This is topic Nature of a job in a film lab 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=001215

---

Posted by Robert L. Fischer (Member # 2424) on 07-29-2004, 04:53 AM:
 
I think this fits more in the Ground Level forum than the Help Wanted/Seeking Employment forum.

OK, so I'm looking to obtain a 1st-shift position at the local Technicolor lab (until I decide to go back to school one of these quarters) so that I can still keep my part-time job at a movie theater. I have my heart set on working there because I want to be able to work with film more in one way or another and because it seems like the pay would be decent.

So I have a few questions:

What kind of job environment should I expect?

What type of pay should I expect?

Will my booth experience (almost 1 1/2 years) make it easier for me to get a job there?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Much thanks.
 

---

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 07-29-2004, 07:54 AM:
 
If the Technicolor location your talking about is the Wilmington, Ohio location. It's Technicolor's Cinema Distribution. They handle Print Management and Customer Service & Support. In other words, it's TES.

I See a sea of Orange Cans
 

---

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-29-2004, 10:21 AM:
 
The jobs available there would include:

Warehouse personnel

People who mount, inspect, clean, and rejuvenate prints

Clerks and customer service personnel

Here is the contact information:

Technicolor Cinema Distribution
Address: 3418 State Route 73 South
Wilmington, OH 45117
Phone: 937-383-6000
Fax: 937-383-6094
Contact Name: Tim Burke
Services Provided: Print Management, Customer Service and Support.

Technicolor Career Opportunities

quote:

---

At Technicolor, we offer a wide range of challenging and rewarding professional, managerial, manufacturing, creative and technical positions, from entry level to management.

Together with our parent company Thomson, Technicolor constantly strives to develop the full potential of every employee by providing training and development programs, competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits packages, and an environment that encourages both teamwork and individual initiative.

We attract—and keep—the best-qualified people because of our deep and sincere commitment to our workforce.

Technicolor is always looking for highly motivated, career-oriented people to join our team. We invite you to search our global database of positions.

---

quote: John Pytlak

---

Theatre and film handling experience would likely be considered an asset.

---

And would instantly disqualify him from ever being hired at a quality film-handling institution such as TES.

-Aaron
 

---

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-29-2004, 01:39 PM:
 
The main warehouse is about 3 miles from your location. I have no idea what kind of staffing they are currently in need of, but just give them a call. The people who answer the phone are right there in that building and can easily transfer you to someone who would be reponsible for staffing.
 

---

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 07-29-2004, 04:47 PM:
 
Maybe you'll get to work the poster-twister-upper machine!
 

---

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 07-29-2004, 04:52 PM:
 
Or you could be the orange film can opener machine operator.
 

---

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 07-29-2004, 11:49 PM:
 
Or about the job of taking those 60 year old heavy weight film cans they buy at fire sales (the ones that weigh empty as much as thin metal ones way full) and spray painting them orange?

Maybe DHL charges a flat rate but surely most other shipping is done by weight and I wonder if some of the small companies that use contract film handling companies know their vendor is using cans that weigh twice what they ought to. There are still a lot of those cans out there and while it may not matter if they just go to or from the local depot with the small companies and few prints per release these cans are air shipping all across the country.
 

---

Posted by Robert L. Fischer (Member # 2424) on 07-30-2004, 02:33 AM:
 

quote: Steve Kraus

---

Maybe you'll get to work the poster-twister-upper machine!

---

quote: Bill Gabel

---

Or you could be the orange film can opener machine operator.

---

quote: John Pytlak

---

People who mount, inspect, clean, and rejuvenate prints

---

I'm going up to Technicolor tomorrow to apply, so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully they have a 6:30 am - 3:00 pm type of shift so it'll fit my schedule.
 

---

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-30-2004, 06:33 AM:
 
Assuming they are in current need of help, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that such a shift does exist, as those guys are open 24 hours a day.

BTW, you will need to speak with Joe Wade if you want to do that sort of work there at the QC stations or the "full" inspection stations.
 

---

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 07-30-2004, 09:57 AM:
 
Robert

I was just kidding in the above post, but Best of Luck in getting the job. And show them How to Do Film Right.
 

---

Posted by Don Anderson (Member # 397) on 07-30-2004, 07:49 PM:
 
I worked in the film processing industry for years, wholesale and retail. I developed lung related problems from a poorly ventilated wholesale lab. Lab work is not a moneymaking career move. If someone came to me looking for a job with theatre experience, I would figured that they might know what 35mm is. Other than that, I probably wouldn't consider it work related experience in the field. I've done it all, from running hi-speed cine's, to designing special processing for foreign films from all over the world. Of course, I prefer the Motion Picture industry over any lab work that I've done in the past.
 

