Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: OOPS - I put the wrong movie on today

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Posted by Bill Langfield (Member # 818) on 08-02-2003, 08:05 AM:

For the second time I can ever remember of (since 1978), I laced up the wrong movie near the end of my shift.
It was due to start at 4.30 and I finshed at 4.15, so when Andrew came in, I went to the newsagent to put lotto in (it was a 19 mill draw -didnt win btw) when I got back the usher at C#6 said 'your in trouble, (at first I thought he was giving heaps about the girl I was checking out walking in front of me!!) what film did you "load up"?'

Sure enough, I had threaded up the wrong film, I had laced Danny Deckchair rather than Dancer Upstairs.

Andrew had to stop it, cut it, pull the already played film and ring out, pull out most of the ads/trls for the proper film (to catch time up) and get going again.

My thoughts on why I f***ed up...

1/ Getting close to end of shift.
2/ Thoughts on fixing jammed curtain.
3/ Days events I was going to discuss with Andrew at shift change.
4/ Getting that lotto ticket on.
5/ Three other screens finishing as well.
6/ Drama's with the Wurlitzer Organ.
7/ Not marking /X'ing off the days on running sheet. (I read Fri times not Sat)

Anyway those are my excuses and I'll stick to them.

The cool thing is, the place I work at, basically said, yeah you f***ed up, please try to avoid it. Problem simply noted on incident report(for GM) and noted in diary.

At the other place (where I got fired from for posting a message here, that didnt even mention them) they would have given me a formal warning, a performance discussion, I would have had to ring three people and fax four people with the incident report. (It was my little place and I miss looking after it) [Frown]

The last time I put the wrong film on was about 2 1/2 years ago, I put 'The Dish' rather than erm can't remember the name, but half the patron's at the end of the show said they were going to come back to see The Dish!! (and they only got to see about two minutes of it)

So my point is, I guess, have you ever put the wrong film on, how many times have you done it and why do you think it happened??!!

BILL.

Posted by Tim Turner (Member # 1109) on 08-02-2003, 09:36 AM:

Yes I've done this before. Threaded up the wrong movie. But I'm pretty fast at correcting it, and getting the right one on, before any customer complained to a manager.

Nothing ever happened to me except for a high level of embarrassment. The Ushers would laugh at me the whole day.

The very first time I did that was with Pokemon: The First Movie and I think it was Inspector Gadget. And the last time was with a movie called Undisputed and I can't remember the other one.

My excuse? well I guess I wasn't paying enough attention, and perhaps I was rushing a little. Actually with the Pokemon Vs Inspector Gadget incident ,I was still in training :-D

The titles printed on the tail end of the prints are also hard to read in a dark booth sometimes.

Anyone ever start a movie too early? I'm talking 30-45 min too early! [Eek!]

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 08-02-2003, 06:28 PM:

i did thread & start the wrong half of spike & mike's sick & twisted to a crowded house the opening weekend, but i noticed it right off and fixed it quickly. the (extra) embarrassing thing was that i was showing my girlfriend the ropes in the booth at the time. i don't know what people thought i was doing.

twice i've started a show 15 minutes early (with only a few trailers). both times i had gotten used to the showtimes which hadn't changed in several weeks and then did, and both times i was trying to do some other task simultaneously. the first time it was into reel 2 by the time i was notified. rather than cut the film, i motored it through to the end of the reel (10-15 min) and then center-dropped it and rethreaded. it's a gear-side platter and conduit going from the front of the projector to the wall, so no way to simply unthread and bypass the projector. luckily there was a long break before the next show.

carl

Posted by Michael West (Member # 428) on 08-02-2003, 11:36 PM:

i have always managed to catch this prior to starting - but that was on the manual starts. with the new clock starts i had finally experienced the inevitable and sadly started "new waterford girl" for five minutes - a much better movie any ways!
unfortunately i will have this happen again - with running an imax then over to thread cinema 11 an 12 then running over to thread 13 - 15, then back to thread an imax then continue making up a new movie then downstairs to quickly do 3d glasses, then back up to imax....its inevitable!

Posted by Erik Stevens (Member # 1497) on 08-03-2003, 12:28 AM:

The previous cinema chain that I worked for, whenever a wrong feature was threaded, the following story would be remembered, or discussed!

At a certain location, during busy school holidays, "The Little Mermaid" had just been released. The projectionist who was on duty that morning, accidently threaded "Basic Instinct". Now we all know how "Basic Instinct" start's [Eek!]

, you can imagine how many parents were complianing, and children shreeking!

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 08-03-2003, 12:34 AM:

I have had my share of wrong starts. not many but I have had it happen. Once I was showing care bears using a double mutt system. for some reason we either had three movies playing in the same house or had a platter problem but when they re wound care bears the wound it on the wrong reel. so I grabed the reel that said care bears on it started show few minutes later they were running out saying Hell Hole was on the screen.

