Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: What is your Hell?

This is topic What is your Hell? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 05-18-2003, 12:45 AM:

While watching an old re-run of "Night Gallery" about how one person's hell is another's heaven, I got to thinking about my final reward.

My ultimate hell would be having to listen to bagpipes and/or watching an opera! YUK!

>>> Phil

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-18-2003, 01:58 AM:

Reading posts made by Phil Hill!

Bleh!

Posted by Gracia L. Babbidge (Member # 582) on 05-18-2003, 02:05 AM:

Reading posts made by Joe Redifer!

[evil]

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 05-18-2003, 02:30 AM:

My personal hell will be the day that Film Companies demand AND GET 100% of the gross off their films.

This could happen some day.

Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 05-18-2003, 05:28 AM:

Hell would be sitting bound to the chair, in front of the tv, eyes forced open as Alex in "Clockwork", watching the newest soap-torture "The Phil & Benny Muppethill Show"
[dlp]

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 05-18-2003, 07:36 AM:

I will not go to hell. I will go to heaven. There I will reside in celestial splendour for all eternity.
If you all behave, maybe I will put in a good word for you so that you might be allowed to come up from hell for a short holiday every other couple of eternities.

I don`t see much hope for Phil however. He will probably spend eternity watching the operatic version of Highlander.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 05-18-2003, 10:33 AM:

Hi Phil,

It might be hell for you but the Opera has been one of the greatest joy of my life. For many people in Europe, going to the opera is just like going to the movies here in America. Many operas have plots that are very simple and not very interesting but they take on an entirely new meaning with a beautiful score and performed by highly talented singers and backed up by an excellent orchestra and chorus. Some of my favorites include Puccini's "LA BOHEME", "MADAMA BUTTERFLY", "TURADOT" and "MANON LESCAUT". There are some by Giuseppe Verdi including "AIDA", "LA TRAVIATA", "THE MASKED BALL", "DON CARLOS", and "RIGOLETTO" are just devine and I just love every one of them. I even enjoy the operas of Richard Wagner including his four part "RING" cycle made up of "DAS RHEINGOLD", DIE WALKURE", "SIEGFRIED" and "GOTTERDAMMERUNG". When it comes to opera, I can go on and on but I hope you got my point that if you make an effort to study this art form in music, I am sure you will also enjoy it.

-Claude

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 05-18-2003, 12:31 PM:

My hell? Complete and total blackness and silence.

This actually happened to me this past weekend. I didn't want to start a whole thread about it, but long story short:

I was in the Matrix auditorium seating people on Friday. As I proceeded up the aisle, I felt slightly dizzy, and the next minute I am lying on the floor of the lobby surrounded by people asking me questions and telling me that EMS is on the way!!

Apparently, from what witnesses said, I just collapsed, started going into convulsions, passed out and stopped breathing for a good 5-10 minutes. Manager told me I turned blue/grey and had to be recessitated. I spent the next 8 hours in the emergency room trying to figure out what happened.

Never had anything like this ever happen before, and I really saw no reason for it happening to begin with. I didn't feel sick or anything. Makes you kind of look at things differently when you're just waliking along and up and die for a few minutes!!

I'm OK now, just taking it easy and thinking a lot. I was on my way back to the booth when it happened. Had I made it upstairs, no one would have even missed me for a good 45 minutes. I probably wouldn't be typing this to you good people right now.

So yeah, complete and total darkness and silence. That's all I can remember from the auditorium to the floor of the lobby. So I guess you could say my biggest fear, or my idea of hell is.... nothing.....

=TMP=

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-18-2003, 12:32 PM:

Hell for me would be a booth full of Vic 4's and Smart SR130's [bs]

!!

Sorry Phil,
I agree with Claude on Opera....I certainly do not understand it a bit but the shear talent it takes to pull one off is mindblowing....... Although I rarely go to an opera I am very lucky to be able to attend the Utah Symphony on quite a regular basis, and Abravenal Hall is less than 10 min from my home. Their performances up in the mountain resorts in summer time is also wonderful. Thats as close to heaven as I'll get with out actually going there yet....who on earth would ever need organized relegion!

