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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Flaming Film Flim Flam
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Brad Miller
Administrator
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/02a.jpg)
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 01-26-2002 10:34 PM
We've been hearing a lot of crazy things floating around lately from projectionists at one specific very large theater chain regarding FilmGuard. For an unknown reason, one of this company's techs has some sort of personal grudge against me, this site and everything related to it. There are a lot of projectionists in this chain that are being fed outright false information from their regional management regarding FilmGuard as well as other slanderous things of which I will not go into here. The latest thing going around is that FilmGuard is insanely flammable and will give anyone cancer who gets near it. The ridiculous part about this is that many people will believe anything they hear without performing their own tests or even checking the gossip legitimately via MSDS lab sheets (readily available for the asking from the dealer who sold you the product), and then proceed to "spread the word", inflicting fear and panic to other people. Sounds kinda like the National Enquirer, eh?So let me give you the brief scoop on what has recently happened. This super tech decided for whatever reason to try and scare the pants off of one regional person by taking a lighter and burning a piece of film that he had submerged in a bowl of FilmGuard. Needless to say his idea worked. The regional person panicked and has banned the use of the product, now only allowing "safe" items in the booth. Funny the description of "safe" here. Just what IS safe in this person's eyes? Apparently only items that will not burn if direct flame is put to it. I guess that means that the bricks and foundation of the building are safe since damn near everything else will burn when directly ignited. This video will hopefully wake a few people up from their fairyland comas. We have received numerous emails from projectionists and booth managers at these theaters and the rumors are getting more and more bloated by the day. These projectionists have been using the product for some time now and all have been very pleased with it's results, but are no longer allowed to use it because of these made-up rumors. Three of these theaters (that I know of) have already performed their own tests and proven what we are about to show you below. They also found out that a LOT of chemicals in the building (used in the booth as well as outside of the booth) actually ARE insanely flammable, though I did not get a list. In celebration of this tech's super genius, we now present a short video of Joe playing pyromaniac with a few commonly found booth items. By no means is this video attempting to emulate a laboratory testing environment, but we feel it more than demonstrates the point. Yes there are some video edits used to compress time because we are not professional smokers and we purchased poor quality lighters that Joe had a hard time getting to light, but the final results in the video were not altered. As is clearly stated in the video PLEASE FEEL FREE to perform these exact same demonstrations in the parking lot of your own theater if you have any doubt whatsoever. Again, the examples contained in the video were not faked nor staged in any way, just edited to compress time on the download. The reason this video is being placed here on the forum instead of the traditional "videos" page is to elicit comments from the members. Out of respect for this theater circuit, I am not going to disclose their name. However I will gladly tell you that this tech who hates the Film-Tech website, the quality of presentation we stand for and everyone associated with it initials are J.D.R. That theater chain certainly is lucky to have such an outstanding example of showmanship on their team. Please download and view this video BEFORE you read further in this thread. There are 3 download options to best suit your internet connection's speed and your computer. Click here to go to the download page.
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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster
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Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 01-27-2002 08:57 AM
Brad, With all due respect you're taking an entirely wrong approach to this situation. First of all if it were my customer, especially a large chain, I'd be on a plane going there to meet with them to try to first find out what ever the grudge may be and iron that out. It is obvious that they have differences with you that first must be rectified. Rubbing this in their face is in my opinion really wrong if you ever want to get their buisness back again. Perhaps I'm a bit old fashioned but at GTS it is our policy to try to make all customers happy, if you can't, then find out what it will take to make them happy and keep them on your ship. I realize that it is not possible to do this with all people/companies you may deal with, but at least you can rest assured that you tried. Perhaps if you had stated that you tried to contact them to smooth over the grudge first and they refused to see you then the video would have been more appropriate. Buisness is all about customer relations, and dedication to them first and foremost. As you know I've had supposed bad dealings with at least one Film-Guard user that lives down under. Mainly due to their postal system not knowing how to foreword mail, the parcel went around the world(literaly)and came back unbeknownst to me while I was out of town. Being the sole Motion Picture guy at GTS, doing alot of service work and traveling around, it is sometimes very difficult just to keep up with things, however, the first thing we did was to try to make good to this customer, who as you know was very angry. He obviously had a hard time finding a dealer in the U.S. that would take the time to go to the post offie to send him the stuff in the first place. But we do this all the time and have shipped the stuff to South America, Austrailia, New Zealand, and Europe. However, for some people it is hard(sometimes seemingly impossible)to forgive and forget a small thing and get on with life. This is one of buisnesses down sides but has to be accepted once in a while. Since this case involved parcels traveling around the world where things were out of our control I had to accept the consiquences of what happened, but first I did try to make up to the cusomter, and our offer of free Film-Guard still stands for him to this day! We hold no grudges! I also have a photo of him hanging on my office wall in the "This customer is pissed at us gallery" but his is the only picture hanging there. GTS is a very diverse company and the theatre supply end of things is but a small part of us. At present we have begun to move into a brand new building and we are expanding all divisions of our company to suit its growth. Just being able to do this shows that we keep our customers on board. We sell on the average several cases of Film-Guard in a year, most to theatres and some to home film collectors, who obviously don't think there is a hazard to have it in their homes. We love the product and many of our customers swear by it. I'd gladly back up the product any day, any place, any time, and will continue to sell it as long as you manufacture it. There is no safety concern of any type as far as my experience with the product goes. Another thing I'd like to state is that any supply dealer posting here that does not offer Film-Guard to their customers obviously does not care about presentation quality either and should be rounded up and run out of buisness! Mark @ GTS www.getgts.com mark@getgts.com
