Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Cinema shows Paranormal Activity instead of Madagascar 3

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Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 10-24-2012, 01:26 PM:

Cinema shows Paranormal Activity instead of Madagascar 2

quote: yahoo news

A cinema full of children waiting to see 'Madagascar 3' were shown supernatural horror film 'Paranormal Activity 4' by accident.

Shocked families at Nottingham's Cineworld had to rush their children out of the auditorium as they realised that the wrong film was being projected.

But not before a scene at the very start of the film - featuring a bloodied female corpse being thrown at the camera – upset children as young as five, among around 25 families watching.

Natasha Lewis of Bulwell in Nottingham, who took her eight-year-old son Dylan to the screening, said: “They started playing the movie and I thought - this doesn't look right. And then I recognised the opening sequence as a flash back to the first movie, which I saw a couple of years ago.

“It opens on the most terrifying scene in the first film - where a body shoots full pelt towards the camera. It's enough to make grown men jump, so you can imagine the terror in these young faces.

“Everybody just scrambled for the exits, all you could hear were children crying and screaming. Everyone was very upset.

“I've watched a few horror films in my time but the 'Paranormal Activity' films are the scariest since 'The Exorcist'.

“It was only about two minutes worth of the film but it was enough to scar them for life. There were parents and kids in there, including some children who were younger than Dylan.

“The cinema needs to check the film before sending everyone in so they don't make this mistake again. I'm disgusted about it, mistakes like this simply should not happen.”

A spokesperson for Cineworld said: “We have investigated the incident and can confirm that this was a technical error with the projector and apologise sincerely to the families.

“All customers who were affected by the incident were offered refunds and complimentary tickets. We also invited customers to watch the screening of Madagascar 3 half an hour later.

  “We take matters such as this very seriously and are currently working with technicians to ensure this does not happen again.”

> We have investigated the incident and can confirm that this was a technical error with the projector

I was not there, nor do I have any knowledge of what server they were using, or if it was 35mm, but I think it unlikely that that the projector decided to run the wrong movie by itself. I suspect "technical error" was really "human incompetence".

Posted by Sam D. Chavez (Member # 1841) on 10-24-2012, 01:34 PM:

The Projector Has Been Drinking?

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 10-24-2012, 01:41 PM:

now that'd a great promotional video for the next 'Paranormal Activity' movie - the shot of all those children screaming and crying... [Wink]

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 10-24-2012, 02:46 PM:

If the operators at that theater are in the habit of copying an existing playlist then editing it to play the desired feature they could have messed it up, that way.

We do this at the TREC center because there are several cues that need to be put in the right places to make the show play smoothly:
Format switch, sound/volume cue, house light cue, dowser cue, etc. It's a lot easier to do it this way instead of trying to remember all those things.

For instance, I'll duplicate the playlist for "Meerkats" then delete the feature and substitute the file for "Lewis and Clark."

All I have to do, then, is to rename the playlist to "Lewis & Clark" and reposition the lighting cue at the credits.

Now, if the doofus who programmed the show didn't edit his playlist correctly, he would have played the wrong movie when he thought he was selecting the right show.

We only have one projector and one server but, if this was done in a multiplex where many projectors are being operated via a network, it would be very easy to make such a programming mistake.

It would only be natural for somebody who is trying to cover his ass to make this mistake then claim it was a "technical problem." [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 10-24-2012, 02:52 PM:

Well,"technically", he showed the wrong movie [Wink]

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 10-24-2012, 04:49 PM:

"Scarred for life"? Please. Most of them have probably seen worse.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 10-24-2012, 05:43 PM:

It's inexcusable but I'm sure most of us have had this situation happen to us, or more likely noticed before the audience did and sorted it out. Still an awful situation to have to deal with both at cinema level and in head office for the marketing/pr guys. Also in the UK people love to get involved and kick you when you're down which makes it worse. The 'projector error' comment isn't great but probably only looks like an excuse if you're in the industry.

Cineworld Nottingham is a good cinema, in a great location, believe there was someone who posted on here who worked there. When I went it was rammed but they'd still kept high standards of cleanliness and service, and my screen was huge.

The show will have been in digital, my knowledge is limited but it sounds like the feature file was copied erroneously otherwise the audience would have been alerted to a problem by the adverts for alcohol and 15-rated horror film trailers before the feature.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-24-2012, 07:26 PM:

quote: Randy Stankey
If the operators at that theater are in the habit of copying an existing playlist then editing it to play the desired feature they could have messed it up, that way.

To avoid this problem I have 2-D and 3-D "templates" for flat and scope. So rather than copying an existing movie's playlist I just copy the template with the name of the incoming movie. That way all my cues are in place. The only one that needs to be added is the "lights mid" at the start of the credits.

I agree that the whole "scarred for life" thing is ridiculous. No kid ever got scarred for life at a movie theatre. (Except the ones at Aurora, I guess.) Parents need to give their kids some credit for resilience.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 10-24-2012, 09:50 PM:

You just make an empty playlist with 5 sec. of black at the beginning and at the end? I'll have to remember to do that.

We only have one movie on digital and two on 70mm. We play them in rotation. At the end of the month, we drop "Volcanoes Under the Sea" (70mm) and add "Lewis & Clark." (digital) In a couple of more weeks we'll add "Dinosaurs Alive" (70mm) and we'll end up with two movies on film and two on digital.

We don't change movies every week like regular theaters so managing playlists isn't as much a priority. We have to keep the movies under 50 minutes apiece so we don't show many trailers, either.

Once we set a playlist, it will stay like that for a couple-three months.