Thomas, Admit it....your still scared of the dark [Eek!]

Let yourself age till your 13 and then it won't be as scarry ! I've gotten to where I enjoy the dark...walking through a pitch dark theatre and boinging off seats you don't know are there really makes my day wonderful.
Mark

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 05-18-2003, 01:06 PM:

Opera can be great, but often it is really a pain because there are so few good singers. Often what happens on the stage is just singers screaming away on the top of their lungs because they think opera singing is an athletical contest.
I hate nonsense like the Three Tenors. But when the performance is done sensitively to the dramatic needs of the piece, and the singing is nice and musical, then it can be really quite an experience.
Then you often see that pieces which have been produced too many times get "modernised", often in a way which leaves nothing of the original idea. They come up with a lot of crappy ideas just for the sake of celebrating their own inventiveness.
I remember reading about a production of "Die Walküre (The Valkyrie)" where the famous Ride of the Valkyries was accompanied by video projections of army helicopters in the background. The director talked at length about how he modernised the piece to show parallels to the modern world. When asked if he was aware that Coppola had already come up with the same idea many years ago, the director said "I do not go to the cinema. It is cheap entertainment for the masses not suitable for an educated person."
And it is exactly that kind of brainless pseudo-elitist bullshit that actually scares a lot of people away from opera houses and concert halls.

Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 05-18-2003, 05:01 PM:

Bad luck, Schaffer

Sankt Peter don't accept beer sippin' up there.
You won't get in ! -Instead, You'll end up in prison, where THE TEN TENORS will do a special guest performance for You !!

[Big Grin]

Claude

Respect for those Wagner pieces. I'm afraid, I'm not trained for that much opera at a time. The more "popular" operas, though are wonderful - some of them being better in cinema than life, as the cinema versions are top names, and the travelling opera companies, coming this way often are maybe not bottum, but close... Local Music Hall (Aarhus, 1.500 seats) have done (and will again) The Wagner Ring with top people - every time just one nite every part, having audience from all Europe, but they do have financial problems, due to those just 1500 seats.
Else, they often use east-european companies on tour with sad results: Mariage of Figaro with only 12 musicians in the grave - They never got that wonderful music over the edge to reach the audience...
A couple of times during early eighties, i ran a worn, but respectable 35mm print of a german Figaro, starring Dietrich Fischer-Diskau, Hermann Prey and Kiri Te Kanawa - originally produced for tv, and 1:1,37, but with nice dolby stereo track, -and danish subtitles, giving amateur opera-fans a chance, too.
It's no more around, alas, neither is the distributor, and that's sad, because whatever some people think about "The 3 Tenors", they have caused lots of lots of newcomers to appreciate opera, - and no, we have almost nothing to show them: -number of opera films available in Denmark for cinema use is very limited. We saw a single print of Traviata, two prints of Carmen (The Domingo version starting with that nasty bullfight - we should have said no to the film just for those scenes). Right now, the only titles are Madame Butterfly and Tosca, -and allready Tosca has too few earhangers (is that proper english for something easy to hum along on ?) for me to be all hooked, allthough I sure did enjoy it. -The sound couldn't have been better live. Distributor forgot, but DTS (London) had a couple of discs send for my single week showing - Great service ! >Butterfly was SR analog only, but still pure joy, and with only very few cinemas bothering to run these films at all, they give me fine numbers every time. -Love it !
In 1977, i think, i ran some few shows with russian (Leningrad Ballet Company) "Sleeping Beauty" in a cruelly faded (all pink) 70mm print. To get back on forum track - colors were hell - but sound sure was "upstairs"

p.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 05-18-2003, 05:05 PM:

You are quite mistaken there, Mr Hauberg. I have excellent connections. For you, that unreflected remark means you will go straight to hell and thirst there for all eternity plus one day.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 05-18-2003, 05:11 PM:

There's this house on a French named street in Hollywood Hills, CA, that would probably be a hellish experience to visit. [Wink]

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 05-18-2003, 05:24 PM:

What in hell makes you think your not there now?

