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Author Topic: Question of Professionalism Jim Alexander Film Handler Posts: 71 From: Greenwood, Nova Scotia, Canada Registered: Nov 1999 posted 12-13-2002 03:18 PM                        I have a basic question of professionalism. Do most projectionists consider themselves to be professional...or not? I run a single screen theatre in Nova Scotia, Canada, and because it is only one screen we seldom run national releases. As such, we routinely receive "hand-me-down" prints from larger chain theatres. Today, while putting together a print of Santa Clause 2, I was frustrated to find multiple layers of splice tape on the headers and footers . Does nobody think that there is another theatre that is going to run a print after them? Or are they just in a hurry? Do they care?? I've worked very hard over the last 5 years, since taking over my theatre. Most all training was done the hard way...asking questions and reading, reading, reading. I take great pride in the training I give prospective projectionists. They have been taught to make sure a print goes out they way they would prefer it came in. All new splices (one side only), Heads out, clearly marked and clean. Is this too much to ask. It may take a couple of minutes longer to break down a film, but the theatre that receives it will be more than thank-you for you effort.  |  IP: Logged Ken McFall Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 615 From: Haringey, London. Registered: Apr 2001 posted 12-13-2002 05:25 PM                     Professionalism.... it really depends on which side of the cheque book you are on. Many compaines claim to support the highest standards... subject to what they are prepared to pay. I have a real sympathy for a guy who's running single manning in 6+ screens. He's had a long day, he's very frustrated, wants to do a good job but also wants to get home! An individual can achive the most amazing results as a one off.... expecting them to do it every week of the year is too much for anyone. So yes, they do tear joins and if you're very lucky they will tape them together. Until the distributors start fining each cinema for not looking after a print in their 'CARE' then the situation will continue to deteriorate. Unfortunatly its a show like yours that suffers most. Don't blame the projectionist totally... its the system and until its changed the situation will continue. I consider myself to be a professional but I can only do so much. 14 hour days are not uncommon for me and I may well be back within 7 hours of finishing a shift. A six day week is also not uncommon so can you really expect 'professionalism' every hour and minute of a regime like that? Many of the guys who take part in this forum are very dedicated and professional.... but a brick wall is a brick wall and if your employer can't or won't give you the reources then something has to give. I am in no way suggesting that my employers or anyone I know behave in this way.... heaven forbid Excuse the spelling because I'm very tired....  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 12-13-2002 05:34 PM                       quote: Professionalism.... it really depends on which side of the cheque book you are on. Well put, Ken, well put. From my standpoint, it used to be a profession, but not any more. That's why I got out; you can't support a family on it, and it's darned hard to make a liveable wage at it as a single, too. There's nothing I'd like more than to be working as a projectionist right now. I would give my eye teeth to do that, but it ain't gonna happen. I have a family to support, bills to pay, and health insurance to find. The days when the job of projectionist was a craft are long gone.  |  IP: Logged Ken McFall Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 615 From: Haringey, London. Registered: Apr 2001 posted 12-13-2002 05:47 PM                     Thanks for that Tim I would suggest your signature is due for a change, can I suggest.... ---------------------------------------------- Better projection don't pay any more than crap projection.... you're just more tired at the end of the day!! ---------------------------------------------- God does that sound cynical  |  IP: Logged Jim Alexander Film Handler Posts: 71 From: Greenwood, Nova Scotia, Canada Registered: Nov 1999 posted 12-13-2002 09:29 PM                        quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Professionalism.... it really depends on which side of the cheque book you are on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I can well appricate this statement. It is afterall a business. As the owner of a single screen theatre, I know only too well that you can't make a living at it. I also have a full time day job. So between the two, my time is at a primium! Having said that, it is my position that my staff live up to the standards that I have set. And yes, I am willing to pay for it. I know that a single screen does not carry half the load of a six-plex, but you get the idea. What I am talking about is a slippagle of professionalism within the world of projectionists. Blame it on over demanding employers. Blame it on an industry that has not maintained any "checks and balances". Blame it on whatever you like. The point of the matter is that it is slipping. Only through forums like these are we able to voice our displeasure and possibly encourage a return to the days of quality projectionists with any amount of professionalism. I well understand the pridicament that most projectionists at megaplexes deal with, and I simpathise with them, but one of the caracteristics of a professional is the insistance on not doing half a job.... That's my opionion...and being on this soap box is a little un-nerving since I have a fear of heights!  