Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: List some dumb things you've been told by managers

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Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 04-13-2006, 04:12 PM:

Lately, I feel like I could make this thread a mile long by myself, but for now, I'll tell one story and see what else pops up. We've all worked with managers who know everything there is to know about theater operations, and the booth in particular. These people are never wrong. And this will be their stories.

No need to mention any names here - unless you want to. [evil]

One of the funniest things I've been told lately is that threading from the bottom up is bad because it "puts too much tension on the platter motor and the variac motor."

Can anyone tell me what the "variac motor" is? I know what the "platter motor" is, but I wasn't aware that the variac had a motor. Maybe I'm wrong.

Posted by Richard May (Member # 2627) on 04-13-2006, 05:23 PM:

One manager wanted to replaced all the "perforated" screens at our quad because they all had little tiny holes in them. He couldnt understand how they were in perfect little rows........OMG

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 04-13-2006, 06:02 PM:

"Just make it happen."

Whether it be two pieces of equipment that just don't belong together, or getting the show on-screen without having the film, or any number of other situations.

The solution to this, of course, is to spend $3000 to "just make it happen". [Big Grin]

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 04-13-2006, 08:24 PM:

Many moons ago, when I worked in a union booth (a two man booth no less), the manager called up and asked to play music 15 minutes before the first show. The booth contract stipulated that projectionists' hours began when the show hit the screen, and the theater was entitled to one cut of preshow music.

I explained that to the manager, who replied "I don't give a damn- I want 15 minutes of music." His wish was my command, and two weeks later I turned in pay sheets with projectionist hours starting 15 minutes before the first show.

The manager threw a shit-fit over the extra time, and threatened to fire all the operators. OK, quick call to our business agent to explain the situation. He was in the manager's office in fifteen minutes, and you could hear the screaming out in the lobby: "How dare you threaten the operators!" **#//!!%&###. Ushers said the sideshow went on for ten minutes.

Bottom line- we got paid for the extra time, the asshole had to apologize, and we went back to one cut of music before the first show. [Smile]

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 04-14-2006, 07:25 AM:

Did you know that the only thing Film-Guard is good for is removing scratches? I learned that a couple of weeks ago. I'm so lucky to work with such knowledgeable people.

Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 04-14-2006, 11:01 AM:

quote: Mark J. Marshall
Did you know that the only thing Film-Guard is good for is removing scratches?

Obviously you haven't tried it mixed with branch water and a twist of lemon peel!

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 04-14-2006, 01:28 PM:

There has been so many, but here are a few of my favorites:

"Just kick the amp to get it working or I'll find sombody who will."

The owner's wife was just in and said everything looked clean and I told here the theatre was just cleaned." [Confused]

"I'm not exactly a theatre manager, but consider myself more as the company's remodeling and design engineer."

"There are 70 tickets sold for auditorium #4. [holds 130] Do you think we should move it to auditorium #1?" [holds 222].

"We might be able to get better sound compression out of the Dolby reader if the two guide rollers are making contact while the equipment is running." [Eek!]

"Hey, I ran into that Brad Miller guy at Showest and told him that Filmguard stuff you use is only WD-40 in a bottle. Instead, I want you to start using this platter brush I bought while I was out there."

I'm sure there are more if I think about it.

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 04-14-2006, 01:28 PM:

Post deleted

Posted by Jason Winn (Member # 3568) on 04-14-2006, 01:36 PM:

The managers I worked with didn't even like us using Film-guard. They didn't like it because, the first time you run it on a print, it might leave a few light streaks on screen. But, after the first show, the streaks are gone, and so is the dirt. They didn't care about that though. If hundreds of specks of dirt appear on screen every show, that's okay! But, if there's a few very light streaks for one show, then it's a problem.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 04-14-2006, 01:54 PM:

New theater with 6-8 box office registers and about 12-14 concession registers. The GM's procedure is to take all of the cash drawers and turn them upside down on his desk, sort the different kinds of money and fill in the blanks on the nightly paperwork.

Me - "So how do we know who's drawer was short if the grand total doesn't add up?"

Dumbass GM - "We only hire honest people, so that doesn't happen."

