Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Nacho cheese on silver screen

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 12-31-2006, 03:59 PM:

Some punks threw nacho cheese at one of our screens, and of course, it's one of the few silver screens we have for 3D. Apparently, that just hapened yesterday, but the cheese is already dry, of course.
What's the best way of getting rid of it without damaging the screen's reflective surface?

Posted by Cody Martin (Member # 2523) on 12-31-2006, 04:08 PM:

I'm not sure about the screen, but when this happened on one of our painted walls, we heated the cheese with a hair dryer. It was a newer "stain" but once heated it wiped right off.

Cody

Posted by Alex Grueneberg (Member # 2652) on 12-31-2006, 05:03 PM:

We don't have silver screens here, but for nacho cheese i've always used warm water to re-wet the cheese. It seems to come right off.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 12-31-2006, 10:48 PM:

Man...problems with silver screens it that it really shows what was on there no matter what hit it and how well you clean it.

The way I've wet cleaned screens (and one never just wipe the spot with a wet rag...) is to get two 5 gallon buckets full of warm water with one bucket having just a few drops of regular dish soap mixed within.

Then, you get a bunch of clean towels, and a pushbroom head mounted on a extension pole.

You soak the clean towels in the soapy water and wrap those wet towels around that pushbroom head and proceed to actually wipe the screen with this wet towel system.

How you wipe is straight down strokes-start at the top and come straight down in one stroke and continue going across with this procedure for two passes. Then, the dirty towels are placed in the clean water bucket for rinse, while the next set of soapy towels are wrapped again around the pushbroom head for the next set of wiping. .. and you repeat this process as many times as needed.

Yes, this might be somewhat tedious, but the results do improve illumination performance.

The real bugger on when cheese is thrown on any screen is that the cheese fills the screen perfs and have to be cleaned out individually.

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 12-31-2006, 11:32 PM:

Sadness.

Do you know if it happened during the film or beforehand? I've always assumed that most screen vandalism occurs before the movie starts. This is the number one reason I wish more theatres still used curtains. (Number two is that the pre-shows are annoying.)

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 01-01-2007, 01:43 AM:

Kiss it goodbye. Monty's suggestion will work on normal screens, but silver screens have a very delicate surface that must maintain polarization. Just the rubbing action of a wet cloth can damage it. The nastiest thing about it is that even if you can clean it and it will look clean, but will usually happen is that it might look ok with a regular image projected on it, the first time you try projecting a 3D image on it that requires the horizontal and vertical polarization to be reflected while still accurately retaining the polarization, you will see that area not keeping the two images separated.

The best thing might be to attempt the warm water washing technique, but try to limit it as much as possible just to the damaged area and not beyond. After you remove the stain as best you can, you should do a test with polarized projected to see how badly the process damaged the silver coating. You probably will find that you might be able to get away with 2D projection, but you will need to replace the screen before you next 3D booking.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 01-01-2007, 10:57 AM:

quote: Frank Angel
Kiss it goodbye.

Kiss dried-out, congealed cheese? [puke]

Good luck Michael!

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-01-2007, 11:16 AM:

You'll have to replace the screen. There is no cleaning a silver screen and having it ever look "right" again. The salts in the cheese will tarnish the screen where it came in contact.

Mark

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 01-04-2007, 11:11 AM:

How much do curtains cost vs. a new screen?

I would think that if the screen is expensive in relation, it would justify having curtains to protect them.

Plus, curtains are cool and all movie theaters should have and use them...

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 01-05-2007, 04:25 AM:

quote: Scott Jentsch
Plus, curtains are cool and all movie theaters should have and use them...

True and true, but they do have to open sometime and when they do...splat! Nacho cheese.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-05-2007, 03:08 PM:

I don't think it has anything to do with curtains or not. The theaters I worked for in Germany all had curtains, and we never had anything on the screen or curtains. But we also had ushers patrol the auditriums regularly to look for troublemakers and noisy people, and I think that presence may keep little idiots from such stunts. After all, people who do that are little destructive cowards.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 01-06-2007, 06:47 PM:

I worked at a theatre right outside of Texas A&M and every Friday night we ran what was considered (at the time) porn movies. All the students knew it and we never even had to change the marquee; we just put a standee in front of the box office that said simply "Friday Nite Midnight Show." We sold out 850 seats every week. Only thing was, these pornos were edited to comform with uptight Texas law circa 1968. Tits were allowed and soft appendages, but just a few seconds before anything got really erect....SPLICE....and jump to AFTER the act, when everything was soft again.

Well, even though the guys knew this is all they were ever going to see, nevertheless they always hooted and hollared and stompped so loudly that it was like a low rumble in the booth. Once in awhile someone would throw whatever was handy at the screen.

About the third or forth Firday that I worked this soft porn show, I saw a popocorn boxed and then candy wrappers being hurled at the screen. I totally paniced big-time and did the only thing I could think of, which was to close the curtain. This nearly started a riot, what with all that testosterone flowing. The assistant manager came running up to the booth & wanted to know what in hell was I was doing. So I told him that I was Protecting The Screen. He said to open the curtain, but I was steadfast and refused. He got the owner on the phone and told him what I was doing and then handed me the phone.

The owner, Mr. Schulman, was laughting and told me that with what they made on ticket sales ($200 flat with no percentage) and on concessions, they could buy a new screen every week and still make money. He explained that the curtain, however, was alot more expensive so should open it up straight away. So much for protecting the screen by using the curtain. I imagine today the economics probably would be a lot different, although given the fact that no one installs curtains any more, one would think they have become astronomical in price.

One weekend someone threw something that actually did cut a hole in the screen and we indeed did replace it after we put a couple more very profitable weekends under our belts.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 01-06-2007, 07:03 PM:

Mike, in many of the simulators and theatres I've done we had low-light or IR cameras pointed at the audience to catch asshole smartasses throwing stuff or generally causing trouble.

Then we'd go into the theatre and beat them with baseball bats in front of all. Post a "warning sign" to that effect. It's amazing what a deterrent that is to other potential troublemakers.

Also, perhaps you should talk with the screen manufacturer about what to do about the CHEESE!

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-06-2007, 07:18 PM:

Have you tried not selling nacho cheese?

Posted by Edwin Sheldon (Member # 4001) on 01-06-2007, 08:33 PM:

I'm with Joe...of all the concession items at your average theatre, I can't imagine something being as harmful as nacho cheese. Carpeting, walls, seats, screens... [Eek!]

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-06-2007, 09:52 PM:

Well, as you all know, theaters make most of their money with the concession stuff, so I guess not selling cheese or other sticky, unhealthy food is probably not an option.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-06-2007, 09:58 PM:

Then they should have absolutely no problem paying for a brand new screen.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-07-2007, 01:36 PM:

In the overall spectrum of theatre equipment, the screen is probably one of the cheapest items. One row of seats here is worth more than a screen.