven't called this number, but I can definitely recommend the Senator Theatre in Baltimore as one that consistently has great telephone recordings.

I would list some theatres that have consistently awful telephone recordings, but I'm afraid that I'd run out of space...

Posted by Sean Weitzel (Member # 244) on 02-10-2000, 11:56 AM:

My personal favorite (recording) for many years - The Graham Cinema in Graham, North Carolina. The guy who owns it - Tim Bob.. he's a real kick :-)

(336)226-1488

and, the caller is provided Tim's home number and invited to call his home for any reason necessary. I bet you *his* presentation is flawless - wouldn't want a bunch of film-heads calling and screaming about projector weave. I hope I can get out to graham someday and meet the man.
-sean

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 02-10-2000, 02:09 PM:

Yes Aaron, your observations are quite correct. She has a pleasant voice and great delivery. That wasn't my point.

It was the show times that got our attention.

Cradle Will Rock plays @ 7:08
Galaxy Quest plays @ 4:12
Mansfield Park plays @ 2:26 & 4:43

Does anybody else do weird show times? We try to keep ours real straight up. We use whole numbers and integers and all that. We even stay away from times like 7:25 or 7:55.

Some of the Uptown's show times are like ours and some just seem off the wall. I am just trying to figure out the rational for it. With the public as clueless as they seem to be by the few people who ask questions like "What time is the midnight movie?" Or who wander in a half an hour late and ask if it has started yet. And my all time favorite; when we show them the ad in the paper, they say "But my paper said it starts at this other time." Yes, lady. We have them print a special paper just for you, so we can mess with your mind.

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 02-10-2000, 02:15 PM:

Sean Weitzel

Yes that is the funniest theatre recording I have ever heard. Can anyone top that?

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 02-10-2000, 06:10 PM:

What time does the midnight movie start?

Maybe they're being Smart *sses! Aound here they say "what time does the noon ferry leave"? People think they're pretty stupid for asking, but some of us know what they mean. What they should say is "What time does the noon ferry leave ...today"?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-10-2000, 06:47 PM:

Dumbest question I ever got asked at the theatre: "How do you get it so dark in here?" My answer: "uhhh, we turn the lights off."

2nd dumbest (from a concession worker) "How many dollar bills does it take to make $20?"

OK, she was just confused and really wanted to know how many dollar bills go in a "bundle." But I thought it was pretty funny anyway.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-10-2000, 10:08 PM:

How many dollar bills to make $20.00
If she asked me that my replie would let.....
Oh I gues political correctness won't let me finish that one
Too bad

psst What was here name and phone number

Posted by Ky Boyd (Member # 23) on 02-10-2000, 10:17 PM:

Aaron, I'm curious about the emphasis on in minutes with regard to stating running times in your post earlier in this thread. Are you saying you prefer minutes or don't prefer minutes. We convert minutes to hours and minutes for our recording for the benefit of the math-impaired (gotta keep on that ADA compliance you know). Ky

Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 02-11-2000, 12:05 AM:

A question I was asked more than once in the early 1980s: "When will THE NEVERENDING STORY be over?"

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 02-11-2000, 01:31 AM:

Ky: By the running time in minutes, it seemed more logical to me as a projectionist or tech thats all, For Joe Moviegoer, hours/minutes would have been more appropriate, but like I said just minutes just sounds more 'precise'... Same for the strange non-rounded to-the-nearest-five-minutes show times. Perhaps these are the actual show start times , AFTER trailers? Who knows..

and I have had ppl ask when the midnight movie starts as well, and have had someone ask when the 12:00 (noon) show of a film starts as well, and then back when we had a weekly midnight movie series going there was this guy that wanted to know what we were going to be showing for next weeks 'late-night matinee' I had to go into the other room and then busted up laughing

Aaron

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 02-11-2000, 01:10 PM:

I make the recordings for all 10 of our theatres...

Let me tell you... Thursday's are a chore.

Each theatre's manager complains to me that their customers are requesting that I either slow down, speed up, not or do not say the running times. Some people want to know who's in the movie, other don't.

You can't make everybody happy... although making stupid 7:21 showtimes is a little silly.

I gotta go now - but I'll post more on this later when I feel like ranting.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-11-2000, 04:01 PM:

So where are the MP3's of all of the craziest theatre recordings?

Posted by Johanna Innes (Member # 228) on 02-13-2000, 12:22 PM:

Tim Bob of Graham, NC is a genius. I just called that line and now I have tears running down my face because it was quite possibly the funniest thing I ever heard. The joke he told was pretty darn funny too. I got a call from a woman last night who could have been the main character in that joke.

"I notice it says in the paper that you have Double Jeopardy, Gray Owl and The Bone Collector. Are you still playing End of Days"
"No, ma'am, its run is finished here, which is why it isn't listed in the paper anymore."
(besides which it's a bad movie, so why would she want to see it anyway?)
"So you aren't showing it anymore?"
"No."
"Do you know where it went?"
"You mean the copy that we had?"
"Yes, I thought maybe I could borrow it."

I managed to explain the concept of Blockbuster video to this individual before I hung up the phone and cracked up laughing.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-13-2000, 02:46 PM:

Actually, I _did_ have someone ask once to borrow a 16mm short that we were running... This was obviously a pretty unusual situation, though: I knew the guy well (he was a local 16mm collector) and he'd done a lot of work on our sound system for free. I would have let him borrow the print, except we had to send it back to the distributor the next day...

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-17-2000, 12:50 AM:

I had no idea Tim Bob was still around! I remember hearing one of his recording some 10 years ago! For anyone who hasn't listened to this recording, if it's half as funny as the last one I heard many years ago, you're in for one hell of a good laugh.

Moviephone could double their business if they would hire this guy!!!