Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: LATE FOR WORK: REAL or CREATIVE

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Posted by Bill Langfield (Member # 818) on 08-28-2004, 02:31 PM:

As the Engine room of the Cinema, the projectionist MUST BE THERE on time.

I believe this topic belongs here in the Film Handers Forum, I'm mostly referring to the projectionist BEING LATE!

There is a lot of multi-skilling options that could be involved here, ie can the Manager can lace up and get show going, or inverse can the projectionist open up shop if the manager is late.
(Are they letting floor staff do that yet? GIVE IT TIME.)

Beileve me, Once I was on a magagement/bio shift, and I was the only one who turned up, no candy person, no usher, no ticket seller. (Anyway to cut the story. I don't want to start on THAT COMPANY again - its getting boring) It was a mad first few hours, but at the same time FUN and scary. However I ran start of day on my own, an the best thing the patrons really were so nice about it!
Some Mothers were even offering to help out, so I got someone to do point/tear tickets. That freed me up a lot, TO run between candy/tickets/projection!!!

BUT the other side of the coin.

I was late, yup totally slept in.
BECAUSE I set the alarm to 7pm NOT 7am. (You know like they have that little dot on the display that means am or pm or like the Dolblycp500 where 5. = 5.5 - erm not a good comparision)
Ticket seller waiting out front rang h/o area manager wanting to know who was manager. Yup I was me who should have been there. Got n the shit big time.
Told to report to area manager to 'explain failure to be ontime'

Anyway that excuse was not accepted, I got the normal formal warning etc.

I now use the cell/mobile phone as the alarm, rather than the clock radio that way there is no mixing up 07:00 am/pm. On the phone 07:00 is day, 19:00 is night!!

On the EDGE of the coin.

To travel to the arthouse, I need to navigate peak traffic. Weekends rock it takes 45mins going in and 30mins home.
WEEKDAYS however suck, all it takes is one simple bumper crash on ANY freeway or the Harbour Bridge, and the whole city is gridlocked for 40mins to 2hrs.

So what do you you do arrive 1 hr early everyday if there are no crashes or arrive 'just on time' if there is a crash.

SO whats YOUR EXCUSE?
Tell us your 'getting to work' story!

[edit to remove any company names or expose them]

[ 08-28-2004, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: Bill Langfield ]

Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 08-29-2004, 01:25 AM:

I don't have any cool stories (yet), but I agree that projectionists should be on time, it's common sense. At my work, say we are scheduled to come in at six...then it's an unwritten rule that you come in around 5:50-5:55 to make sure you are clocked in with a schedule and radio to start working....

Posted by Jannette McQueen (Member # 1885) on 08-29-2004, 03:34 PM:

I tend to be insanely early for any shift I work, particularly when it's projection. I don't think there's any explaining away the fact that I'm 2 hours early when I only have a 10 minute drive [Wink]

aside from the fact that I've no life aside from work [Razz]

Posted by Robert L. Fischer (Member # 2424) on 08-29-2004, 11:42 PM:

2 hours?! I'm always 15 minutes early, and I don't know of anyone else who is ever that early.

Posted by Kyle Watkins (Member # 986) on 08-29-2004, 11:58 PM:

Back aroud 98 or 99. We have the GM show up hours late. Now this was a 6 plex, also sometimes the manager would start moives. I heard way befor that should open around noon, the theater would not open up 5 or 6. Happen severl times, though never did make it up to home office though. He kept his job.

Posted by Nate Lehrke (Member # 1460) on 08-30-2004, 01:10 AM:

I once was managing at theatre A & got called that our sister theatres (Theatre B) manager wasnt there and no-one was able to open it. So I drove and opened that one, got the shows started 15 minutes late, than drove back to theatre A. I kept going back and forth between the two until another manager could get there. It was fun but used alot of gas.

Later I found out that the manager of B was in a bad car accident, so that excuse was reasonable.

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 08-30-2004, 03:40 AM:

I live 5 minutes walk away, and am still sometimes late.

Posted by Andrew Shingleton (Member # 2257) on 08-30-2004, 05:43 AM:

There's usually a direct relationship between how close you live to work and how often you're late. I'm obviously generalising here, but the closer you live, the higher the chance you'll be late. Most people estimate how long their trip usually takes, then adds a percentage of that time as a safety net in case of the unexpected. So say your trip usually takes an hour, you'd allow an extra 10 minutes. But if you live 10 minutes away, you're not going to allow an additional 10 - it'll more likely be 1 or 2 minutes max. So when the unexpected 10 minute delay hits, the person who travels the greater distance will just make it, but the closer person will be 8 minutes late.

As I said, it's definitely generalising, but it's just too tempting to cut it fine when you're only around the corner.

In our situation at work, we schedule the projectionists to be on shift at least two hours before the first session is due to hit the screen (for routine maintenance etc.) so if they're late it doesn't effect the shows (we just get a bit behind in the maintenance). Doesn't happen often though. [Smile]

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 08-30-2004, 06:02 AM:

quote: Andrew Shingleton
...we schedule the projectionists to be on shift at least two hours before the first session is due to hit the screen (for routine maintenance etc.)

Proper maintenance: An investment in "Film Done Right" and "Digital Done Right". [thumbsup]

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 08-30-2004, 03:54 PM:

I've been as early as one hour early and as late as 15 minutes, myself.
Everyone usually is scheduled one hour before the first show is to start, sometimes 30 mins before the first show depending on business and what really needs to be done.
We clean screens biweekly and thoroughly clean projectors once a week. Since we're a 6 screen we do one projector every day of the week except Thursday, and that same house usually gets rollers cleaned, brain cleaned, etc that day as well. It keeps the work load fair and often, since I usually close, frees up my time to work on other things like the relubing of the projectors or other maintenance that needs doing.

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 08-31-2004, 02:37 PM:

We have a policy that the entire staff is present by 6 PM. The earliest shows are at 7, so everyone is there an hour before showtime, a half hour before the doors open. The owner is not nice to deal with when someone is late so no one ever is unless there is a real excuse and they call.

Some years back I was a little late a few times (like running upstairs right at showtime) when I was the relief projectionist and I got an emergency call to cover whatever job. I was only late once by my own fault. I took a nap after supper and was due at the drive-in I worked at 7:45, an hour before showtime (summer hours). I woke up at home at showtime, drove like a maniac, and was on the screen 20 minutes late. You can bet I heard about that. My gripe then was that there wasn't a line to call the manager, just the recording line. No one called in so they didn't provide a second line. He could call out, but no one could call in. I wish I could've called him to tell him I was on my way, maybe the reaming I got would've been a little lighter.