Another incident that I was told about was one where they were running matinee shows of The rescuers in a reel to reel booth that used 60's. when the reel changed over to reel two it was the second reel for scarface so it was like F*ck you motherf**ker you die. [Big Grin]

Posted by George Roher (Member # 91) on 08-03-2003, 01:21 AM:

As far as I can remember, I've threaded the wrong show a couple times, but always caught it before starting except for one occasion at the first place I worked.

However...I have had the wrong feature on screen many times due to management making impromptu changes in the show schedule and not informing me.

Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 08-03-2003, 04:55 AM:

There are two kinds of projectionists: Those who tried to mix reels, and those, who lie about it.

I wote for the lotto reason. Lacing up a projector, while thinking about never to do that again, because those nice millions are coming to You next week. Not even a fully automated booth could rescue us from this.

My worst go on this one is almost 30 years back: "STAR" in 70mm 7 or 8 reels c/o - print indoor about 15 mins before show - no checking, no inspection, just running "from the box". Twice during that show, I hit the wrong reel. Second time, those few people watching it, got a drink and a free ticket for some other film, and I started from reel one again, after discussing this with my audience. Never run film unchecked ! [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Patrick de Groot (Member # 858) on 08-03-2003, 05:36 AM:

I also did mix some films. It also happened that I projected the right part before the intermission and the wrong part 2 after...
This all happened with big spools on a Philips FP5. The nice thing about spools is that you can easily correct it.
On another theater with no-rewind I have yet to have a wrong lace-up (knock knock). The problem with no-rewind is that you can't replace the film without help once the inner ring is out...

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 08-03-2003, 12:03 PM:

Suggest you add number 8 to your excuse list:

I'm human. I make mistakes.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 08-03-2003, 03:42 PM:

This is not exactly putting on the wrong movie, but it is not putting on the right one, or at least not all of the right one:

I was called in to run a film at the museum and, as is many times is the case, it was a last minute deal. And it so happened that there was a new guy just hired as their A/V coordinator. He brought up one can, 3 reels. Although not usual, there are many shorter independent titles that the museum runs that are mounted on only 3 reels, so I didn't give it a second thought.

I preped the print while talking to the new guy....not wise. We continued discussing the booth operation. He was very inquisitive and the conversation continued through the start and running of the show, until the last reel. Then as we were talking, I noticed that we had about 5 minutes left on the last reel. Since this booth has a glass front wall, you can see the screen from anywhere in the booth. I glanced at the screen and then began to listen to the soundtrack a little more closely. Then it dawned on me. I asked him, "Are you sure that is the only can that was downstairs for this film?" He saw the panic in my face. "Yeah, why?" I said, "Well because we have about 3 minutes left on the last reel and the thieves are still at large and the FBI are going back to town to find them and they've only two minutes to do it; we are missing the rest of this movie." The kid turned white. There was nearly a full house. He said (as the film ran out), "What are we going to do?" He said it with a kind of terror in his voice. I said, "Who's this "we," pal? I said, "You're the new A/V coordinator, you've got to go out and tell them." He looked like he was going to faint. Then I took pity and said, "Not to worry, I would go tell the audience." I told him to just say in the booth and try not to puke.

I went out on the balcony and explained how sorry we were that the distributor didn't send the full film and the museum would reschedule it and everyone would be able to see it for free. They all seemed very understanding and almost sorry to see me having so much obvious embarrassment. I was just about to go back into the booth, thinking, "Gee, that's was fairly easy...I'm getting away scott free," when a guy in a bit of a miffed tone yelled up, "So, how come you let us sit through an hour before you figured out you only had half the movie?" "Good question....all I can say is 'oversight.' Everyone have a good day." And I made a quick dash to the booth, where I couldn't hide....like I said, all glass front wall. I don't like having anyone in the booth with me for that very reason -- distraction.

Once I ran a double feature all week long and got so used to the order that by Saturday I didn't notice the schedule had reversed them. The manager was VERY pissed when he found out I had started with the wrong title. We didn't recover from that one as we were too far into the film. We had to just bite it and run them reversed.

Frank

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 08-04-2003, 02:06 AM:

When you run 15 projectors, probably 8 of those doubled up or switched out during the night, a wrong start is very common.

Two accounts that come to mind:
I once started 8 mile when it was supposed to be the Wild Thornberry's. I wonder why noone noticed that it was the wrong movie by the trailers.

Another was when MR deeds and Scooby Doo were doubled up on a platter. We had the first letter of the film title to indicate which show to start. It was the first show of the day and I saw a D next to it and I ASSUMED that the kid movie would run in the morning. I was wrong.

Posted by Kevin Baglow (Member # 721) on 08-04-2003, 06:20 AM:

I like to schedual shared films one after the other- with an even number of sessions -so I can join up two films on the platter and make it fool proof.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 08-07-2003, 11:45 AM:

I came across this in the winter 1999. The Regal Commerce Center in North Brunswick NJ had a double-up of 200 Cigarettes (first show only) and 8MM in one hall. I bought a ticket for a Saturday matinee of 200 Cigarettes. What film did the booth thread up? 8MM. I got a raincheck after I alerted the floor staff to what happened.