Me - "Ummmmmmm, ok."

2 hours later hundreds of dollars were missing, yet he continued his stupid practice day after day and blamed it on all of us Assistant Managers stealing the money (of which we were all witnesses to the fact that was not happening). After a week we at least got him to keep box office and concession piles seperate. (Maybe a month into it he let us count each drawer seperate.)

That dumbass ended up being promoted to a district manager for a major chain! [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Robert Burtcher (Member # 3227) on 04-15-2006, 04:08 AM:

Ohhhh... I'd kill to post a useful reply in this thread... but I'd rather not get written up.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 04-15-2006, 12:46 PM:

It's a shame we can't have this one thread be all anonymous posts. That would be wonderful. Imagine all of the fun stories we would hear! [Big Grin]

Posted by George Roher (Member # 91) on 04-15-2006, 02:26 PM:

At one theatre we were having to change Xenon lamps quite often, partially because the managers were cheap about buying lamps and some lamps had an insane number of hours on them. Also, management was abusing the equipment when they were in the booth so some lamps were failing early.

Anyway, one of the brilliant managers was complaining to us about the money he had to spend on lamps. He argued that it was our fault for not taking care of lamp changes when we should have.

We explained that in order to change lamps in the first place, he would have to have bought lamps to put in. Be he kept arguing that if we had changed the lamps then he wouldn't have to buy new lamps right now.

It was kind of like talking to Nigel Tuffnell. It was a mindnumbing conversation.

Posted by Bob Koch (Member # 1062) on 04-16-2006, 02:14 PM:

Brad`s post reminds me of a description of a manager told to me long ago by an ex Dolby engineer, who shall remain nameless,
"he possesses the approximately equal parts of belligerence and ignorance that characterize a Syufy manager"

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 04-16-2006, 10:12 PM:

"Never dip tooth brushes in alcohol... they will react with the alcohol and cause it to turn pink."

I made him clarify... it's not the pink dust on the tooth brush that causes the pink alcohol, it's a chemical reaction from the tooth brush. This caused us to write the following on our booth's white board:

"Welcome to (our theater's name)! Home of the amazing pink alcohol reacting tooth brushes!"

That note has been on the board for about three years now.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-16-2006, 10:27 PM:

quote: George Roher
At one theatre we were having to change Xenon lamps quite often, partially because the managers were cheap about buying lamps and some lamps had an insane number of hours on them. Also, management was abusing the equipment when they were in the booth so some lamps were failing early.

..sounds on what some companies still do, or used to do - let alone buy the cheapest "charlie built" bulbs.

Another one is where a cinema ROTATES a series of bulbs on the shelf -they have a good dozen bulbs for one house and rotate bulbs every other month - pull one out and put another in every other month..(can you see how the bulb report would look like with this sort of procedure?) ...manager (booth, or location) thinks this saves on bulb usage.. (????)...and all of these bulbs have high hours.

Funny and wonder on where some of these goofball procedures originate.

-Monte

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 04-16-2006, 11:27 PM:

Stupid things I have seen managers do?

I have seen managers insist that screen brightness/ilumination is adjusted by cranking up the bulb amperage. They had no clue regarding adjusting the reflector mirror....and each projector/console was equipped with an OEM service manual....and these individuals were college students!

I have posted much about these managers in other threads...so I am not going to repeat myself again!

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 04-17-2006, 03:27 PM:

Me, a customer complaining about a travel ghost.
Manager: "Its in the print."

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 04-17-2006, 05:44 PM:

quote: Monte L Fullmer
let alone buy the cheapest "charlie built" bulbs.

Whats that?

Rick

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-17-2006, 08:14 PM:

quote: Richard Hamilton
Whats that?

Lamps made by your girlfriends relatives [Big Grin]

.

Mark

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 04-17-2006, 08:37 PM:

quote: John T. Hendrickson, Jr
Many moons ago, when I worked in a union booth (a two man booth no less), the manager called up and asked to play music 15 minutes before the first show. The booth contract stipulated that projectionists' hours began when the show hit the screen, and the theater was entitled to one cut of preshow music.