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 12-13-2002 11:02 PM                       quote: Better projection don't pay any more than crap projection.... Ken, I'm rolling!! That's funny, I'd forgotten my signature read that way. As you probably know, it's the old slogan of IPC Simplex, from back in the days when that statement was true. quote: one of the caracteristics of a professional is the insistance on not doing half a job.... Jim, that is true. Unfortunately, and it sounds like you understand the business has went in a direction where it's very difficult to attract people with that kind of dedication... to become expert in a job that offers no real future for the practitioner. Sadly, the job of projectionist has become a McDonald's job... yes, there are paths to pursue a career, but they are in management, not as a fry cook.  |  IP: Logged Barry Martin Expert Film Handler Posts: 203 From: Newington, CT USA Registered: Jul 2002 posted 12-14-2002 11:12 AM                        As far as a multiplex goes, it really comes down to how many people they will staff, not how long. There were Thursday nights I would get out from anywhere between 1 and 4am. Often times the closing manager and I were due back in at 9am. Without commuting time or breakfast (assuming you had time to eat dinner Thursday night) that is 5-8 hours between shifts. Because of this I always tried to get out as early as possible. If I was ALWAYS getting out at 4am not only would I be a wreck mentally but management would probably just replace me with someone who wasn't going to take the time to do it right (or better yet leave the work for Friday morning) just so they can get home an hour earlier and save 9 dollars on payroll. In my experience efficiency has become more important to most chains than quality, especially when that print you are no longer booked for is not going to affect your grosses if it goes to another company. The McDonald's analogy is pretty accurate, except the last winter I worked as a projectionist they brought someone new into the booth starting at $7.75/hour (the floorstaff wage). That same winter the McDonald's in our Mall was starting people at $8.50/hour. Kind of pathetic, don't you think?  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 12-14-2002 11:47 AM                    I consider myself a profesional. Even though I have never been in a union doesn't mean I am not a professional. Tim is right. You can not rely on this job to support a family. You must get into the management field were there are benafits and the potential for better money. That does not mean that you can not still participat in the booth functions. I manage a couple of days a week and run the booth the other four days. I am very purticular about what goes on in the booth and who is doing what. The big problem is long term employment. If you can't keep them around long enough to gain the experience then everything goes out the window. I think if a company wants to pay someone well and give them benafits to run there booths they could. You don't really need unions now like you did in the early days of unionisation. I look at Toyota as an example. Here is a company that pays there employees very well. Gives them plenty of benafits yet does not have that union umbrella over there heads. They don't have to worry about strikes or cantract negotiations or loss of production because of these happenings. All in all, if companies want to give the best that they can give without worrying about unions just pay them a little better and give them some kind of benafits. Even if it is just a payed vacation that is something.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 12-14-2002 01:24 PM                     I *ALWAYS* felt that the condition a print went out in was a reflection of the theater it came from, which is why I never cut corners breaking down prints (Thursday night shifts at a 16-plex for me often ended at 8AM!) It's sad that some companies consider "professionalism" only to the extent of dress code and following standard policies, but nothing pertaining to presentation quality or how the prints look to whoever gets them next. (He built the print up with white splicing tape, then when tearing down cut the splices and put the leaders on with masking tape, but at least he was wearing a tie!)  |  IP: Logged Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 12-15-2002 06:03 AM                     I was taught from the beginning to send prints out of the theatre in better condition than when received. Being that I was with a drive-in, we often got some really-used prints. I was often amazed at the condition of things we received. Scotch tape, masking tape, or no tape with the ends of the reels simply wrapped around the bent shipping reels were the norm. My boss was a stickler for quality on the screen. If the feature that we were playing was one that he really liked, he would bring his Maier-Hancock 16-35 cement splicer from home to do the inspections. Remember, this was in the days of tri-acetates. I have tried to continue his legacy and make film stay clean and pretty on the screen. Hopefully, I will meet someone one day who has my passion for quality, and will be willing to learn the right ways to handle print film. In the real world, I doubt that this will happen. Not in this area, anyway. (Western North Carolina) We ran STAR WARS in 1977 for 9 weeks on a changeover system with absolutely no damage incurred by us. Our distributor knew our track record with print care, and when one came available, a new print was sent to us to replace the one that we received for the first week of our runs. It was strange running the film with no pops and thunks from the lack-of-splices....  