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This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
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Author
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Topic: Do moviegoers care?
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Kenn Fong
Film Handler
Posts: 47
From: Oakland, CA 94610 USA
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted 09-16-1999 03:03 AM
Please don't kill me, this is an honest question... Do you pros out there get a sense that customers really notice the difference between a good print and a messed-up one? It wouldn't be your customers since I can tell the readers of this forum all take great pride in their work.I talk to a fair number of people, and everyone is surprised to hear about cue marks, especially people who have been going to movies for thirty or forty years, so I wonder if they notice other things. And most people don't understand the difference -- and fail to see the benefits -- of letterbox vs. pan & scan. Recently, I took my niece to see "Runaway Bride" at a monsterplex and there was a vertical scratch that ran the entire length of the movie. The print was dirty and three lab splices were left in. After two months I didn't expect it to look perfect, though. When I mentioned this to the manager on duty, she acted surprised, although properly respectful of my complaint. This leads me to wonder if, outside of sophisticated people such as ourselves, does anyone else pay attention? Anyway, I want you to know that I'M payng attention, and I try to always stop and mention it to the manager when I see that the projectionist or operator has taken care of the print after several weeks or months.
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Kenn Fong http://qwertyuiop.net
Screenwriter's Home Page
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Stephen Jones 1
Film Handler
Posts: 62
From: Tulsa, OK, USA
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted 09-16-1999 04:22 AM
I think that maybe it's the sense of conviency that may lead people into certain Megaplexes. I pay very close attention to the presentation, usually so much that my girlfriend thinks I'm just picking at nothing. Tonight we watched Stir of Echoes, and besides being a bad movie, the presentation was terrible. The SR was SO much considerably lower than the Digital in respect to volume. The lights went down at the wrong time and the picture started half way into the first trailer and was badly out of frame. It was a flat movie and the framing was so bad that you could almost see the frame line. After about watching five minutes of trailers hoping for the projectionist to fix it, I had to get up and complain (I'm good at this, 'cause I ALWAYS do it at this particular theatre) Then after about a minute of the framing going up and down, it stopped and the 'projectionist' re-threaded it and started it again and STILL out of frame but at least this time he could move the nob enough to center the picture. This kind of thing happens all the time at this UA theatre. We go to it usually because of convience but I ALWAYS get up and complain about something that is ALWAYS wrong. And I ask my girlfriend, "Why do people pay 6.50 and settle for this crap?" "Probably because they don't know any better." Well, all I know is that a presentation complaint at my theatre is a rarity, NOT a routine. And I hope that the reason our theatre does more business than our UA competitor is because people do begin to notice things like that.
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Erika Hellgren
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 168
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 09-17-1999 05:15 PM
I think on a subconscious level, people notice dirt, scratches and imperfections. Some non-technical moviegoers were interviewed after seeing the digital Star Wars presentation and stated that they liked that it was a clean presentation - there was no dirt and no scratches. I agree very much with Rick that if we are doing our job properly, the customers shouldn't even know we exist. I have always believed that the movie-going experience involves forgetting about the real world and sinking into the movie. If the presentation is as perfect as it can be, and there are no distractions then that allows the audience to experience the movie on it's own terms. It's hard to like a movie that has a huge green scratch down the middle, or is missing footage from a film break, or has scratchy, quiet mono sound. If I finish a whole shift without ever having received a complaint, I give myself a pat on the back for a job well done. I have never received a compliment from a customer, but I almost take THAT as a compliment 
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Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 01-01-2001 07:44 PM
First, I think most people just don't have the "mental bandwidth"... Not that they are stupid, they just don't SEE things. That's why we; the technicians and projection people; are who we are, and do what we do. We just have the ability to pick up details that other people don't. Things that we see as HUGE problems barely make a "blip" on other peoples' radar.This is why you shouldn't have "manager-run" booths. They are already overloaded with the day-to-day aspects of the business. It's just too much to ask for them to do the important job that they have taken on AND ask them to do anohter equally important job. Managers have skills and abilities that I could never dream of having. They can look at the day's paperwork and make a conclusion about how well the business is doing or whether they'll need to order more popcorn. It's all gobbledeygook to me. On the other hand I can walk up to a projector and tell if it's running right just by the SOUND of it. People will look stunned and wonder how the hell I knew. To tell the truth I don't know how I knew. I just DID. Essentially, what this means is that OTHER people DEPEND on us to do our jobs RIGHT! My second point is that people nowadays seem to EXPECT poor service and will actually go back to places where they have had poor service and LIKE it! Read the following article from Scientific American magazine entilted "New and Not Improved" http://www.sciam.com/1999/1099issue/1099inbrief.html In short, I think we are seeing something that is "endemic" to modern culture. I don't think there is any way that people who profess the superiority of "digital movies" are going to solve this. (If that's what the "powers that be" think they are trying to do by pusing digital projection down people's throats) They are actually BUYING INTO this!
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