This is topic What would you do if you were NOT in the business? in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=001006

---

Posted by Robert D. LaValley (Member # 1867) on 01-03-2004, 11:58 PM:
 
I know alot of career employees would agree that being in the cinema industry gets in your blood. I mean low pay, working holidays and weekends for the rest of your life is such a inviting thing, I really can't picture doing anything else! *laughs* so obviously this is a question for those in the business especially those who are the vets of the industry. What would you do if you were not in the business?
 

---

Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 01-04-2004, 12:32 AM:
 
I would be a motorcycle mechanic right now if I were not in the business. Did 2 years of technical school and 1.5 years at a dealership while working for the theatre. I enjoyed the work but it seemed a bit boring after a while, rebuilding carbs 80% of the day gets monotonous(sp?), cleaning clogged pilot jets is a very large portion of a mechanic's day.

Also have an AAS in Business Management, so I guess I could be working a mid level job at a small company if the theatre wasn't an option.
 

---

Posted by R. Andrew Diercks (Member # 1725) on 01-04-2004, 12:56 AM:
 
I went to college for Police Science and Human and Social Services Administration for B.S. degree. I guess I would be a cop or a probation officer. Worked for Juvenile Court for a while and a youth shelter, hated the youth shelter and got to hate the kids. That was the worst, because I went in loving kids. I worked at the theatre in high school and loved it so I came back after a short time in the other field. Can't imagine any other life, I never hate going to work. I do use the Administration portion of my education
 

---

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 01-04-2004, 01:31 AM:
 
I am one of the few in my family that did not get into the military or law enforcement. I would probably be doing something to that effect.. Although I could never imagine it.......
 

---

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 01-04-2004, 03:00 AM:
 
Navy.
It was that or broadcasting (movies got me through school). Radio won when I landed a job in Eastern Washington 2 weeks before I graduated from high school. Were it not for that, I'd be retired now.
 

---

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 01-04-2004, 09:25 AM:
 
Movies, or more specifically, the job of projectionist, used to be a bonafide craft. A practitioner could make a decent, liveable wage and enjoy a retirement. Good benefits. When that started to die, I became a sound man until that specialization began to go the same route. Now I am a lowly over-the-road truck driver, a dinosaur from the movie business, trying to keep food on the table and health insurance for my family.

It's conceivable that I would've made a career out of broadcasting, which I did on the side for several years. But, if I hadn't discovered projection booths at age 12, most likely, I would've continued to pursue my original dream to become an animator/cartoonist.

Ironically, I'm using my spare time now to bring my drawing skills up to speed, and take some art classes that I missed 25 years ago. Hopefully, it's not too late.
 

---

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 01-04-2004, 04:10 PM:
 
I would do what I do now for my real job: sysadmin and network admin stuff. I really enjoy this sort thing, especially the logic and troubleshooting elements. I like working with a wide variety of hardware platforms (5 at current job) and operating systems (6 at current job) and making everything work together. It's kind of like being both the architect and the janitor of a huge and unweildy (but ultimately rewarding) structure. This also provides stable (well, mostly) employment and "growth opportunities."

Film exhibition is a hobby for me; I think I would go completely crazy if I had a full-time job in that industry, but I enjoy being the relief man in a number of different booths, all in theatres built in different time periods and with different types of equipment. As great as the newer equipment can be, I especially enjoy working with older stuff, as it offers a chance to work with mechanical equipment and more primitive electronics (relays, cam timers, etc.) which I don't deal with in the software industry. I wouldn't want every theatre to be running carbon arc and mono sound systems, but I'm glad to have the opportunty to work in such places from time to time. In any case, I love watching movies and it's nice to have the chance to do so for free and also help to share great films with others. Employment in theatres also helps to feed my (alternately rewarding and maddening) hobby of collecting prints of some of my favorite films by providing me with places to watch them, as I don't (yet) have a screening room in my apartment.
 

