Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Do you wear street clothes in the booth?

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Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 03-22-2004, 09:52 PM:

My company requires me to wear the polo shirt the the Mugs & Movies people wear. I also am required to wear black pants or jeans. Do any of you wear a uniform or can you wear street clothes in the booth?

I assume that I am required to wear a uniform b/c

1) I am not management
2) I have direct contact with customers
3) I also assist downstairs.

Just Wondering.

Posted by Darren Crimmins (Member # 1116) on 03-22-2004, 10:25 PM:

Richard,

It sounds like your job is giving you the raw end of the deal concerning many different situations from all of the posts you have made.
1.)You don't get paid for screening the quality of the print
2.)An earlier post said that you make somewhere around minimum wage to work the booth and downstairs
3.)Your boss seems to not give you much respect, concerning when you thought you saw an ex-employee in the balcony during a screening, and you went to the booth and she said, "What the hell are you doing up here!"
There are others that reflect that statement from other posts that I cannot recall from the top of my head.

It sounds like they don't treat employees very well at that company guaging from some of your posts. I had been thinking that for a while, just thought I would mention it.

Anyways, at my job we just wear street clothes in the booth (they have to be somewhat respectable, though).

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 03-22-2004, 10:29 PM:

Don't bitch, Man! At least you don't have to wear day-glow orange plastic bowties and suspenders! [Wink]

I believe in wearing uniforms but not the clown suits they used to make people wear at Cinemark. A solid color polo shirt and your choice of pants is probably one of the best uniform policies I have heard in a long time.

Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 03-22-2004, 10:35 PM:

All projectionists are known as "Booth Managers", just a different name for Assistant Manager, which for all intents and purposes, they are (payroll issues, etc.); even though no one else is allowed to work the booth. I'm, technically, the Chief Projectionist of the IMAX booth, and I still fall into this exact same category. We all must wear managerial attire: slacks, dress shirt, dress shoes, and tie (and jacket!) with managerial name tag. When in the booth, we're allowed to take the tie off.

In the IMAX booth, we are rightfully forbidden to wear ties, by powers higher than our GM. Still, the dress pants, shirt, and (especially) shoes seem inappropriate for all the bending, reaching, kneeling, etc. (... and then I go into work! [Wink]

)

At my old IMAX gig, it was street clothes all the way, as long as they were nice enough. Jeans and a t-shirt: comfortable, practical, and no one ever saw us anyway!

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 03-22-2004, 10:39 PM:

When I first started at Century El-Con 20 as strictly a projectionist and in a managerial position, we were required to wear the same cheesy outfits as the floor-personnel.

Later on we were directed to wear business suits.

It was hard to do all kinds of mechanical work wearing a damn business suit and tie...ties always got in the way. More often than not, I would become quite dirty from workin on machines, and I usually got strange looks 'cause I looked like a mechanic in a business suit. I kept my machine shop demin work apron in my locker, and made quite use of it!

But there were a few people assigned to the booth that "got-off" on being "GQ". It was funny as hell to see this one person act like a cat exposed to water...lest he get a speck of dirt on himself!

Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 03-22-2004, 10:39 PM:

Uniforms in the booth are pointless. I could care less if the guy in the booth was wearing a wife-beater and jogging pants, as long as the presentation is A+.

When I worked in the booth, the chain started wanting us to wear the uniforms in the booth. The managers stood up for us and told the DM that this wasn't a popular idea and they abandoned it. But luckily we had some excellent managers and were pretty down to earth.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 03-22-2004, 10:56 PM:

quote:
Don't bitch, Man! At least you don't have to wear day-glow orange plastic bowties and suspenders!

I believe in wearing uniforms but not the clown suits they used to make people wear at Cinemark. A solid color polo shirt and your choice of pants is probably one of the best uniform policies I have heard in a long time.

I remember those days. [Smile]

Now the kids downstairs get to wear shirts that promote upcoming movies and are changed out every month.