---

Posted by Robert L. Fischer (Member # 2424) on 07-30-2004, 11:59 PM:
 
I'm hoping for a job there because I need a full-time income until I assume a full-time position at my movie theater. See, I'm 18 right now and I've gotten some college credit, but I'm absolutely clueless as to what I want to do. College hasn't worked out thus far, so I've decided that in the two years or so between now and the time my GM steps down, I would take on a full-time job in addition to my part-time assistant manager job at the theater and save all the money I possibly can while living at home. After the two years or so, I will quit the full-time job after assuming the GM position and look to have a house built. I'll also be able to go back to school because of our operating hours and by then, at the age of 20, I should have a better appreciation for school and a clearer idea of what I need to do. Until then, it's all about saving money and seeing the world when I get the chance...

Of course, if I somehow didn't get the GM job, that would throw a wrench in my plan. But I figure by then, I would at least be able to get a booth manager position at a megaplex and go back to college.

Don, around what time period did you work in the lab that gave you lung-related problems? What kind of work did you do? I don't want to take on a job that might carry major health risks. Could print inspection/restoration carry health risks?
 

---

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 07-31-2004, 10:12 PM:
 
"People who mount, inspect, clean, and rejuvenate prints"

John,
There is no way under the sun that they ACTUALLY have people there perfomring those tasks! You're joking right.......

Mark
 

---

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-01-2004, 05:43 AM:
 
They certainly do Mark. There are about 2 dozen "full inspection" stations with half a dozen viewers available, digital track QCing, etc. They also have a fantastic rewash machine and an evil Imageguard machine for rejuvenation.
 

---

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 08-01-2004, 08:16 AM:
 
As often mentioned here before, it is a matter of what services distributors are willing to PAY for. If a distributor wants a full inspection, or for a print to be rewashed, the TES facility in Wilmington Ohio has the people and facilities to do it. But they charge for the extra services.
 

---

Posted by Don Anderson (Member # 397) on 08-01-2004, 11:48 AM:
 
Robert-

I worked in the processing department. Poorly ventilated darkrooms-departments that had the actual film processing cines and or tanks. You are not going to get any lung related problems inspecting films. OSHA has really clamped down on these labs for violations in the past. Many labs have since gone out of business, like 3 of them that I worked for. Back in the mid to late 70's they got away with anything.
 

---

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-03-2004, 09:34 PM:
 
Brad,
I said they actually have PEOPLE there doing that??? I understand that alot of places have the macinery... thats the easy part. The people are the hard(and expensive) part. Image guard........ Baaahhhhh

So you're leading me to believe that they actually have people operating that machinery? Naaaaaawwwwwww........ no way.

Mark
 

---

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-03-2004, 09:36 PM:
 
Yup Mark, it's true. I've been there and seen it first hand. Whenever Adam finishes the new site coding (hint, hint) a full picture tour of the facility that I took months ago will appear on the site courtesy of the guys at TES. Even though we all know what they do, it's hard to visualize.
 

---

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 08-03-2004, 10:30 PM:
 

quote: Brad Miller

---

...a full picture tour of the facility that I took months ago will appear on the site courtesy of the guys at TES. Even though we all know what they do, it's hard to visualize.

---

Until then, you can read the article about TES that was published in Kodak's "Cinema Notes", issue H-50-56:

http://www.film-tech.com/manuals/H5056.pdf
 

---

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-04-2004, 03:57 PM:
 
I was lucky enough to be given a tour of a small lab last year which used to specialise in processing 16mm negatives used in high-end TV origination, but which is moving increasingly into archival lab work as that sector dries up. The owner, who showed me round, said that the worst job of all was loading the developing machine. You're on the night shift, working by yourself and working in absolute pitch darkness, unloading exposed film from cans and joining it to the end of the footage passing through the tanks. The work is repetetive, and also high pressure, because if you get it wrong and the film transport has to be stopped, you've ruined the footage that was in the developing machine at the time. For that reason it rotates among the staff there, and no-one does that duty for more than a fortnight at a time.

We've since sent a couple of things to them, and they did an amazing job correcting some very bad fading on a 1973 regional TV documentary, of which our only surviving element was an Ektachrome reversal dupe from a cut reversal original. They revealed colour information which I'd never have known to have survived in the original.
 

---

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 08-04-2004, 04:09 PM:
 
AFAIK, the work done at TES in Wilmington does not require working in photographic darkrooms.
 

---

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 08-04-2004, 07:11 PM:
 
So they're not all pasty white like Rochesterians?
 

---

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 08-04-2004, 08:40 PM:
 
We all eat our carrots! (for good dark vision)

This summer, we're pale because of all the clouds and rain, not just working in darkrooms.
 

---