I also love Opera. [Smile]

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 05-18-2003, 05:28 PM:

Opera crashes too often. I think I'll stick to IE for regular use.

Posted by Michael West (Member # 428) on 05-18-2003, 05:33 PM:

Dennis said

quote:
the day that Film Companies demand AND GET 100% of the gross off their films.

will be the day we are told to insert ads within every reel.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 05-18-2003, 05:38 PM:

Quebec?

Remember Daryl...one person's hell is another's HEAVEN!

Come up and see me sometime... [evil]

>>> Phil

Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 05-18-2003, 05:42 PM:

Hehe Michael - Even in Hell, they've got refrigerators (working !) and mineral water. -Dealing a whole life with danish tax dept., it will be no worse.
BTW - If You're doing any efforts to make an attack to that opera director, count me in - then i'll come up there on leave...

Per

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 05-18-2003, 06:17 PM:

Hi Per,

Opera on film is wonderful. There were a lot of operas on films in the fifties when I was exposed to music and found how wonderful opera was from the films I have seen. Some time there are fringe benefits like the time when I saw Verdi's "AIDA" with Sophia Loren on screen with a her voice dubbed by a celerated singer at that time. I think the actual singer was Renata Tebaldi. This was the the first and only time I saw Miss Loren's magnificent breasts fully exposed on that wide theatre screen. [Smile]

The film was a Franco-Italian production and was made before Sophia Loren became a famous international film star and there was no film rating and that is why I was admitted when I was only sixteen years old.

There are not too many opera films now except "LA TRAVIATA" which was made several years ago by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Terasa Stratas and Placido Domingo and released in the United States to theatres by Universal. Another outstanding recent opera film was the Martin Scorsese's film of Giacomo Puccini's "MADAMA BUTTERFLY" starring Ying Huang as Buttefly and Ricard Troxell as the American, Pinkerton. The film was released to theatres by Sony Classical. The wonderful thing about these recent opera films was the actual performers on screen singing their rolls and the settings photographed on location and on studio sets. By the way, both of these opera films are available on DVD and they are great! "LA TRAVIATA" is in the original pro logic Dolby Stereo and "MADAMA BUTTERFLY" features a 5.1 track and the mix is great.

-Claude

Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 05-18-2003, 06:21 PM:

Claude

Exactly - that's the Butterfly, i was running. -A beauty - nothing less !

p.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-18-2003, 06:26 PM:

Upgrade to Opera 6.06 [Cool]

Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 05-18-2003, 06:34 PM:

yeah, yeah - next thing, Brad dislikes beside DP 70 will of course be opera.....??? Not ? [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 05-18-2003, 10:45 PM:

I've always accessed the forums with IE with no problems! [Wink]

=TMP=

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 05-18-2003, 11:16 PM:

My personal hell?? The last two weeks of high school. God is it going to suck.

Josh

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 05-18-2003, 11:33 PM:

That's only for 2 weeks and then you are done. I'm talkin' for eternity....24/7/365.

Congrats and welcome to the real world. [beer]

>>> Phil

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 05-19-2003, 12:07 AM:

Here is my definition of hell. All of my photographic equipment are in excellent operating condition because they are regularly put through Preventive Maintenance but there have been times when I would have a problem when a flash unit or a camera would die on me during a photographic assignment. To guard against this, I always take back up equipment with me on jobs but it is still a lot of HELL when it happens.

-Claude

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 05-19-2003, 12:30 AM:

GEEZE!

"I'm talkin' for eternity....24/7/365."

Not what we are going thru or fear now!

>>> PHil

Posted by Daniel Fuentz (Member # 1684) on 05-19-2003, 12:32 AM:

My hell is being stuffed into a tiny, windowless room and being forced to watch "The Bachelor", "Oprah" and "Life With Bonnie" [sleep]

Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 05-19-2003, 05:04 AM:

Eternal Hell must be digital projection from unattended booths

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 05-19-2003, 09:59 AM:

Thomas Procyk wrote:

quote:
I just collapsed, started going into convulsions, passed out and stopped breathing for a good 5-10 minutes. Manager told me I turned blue/grey and had to be recessitated. I spent the next 8 hours in the emergency room trying to figure out what happened.

