Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Employer's attitude toward booth personnel quality

This is topic Employer's attitude toward booth personnel quality in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-14-2005, 02:04 PM:

Okey, I'm going to start a new thread for all of the booth operators out there with two questions that I'm curious about and to see if there is any trend in this:

Question: "Does your circuit/theatre employer(s) give you any credit due to the quality of your operations, or are you just "a number, a tool"-anything to be doing them a favor, to where you feel you're just doing a job?

Question: "do they give you any support where it makes you feel important since you're succeeding at your position?"

Why I ask of these is where we've been talking about large circuits and some of the circuits do have dedicated operators. But we know that some circuits don't think of operations as a place of quality, but just a "job to perform."

Just kinda like to get some feedback on other operator's experiences with the circuit(s) that they work at, or even small individual operations.

thx-Monte

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 04-14-2005, 07:21 PM:

Question #1: YES

Question # 2: YES

We are an independent, not a circuit.

I think your question will be answered differently where large chains are involved.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 04-15-2005, 01:20 AM:

My booth manager is the highest paid assistant in the building. He is even making more than my salaried "#2" and is well worth it.

Posted by R. Andrew Diercks (Member # 1725) on 04-15-2005, 07:47 AM:

Since I have taken over my current location, I have gone great lengths to show the appreciation I have for the man that "runs the booth". In a couple years, he may even become a tech for the company. Presentation was not a high priority in previous years. The week I took over 6 of 9 films were scratched. I was apalled. The gentlemen that was good upstairs was not allowed to do his job properly. They constantly made him leave shows unattended to help downstairs and he had to leave as soon as the last show started to save payroll. Besides that, the other idiots they had threading and starting did nothing to help his performance. Nobody else even knew what a turndown knob was, let alone how it was used to start in frame.

Posted by Chase Hanson (Member # 2779) on 04-15-2005, 03:10 PM:

Question: "Does your circuit/theatre employer(s) give you any credit due to the quality of your operations, or are you just "a number, a tool"-anything to be doing them a favor, to where you feel you're just doing a job?
Very little, IMO. I feel, as most of you do, that the Movie Theater Experience...has drifted drastically away from the actual Movie. Home Office has a system inplace to evaluate Guest Satisfaction and this is broken down into categories Box Office, Facilities, Concessions and Film Experience this is trended across the 52 week fiscal year with weekly updates. And this report is evaluated by Senior Management and "Notes" are hand written about ways to improve each category...except film experience. Calcuable variations in score are acknowledged...but there is very little visible proactive effort applied to this. Its all very lasse faire.

Question: "do they give you any support where it makes you feel important since you're succeeding at your position?"
Booth in the theaters that I have worked has pretty much been a "Nobody cares unless somethings broken". This is more the mind set of the General Operations Staff and not the actual Booth operaters. Leaking projectors, misaligned sprockets and forgetful brains are insanely common occurnces in the cave...but since they dont effect presentation, who cares.

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 04-15-2005, 04:26 PM:

quote: Mike Spaeth
My booth manager is the highest paid assistant in the building. He is even making more than my salaried "#2" and is well worth it.

My booth manager is also the highest paid assistant in the building. Although he is also trained to run floor shifts, in a normal week he works 2 shifts in the booth and 2 on the floor. Always in the booth on Thursday nights! He started out working in this theater in the booth and picked up the manager shifts later when we were short staffed.

Posted by Jon Morgan (Member # 3059) on 04-15-2005, 08:25 PM:

While my booth manager makes slightly less than my assistants technically, since he is hourly and they are salaried he probably ends up with the same amount or more per hour.

I treat the projection staff with a bit more care, I guess, than the floor staff, simply because I can't pull some dude off the street to run projection. I am always very supportive of my booth manager, and the other two staff projectionists, well, I'm nice to them when they do well and I let them know when they mess up.

Does that answer your question?

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 04-16-2005, 04:51 AM:

Q1: I feel that the company cares about the quality of the show they put on the screen and that they care enough about it to care about the projectionists. As far as the higher ups go I do get praise and feel the company values what I bring to the table and I get paid a fair wage for it.

Q2: I get support and encouragement from the ones who actually know what I do, our chief, the DM, etc. Encouragement and respect for my job is intermittent at best from the on site staff however and it's hard when you feel like you're the only one who cares about the quality of the operation.

In short, the company rocks.