My self I wear a dress shirt and pants and wear a tie whenever I am managing downstairs. I stick to the darker side on the clothes and no tie when running the booth. I am comfortable with that.

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 03-22-2004, 11:05 PM:

I think uniforms, especially long sleeves are stupid in booth. I wear a long sleeve shirt and fight all day with keeping it tucked in.

In the booth you should just wear something decent that can get dirty, in other words something cheap. So long as you look presentable while you go downstairs or in my building you have to go across the second level where there are customers to get to other booths.

I would recommend a DARK colored polo shirt and a decent pair of jeans.

Posted by Emma Tomiak (Member # 1862) on 03-22-2004, 11:18 PM:

At my theatre, all managers and assistant managers are required to wear business attire; slacks, dress shirt and tie for guys and blouse, skirt, nice pants, etc for women. Since I am an Hourly Assistant Manager, that means that even though I'm in the booth 75% of my day, I still have to wear nice clothes. It was fun to dress up nice for about 2 weeks, but I got over it quickly.
High heels + working booth= [thumbsdown]

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 03-22-2004, 11:26 PM:

Yeah but do you have any pictures? [evil]

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 03-22-2004, 11:43 PM:

Yes Sir, I sure do have soem pictures. Just send me an Email. None of my feet though, Wouldnt want it to "leak" into Phil's inbox. [evil]

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 03-23-2004, 01:26 AM:

quote:
slacks, dress shirt and tie for guys and blouse, skirt, nice pants, etc for women.

ah, the good old sexist dress code. screw that. and if you're going to have a dress code, make it something that uniquely identifies staff. and that the company pays for.

carl

Posted by Bryan J Arseneau (Member # 1832) on 03-23-2004, 02:27 AM:

Why not try a Lab Coat? Somewhat not fashionable but will still protect your on duty clothes. Not like the old days when you/we had projectionist who ONLY looked after the booth period.
Having worked only the booth all of my life, jeans.t-shirt and great runners are the only way to go

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-23-2004, 10:10 AM:

See also:

What are you wearing

Uniforms

Theatre dress codes

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 03-23-2004, 12:38 PM:

I am just the projectionist and not governed by any dress code. I can come to work in sweats if I want, but I dress decent enough to be in public. I wear shorts on hot days, jeans the rest of the time, T-shirts or sweatshirts.

Downstairs the staff wears white shirt-black vest-black pants in cooler months, and nice matching staff polo shirts in warmer months. They look nice, and comfortable, without being forced to wear inefficient monkey suits.

Posted by Jeremy Fuentes (Member # 2135) on 03-23-2004, 12:47 PM:

I have to wear the uniform on weekends, since I am also a manager downstairs. We have polo shirts with company logo, and khaki pants for managers and black pants for employees. During the week I usually wear whatever since I am upstairs the whole time. I do have a problem with my pants getting dirty for all the reasons said above. I wonder just how much money I have spent on khaki pants in the year and a half I have worked there.

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 03-23-2004, 01:02 PM:

Jeremy, by all means keep receipts for your clothes and deduct those expenses from your taxes. These are work-related so get what you can back from the government. Any work-required clothes you buy, and shoes, gloves, face/eye protectors, hardhats, etc. are all deductible. Suits for managers and the dry cleaning they need are also deductible.

Posted by Chris Medley (Member # 2145) on 03-23-2004, 03:23 PM:

Yeah but he has to have a total of $3,000 for those deductions to mean anything above his normal deduction...When I know it's time for things like preventive maintiance I just make sure that I am scheduled to do nothing but that and I were jeans and a polo...I just started keeping a tshirt I could change into when a major problem happened so I wouldn't get my dress shirt dirty. From a manager side, many of us aren't afforded the payroll to do nothing but work in the booth all day. You also have to think about, as a projectionist, when you go down to do screen checks you don't want to look like some homeless person which I have seen happen at theaters were dress codes for projectionist aren't required. If there was ever a fire or a need to evacuate the theater you should be easily recongnized as an employee in case you need to render aid to customers and some kid in a tee shirt and jeans will not be taken seriously, but a guy in a suit or a shirt with the company logo will.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-25-2004, 11:03 AM:

