Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Questions, Questions, and More Questions. . .

This is topic Questions, Questions, and More Questions. . . in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Jennifer Osborne (Member # 1220) on 10-04-2002, 02:35 PM:

Ok here it goes. . .

I am a shift manager at our local theater here in Columbus. I've only been in this position for about a year and I've spent most of that year in the booth. At first I was a "thread and start" person, but now I'm beginning to see how crappy our presentation is. . . and I'm interested in learning more about presentation to make ours better. Which is why I turn to you. . ."the experts"

Before you mention it, I have read the document "Improving Your On Screen Presentation" on this site. I also visit these forums daily (i'm a film-tech junkie).

Oh yeah. . . on with the questions.

Does anyone have any documents or manuals that can be sent to me?
Or do you know where i can get such manuals?

I know that we have a full, never used bottle of Film Guard in our booth.

How do you apply that?
How well does it work?

I am sure that I will be posting more soon. I realize that this is getting a little long, and I don't want to annoy you guys with my inexperience. So any advice, suggestions, help that you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much in advance for all the knowledge that I am about to recieve.

~Jennifer

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 10-04-2002, 02:59 PM:

First: Read the FAQ section especially about Teaser Headings.

Second: Click on the Manuals section over in the left hand column. It has all the manuals you may ever need.

Third: Click on the FilmGuard button over on the left and it will tell you what you need to know about Film-Guard.

Fourth: Perform a search under Film Handler's Forum (this one) for Film-Guard to read everything that has ever been written about the subject.

Thank you

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 10-04-2002, 03:03 PM:

Don't be concerned about your "inexperience". Not everyone here is as much of a pro as you may think. But there are enough that you can come away from here with some pretty good info.

As far as your screen performance goes there are some very basic things you can do. Check your focus and sound levels every so often. (Don't just start the machines and walk away and leave them.) Do it in the auditorium. (Set the sound levels so it is comfortable for ALL in the audience.) Check you picture. Does it have clean edges (if you're using the full screen)? If not, reset your machine (if you apprature plate is seated properly). Is the light bright enough for all scenes? (If not perhaps you need a new or brighter lamp.) Are your lenses and port glass clean? Do you keep the film off the floor when threading? There will be others who will post more technical info for you but these are basic things which are frequently ignored by operators. Feel free to ask any questions you wish no matter how dumb you may think they are. "There are no dumb questions, only dumb answers".

Bob
The Old Showman

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 10-04-2002, 03:32 PM:

We'd all love to help, but we need more information. You say that your presentation is "crappy." What, exactly, is sub-optimal about it? If the problem is that your aperture plates are filed improperly, no amount of Film Guard will fix it. Different problems have different solutions.

What issues are you currently having? Are your prints scratched and/or dirty? Does your theatre have bad sound? Are you experiencing focus drift issues? Are your projectionists poorly trained? Are your EXIT signs too bright? Are your floors sticky? Are your splices "popping" as they run through the soundheads? If you can narrow things down to a specific list of problems and post the type of equipment that you are working with, someone should be able to help.

The most important thing is that you have made the first step--i.e. you have recognized that your presentation quality is not what it should be and have taken an interest in improving it. For that you should be commended.

(As for Film Guard: it works very well for eliminating dirt and light scratches and also helps to reduce static in the winter when running polyester-base prints on platters.)

Posted by Jennifer Osborne (Member # 1220) on 10-04-2002, 11:51 PM:

Thanks for the help so far. . . here are some specifics.

1. Our booth staff is poorly trained. Earlier tonight i saw someone rewind a triler in to a basket, and then untangle the mess of film by dumping the basket out on the floor.

2. Our prints a very dirty and scratched.

3. Everyone does his/her own thing in the booth. We all have a different way of threading, cleaning things, changing out trailers, etc.

4. There is absolutely NO communication between booth people. We currently have 7 different people (and 1 trainee) who know how to run booth. We do have a log book, but i'm finding out that i'm the only one who writes in it.

some more basic stuff. . .
we have 12 screens, Christie projectors and platters and Kodak slide projectors. Port glass and lenses are cleaned when needed, and i can thread a projector without letting the leader hit the floor. . . i'm not sure if anyone else does (probably not)

again, thank you for the advice

Jennifer

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 10-05-2002, 01:44 AM:

Sounds to me like the classic case of to many indians not enough chiefs. Actually, what I mean by that is you need more people who care. The only way that that can happen is by your example. Not knowing your work schedule and amount of time you can devote to the booth some of these suggestions may not work.

First off, I believe that at least two people should be responsable for making up and tearing down prints and changing trailers. The reason only two is because there is more controle over what is being done and you always have a back up. If you have free time that you can devote to the booth do so. Even if you have someone working it already. Come in and watch what others are doing. Point out any mistakes you may see happening. Show them how to thread the movie without the film touching the floor. Show them how to keep things clean.

Weed out the ones who want to learn and the ones who don't. Find the ones who can devote the most time to the booth and use them more. I know it is hard to do in some cases, but try to establish a schedule of at least two people who can devote four days each to the booth and two people that can devote three days each. That is a total of four booth people. Then you can have one who can learn enough to keep the shows going if you need them. Giving you a total of five trained booth employees who can gain more experience by having more shifts. Reducing the indians from 8 down to 5. A much better set up for your size theater.