So glad you survived that harrowing experience. [Eek!]

Hopefully your doctors have an idea of what caused it and how to prevent it from happening again. Sounds like it could be a seizure disorder (epilepsy), but it's unusual to stop breathing so long that you turn blue and need to be resuscitated. Good luck.

Posted by Ray Bernardi (Member # 1615) on 05-19-2003, 10:05 AM:

Hell is redressing an auditorium and installing all new sound gear in 6 days. I've been there and back.

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 05-19-2003, 11:00 AM:

This world is all we get, it's up to us to make it heaven or hell.
But hell for me would be in the Alex position (as already described) with opera - live, film, recorded (it's that awful noise that bothers me so the image is optional) forced upon me. Or Celine Dion, although that's like comparing slowly drowning to burning alive in the tolerable stakes.
And Opera 6.x is definitely an upgrade from Opera 7. Illogical as that sounds.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 05-19-2003, 12:11 PM:

John -- Thanks for your concern. I've never had a seizure before or anything. The emergency doc's said it was probably exhaustion and dehydration.

The situation was blown out of proportion by the witnesses (naturally) since there's no way I could have stopped breathing that long without any brain damage. I think it was more along the lines of a minute or two. Still, that's scary! I faxed over all the info to my regular doctor and see what's up. Like I said, everything was normal up until that point. [Confused]

Mark -- I'll be the FIRST to admit I'm afraid of the dark. Evil and Danger lurk in the shadows!!! [eyes]

=TMP=

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 05-19-2003, 12:25 PM:

TMP: YIKES! Hope that never happens to you again. Stay well. The only time I've ever passed out was when I was having blood drawn and the phlebotomist was having a LOT of trouble getting a good vein and had to stick me repeatedly. I woke up with 3 nurses standing over me hoping I wasn't going to croak on them right then and there. [Eek!]

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 05-19-2003, 01:21 PM:

TMP: If you literally "turned blue", you were VERY low on oxygen. My wife has epilepsy, but has never had a seizure where she stopped breathing. Hopefully your doctors are confident enough that you passed out for an assignable reason (exhaustion or dehydration) that you can work by yourself or drive a car without further tests. You don't want it to happen again when you're behind the wheel or operating machinery.

Rest, stay [Cool]

,and keep up the fluid intake. [Smile]

Posted by Gunnar Johansson (Member # 1661) on 05-19-2003, 06:37 PM:

TMP: hope you get better, the problem when it just comes up on you like that is that it´s hard to tell if it´s a one time thing, or recurring, and maybe you won´t know when it does the next time either, but you´ll stay cool.

On the hell topic, I´m going to have to quote the french philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre: Hell is other people.
In that man is free, and all our restrictions are from other people not being hurt or offended and what not. I take more to mean that sometimes it´s hell being around other people. Especially crowds is something I have some difficulty handling, like Christmas shopping the very last day. But I´m swedish, so I make a fist in my pocket and keep holding a grudge.
Then again, living in the woods (with my projection booth) maybe isn´t paradise, being the opposite of hell...

//Gnr

Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 05-19-2003, 06:39 PM:

Thomas: Do learn from Your black-out and lucky recover:
Work less and drink more - and avoid both exhaust and drying out. - Even german beer is better than drinking nothing at all !
Stay with health and take it easy [beer]

Mr. P.: Blue face might also come from using Japanese Xenon bulbs. [Eek!]

Per

Posted by William Leland III (Member # 1400) on 05-20-2003, 10:11 AM:

Thomas glad you are ok [Smile]

.

I fainted once. I had a fever of 1000 degrees and passed out at my parents house. I'm not sure how long I was out. It was an interesting experience. Just falling and not knowing it and waking up on the floor.

As for Hell, it would be drowning for me. Which almost happened, I was out in our 17' John boat with a 15 horse Yamaha. I leaned down to grab a towel and wipe my sunglasses, suddenly I was thrown over board, port side the engine cut a sharp 90 degree turn throwing me overboard. As I hit the water I tried to surface, I could feel the bubbles of the engine propeller go right over my head. If I had to surfaced I would of died, I felt as if someone held me down that extra second. The tiller has a knob, if tightened the engine will not turn, it had come loose.