---

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-04-2004, 05:57 PM:
 
My entire background is electronics and electromechanics. Prevously to working in this field I worked in Broadcast TV repairing TV cameras...TK-45's, TK28, TK76, TK760, HL79, VTR's, Ampex Quad, RCA Quad, and Sony 1", 3/4" etc. But these great cameras have all been replaced by CCD units that require little to no maintainance now and tape machines are no longer the fascinating things they one were.

If I had to return to work elsewhere it would probably be in photographic field. Photography has been a hobby of mine since I was seven year old. I would also persue the photographic opportunities out here far more than I do now.

Mark
 

---

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 01-04-2004, 07:06 PM:
 
I'd be a pimp.

No, for real....
 

---

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 01-04-2004, 10:24 PM:
 
With 7 and a half years in the USAF and a 9-month world tour as an audio engineer under my belt, I tried to get into the only other non-cinema job I was really interested in: Audio Engineering. Unfortunately nobody seemed to want my services bad enough and after several months of unemployment and my severance pay gone, I returned to the cinema industry, first as a projectionist, then as a tech (where I am today).

I still have my aspirations to maybe someday become a mastering engineer or mixing engineer...

-Aaron
 

---

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 01-04-2004, 10:31 PM:
 
Jason said:

quote:

---

I'd be a pimp.

---

You mean you're not!? Damn!

>>> Phil
 

---

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 01-05-2004, 12:40 AM:
 
I have no idea. Plan is to go to cosmetology school starting in April though! Maybe I would have done that sooner if I wasn't stuck in theaters.
 

---

Posted by Kyle Watkins (Member # 986) on 01-05-2004, 12:53 AM:
 
I be doing what i did before i got into it. Doing car stereo and car alarms installs. I still do some on the side.

Kyle
 

---

Posted by Paul Trimboli (Member # 1509) on 01-05-2004, 07:34 AM:
 
I love being a projectionist, many people think I am crazy, but there is just something about it! Then there are the people that tell me I am just a a guy who presses play which makes me ! I am 18 and have plent of time, but I know projection can't be my life, I started studing Electronics as I have always been doing electronics but found the actual theory side mind numbingly boring! Digital Electronics- A bar B Bar Nand this Not that! So i have no idea what to study, I thought about audio engineering but that is also another get no where job I think! What to do!?
 

---

Posted by Joe Schmidt (Member # 822) on 01-05-2004, 03:25 PM:
 
I retired 100% from the business in 1986, observing that the spectre of automation and industry-wide elimination of the projectionist craft was well along. All the kids working in the "industry" today need to be aware that it's just a hobby occupation any more, and they must find a real occupation which pays real $$$, such as Scott Norwood has; since minimum wage won't pay the bills.

Another problem the young face today is: in choosing a college major, you'd better select something in which your job cannot be exported to low-wage foreign countries, after you've trained your replacement. If the job of popcorn shoveling could somehow be exported to a country where the wage is 50 cents an hour, it would happen instantly.

I have seen predictions that by 2010 tens of millions of high-paying jobs in this country will be GONE, exported, never to return. Never forget, the Republicans want cheap labor above all else, and all you young folks on this site had better think very carefully about who you vote for in November. Unless you are in the topmost level of the Richest 1%, the R's are not your friend.

Unless this escalating trend of "Exporting America" can be turned around, the best predictions for the future of our nation lie in "Soylent Green."

As to myself, apart from nostalgic visits to this site, I am a professional investor in the outcome of horse races. But don't try this at home, folks!
 

---

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 01-05-2004, 03:33 PM:
 
Joe:

Please leave all political bitching to the political thread. We don't need that crap infecting all the forums.
 

---

Posted by Lionel Fouillen (Member # 1475) on 01-05-2004, 04:42 PM:
 

quote:

---

Unless this escalating trend of "Exporting America" can be turned around, the best predictions for the future of our nation lie in "Soylent Green."

---

Same for Europe!

I'm not working in the film business. I'm a freelance IT consultant. My Dad, now retired, was an intermediate school teacher who used his spare time as an art movie house manager. The best part of his job is that he was mostly the person who decided which films to show and how (not just a manager whose job is to ensure the house rules are respected by staff and customers).