Posted by Matthew Ballantine-Patton (Member # 3007) on 04-16-2005, 03:31 PM:

#1: I consider myself a hard worker, and I've often been called a work-aholic. However, since going to work for a major chain, I often find myself thinking "Yeah, I could fix that, but why?" For instance, our digital pre-show looks like crap in several auditoriums, but someone else gets paid to work on that stuff, and I get no credit for any of the work I do. Whether or not a show starts on time, or looks good or anything, makes no difference to me (beyond my natural work ethic) because there are no incentives, no benefits, and no positive feedback.

#2: in a recent "Best of the city" in a local paper, our theater was commended for uniformly high standards in presentation. There was not even a "thank you" from our management. Success brings no reward, and I earn less than $200 a week. Why should I continue making any effort to provide a good presentation when it obviously means nothing to the company bosses? My natural tendency to work hard and take pride in my work are the only incentives/support that I have.

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 04-16-2005, 04:09 PM:

Matthew,

Sounds like your problem is more with the GM than the chain, though the GM's attitutde could be a result of similar treatment from higher ups. Do you have any sister theatres in the area? If so, does their staff feel the same way as you?

Posted by Frank Dubrois (Member # 3042) on 04-18-2005, 12:06 AM:

.

Posted by Tracy Bellar (Member # 3049) on 04-18-2005, 01:08 AM:

I feel like Roddney Dangerfield. I get no respect. I work in a small chain. Owned by my uncle. He only wants to hear about the booth when he has a threat of a theater down for repair. When we bring up things that need attention of suggest that we need items ordered he suddenly remembers that he has to meet someone or has something to do and has to leave in a hurry. He treats the booth people like they are into his pocket too much. We ran special shows at Christmas every day for a month and a half. He made $30,000 easy money [Wink]

. All he said to the guys running the projectors was they could have cleaned the theaters a little more when they were done. He would clean out concession drawers $400 every Friday,Saturday, Sunday all summer and when I asked for more center rings for Strong 35 platters I got one. We needed five. I have two projectors ready to blow a bulb. I have one replacment. since I don't know which is going to go first I don't dare change it. I'm just waiting and hoping he hears our plea. We need more bulbs! Our theater has always used 2500 watt bulbs because of the distance to the screen. Last year he ordered 1500 watt bulbs because he wanted to save $$$. Now he won't order what we need. just what we can get by with. Every week he complains the payroll is too high. The projectionists need to be there and he always complains about paying. Yet he has two homes fifteen cars and a mobile home camper. He is clearly is in it for the short term. Rape the place and leave it. I only wish someone that likes the movie business and knows how it should run would step in and run it right.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-18-2005, 03:50 AM:

quote: Tracy Bellar
He is clearly is in it for the short term. Rape the place and leave it.

Unfortunately, I've seen operations like this as well-take the money and run, gripe and complain about expenses, but spend as much on the "toys" he seems to need for him and his family.

Fellows like these makes me wonder on "why are they in this sort of business, where they don't know the rat's ass on how to run one?"

-Monte

Posted by Tracy Bellar (Member # 3049) on 04-18-2005, 03:30 PM:

the first time I threaded this equipment I was 10 years old. At twelve I started learning, working and running these machines. I've sweat, bled and cried on these projectors. To me they are a part of me. 27 years working these very projectors and to see the place treated like this puts a deep seeded resentment for my uncle.

Posted by Frank Dubrois (Member # 3042) on 04-18-2005, 05:08 PM:

That situation sounds so familiar is scarey.....

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-19-2005, 12:54 AM:

quote: Tracy Bellar
years working these very projectors and to see the place treated like this puts a deep seeded resentment for my uncle.

...I "bleed" for you with your dedication, for I also have a friend who started when he was 6yrs old-his dad was a projectionist. Then he eventually worked there part time, but never had the opportunity to become the chief projectionist due to schooling.

The theatre that he started at is where, 20yrs later, I became chief projectionist at and held that position for 12 yrs.

Theatre was his "home" - he took real good care of it.

Then, time came along, change of owners came along as well which includes operational attitudes to where my 12 yrs became dogmeat to this one manager, thus I left that theatre and it took 2 months to be "destroyed" by this one manager who thought she knew it all.

It's sad to "care and love" for something, and others don't appreciate your "love and care" into something that they deem invaluable-it's all about money these days.

thx-Monte