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Topic: Practical Jokes on "newbies"

Paul Konen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 981
From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-19-1999 10:40 AM

In reading through the Dolby Post, there have been posts dealing with Practical Jokes. Latest being the static lead to the zipper.

What else have you done?

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Ken Layton
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1452
From: Olympia, Wash. USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 08-19-1999 11:47 AM

Don't forget to ask for the Frammis diagram to complete the filament wiring! I used to love doing that one to greenhorns. Or even better, I'd leave a fully charged 450 volt capacitor on a table and ask the greenhorn to bring it over (after first washing his hands so as not to contaminate it) to me. Boy would I laugh when it discharged!

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 08-19-1999 01:44 PM

Well I generally don't mess with my trainees, but I did hear of one theater who couldn't get the projectionist to get off his butt after he started the show to check up on things. So they took a few reject reels which had been sitting around for years and made a nice big messy pile of film out of them resembling a print and got him to believe he had tossed a print. Apparently it worked quite well.

My favorite gag is actually a downstairs one. There's nothing like watching the new guy "refill the water fountain". Back and forth he goes from kitchen sink to the drain of the water fountain...gallons and gallons of water in buckets!

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Bruce McGee
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1776
From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular.
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 08-19-1999 03:02 PM

This is not quite on topic, but, I was working on an antique radio a few years ago in my shop. The owner of the next-door shop would come in and pickup, and look at stuff, and go Hmmmm. Irritated me to death.

Oh yes, he owned the building.

I left a charged capacitor sitting out with the wires bent so you would have to make contact if you picked it up without knowing how. I went into the back warehouse. About 15 seconds later, I heard a yelp. I rushed back and found him standing there holding his fingers. He had thrown the cap straight up, and it was sticking out of the ceiling tile. He threatened to sue me, but I pointed out that I had a sign telling unauthorized people to keep out, and he dropped the subject. The cap was still there when I moved to another location without nosy neighbors. He never bothered me anymore, and everybody lived happily ever after.

Bruce Grimm

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-19-1999 03:08 PM

Hey Booth!

There's a customer down here who came in late and wants you to rewind the movie.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 08-19-1999 04:18 PM

I don't usually play booth pranks either, but I have done some of the following stuff when I worked downstairs years ago:

Tell somebody to get the "Marquee Stretcher" that is conveniently located in the theatre "basement"

Tell somebody to go get the "Squeegee Sharpener".

Tell somebody that the projectors are running out of technicolor, and we need more or we can't run movies! This works great with letterboxed trailers or movies (like Blair Witch) . Take the employee into the theatre before he/she has had a chance to see the movie themsleves, and tell them that the black bars are due to the projector running out of technicolor. Now send them across town to get some.

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Rick Long
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 759
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 08-19-1999 04:43 PM

Strange things do happen in projection booths. Back in the carbon-arc days, my Dad got a call from the local B.A. to "get down to the Paramount right away, the man's sick". Dad hadn't had supper yet so he stopped off at a variety store, next to the theatre, to grab something to eat. He selected a can of pork & beans. He got to the theatre and put the beans in the lamphouse to warm up. Unfortunately he neglected to vent the can. Middle of the reel, there was a loud bang, the side doors of the Peerless Magnarc arc-lamp flew open and close again, and there were beans all over the booth. The manager came running up, looked in the booth and slowly walked away, shaking his head. Eleven years later, we overhauled the E-7 projectors and found traces of beans in the shutter housing.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-19-1999 05:13 PM

Mildly on topic--things that tend to really confuse new hires: we had a couple of new projectionists hired soon before we were scheduled to do a festival of a number of mostly Academy-ratio films. I was present during most nights for this, but I also left explicit instructions on the rewind bench ("if I have labelled the leader of the first reel "flat/1.33," then use the lenses and aperture plates labelled "1.33" and set the masking to "1.33").
One night, I got a frantic phone call from someone who couldn't figure out what he had done wrong--"the movie's square!" I had to explain that the film that night was made in the 1940s and was supposed to look that way. Apparently, a couple of customers had asked about it, too. Weird.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 08-19-1999 05:27 PM

At least you had 1.33 masking! Think of all the theaters running Blair Witch Project who have to deal with the customers complaining the picture isn't filling the screen when set to 1.85!

Personally, I think that looks like crap. I reset my masking stops to raise my vertical masking all the way up and brought in the side masking a little bit to form a 1.33 ratio. Then I got a 40mm lens and attached a Magnacom on it so the 1.33 within a 1.85 would fill the new 80 foot "giant screen." (Sure the corners of the 1.85 RP40 test image are cropped off by the lens barrel, but who cares? No one sees them!)

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Christopher Seo
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 530
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-19-1999 06:50 PM

Too bad our theater doesn't have enough masking to do that. It doesn't even have curtains that close.

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George Roher
Master Film Handler

Posts: 266
From: Washington DC
Registered: Jul 99

posted 08-19-1999 10:35 PM

My favorite practical joke in a theatre is not booth related. At a place I used to work we told our new usher that the ticket computer had gone down and that she would have to go into the theatre and do a head count so the manager could close out properly. She actually did it! The intercom beeped and she said "74". We started laughing hysterically and she got very upset. I wish we had asked her to see how many of the patrons were old enough to have gotten senior tickets, but the thought of her creeping down the aisle and shining a flashlight in everyone's face was too much! She probably would have done that too.

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Jim Ziegler
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 753
From: West Hollywood, CA
Registered: Jul 99

posted 08-19-1999 10:43 PM

The best joke I have ever played on a new employee is on a concessionist. I told them that inventory was off and I needed a count of the popcorn containers in the dumpster...

I sent someone to get her out of the dumpster 20 minutes later... We found our shortage...

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 08-19-1999 11:51 PM

Of course, lids, straws and the occasional ice count is always a fun way of passing the time on a slow Tuesday. This thread is starting to look more like a theater frat scrapbook.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-20-1999 08:47 AM

Ice count? That is _evil_!!!

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Rick Long
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 759
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 08-20-1999 12:34 PM

There was, perhaps some justification for these practical jokes played on apprentice projectionists. We were, after all, teaching them a trade by which they could make a living (for now, anyways).
We usually followed three basic rules when coming up with one of these pranks;
(1) It must not cause serious injury or pose a health hazard (minor electrical shocks and humiliation were considered O.K.).
(2) It must not cause the victim financial hardship. (Spending a quarter tank of gas to go across town to get a "film-strecher" - that was O.K. too).
(3) It must not, under any circumstances, in any way interfere with the performance to the public. (Reversing the three-phase to the Cinemeccanica projector motor so that the projector ran backward was O.K. only so long as you had time to correct it before the performance).

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