Oh, you want "scarred for life?"
When I was about 10 or 11 years old, my dad used to take us to the movies. He just wanted to go out drinking so he'd just dump us off at the theater and come back two hours later.
We'd watch movies like "The Omen" and "Alien." The manager used to just shake his head. Us kids thought it was great!

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-25-2012, 01:31 AM:

So we've been hearing a lot of these kinds of stories lately. Since the digital takeover you'd think this as the first time multiple movies shared an auditorium and the wrong movie was started. But I guarantee there were probably thousands of times or more that the wrong 35mm movie was threaded up and started. So why are the wrong digital ones getting all of the press?

quote:
“I've watched a few horror films in my time but the 'Paranormal Activity' films are the scariest since 'The Exorcist'.

Sounds like a marketing stunt to me.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 10-25-2012, 05:42 AM:

Happy Halloween [evil]

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 10-25-2012, 07:39 AM:

quote: Joe Redifer
So why are the wrong digital ones getting all of the press?

Because film is hard to use and always gets scratched but digital is supposed to happen as if by magic and it's supposed to be perfect all the time.

That's what everybody was telling us when they convinced theater owners to change to digital video projectors. Now people are upset because they suddenly realize that somebody in Hollywood has been lying to them all this time.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 10-25-2012, 08:37 AM:

With digital...everything is MUCH more automated with some boasting complete automation. As such, most are not really checking things because, quite frankly, it works 99.9% of the time.

Note, the news rarely if ever reports things that go right in the world...that isn't really news...they report the problems.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 10-25-2012, 08:58 AM:

I would also say that the change to digital has served to remove almost all experienced operators from the booth.

We have people who think they know how to use computers because they they can push a mouse across a desk. Now, we're letting these very same people operate the computers that make the movies in theaters.

These people are usually "managers" who are busy taking care of the zillion other jobs they have to do but they are, now, in charge of projection on top of all the other crap they have to do.

Putting overworked, barely-competent people in charge of millions of dollars worth of high-tech equipment is usually a recipe for disaster.

Hollywood glosses it all over with the promise of "digital perfection" but, in reality, it just isn't true. Then, the media types, who are always eager to jump on the digital hype bandwagon see a little crack in the patina and, as Steve says, love to smear negative gossip all over the news because it makes money.

"We all know that crap is king! Give us dirty laundry!"

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-25-2012, 11:12 AM:

quote: Randy Stankey
You just make an empty playlist with 5 sec. of black at the beginning and at the end? I'll have to remember to do that.

Well it's not "empty," it has the startup cues, followed by the "previews of coming attractions" clip, the "turn off your cell phone" clip (with "lights down" cue, the "Dolby" clip, then a 5-second MOS for a slight pause before the feature starts. Then a "Non-sync" and "lights up" cues at the end.

So all I need to do is rename it, drop in the trailers and feature, put in the lights-mid cue on the feature and it's done.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 10-25-2012, 11:15 AM:

Because Digital is 99.9% automated - it's that much more important to have someone double check playlists, scheduling times, and content. Another thing I am seeing now is more inappropriate trailers on kid's films. We are given EVERY available trailer now by Deluxe and Technicolor. So it has become real easy to program (automated or otherwise) trailers that really should not be on G or PG movies.

If you stick to the original plan (like when it was 35mm) - double check everything you or the computer is doing, SCREEN YOUR MOVIES before the public sees them, and have someone checking auditoriums often - you minimize these issues.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 10-25-2012, 11:46 AM:

Do we know that this was a D-cinema screening? The same thing can (and does) happen with 35mm. It's an personnel problem, not a technology problem.

I did this once. The schedule in the booth had two films listed as swapping auditoria for the last show of the day; at some point, the manager decided not to do the swap, but did not tell me. I did the swap, per the schedule, but the boxoffice people did not, so some people saw the start of the wrong movie. Fortunately, that screening did not make the news.

It is, however, unfortunate that this usually happens with a kid-oriented film and an adult-oriented film that are sharing one screen.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 10-25-2012, 12:48 PM:

quote: Scott Norwood
It is, however, unfortunate that this usually happens with a kid-oriented film and an adult-oriented film that are sharing one screen.

You mean movies like "Hunchback of Notre Dame" (Disney Animation) playing the matinee shows while "Striptease" for the evening shows?

In one movie, Demi Moore plays a cartoon character and, in the other, Demi Moore gets naked.

Just to make damn-straight sure that the wrong movie didn't play, we put a hockey puck in the center of the print that wasn't supposed to play. That made it impossible to thread.

The hockey puck was removed at the 6:00 show and put back at closing, just before going home.

Never had a mistake until that pipsqueak manager tried to cut payroll and run the place by himself.

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 10-25-2012, 02:31 PM:

I could have sworn I read somewhere the showing had started late, which made me think the SMS may have been off it's schedule mode but on manual, and a manager or employee had gone to the SMS on that particular projector and started the program without going to the playlist listing and picking the correct playlist from the dropdown but simply hit PLAY, which will run the playlist that was already run...which would have been Paranormal 4 from the night previous.
Had it been on schedule mode Madagascar would have likely started on time and no news would have been made.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-25-2012, 05:06 PM:

With film I think it'd happen the other way around (starting the kid movie for the adults) unless it's the first show of the day because if anything habit often makes you pull the ring out of the film of the tail you just wrapped and tucked. I've done that. I just swap leaders before it starts (no unthreading).

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-29-2012, 02:45 PM:

Moral of this whole sad situation: Always see movies at a single screen theater. Chances of this happening are almost zero. [Big Grin]