By coincidence, it was my first-ever visit to a Regal.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 08-07-2003, 12:07 PM:

Starting the wrong is old news if you go to the Loew's State Theatre in Times Square. It has happened a few times that I have gone to this theatre.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 08-07-2003, 01:43 PM:

I NEVER ran the wrong film at the wrong time- the first day I worked by myself one screen had 2 films so I made sure to triple-check which movie I was running. If the movie that plays next is other than the one that's currently playing, I'd take the center ring out of that film, and if there was more than 1 feed module I'd put the leader through that.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 08-07-2003, 03:38 PM:

quote:
I'd take the center ring out of that film, and if there was more than 1 feed module I'd put the leader through that.

...and then you'd get the call to move the print for the next show.

If you've got more than one removable control plate, you'd be better off just removing the extra plate and setting it somewhere else (like on a shelf, or 'in' the next deck to play). That way when you have to move the control plate to thread the next show, you'll be thinking "why do I have to move the control plate?".

Posted by Jonathan Ralston (Member # 1775) on 08-09-2003, 11:20 PM:

I'm pretty new at projection, but I've never made that mistake. Since the platter is the first place I go, any time there are two prints, I just look up at the schedule.

Posted by Pete Evans (Member # 1823) on 08-10-2003, 06:17 PM:

The only time I've ever done anything like this was about thirty years ago (God I was young then), we were running a one day only special presentation of Othello and I missed a reel out, I thought it was strange finishing 20 minutes early!
If you're going to mess up you may as well do it well!

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 08-19-2003, 11:57 AM:

Oops down in Birmingham

-----------------------------------------------------------
Fury at cinema bungle Aug 13 2003

By Ben Hurst, Evening Mail

Stunned parents and children waiting to see Piglet the Movie were screened trailers for X-rated horror 'slasher' films.

Sally Nulty, son Luke and his cousin Rebecca, both aged five, were among those hoping to see the family flick at Star City's Warner Village at a matinee showing.

But they sat in shock as gore-filled trailers for films such as Freddie vs Jason rolled onto the screen.

The children then watched as 18-rated Wrong Turn started, with a brutal murder of a climber by crazed cannibals in the first minutes. Miss Nulty, aged 29, from Erdington said: "The first trailer was Jeepers Creepers 2 to my amazement as I sat puzzled and shocked that they show such a trailer.

"The second trailer commenced and this showing was for Terminator 2.

"Two other adults left the cinema to find a manager at this point. Then just to put the icing on the cake a trailer then came on for Freddie vs Jason."

The trailers continued rolling while a staff member checked what was going on then announced it would be turned off.

But the film The Wrong Turn began while they were waiting, showing a murder. Sally asked: "How can you make a mistake between the name Wrong Turn and Piglet's Big Movie unless the person employed to switch on movies cannot read? I'm really angry they were exposed to those images."

Miss Nulty said the manager told parents the film had been left in from the night before.

They were all then given complimentary tickets.

A spokesman for the cinema was unavailable to comment.

------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by Nicholas Roznovsky (Member # 861) on 08-19-2003, 03:31 PM:

quote:
The second trailer commenced and this showing was for Terminator 2

Not only are they subjecting children to violent trailers, they're saving them for ten years to spring on the unsuspecting little grubbers! [Big Grin]

Typos are funny, especially when they're in the newspaper.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-19-2003, 03:41 PM:

Michael: that one got wide exposure. It was in the Telegraph and the Guardian too. They all published the quote about the film being 'left in the projector'. I presume this means that their usual operating routine was to clean the mech and lace up the first film of the next day before going home at night (something I don't like, because of the dust accumulation overnight). In this instance the projectionist must have forgotten about the one-off kids' show in the morning, and just laced up the first film of that screen's regular programme for the week.

Posted by Darren Briggs (Member # 1071) on 08-20-2003, 07:49 AM:

I had a trainee that laced the wrong film, started it, didnt realise, the ushers couldnt get hold of him!? but luckly I had just been in the bar downstairs, walking out of the building and a usher that looked like he had just seen a ghost ran out saying 'john's put the wrong film on', hence a ran back in, ripped the ads and trailers out of the correct film, laced up and was on screwen in about 3 mins flat. Audience happy, me very pissed off, as i couldnt find John the projectionist for 10 minutes. He then blamed an usher for coming upstairs and unlacing the correct film and putting the wrong film on!

John lasted 48 more hours, didnt turn up for a shift and claimed he never agreed to it, so his services were no longer required, as he didnt turn up for the shift I ended up doing 3 full days by myself, 10am till 12 twice, and 10 till 2am on the saturday.

Darren