When he noticed my passion for projection, he strongly advocated that I followed another road, for film projection doesn't make a dime! I did follow another road (college degree in corporate communications and media, plus self-taught IT), and I now don't regret it although my heart belongs to projection booths.

I love to see that people appreciate my job. Film projection would have been a way for me to give the best of myself to people out there. So I just keep an eye on what's happening in the projection business, and if one day I see somebody launching a project, with the need to find a projectionist for a few hours per week on evenings or week-ends, I will volunteer immediately (even for free!).
 

---

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 01-05-2004, 08:22 PM:
 

quote:

---

Never forget, the Republicans want cheap labor above all else

---

Then explain why the Democrats bend over backwards to keep the flow of illegal immigrant laborers coming into the country? Oh, wait, that's how they commit voter fraud and keep themselves in power in some places.

Move this to political forum, please.

-Aaron
 

---

Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 01-06-2004, 09:19 AM:
 
I would be in the IT industry, as I already am. I enjoy working in theaters, and doing projectionist work, I just wish it paid a livable salary.

All politics aside, I've seen first hand how businesses now days are not only exporting manufacturing jobs, but now also white-colar jobs as well. CEOs and stock holders want something for nothing in the way of labor, and by "off-shoring" jobs to 3rd world counties is as close as they can get. Even the company I currently work for has let U.S. and European employees go in favor of hiring in the middle east and India.

Companies both here in the U.S. and over in India, have caught on that this does not portray a good P.R. Image so you'll be seeing fewer announcements about jobs being exported, but they'll acutally be exported at a greater rate now.
 

---

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 01-06-2004, 01:06 PM:
 
To Joe Schmidt, referring to projection as a "hobby" industry, I would have to agree to some extent. Although I'm full-time at an old single-screen x-over house (a whole actual 26-32 hours a week) and it does pay a fair wage and benefits (could be a lot better of course) and it is a relaxing job for the most part.

I also run satellite uplinks for horse racing simulcasting (a few days a week), helping with your "professional investments in the outcome of horse races." I put them up in the air so people can lose, er, wager on horse races from anywhere!

I also have a part time business where I do publicity and PR for mainly nonprofits. Some of that business can be handled from the theatre and the uplink as I otherwise work hard holding down the chair. I would do that full-time if the other jobs disappeared.

I had worked as a director of live TV for horse tracks. Loved the job, hated who I worked for. Also did some movie production work, pay was great, just the work is sporadic.

Many moons ago I drove my own 18-wheeler cross country. Things have gotten much worse in that industry and don't think I'd return, although I'll keep my CDL just in case.
 

---

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 01-07-2004, 12:44 PM:
 
Geeze... I've never really thought about it. I lucked into the theatre job at an age where I was curious about everything and I just jumped in and learned everything I could.

Had Cinema West not re-opened my theatre I'm sure I'd be working for UA as an Ass. Man. and be going to Junior College, STILL at the age of 26, eventually getting into Human Resources or something. And I'm sure I would've taken bartending classes already, and maybe found a nice dive bar to hang out in.

I'm still gonna go to bartending school... just a matter of finding the time and money. Drinkin' is fun, especially when you know how to do it right.
 

---

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 01-07-2004, 10:20 PM:
 
Hey Scott, don't pick on bartending school - been there, done that. Too bad I never went out of my way to get a job in a bar though, I've already forgot all the stuff I learned.
 

---

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 01-08-2004, 04:46 AM:
 

quote:

---

Had Cinema West not re-opened my theatre I'm sure I'd be working for UA as an Ass. Man.

---

i think i read this the wrong way. but i like my way better than the way you meant it.

we're supposedly going to get a bar put in the upstairs lobby, and some of the staff sent to bartending school on the company dime. my feelings on this are... mixed.

carl
 

---

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 01-08-2004, 03:05 PM:
 
No I meant it as Ass Man... I used to have a nametag that sad "Scott Neff" and then underneath it "Ass. Man."