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-15-2002 10:12 AM                        Agreed with Jesse. Prints should leave the theatre in better condition than they arrived in, and should be runnable out of the cans (I consider leaders attached with single-sided splices to be "runnable" in most projectors). Not that I would ever run a print without first inspecting it, but "print inspection" shouldn't involve "film restoration," either. The problem is that, as others have stated, film projection has gone from being a lifetime job and respected craft to a short-term job often held by the same types of people who operate the fry machine at McDonald's. Since those people are often short-term employees (less than a year or two), they never really get the opportunity to learn more than what is absolutely necessary to get a picture on the screen and even those who do care often don't know that they were taught to do things in the wrong way. There _are_ people in this business who do care. Unfortunately, most of them do so because they actually take pride in their jobs and not because they are encouraged to do so by their employers. I've met a few theatre owners who care deeply about quality, but they are very much in the minority.  |  IP: Logged Jim Alexander Film Handler Posts: 71 From: Greenwood, Nova Scotia, Canada Registered: Nov 1999 posted 12-15-2002 12:21 PM                        -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote from Jesse: I *ALWAYS* felt that the condition a print went out in was a reflection of the theater it came from... Quote from Scott: Prints should leave the theatre in better condition than they arrived in... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here here! This is my point exactly. All to often, I have found that many, so called professionals, are cutting corners which results in their theatre looking like a bunch of half-wit-fry-cookers. Unfortunately, this means extra work for those that receive prints from them. Not only do I insist that my staff break down a print so that it is usable and professionally done, but I also insist that, knowing where the print is going to, they will splice the headers and tails accordingly (if going to a 20 minute reel theatre, splice both sides. If going to a platter theatre, splice one side to make it easier for make-up). Is this to much to ask?  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 12-15-2002 04:13 PM                     Well get this- I also removed ALL cue tape, and when I worked at a place that spliced policy trailers in between the attached trailers, I'd actually take the policy trailer off onto a reel then splice the attached trailer back on (if the next theater didn't want to show it, they could take it off, if they wanted to put a trailer in between they could or if not just leave it the way it was)! I never got a used print where anyone bothered to do that.  |  IP: Logged William Hooper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1879 From: Mobile, AL USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-20-2002 06:52 AM                        "Professional" just means you take money for what you do, & you do it for a living. There are a lot of crappy professionals out there from lawyers to projectionists to engineers to actors to managers to tombstone cutters to automobile mechanics or whatever. The question is does the professional fall in the category of crappy & smalltime, or not. It's generally a pretty good indicator of the extremity the individual's assessment of self from bottom of the well to delusions of personal super-significance, too.  |  IP: Logged Jim Alexander Film Handler Posts: 71 From: Greenwood, Nova Scotia, Canada Registered: Nov 1999 posted 12-20-2002 08:11 AM                        --------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote William Hooper: "Professional" just means you take money for what you do, & you do it for a living. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry, but this is only one of the meanings of the word professional, and one that has come as a result of the sporting industry. Another, and one in which this thread was contexted, is "someone following a line of conduct as if it were a profession." Having said that, you will note that the title of the thread is "Question of Professionalism" which further defines the context of the definition above to mean ones motivation to increase their conduct to a level that is unimpeccable. Having said that, so long as people feel that to be professional, means to accept money for they do, as mention above, their will be no professionalism within our choosen feilds.  |  IP: Logged

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