Posted by Manuel Francisco Valencia (Member # 710) on 10-05-2002, 11:38 PM:

Does your General Manager know about all of this. Talk with him/her and find out their thoughts. If this has been happening for a while then they do not know about quality presentations or just don't care. Hopefully it is not the latter. If they do not know then sit down and touch base with him/her and go from there. It is like Darryl pointed out, leadership is the key.

Posted by Darren Briggs (Member # 1071) on 10-06-2002, 05:11 PM:

One thing i find usefull is to get everyone together and have regular meetings to discuss all matters, also if someone is not doing as you say, you will just have to warn them and tell them learn or no more shifts. Its a hard job having to train someone who thinks they know everything about anything, im still learing every day from others and if they are a half decent projectionist they will take on board advice and understand the reasons you are giving them to improve.

As a leader you must also lead by example and not let standards drop even on long shifts, but im sure your up for that as youve gone to the effort to come on here and seek advice form others.
Good on ya Jennifer!

Have fun woth your work too!

If the manager doesnt care is there a head office to contact?

Darren

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 10-06-2002, 05:51 PM:

So is the film-damage problem one of poor equipment (either in initial build quality or in maintenance) or is it one of operator error? If it is an equipment issue, then I'd suggest that you try to make this known to your employer and insist that they do something about it. If it's an operator issue, then is it one of poor training/lack of skills or is it an issue of employees who know how to do their jobs properly, but are unwilling to take the few extra minutes to "do film right." Obviously, the former problem is easier to fix than the latter....

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-06-2002, 09:59 PM:

Staff meetings have never worked for me, I am more of a one-on-one kind of guy. But hey, that's just me. I certainly think way too many people are working in your booth. That is probably your biggest problem and one that can prove to be aggravating at best to solve.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 10-06-2002, 10:31 PM:

I agree with Joe, unless management is extremely generous with booth hours, with that many projectionists none of them could be getting enough hours to be happy. As a comparison I've always worked with one other projectionist during the winter months and sometimes a third part-time (like 8 hours) projectionist during the summer months. I've done this in both twins and 7-plexes. I also know people that do this in 10 and 12 plexes and it works for them too.

It almost sounds like 'in the beginning' a lot of people were hired to projection, with intentions to thin out the good from the bad and keep the good. Maybe now it's time to do that?

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-08-2002, 04:58 AM:

All of the above is excellent advice, especially the notion of reducing the number of people who work the booth; better to have a few well-trained, competent, trustworthy individuals with the kind of work-ethic that is needed for a well-run booth, than a dozen sloppy air-heads who have no interest in film done right.

I will also add the importance of a strong line of hierarchy. It is not enough for you to step up to the plate willing to take on leadership; in fact, as well intentioned as that may be, I have seen it backfire on more than one occasion. Any move in the direction of establishing booth leadership must be from the top -- first the boss has to be convinced of the need of a "chief projectionist," the it is imperative that he needs to be the one who confers a position of authority on that person. If someone, no matter how dedicated and competent, makes a move take on authority unilaterally, most of what he will inspire will be resentment from the rest of the staff. More than likely, he will be seen as nothing more than someone just trying to make more work for them, or as someone trying to impose his ways on them. Therefore it is very important that the rest of the workers understand that the "chief's" authority comes directly from the top of the power chain....it has to come from the top gun.

The best way for this to happen is at a general meeting; it should be called by the boss and, if he is a good manager and leader, he needs to give rousing pep talk, articulate what his goals are (hopefully he will have the better presentation on his agenda). Then he needs to actually install you as the Chief Projectionist -- the person he designates to be the one to implement procedures to reach his expectations. He needs to be sure that everyone understands that you answer to him. He has to come across that he is serious about the rest of the staff looking to you for guidance and that one of your responsibilities will be to establish common Standard Operating Procedures that all will follow.

As you can see, this isn't something that first glance might seem simple; actually it is fraught with political overtones -- that's why it isn't something with which you want to go solo. The staff has to understand that making you unhappy is the same as making the boss unhappy. He has to convey to them that you are his voice in the booth -- without that link, making you unhappy will have no consequences for them.

The boss needs to be as vigilant about the presentation in the theatres as he is about the concessions stand. He needs to do walk-arounds, making notes on things that are not right. General Managers usually do that for concessions fairly routinely; they need to do the same for what goes on in the auditoria. It is always a good motivation for the GM to drop notes to the projectionist in the booth that he noticed sloppy splices on the print in Room 2, or he noticed the print was showing dirt in Room 4, or the lights came up too high during the credits in Room 8, etc. They need to know that their work is being observed and when it isn't up to par, they will be called on it. It won't take too many "calls or notes from the boss" before the staff gets the picture -- the GM is watching their performance and he doesn't want excuses but results. Once they understand his seriousness about things looking and sounding as good as can be in the theatres, they will work to keep him from catching sloppiness. Once that is established, then they will be equally as concerned about you catching any sloppy work.

Bottom line, the chain-of-command has to be firmly established without any equivocation by the top gun in the operation. Without this key element in the operation, you will always be struggling in an uphill battle -- sooner or later those conditions will burn out even the best.

Frank