And I totally wanna be a bartender, I think it can be a totally fun and rewarding job unless you get stuck with a job somewhere that sucks.

As far as the UA Berkeley getting a bar upstairs Carl, I'll eat my hat if Regal ever actually put a bar there. (I assume you're talking about UA Berkeley since it's really the only theatre there that has an abundance of wasted lobby space... although the California has the mezzanine... hmmm)
 

---

Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 01-08-2004, 03:59 PM:
 
If I weren't projecting film for a nice $5.15 an hour, I think I would be working for Royal Caribbean Cruises. I think I'd love to work on a ship for 6 months out of the year and get paid to see The Bahamas,Cozumel, and other places.

They even had a movie theatre onboard showing XXX, Signs, Analyze That and others....not sure if they were 35mm though.
 

---

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 01-08-2004, 05:01 PM:
 
scott, a hex on you for suggesting i work at the ua berkeley. i don't set foot in that dump! i'm at the california, and yes, it would be in the mezzanine, where the satellite concession stand is that never gets used. next time you stop by, say hi and i'll take the hex off.

i once saw a movie on a ship: clockwise with john cleese. i was a young'un then but i'd guess it was 16mm. last summer i was on a ship that was showing movies in a little theater... on shmideo. i didn't bother.

carl
 

---

Posted by Travis Hubrig (Member # 1745) on 01-12-2004, 09:58 AM:
 
Bartending School???

Why would you do that? Are there actually bars that ask to see your credentials, or diploma from bartending school?

Where I come from you work as a server or a bartender in a smaller bar and learn by experience, it doesn't take long. If you want a job as a bartender at a busier bar, you just need experience at some other places. Can you get student loans at bartending school? Would it cover my existing tab? Is the bartender school across the street from waitress school?

If I had to quit the industry I would probably get back into porn. Not making it, just watching it a lot more.
 

---

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 01-12-2004, 10:31 AM:
 

quote:

---

Why would you do that? Are there actually bars that ask to see your credentials, or diploma from bartending school?

---

quote:

---

If I weren't projecting film for a nice $5.15 an hour, I think I would be working for Royal Caribbean Cruises. I think I'd love to work on a ship for 6 months out of the year and get paid to see The Bahamas,Cozumel, and other places.

---

The last ship I went on (Royal Caribbean) we talked to our waiter and asked him about that, he said he works a little over 9 months out of the year, 7 days a week!

The woman in the hair salon worked 10 months, 6 days a week.

6 months sounds like a good deal to me!
 

---

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 01-12-2004, 12:43 PM:
 
I am out of the business now, but glad I was in it. It will always be with me. Now I am preparing to re-enter the political field that I should have never left. Due to health concerns, my run for Utah Governor may have to wait for four years, but I will probably jump on board someone elses campain and hope for a good upper admin position.

Politics is probably more in my blood than movies, but movies probably had more to do with influencing that than anything.

Dave
 

---

Posted by William T. Parr (Member # 677) on 01-12-2004, 12:54 PM:
 

quote:

---

If I weren't projecting film for a nice $5.15 an hour, I think I would be working for Royal Caribbean Cruises. I think I'd love to work on a ship for 6 months out of the year and get paid to see The Bahamas,Cozumel, and other places.

---

quote:

---

Jez my projectionist get paid $8.00/hr and as the Projection manager I make $9.50/hr. I have never worked for a company in the booth even at Cinemark for less than $6.00/hr and that was back in 1989.

---

quote:

---

Lionel Fouillen
So I just keep an eye on what's happening in the projection business, and if one day I see somebody launching a project, with the need to find a projectionist for a few hours per week on evenings or week-ends, I will volunteer immediately (even for free!).

---

quote: Bill Gabel

---

Thats why I stopped working in the theatre end of this business. We would get around $18.75 to run a 9-10 plex theatre. And on the low end of the scale $11.00 to run a single screen theatre and that was in the mid 90's.

Today I handle a screen room at double the 9-10 plex rate an hour. If I was not in this business I would be back doing Film Location Manager work.