I surfaced and the boat was doing 360's in the water. It was damn scary. I had to dodge the boat and swim to shore. A guy helped me stop the boat by getting close and pulling the gas hose off.

I had only bruised my shin which was scrapped bad when I went over board. My advise is to wear the kilt switch and a life vest.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 05-20-2003, 10:22 AM:

A world where Bill Gates tries to make everything run as smoothly and securely as IE does.

Yep, that would be hell.

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 05-20-2003, 01:11 PM:

Whew! I'm glad somebody finally said something in reference to Thomas' blackout. I just jumped in on this thread and was like "Wow... you just can't faze a film-techer." Glad you're ok Thomas.

As for my personal hell... I do think Opera music is pretty bad and I spent my entire time at La Boheme just utterly crawling out of my skin. But I don't think it's THAT bad.

I think silence and eating nothing but fast food would be a hell for me. Music and conversation are very important to me. I go nuts after too much silence. And I do love me new and trendy restaurants, or just plain and simple GOOD FOOD. (Chick-fil-A does not count as hellish-fast-food)

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 05-20-2003, 01:57 PM:

I guess being alone for very long periods of time would be a major element of my hell. I tend to get depressed when I want to be around friends but nobody is available and I end up alone all evening, or even worse, alone for a weekend. Being a 34 year old single guy, I end up alone a lot here in Huntsville, AL.

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 05-20-2003, 04:56 PM:

Hell for me is living in a small town--where I grew up and want to live-- and being canned from a job in the middle of a major economic local depression along with hundreds of other people.

Hell is looking at the bills that are coming in. Hell is going to the Employment office and being told that there is nothing available. Hell is having your previous employer holding-up sending their paperwork to the employment office. Hell is having no extra money, and selling off a collection.

Even the local Carmike, Regal/UA's dont have the courtesy to call and at least TELL me that there are no available positions. One UA theatre even had a sign ("Help Wanted") in their lobby. No reply. Thats Hell.

I WILL NOT let Hell take me. I will get through this one way or another.

I've been applying at some really different-type jobs this past week, and this week. We'll just have to wait and see.... I'm OK. [Smile]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-20-2003, 05:33 PM:

My hell happens when two elements come together:

1. A movie that draws the type of audience who doesn't go to many movies, so we are trying really extra hard to make a good impression

- and -

2. A couple of families with screaming babies show up, and ruin everything.

I also think that, after I die, I'll be punished for my sins by seeing a continuous slide-show of all the girls I could have dated if only I had been a little more brave. [Wink]

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 05-20-2003, 06:33 PM:

Evans -- I know what you mean. It gets pretty lonely here in Orlando, too. [Frown]

I guess it's true that nice guys never get the women.

Mike -- My slideshow would be several carousels long. My friend still won't let me forget that I let "The Home Depot girl" slip by... *SIGH*

=TMP=

Posted by Daniel Fuentz (Member # 1684) on 05-21-2003, 03:11 AM:

Thomas, Glad you're OK, and don't have any lasting injury! I blacked out once, when I was 8. I was on the swing set (in 100 degree heat) at school, and just sort of fell off. I broke both arms and had both arms in casts for 6 months. Not fun!

I'm with you guys on the loneliness thing, too. With my working hours I don't have much of a social life. I'll usually end up going to a movie or something to get out of the house. I don't mind going to a movie by myself as much as I mind eating out by myself. That sucks!

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 05-21-2003, 02:20 PM:

Thomas--

Your blackout made me alMOST sick!
Glad you're well again, Thomas PROcyk!

Gerard

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 05-21-2003, 03:45 PM:

Thomas , glad you're OK, Stay Well

Now back to this thread. HELL would be working at the TES print inspection department.
[Eek!]

Seeing thousands of those damn orange cans every day. [Eek!]

Maybe the only good thing about that would be making a large masking tape and splicing tape ball for the Guinness Book of records.