Also, we have this leader that keeps putting us out of frame. Nobody has bothered to determine why it is doing this so everyone just lets it go and doesn't let anyone know there is a problem.

Bottom line is that a good communication is needed to make your booth work 1st class.

P.S. I thank everyone for helping me because there would be no way else to learn this stuff as you can understand the lack of pride and caring with the staff.

Thanks

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I am not a projectionist, so maybe I don't understand all this, but did you ever look at the screen and see the error? Just curious. Maybe you looked as the trailers were playing, and everything looked OK. But the feature is what the customers come to see. So it seems important to me as a paying customer that the feature should be checked by the projectionist to make sure that frame, focus, format, sound, etc. is OK. Just a suggestion.

Best regards,

------------------
Oscar Neundorfer
Chief Engineer
SMART Devices, Inc.

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Richard, did the whole movie run in the wrong lens or just the beginning? Are you checking your shows every 10 - 20 minutes? If you aren't, you should be. It's just a good idea, so that you can guarantee that your guests are getting the best show possible. It's all about presentation.

A booth log (diary) is always a good idea. You can keep track of any problems as well as share problems, questions or any issue that might arrise on your shift that you hadn't encountered. When you have a bad day, it's a good way to relieve stress before going home, if you have a good day you can share it with everyone. If you figured something new out you can let everyone else know, and get thier opinions on the matter.

I also hold a monthly booth meeting, so that the entire staff can sit down togeather. That way we can discuss any changes that we want to implement and they can start immediately. Also lets me point out areas of weakness as well as the wonderful job that my staff does.

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To-date, there has been no poetry. The entries read like, "Tension failsafe snagged a splice", or "platter 2 running slow on pay out".

While we do not study these lists to uncover the secrets of the universe, they are handy when doing maintenance.

We haven't used them to log major repairs, but that might be a good idea.

How many screens are you running at one time? Surely, you could make time to look at the screen result at least one time during the films 129 minutes.

If not before this incident, I hope you will from now on. As you can see by this...it is very important. And checking during trailers doesn't count. Film stocks vary in thickness and the focus setting for the trailers is not necessarily what it's gonna be for the movie.

The first function is vital because if you ask someone to do something, you automatically generate a written record. If I put on tomorrow's page 'Please Dolby-tone sc. 1 proj. 2', or 'please change blown light bulbs in the bar' and it doesn't get done, then he can't say he wasn't asked.

As a maintenance and events planner the diary is also useful. When I change a projector lamp, I'll write in the diary for a date roughly two months ahead 'Check S2 P1 lamp and rotate if necessary' - so things things like belt changes, or filters on the air handling units won't get forgotten when the time comes.

As for labelling films, we have a very strict policy. If it's going on the platter, we stick opaque acetate spacing on the end (as a failsafe, so if someone leaves sticky tape on the end of the film and it mangles in the feed unit, the end of the film will break rather than stretch) labelled as follows (examples from this week):

'BEAU TRAVAIL' 1:1.66 SR PRINT NO. 3 ACETATE

or

'POKEMON' 1:1.85 SR-D PRINT NO. UK928 POLY

If the film is being made up for changeovers, heads and tails are marked up as follows:

'CASABLANCA' 1:1.33 MONO HEAD 1 OF 6

'CASABLANCA' TAIL 1 OF 6

Your 'Casablanca' print is 'silent'?