I explained that to the manager, who replied "I don't give a damn- I want 15 minutes of music." His wish was my command, and two weeks later I turned in pay sheets with projectionist hours starting 15 minutes before the first show.

What does this mean? I don't understand what "one cut of preshow music" is. How does one cut of music compare to 15 minutes. Please explain.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 04-18-2006, 01:02 AM:

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Lamps made by your girlfriends relatives .

Ahhh so, i get it!! [Wink]

Means I should get a discount!

Posted by Jason Winn (Member # 3568) on 04-22-2006, 01:46 PM:

One time, I was closing in booth. The last movie that ended was The Aviator which ended at 1:45 AM. The last movie that ended before that was at 1:00 AM. So, I had 45 minutes where I just had to sit around and wait for that last movie to drop. Around 1:15, a manager calls me and wants me to check the theater showing Aviator and see if anyone's in there. They said that if nobody's in there, they wanted me to stop the projector, unthread the film, cut the film, take part of the print off the takeup platter, and splice it back onto the payout platter. They wanted me to do all that extra work just so they could go home early.

Luckily, there were a few people in the theatre, so I didn't have to do it. That's stupid, though. First of all, Aviator is a 9 reel print. It's too much of a risk. I could've easily damaged the film by doing that. But they don't care. As long as they get to go home early. Lazy-asses! It's not like they have to do anything. Just sit around for 30 minutes. Oh, talk about hard work!

Our managers were always like that, though. That's why I hated closing. A lot of times, they would call and ask if anyone was in the last theatre that was playing. Plus, if I ever needed their help with anything, I was screwed. If there wasn't an usher available to help me move prints, a manager would help me. They would always gripe and complain about how many prints we had to move. Hey, you make the schedule, not me! Idiots!

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 04-22-2006, 09:34 PM:

Lyle Romer said:

"What does this mean? I don't understand what "one cut of preshow music" is. How does one cut of music compare to 15 minutes. Please explain."

One "cut" refers to one song on an old LP record. Yes, we had a turntable for non-sync intermission music. (told you that was many moons ago [Smile]

) This was in the days before tape and CD. A "cut" was generally about three minutes. Back then, an LP record was about 15 minutes or so in length.

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 04-23-2006, 03:22 AM:

quote: Jason Winn
They said that if nobody's in there, they wanted me to stop the projector, unthread the film, cut the film, take part of the print off the takeup platter, and splice it back onto the payout platter.

at a certain point, you have to be able to say "you are my boss but that is a fucked up thing to do and i won't do it." they don't own the print; it's not theirs to treat so cavalierly. what if a print was going to move to another theater and you were asked to scratch it after the gate during the last showing, to sabotage the competition? that's extreme, but i could almost imagine someone concocting an idea like that.

in the quoted example, you could just tell them, "i won't do that, but i will shut off the lamp so we don't have to hang around after the show while it cools, and we'll save a little money." would they fire you or discipline you for that?

carl

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 04-23-2006, 05:20 AM:

I was once told that a man with 12 years of experience to my measly 1 was obviously a better projectionist than I.

Two weeks later Finding Nemo was cancelled to a sold out auditorium since it brainwrapped after he screwed with the platter timing. "Just trying to get that speed up so it won't lag the projector".

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 04-23-2006, 08:17 AM:

quote: Will Kutler
I have seen managers insist that screen brightness/ilumination is adjusted by cranking up the bulb amperage. They had no clue regarding adjusting the reflector mirror....

About 5 years ago, I did a P.M. at a screening room. I asked their tech how(and to show me)they operated before I touched anything. Before they ran any film, they would take light readings and adjust the amperage to attain 16 fl. Problem was, they were cutting the amperage so much. They were getting about 300 hours out of 1600w bulbs.

In a different theater, I came in one morning and the painter that the theater had on contract was painting the screen in the big house. I proceeded to ask what he was doing, and he said that he was told to paint it because of stains. I tried to explain to him how bad painting a screen was, and mentioned the gain of the screen. The next morning I came in, and he was re-painting it with the kind of textured paint that was used on ceilings with the little sparkly things! Needless to say, the painter bought a screen that day!