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Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler
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Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 01-27-2002 11:18 AM
Mark, that was a very well thought out and mature statement, and a business model that can succeed when working with most honest businesses. I wish that more companies and people would take your attitude.Not so much as a counter to your statement, but perhaps as a reason why such a plan can work and be unique, I remind you of the business realities of such things as the "we demand" note about the Austin Powers advertising. These "business people" supposedly wanting to continue a long term relationship with exhibitors sent a threatening letter out of the blue to customers, with no attached explanation or, from what I read here, even a "please" or "thank-you." Such attitudes permiate the business world. In my experience, the larger the business, the more rigid the thinking, and the greater the chance of questionable or even unreasonable demands, of employees, suppliers, and customers. In theatre circuits, sometimes one individual will institute a strict policy within a district or area and it will get institutionalized and expanded without proper review or even a reality check. I remember one chain that had a policy of ushers having to puncture every drink cup picked up in the auditoriums, supposedly to prevent recycling of the cups. Never mind that in such scams the ushers are almost always already involved, never mind the problems with coke still in the cups dripping onto floors and into leaky cheap garbage bags, never mind the time wasted or coke-sprayed uniforms, this was a written-in-stone policy because nobody had the balls to risk their job by standing up and saying in a loud, clear voice "This is stupid!" The average middle management leader won't often dare to admit a wrong decision, and speaking pragmatically, pissing off a tech who must be depended upon, without damned good cause, might not seem to be a good decision, even if the alternative was dirty prints. In such a case, a public demonstration can be useful as damage control. The issue isn't so much the already lost business as it is the rumor and potential for greater loss. Unrelated example of public demonstration damage control: Requiring FAA personnel to fly in planes soon after a recent plane safety scare made many people feel more comfortable about flying. Like the tech mentioned, I am one who likes to know what is in the chemical mixtures I use, and I can understand the POV of a tech that has had past reservations about something new that could have been a snake-oil. However, since Brad does have an MSDS on the product, any health concerns can be checked out. Experience from users is public knowledge even to the point of Brad allowing dissatisfied customers to post their problems here and then personally responding. Perhaps if that tech would be willing to post his concerns here publicly, he would been taken more seriously. Making the exact formulation of film-guard public would only encourage rip-offs and inferior copies, plus reduce funding for this repository of manuals, knowledge, and water-cooler talk. BTW, I'm very curious why someone would have some sort of grudge against this site. Unless Brad is selling direct, any attempts to change minds should first come from the sales team. That is part of the sales job. I don't know about Brad, but I know in my own business that I'm not cut out to be a salesman. Some folks have that gift, while others of us have skills that go in other directions. Be that as it may, defending one's work or product in a straightforward manner is the right of any workman or product developer.
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Brad Miller
Administrator
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Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 01-27-2002 02:24 PM
Mark, I think you have misinterpreted the scenario and once again have posted before doing your research on what all I have done and/or not done. (Hint, you could've just emailed me to inquire rather than assume. ) I have always bent over backwards to do a "make good" anytime a customer is not happy. Two years ago when we first started selling media one of the rollers was cutting short rolls. My solution was to replace those rolls directly to the theaters that were involved 150% and I had them keep the "short" rolls to use on smaller prints. In some instances theaters bought as much as 10 boxes of media, so in return they ended up with 15 boxes of media, plus 10 boxes of "short" media that could be used on small movies. I did this with a number of theaters until I could get those defective cases out of circulation. Just this year I had an equipment sale freight miscalculation and I feel I more than made up for it by eating the excess freight costs and in addition to make sure there wasn't any hard feelings I sent the theater a case of FilmGuard and a case of media. Believe me, if this was as simple as "doing whatever it took to make the customer happy", I would have done it a long time ago. I am not aware of anyone who has ever walked away from a transaction with me that felt cheated or ripped off and I want to keep it that way. Unfortunately, this is not an option due to the person involved. The video was not my first option. And yes I do like this chain as a whole, which is why I intentionally did not mention their name out of respect, not legal fear. However, when this idiot's rumors start to leak out of that theater circuit and into others, something must be done and since most people who are "presentation quality conscious" hang out here, this was the quickest way to demonstrate the reality of why that rumor is simply not true. Say Mark, did ya know that using an R2 puts cancerous agents into the air? Oh no! Better not allow Mark to EQ an auditorium with his R2! See how stupid it is? If J.D.R. wants to post here, he is welcome just like anyone else who wishes to register. Also, no company buys direct, all go through CPI just like everyone else, although if the order is big enough we will make special pricing.
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Dan Riddle
unregistered
Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 01-27-2002 05:31 PM
I really think you need to lose the cut between soaking the film and lighting it.
Yes you are compressing time, but you did it at the worst possible place. People will have no idea what happened between the cut and the actual lighting of the film.
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David Stambaugh
Film God
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Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002
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posted 01-27-2002 09:06 PM
Not really film-related, but a cool picture anyway: Johnson Paste Wax is used by a lot of pinball machine collectors to wax playfields on their games. A fellow pinhead kept insisting that Johnson Paste Wax contains no petroleum distillates, so I performed this test. All I had to do was drop in a lighted match. Nothing was used to prime it -- the can had nothing but wax in it. Legend has it the pic was sent to the chemists at SC Johnson Co., who reportedly had this to say: "Oh, my. Heh heh." ------------------ - dave Stay away from the meadow...
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