This is topic Turning the lights down in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 04-04-2004, 03:22 PM:
 
OK, here's a situtaion. You started your last show of the set and now you're walking the booth, checking lights, focus, framing, etc.... You notice that in one of the houses for some reason the house lights did not go all the way down when the feature begain. Perhaps the print is missing a cue, or the automation missed the cue for some reason. The feature has been playing for quite some time. (Perhaps half an hour or longer.) No customers have complained about the lights staying at half.

Now, here's the question: Would you turn the lights down? On one hand, to me personally it is very annoying to watch a movie with the lights at half. I would want them turned down and would complain as soon as the feature began. OTOH, turning them down in the middle of the feature - especially when no one even noticed in the first place - may be more distracting than leaving them at half. Not to mention it may look tacky.

This scenario assumes an automation that uses a specific cue to execute a specific funtion, rather than sequential cues where it would be necessary to manually advance the cue in order for the next cue to perform its desired function.

What would you do?
 

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Posted by Dennis Udovich (Member # 1066) on 04-04-2004, 03:43 PM:
 
The same thing has happened to me. I WILL advance the cue on the automation and/or dim the lights. If the dimmer is set for a slow speed dim, it won't bother anyone watching the movie.
 

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Posted by Jackson Gilman (Member # 2142) on 04-04-2004, 04:47 PM:
 
Funny you should mention this. A long time ago, I was walking around the other side (the one I wasn't working on at the time) of the booth and noticed a scope print playing on a flat lens. The feature had gone through four reels, and at that point, I figured changing the lens would only upset the two people who, I suppose, had no problem with everyone looking like the Armstrong family (read: Armstrong, Stretch).

Lights I suppose are another story altogether, I agree with Dennis. My only concern would be the customer's dissapointment in knowing most of the feature they paid for was presented improperly.
 

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Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 04-04-2004, 04:52 PM:
 
Don't be silly. The customers know. No complaints does NOT mean that nobody noticed. When it comes to the wrong lens or lights up, you can be confident that most everyone noticed.

The only thing that changes here is if you do something or not which will leave the customers thinking one of two things. Either that you noticed you messed up, or that you didn't notice.
 

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Posted by Joshua Lott (Member # 240) on 04-04-2004, 05:09 PM:
 
From: Secret Forumlas of the Wizard of Ads by Roy H. Williams

www.wizardofads.com

quote:

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An in-depth study conducted by Technical Assistance Research Programs of Washington D.C., uncovered some things I think you should know:

1. On average, twenty-seven unhappy customers won't complain for every one who will.

2. Yet each of these twenty-seven unhappy customers will tell an average of sixteen other people about his bad experience with your firm.

3. This means that every complaint you hear represents 432 negative impressions.
How many people should have to complain to you before you take action to permanently remedy a problem? By the time you hear a particular complaint three times, the problem has been mentioned to an average of 1,296 people.

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It is always a good policy that if something is screwed up to make it right. Then deal with what ever the customers complaints are after words. If you make a mistake, say Yep... I screwed up. What can I do to make it right with you.

This generally disarms even the most upset customer. I have actually had customers tell me that there was absolutly nothing I could do to make them happy. They just wanted someone to listen. That is why it is such a bad idea to just hand out emergency tickets or passes to someone that is complaining. Sometimes they just want to be heard.
 

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Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 04-04-2004, 07:32 PM:
 
Once, at a local theatre, I was watching Chicago when I noticed the lights had not dimmed to feature level. Allthough this was annoying, I didn't want to miss any of the movie, so I dealt with it. I'm sure there are others who notice but don't want to leave to complain. I wish someone had noticed them and dimmed them at some point durring the film.

As a result, I always change the lights/lense/whatever no mater how far in the feature is when I notice it.
 

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Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 04-04-2004, 09:01 PM:
 
I would dim them. I agree with the study Joshua posted.
 

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Posted by Daniel Fuentz (Member # 1684) on 04-04-2004, 10:12 PM:
 
Just a few weeks ago I was at a nearby theatre and the lights didn't dim when the feature started. It was actually kind of funny, becuase when I did go to the concession stand to let them know, one of the workers shouted "Oh crap!" and ran upstairs. Not exactly *professional*, but at least I knew they cared!
 

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Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 04-04-2004, 11:04 PM:
 
My lights take almost 30 seconds to dim from half. I'd dim them in the situation you describe, but not during dark scenes in the movie. If possible, doing it during daylight scenery would make the transition less obvious.
 

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Posted by Alexander Smith (Member # 1769) on 04-05-2004, 11:25 AM:
 
One of our screens has a dimmer module that (on rare occasions) completely
locks up and ignores commands from the CNA-200. When we (and I speak for
the rest of the projectionists at my site) see that a show has started, the dimmer
_always_ gets turned off and on, to re-set it.

Our customers have (in general) a bad habit of waiting until the show is over,
before complaining. Always looking for the "free lunch" IMO. I, personally,
begrudge a refunded ticket if the customer couldn't be bothered to tell one of
the floor staff about the problem.

