Well since the "Most Painful Mistakes" thread had a lot of interesting posts, I decided to let people now post the most funny/coolest things they have done or seen happen in the booth.

For example (prolly not a very good one): One morning i was scheduled to set-up and run a private screening of "The Grinch" for a local church group. I remember after getting the concessions done and after everyone was seated, I was told that a ventriloquist would be performing just before the show. So for ten minutes, after threading and checking my machine, I watched this really funny act put on by this guy and his dummies, and he was good! He even did an act with him drinking water and brushing his teeth while he made one of his dummies sing, pretty damn impressive. Well after he was done I headed downstairs and helped him move his stuff off of the stage, but man that was a cool experience.
I know there's some better stories out there, and I'll add some more every now and then to keep this thread going, but by all means tell us your stories!

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Let's show some professionalism here. The projection room is NOT a playground.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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One of our local preachers approached me about running a free showing of some Billy Graham movie on an off night (since we're in a very small town, we are usually closed on Thursdays). He already had the film and everything. Problem was, the film was in 16mm. After I explained the difference, he left, but then came back later saying he had lined up a projector! I tried to tell him that it would never work, the auditorium was too big for a little 16mm machine, the image would be too small, too dim, etc. but of course he wanted to "try it out."

So we went to the theatre on the next Thursday morning and set up the 16mm machine on a table in the auditorium. As expected, the picture was only about 5 feet wide, but was fairly watchable, brightness-wise. We decided to try moving it back farther, and finally decided to go for broke and put the machine right in front of the booth, at the top of the balcony.

Well when we turned it on, the picture looked as if it was made to order for our screen. Filled it perfectly from top to bottom (a little narrow, of course). And still bright enough to watch. "Hallelujah!" the preacher said.

Then it hit me: what about the sound? I had never even thought about the sound. The preacher suggested hanging the little 6" speaker from his projector over the balcony rail, but I said let's try hooking it into the line-in on our non-sync system, which required some creative patch-cording....and that worked too! Not perfect theatre sound by any means, but certainly listenable. "Praise the Lord!" said the preacher. So, now having determined (in the words of Young Frankenstein) that "IT! COULD! WORK!!!" we put a one-sheet up in the window. This was the extent of our advertising campaign.

Since it was all a same-day thing, we hadn't advertised this show in the paper. It wasn't on the marquee or on our weekly email or anything. It wasn't even on our answering machine, because I was still concerned about the "quality" of the presentation so I wasn't really wanting to advertise this as one of our regular "feature" movies. "Don't worry," said the preacher, "We all mentioned it during services last Sunday."

An hour before showtime, every preacher in town showed up to "help," and they had a little prayer meeting before we opened the doors. Well you can probably guess...the place was packed! We almost had to turn people away. We sold something like $350 worth of concessions. Nobody said a word about the slightly dark, smaller-than-usual, 16mm picture or the non-stereo, non-surround sound. (Maybe presentation DOESN'T matter?) We even had to stop mid-show to change reels, and sold another few bucks in concessions while the preachers took up a collection to pay for the film. Afterward, all the preachers stayed behind to help clean.

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The art class teachers decided to show, "Lust for Life" about the painter Van Gogh. The art department alone could not pay for renting a regular, commerical film, so the art teachers talked the History, English, and Psychology departments into sharing the cost. Normally, this would be OK, fun even, but to sell the idea to school administrators, the teachers said they would have everyone write a report about the film, right when finals are comming up- more work. Also, because of the film's running time, we would all have to stay late after school normally let out- everyone misses their bus and has to walk home. These factors really pissed off the kids.

On showing day, there were about 500-600 kids in the auditorium. I start up the machine and dim the lights. Before the opening credits even finish, some kid yells, "Cut your fuckin' ear off!" Other kids yell the same thing, and pretty soon several hundred kids are chanting "Cut your fuckin' ear off! Cut your fuckin' ear off!...." Everyone was sent back to class within 15 min of arriving. But, we didn't have to write a report or miss the bus.

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quote:

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I had been running a reel to reel show and was having my supper when
it was time for a reel change. So I placed my half-eaten sandwich
on the ledge of the viewing port. (first the wax paper on the ledge, then the sandwich on top of that) Well, part of the wax paper was hanging into the booth and somehow I bumped it spinning the sandwich around - and out it fell!! No, I didn't have the nerve to go down and retrieve it. Hopefully it didn't land on some arriving movie-goers head! :eek

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It's funny, but I've always been somewhat nervous about sitting right under the booth port window if it is openable. I'm also nervous about sitting directly under a speaker. About the port -- I always imagine someone up there accidentally dropping something on me, and always try to sit a seat or two to the side of those. I actually enjoy sitting in the back row often. At the Regal Madison Square 12 in my area, at least some auditoriums have a large surround speaker directly above the center of the back row and I will not sit under those because if it were not attached well and fell, it would probably kill me. I guess I'm naturally distrusting of people in the projection booth and construction workers abilities to fasten things securely, especially at that location where I see parts of light fixtures dangling from the ceiling by a chain or wire. Oh, and I don't like to sit directly under ceiling fans in the Huntsville Regals either for the same reason. I guess this all shows that I have a phobia about things falling on me.

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Information Site