Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Ghosts in the Machines

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Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 10-13-2003, 02:46 PM:

It happens often enough. I have to tell y'all about this and I wonder how common this phenomenon is...

Projectionists will occasionally report problems and then when I show up the problem mysteriously goes away.

Sometimes I will "shadow" the projectionist for an entire shift in hopes that the problem will recur. Sometimes I get lucky but most times the projectors "behave."

The projectionists think that the machines have a mind of their own and they somehow "know" that I'm in the building.

The weird part is that when I leave, a lot of these problems return. [Eek!]

Anybody else have ghosts in the machines?

Posted by Travis Hubrig (Member # 1745) on 10-13-2003, 02:59 PM:

That happens to me all of the time. I don't understand... I will simply walk into the booth with one of my projectionists and have no problems. I think my projectors like me better than the projectionists and behave for me.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 10-13-2003, 03:23 PM:

The answer is very simple, Manny. Sometimes projectionists f*** *p and then they come with with some really fantastic descriptions of equipment malfunctions.

Posted by Steven Privett (Member # 718) on 10-13-2003, 03:30 PM:

I think DTS actually adds technician detection devices to the DTS6AD. I have been trying to sneak up on an ongoing problem in one unit that is said to be causing problems. I am constantly being called out to repair these processors, but in most cases after overseeing several shows, the problem has mysteriously gone away. [Eek!]

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 10-13-2003, 04:22 PM:

I think a big factor is people have a tendency to do things a slightly different way, many times not realizing it, when someone else is present and watching them.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 10-13-2003, 08:29 PM:

This is the infamous technician aura that affects the theatre you go to, usually as soon as you enter the building. Its effects usually last between 5 minutes to 24 hrs after you depart the location.

I have this problem with two locations that seem to have horrendous Dolby Digital failures all the time except when myself, Lonny Jennings, or Ken Jacquart are there... And as far as I can tell there is no apparent operator error...

-Aaron

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 10-13-2003, 09:00 PM:

One theatre lost the stereo magnetic sound on the last show, after the manager left for the night. Couldn't figure it out until I saw the problem. Nothing wrong with the amps or readers, just the guy was too lazy to thread the penthouse after the boss had left.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 10-13-2003, 11:21 PM:

I'll do you one better!

I have seen machines disassemble themselves without ever being touched by human hands!

Yes, it's as if they literally fall to pieces. Nobody ever does anything to them. Nobody ever knows who did it. Folks, I have walked into a theater that reported "problems" with the optical sound only to find the whole sound head lying in pieces all over the floor. Sound drum... Solar Cell... Exciter... Guide rollers... Sprockets... Gears... Belts... Everything! It was freakin' AMAZING! I put everything back together and realigned the system. It worked PERFECTLY!

Projectors have caught fire because all the diodes were put in all backwards. Let me tell you! Somehow all the diodes just unbolted themselves, moved around to random positions and bolted themselves back in place. The U-B innocently turned on the projector and within minutes, POOF! It goes up in smoke! We installed a Strong portable rectifier as a temporary fix until a new main rectifier board could be ordered. POW!! That went up in smoke too!

Most incredibly, I have even had a tools FLOAT out of a tool box, move across the room and do things to projectors! An aperture file floated across the room and filed out the aperture on a projector! Another time, I ball peen hammer floated out of the tool box, moved across the room and bashed itself against a shutter until the shaft bent.

Platter motors, rollers, sprockets and even intermittents suddenly self-destruct. There is NEVER anybody in the theater who knows who did it!

If I ever get my hands on the "Nobody" guy I'll strangle him with my bare hands! [Mad]

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 10-14-2003, 12:29 AM:

Not only theater gear but especially computing systems. At my old lab one or more of our DEC PDP-11 series machines (11-23, 11-34, 11-70, VAX 11-780... jeez I'm revealing my age) would occasionally act up, resulting in a call to the DEC maintenance guy. The DEC guy would run a diagnostic tape--everything would check out fine. The guy goes away, happy to charge us for the call. Then the machine would act up again. Repeat until... [Smile]

We had a cartoon about such machine behavior posted on the wall in the PDP 11-70 room (two machines--one did orbit analysis, the other was a development machine plus backup). The cartoon showed the machines discussing tactics as the DEC guy walks in, something like: "Oh I know that diagnostic tape! I can play that one no problem!" [Smile]

Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 10-14-2003, 08:11 PM:

The best one is when people complain a theater is loud, and we haven't moved a print or touched the volume controls. Took us a while to figure it out one day, I open up the back of the sound rack and the gain on the amps was turned up way high. And no one "knows how" to do that.

The sad thing is, it's keeps happening.

We also have haunted theaters though for real...ones that sometimes the ushers will not go in without an escort...I'll admit that yes, sometimes I'm even afraid... [eyes]