Our company policy title even says "please report projection problems" e.t.c.
 

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Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 04-05-2004, 02:07 PM:
 
Not fixing a problem after noticing it will just make you look dumber- fixing it even late will at least show that someone's sort of paying attention.
I never consider a show actually started until the FEATURE is up and running- if there's nothing else to do I'll actually sit there through all the trailers and make sure the lights go down, as well as make sure everything else is still fine. If I can't do that, I'll at least make a point of checking it as soon as possible. Hitting Start and walking away is never the way to do it!
And something not enough people in the business realize is that ONE bad experience will keep a customer from coming back for a LONG time, if not forever!
 

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Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 04-05-2004, 02:59 PM:
 
As an audience member, I'd much rather have someone FIX the problem as soon as they notice it, rather than have the theatre personnel hope no one will notice or fear calling attention to it by fixing it right away. As others have said, for every customer that actually tells you something is wrong, there are probably a dozen others who never say anything, but are really dissatisfied.

A skilled projectionist learns to be discrete in fixing problems while on screen: focusing quickly, correcting framing (at a scene change or during fast action), removing hairs in the gate, gradually adjusting house lights to the correct value during a brighter scene, changing fader level, switching to analog with a print having digital sound problems, etc.

By all means, stop the show is when you are likely to damage the print if you don't stop to fix the problem. For example, if you have a misthread or lost loop that you know is scratching the print, stop and fix it. Or if you have a splice break at the takeup, don't just let the film pile onto the dirty floor.
 

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Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 04-05-2004, 07:35 PM:
 

quote:

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Our customers have (in general) a bad habit of waiting until the show is over,
before complaining. Always looking for the "free lunch" IMO. I, personally,
begrudge a refunded ticket if the customer couldn't be bothered to tell one of
the floor staff about the problem.

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quote:

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Many people (myself included) prefer not to miss any of the film (if it is mostly watchable) but would still expect compensation for a less than satisfactory experience.

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Ah, finally a legitimate use of the cell phone in a theatre. While sitting through three trailers with the frame-line in the middle of the screen, I simply whipped out my cell phone, called the theatre's number (had to listen to all of the titles and showtimes before they gave the number for the manager, which gives you some idea of how long this thing was out of frame) and then called the manager. Unfortunately it took him another 10 minutes to comprehend that I was calling from within his theatre. Now I make it a point to program the manager's number into my cell before I go to the theatre and have it poised and at the ready for just such occasions.

As for four reels of a scope picture playing flat, anyone on my staff would know they were in BIG trouble if they didn't stop the show and correct the error. We would definately stop the show, apologize for the mishap and offer comp tickets and a free popcorn and drink to everyone who had suffered through that major a goof. Then we'd correct the problem and play the last reels correctly.

But that certainly would not be the end of it; there would definately be a follow-up. I would want to find out what could possibly be the excuse for such a mistake. Who was it that for four reels never looked out a port window? Which ushers on the floor never stuck a head into the auditorium to check the presentation? Then I would post Joshua's Roy Williams great scientific data on every wall in the booth and in each office and make sure that there is a schedule in place assigining responsibility to staff to check the picture, the sound and room environment (light levels, heat, roudy patrons, etc.) at the start of each show or shorly thereafter. This kind of problem wouldn't happen if such a quality check system were in place.

As for lights left at preview level, just set the timer to 4 min and they will dim so slowly no one will be distracted or perhaps not even notice, but again, FIX IT. Everyone knows stuff happens; it's never good operating procedure or even good showmanship to just ignor it.
 

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Posted by Jackson Gilman (Member # 2142) on 04-06-2004, 01:16 AM:
 
Ouch! Well, it's better you guys holler at me than my boss. Please don't use my previous post as a benchmark for my level of professionalism. I blame the naivety of my youth!

On a side note, many entry-level projectionists can get nervous about changing something about presentation on the screen. Some may downright panic. It's an interesting misconception, as you all have well pointed out, that claiming ignorance for presentation faults is the better way to stay out of trouble; a mistake I won't make again.
 

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Posted by Alexander Smith (Member # 1769) on 04-06-2004, 10:54 AM:
 
Reference Jesse Skeen's comment regarding when a show has
"started".

I agree entirely, although my company's policy of single
manning where possible, means (on rare occasions) a problem
with another screen (or air conditioning, e.t.c.) means I
can't make those checks as promptly as I'd like.

Of course a problem is more likely to happen in inverse
proportion to the probability of it being observed by you.
;-)
 

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Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 04-07-2004, 12:33 AM:
 
By all means, fix the problem! Once it's fixed, the non-complaining audience will breathe a sigh of relief.

Another example is apeture plates being misaligned. On one or two of our machines, the lens turret doesn't always knock the apeture all the way over to the next format, so there's a fuzzy edge on one side. Of course, no one complains, but if I come in for my shift and see it, the movie could have just one reel to go, but I'll fix it.

Also, if you fix a problem even after the fact, it makes it look like you were at least trying, or "working on it" for the time.

=TMP=
 

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