I wear a tie and white lab coat in the booth (tie clipped wen near imax) terra saftey oxfords and slacks

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 03-25-2004, 11:29 AM:

Both Regal and Carmike made me wear the full teeshirt, long sleeve white shirt, vest, black dress pants and dress shoes in the booth. Absurd. [Mad]

As soon as I clocked in and got behind the door upstairs, it all came off. (Except the pants and teeshirt, so calm down.) But with the frequency that Carmike called the booth person downstairs, it wasn't possible.

The booth at the Carmike wasn't air conditioned, so all three layers of clothes eventually caused me to pass out from heat exhaustion. Yay!

I think the main reason most chains make the booth person wear the uniform is so that they can "use them" downstairs when they need to. But that's a whole other issue entriely.

Where I work now, they provide the polo shirts (different color for booth pepople) and we wear khaki pants and comfortable shoes. The light pants tend to get rather dirty upstairs. Still, I'd like to come into work in whatever I was wearing earlier in the day, but ya can't be too picky I guess. [Wink]

=TMP=

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-25-2004, 12:02 PM:

[av=g]I refuse to work for anyone who mandates uniforms for booth personel. Their theater probably sucks anyway.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 03-25-2004, 02:55 PM:

But one must maintain a professional appearance while trashing the prints! [Smile]

I heard a story of someone who usually ran a changeover booth naked.

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 03-25-2004, 03:24 PM:

Excuse me Jesse, but I think that Joe and Phil would rather not discuss their experiences in their changeover booth. They tried to close that chapter long ago. [evil]

Posted by Pete Wolla (Member # 1581) on 03-25-2004, 10:56 PM:

employee business expense was a good deal til the law was changed to include only the amount above 2% of you gross income. i haven't claimed it in years so i may not be up to date

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 03-27-2004, 10:53 AM:

Don't they look SO happy in their AMC uniforms?
[Razz]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-27-2004, 04:53 PM:

You work in San Francisco? [Smile]

I swear I used to work with that guy on the right. His name is Gerard I think. Except he didn't wear the charm bracelet when I knew him. He hasn't aged a bit! If that is someone else, next time you see him, please inform him that his new name is now Gerard.[av=k]

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 03-27-2004, 11:40 PM:

You idiot, that's Jen! [Eek!]

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 03-28-2004, 01:15 PM:

Ummm... Manny you need your eyes checked... I'm not even in the picture [Razz]

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 03-28-2004, 06:25 PM:

Years ago, I had a lab coat.

At the Gotham theater in New York city, (closed now) we had a guy who wore a regular house dress while projecting. He did an OK job so, as is typical in the entertainment industry, no one really cared.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 03-28-2004, 06:28 PM:

Now that you mention it...I really *should* go get my eyes checked. Thanks for the suggestion. [thumbsup]

But why not check yours, too? Because, after all, the topic question is: Do YOU wear street clothes in the booth?

You have dodged the question by posting pictures of other people wearing their uniforms. This raises all sorts of serious questions, for which I demand answers:

Who are these people?
Are they even booth workers?
Do you even know these people?
Do they know they've been posted up on this here website for all to see?

I demand that you "come clean" with the facts surrounding this photograph and how it came to be in your possession.

[Big Grin]

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 03-28-2004, 07:05 PM:

Wow Manny, those are really good questions.
I do also need my eyes checked. [Big Grin]

These people are my co-workers. I do know them and they are my friends. No, they are not even in booth but I will say one thing that the uniforms that the booth crew wear are the red polos that the girl in the middle is wearing. I would have taken pictures of the booth crew but they were upstairs and I'm not aloud up there. I also don't think the people in the pictures would care if they were on this site. If they do I'll just change the picture with people who don't mind.

Now here's a pic of someone who works in booth

[ 04-02-2004, 02:09 AM: Message edited by: Jennifer Pan ]