Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Getting More Damaged Prints

This is topic Getting More Damaged Prints in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 05-22-2001, 12:54 AM:

If 16 years of sub run there have always been damaged prints. But not like the last 9 months. Two thirds of the prints have major platter hash on the base, many have lengthwise rub marks (not quite scratches but enough to make noise in the sound) the lenght of the optical track and often thru the
Dolby track. I'm guessing but it seems like this started about the time the major chains started to declare their backruptcies. Equipment maintenance and operator training must have been the first things eliminated. a few weeks ago it took 4 prints to get a runnable one and that wasn't good.

Posted by Joe Schmidt (Member # 822) on 05-22-2001, 02:23 AM:

Hope for the best, Bill!

There will be less film damage once these chains are closed down and die for good, plus tons of used equipment available verrrrrry cheep, cheep as in birdies. You might find some bargains for the Byrd. Meanwhile, I guess you have the right to reject bad prints. Keep doing so.

Is anyone going to play the Wurlitzer for Pearl Harbor?

I'd love to see carmike closed down. Then, we'd have no movie theatres at all where I live. But then, we have no theatres now.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 05-22-2001, 08:19 AM:

Bill:

I agree the blame probably lies in a lack of proper "Equipment maintenance and operator training". We all know the damage you cite is preventable, and should not have happened. Hopefully, by you rejecting the severely damaged prints, the distributor will make the guilty theatres pay for the damage caused by "penny-wise and pound-foolish" cost cutting.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 05-22-2001, 08:34 AM:

The Wurlitzer gets played every Sat. nite for 7 to 10 min. before both evening shows. Our organist Bob Gulledge has a patriotic program that he plays on appropriate occasions. It consists of Grand Old Flag, Yankee Doodle Dandy, God Bless America sing along, Stars and Stripes Forever. Pearl Harbor for us will probably be close to the actual date of the event. Bob is trying to come up with music for that occasion, ANY SUGGESTIONS?

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 05-22-2001, 08:54 AM:

As a second run operator I agree with you Bill, particularly where Technicolor is concerned.

I recently complained about a Sony feature where it was obvious that the cans had not even been opened since the print left the last theatre. Technicolor admitted that they do not inspect any Sony prints saying "The distribuotr does not pay for that level of service".

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 05-22-2001, 09:01 AM:

I love to see posts where theatres are rejecting prints that have defects when they arrive at theatres. This occasionally happens at first-run theatres, but not at the frequency that it does at second-run ones, of course. I wonder if the increase in frequency of damaged prints is intentional in order to hurt second-run theatres even more than they already are. We lost our second-run theatres here in May of 2000.

Posted by Joe Schmidt (Member # 822) on 05-22-2001, 04:38 PM:

Note to Bill... music for Wurlitzer:

Try "Remember Pearl Harbor" and "Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B" for starters. Will put subconscious brain to work recalling other titles & will post them if it does.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 05-24-2001, 12:31 AM:

It's easy to put the blame for damaged prints on Technicolor, ETS, etc., but the actual problem is not with them but us-meaning our industry in general. One of my co-workers went Monday to see a film that opened just 3 days before on Friday at a local mpx. The print had a wide green scratch thru the first 30 min. when he left and requested and received a comp. ticket. Increasingly poor film handling must certainly be pushing digital exhibition faster toward general use and justifiably so, we are edging ourselves toward extinction.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 05-24-2001, 06:00 AM:

Sadly, there is a pervasive "cut costs to the bone" attitude of hiring inexperienced people to handle projection. Many theatres don't provide proper projection training nor the incentive to develop needed skills or make it a career. The same poor attitude that hurts film presentation today will affect digital cinema tomorrow. With film, incompetence or carelessness may trash a print with a severe emulsion scratch. With digital cinema, it may ruin a DLP or D-ILA chip, or corrupt the data for a movie with the click of a mouse. I have already attended Digital Cinema presentations compromised by lack of proper maintenance. "Film Done Right" and "Digital Done Right" depend more on the PEOPLE than on the EQUIPMENT.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 05-24-2001, 09:37 AM:

John, you're right about the inexperienced people handling prints these days. Occasionally, when I do my ratings, I will choose to see a movie that has been running at a theatre for several months just to see what kind of damage it has accumulated. In one particular theatre, the prints are typically still in excellent condition [case in point: Toy Story 2, 2000/02/05 (scroll down to it)] and in another theatre, they tend to have scratches all the way through [case in point: Chicken Run, 2000/07/27 (scroll down to it). I feel sorry for any second-run theatre that may have gotten that Chicken Run print. I have found that the condition of a print after several months correlates very well with other aspects of my presentation quality rating system, which is no surprise.

One time, the staff at one theatre talked me into going into a different showing because their print of Austin Powers II on 1999/06/13 (scroll down) arrived with scratches and they didn't want me writing that their print had scratches. I told them if the print arrived with scratches, I would not deduct for it. I'm impressed that they cared, and am sure they got a replacement print as quickly as possible.

Are most managers who post here who must hire high school aged people to run their projectors able to effectively "screen" them so that a certain GPA is required, or are the numbers of people available for the job so low that you must pick nearly anyone who is available and willing to do the job?

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Info Site

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 05-24-2001, 02:51 PM:

Someone must earn my trust and show their competence before I will allow them to set foot in the projection booth. Even then, they will be trained and checked behind for something like 100 shows before they're left to run shows solo. Call me anal.

It's just easier to do if you already know how conscientious a person is and how they react to stress. I'm thinkin' back at least 10 years and can only think of one person I hired for the booth off the street and he had prior experience. He was still retrained and shadowed, though.