---

But it looks like thats in New York? Isn't that the same place that you pay $2000/month for a one bedroom apartment? It seems like a rediculously high wage for a 1 screen theater. If I understand the $$ numbers, your making $37.50/hr? No matter where you are, thats a lot of money to project.
 

---

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 06-06-2007, 09:08 PM:
 
I have a BS degree in accounting so I would probably be crunching numbers at some accounting firm and getting migranes everyday. Not to mention have an ulser by now aswell.
 

---

Posted by Shane Cooper (Member # 2510) on 06-06-2007, 11:33 PM:
 
Before getting back in the industry, I was using my degree in communications and journalism as a sports reporter and columnist for a small town newspaper in Indiana. It is the only thing that got in my blood like the exhibition industry. I only left because I needed more income to support my wife through graduate school. However, I rediscovered how much I enjoyed theaters so I have never left.

I imagine if I left theaters it would be to write again full time.
 

---

Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 06-07-2007, 12:17 AM:
 
Well, I would probably do one or more of the following: 1) Astronomy, 2) A Musician singing and playing dance music, 3) A Professional Dancer, 4) Being a Shoto-Kan/Shito-Ryu Martial Arts Instructor, or 5) Be a DJ. I studied the first three in College and spent 10 years studying Martial Arts and got certified as a Black Belt. The fifth one I started in the mid-1980's. So, it would be hard to say which one exactly, but, if I weren't in the movie industry, I would towards being a Martial Arts Instructor since that is my secondary passion.

When I started in this business in 1998, I knew that this business was in my blood. So, I'm here to stay with the nickname "Da Kine Dark Side Evil Booth Beast".
 

---

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 06-07-2007, 01:01 AM:
 
I'm not in this biz anymore, though I do still visit people and places that are - like Dave and the gang at the Palms for the beginning of CineVegas today.

I am working at my other life's passion - airline operations. Not as a pilot unfortunately, but I'm still around the airplanes every night in the maintenance department while working for a profitable and fun little company. Can't say that about too many airlines these days.

And I'm still tutoring Japanese language students at the local community college. Not teaching anymore, though that may change soon. After three years the aviation program didn't work out, but I'm in the running to teach part-time in the Japanese program again when any of the present adjuncts needs or wants a break. Education or training scenarios seem to keep popping up in my life.
 

---

Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 06-07-2007, 09:08 AM:
 
After the drive in closed for the last time in 1986 I put away the splicer for the last time i thought. I worked with a diesel mechanic for some time before ending up driving an express mail truck for a bit then going onto long distance overnight express transport for 14 years. and then the splicer came back , with great pleasure i was returned to my hard top 3 plex , i guess the passion with film is a strong as so many of us in this forum , mine started with super 8mm when i was just a kid.

If i did leave the business , I would for sure return to the road , also another industry I did form a passion for , diesel in the blood they say !



500 miles each night dusk till dawn .
 

---

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 06-10-2007, 11:07 PM:
 
I'd like to stick by my original thoughts of being a PIMP...

However... seeing that I am NOT in the business any longer.. just over two years now..

I am in Real Estate right now... and I have to say.. it's the best job I've EVER had... Our newest Community... www.waterbridgesc.com
 

---

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 06-11-2007, 04:40 AM:
 
Community:

a. A group of people living in the same locality and under the same government.
b. The district or locality in which such a group lives.
 

---

Posted by Mike Williams (Member # 1140) on 06-11-2007, 06:19 AM:
 
I left the industry about 2 years ago and I am now involved in presales for Kronos. I love it. I get a little bit of travel - mostly regional - and have a much better work environment.

It was hard at first since I had worked with Regal for close to 10 years between the theaters and the corporate office. Not that Regal was bad, it was just time to move on.

I still do miss working at the theater a little bit. Overall, it was pretty fun.
 

---

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 06-12-2007, 02:41 PM:
 
Well....now that Hefner is 80+ I guess I could consider replacing him in his harem.

Seriously, I would probably do very well in commercial real estate. Louis
 

---