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Author Topic: Angry Writer (Bill Lammers) picks on Projectionists Timothy M. Whitely Film Handler Posts: 3 From: Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA Registered: Dec 2002 posted 02-13-2003 10:53 AM                     Once again writer Bill Lammers opens his mouth in hope of becomming the next shock jock. I would like to thank the "at least 40 posts" that gave evidence to Bill's supervisor that someone real does read his article. In the climate of corporate downsizing the members of Film Tech have been very kind and charitable to Mr. Lammers for helping him justify his job at Cleveland's last newspaper. Bill has descended to a new low hoping to jump to a new high . Mr. Lammers can't be held responsible for his negative comments towards this forum. As an assistant news editor he has seen the national strides that guys like Howard Stern and Jim Rome have made in their medium of Radio. If these two guys can bad mouth small folks and make millions why can't Billy . I want to personally thank all of the members who have read the Home Technology section of the cutting edge Plain Dealer. Thanks to your kindness we here in Cleveland will never have to read any articles about Lebron James not being aired on ESPN this week from the Home Technology section at least. Bill is very focused on the film tech forum crowd hoping this will be his free ticket to being discovered nationally since none of us locally care to read his art form. By the way while Mr. Lammers pulzer prize work was running on the presses late last night I was watching and listening to my 1st 35mm trailers in my home theatre in my basement. A local union projectionist friend of mine with 30 years experience was installing the sound system to my new Super Simplex for fun. Oh yes almost forgot.. Bill I paid $158.00 for my complete Super Simplex from a live popular auction site. I know I shouldn't be proud of this from a capitalist perspective. I am not helping our Home land economy by sending a money order for $158.00 to fellow countryman in San Antonio, Texas. You though have been a fine example of taking your paycheck and re-investing it in Circuit City and Best Buys. You really do need to start your own bulletin Board Bill. Perhaps you and the majority of Home Theater guys can turn this economy around by upgrading your system every time Sony sneezes. America needs guys like you Bill. And to show my appreciation for the cutting edge knowledge, innovation and information that you have been handing to us little people for only 35 cents I am writing this 41st post so you can keep on writing and dreaming of making America # one in Home Entertainment. Good day. Tim Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 02-13-2003 12:52 PM                        Apparently this is the article being referred to. Here is the film-tech thread that started it.  |  IP: Logged Dustin Mitchell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1865 From: Mondovi, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 02-13-2003 01:01 PM                     For those interested: Link  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 02-13-2003 01:29 PM                     This Bill guy is a loon. Here is my favorite snip from his new article showing how ignorant of the facts he is. quote: "If the automation fails and you have poor modulation because the sound is supposed to be in Dolby Digital and it's in Sony digital, you have problems" Now that was supposedly taken from a quote he was given, but I'll bet damn near anything he listened to the business agent and bobbed his head pretending that he understood and then botched the quote in his article. That sentence makes no sense! Need I say more? Come on Bill, register and join us. No need to lurk. Let's get your projection issues out into the open so the next time you go to a theater you can know what is really going on upstairs. We won't bite (too hard).  |  IP: Logged Christopher Seo Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 530 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-13-2003 02:10 PM                     I myself am more concerned that the business agent of an IATSE local doesn't appear to know what he's talking about. This misinformation has only fueled Lammers' increasingly nonsensical arguments. I don't doubt he encountered some problems in the showing he attended. However, it's clear that Lammers' objective, scholarly inquiry into the metallurgy of his pots and pans and the electromagnetic spectra of his Fiestaware doesn't extend into the motion-picture theatre realm. We're fighting a losing battle here.  |  IP: Logged Greg Pauley Expert Film Handler Posts: 173 From: Huntington, WV, USA Registered: Jun 2000 posted 02-13-2003 02:17 PM                        I think Bill was trying to impress his wife and readers with his technical knowledge of how he could program his DirecTV and DVD player. He was basically promoting home video based on one bad experience he had at one theater. I guess Bill never lost signal on his DirecTV system or bought a bad DVD before. Writing about your bad experience at the theater is one thing, but back slapping the whole industry is childish behavior.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-13-2003 02:26 PM                        Hey, Bill--if you're reading this, why don't you sign up and post to Film-Tech? If you're going to complain about lousy theatre presentation, then you should at least spend some time here and learn about how good presentation can be achieved. Rather than complaining that the Film-Tech people are unhappy with the technical accuracy of your articles, wouldn't it be better to not give us any reasons to get upset? Agreed to Brad's comment--that comment on sound just _has_ to be a misquote.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 02-13-2003 02:49 PM                        The research for that article was pretty woeful. He should have contacted his local cinema and asked to spend some time in their projection box seeing for himself what happens rather than write it up second hand – and, as many of the comments have pointed out, inaccurately – from an interview. I don’t mind leader articles which argue a position that I disagree with, but when the journalism behind them is sloppy to the point of factual inaccuracies they really are undermined. And as for criticising bad presentation, I definitely feel it should be done, but in a constructive way which concentrates on issues as distinct from personalities. The post I made about the Odeon Wimbledon (‘cinemas on the verge of closure’) was done in the spirit of ‘I paid money for a cinema ticket and didn’t feel that I got my money’s worth. Surely the industry should address these problems, or else it risks losing customers.’ I wasn’t attacking any projectionists or suggesting that my less-than-perfect filmgoing experience was a valid reason for rejecting the idea of cinemas altogether, both of which Bill Lammers seems to be doing. This bloke seems to be starting from the position that cinemas are bad news and that home entertainment technology is inherently ‘better’ (and pursuing a vendetta against projectionists along the way). That is a position I fundamentally disagree with. If it had character and going there was a social occasion, I’d prefer a run-down old fleapit with a tiny screen, a dim, flickery picture, mono valve-amp sound and no leg room to a DVD at home, because it’s a social occasion that gets you out of the flat, in which the technology is only one part. Even with less than perfect technology, seeing a film in the company of several hundred strangers is a different experience from doing so in a home. IMHO, Bill Lammers fails to understand this far more than any technical issue.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 02-13-2003 02:51 PM                        Maybe one of you guys should invite Bill Lammers to sit in with you for a few hours while you go about your booth duties. Let him see what's going on, answer his questions, basically treat him to some Projection 101, on the condition that he writes a full article about his experience.  |  IP: Logged Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 02-13-2003 03:03 PM                     I am a bit curious about the E-mail attacks that he claims that he has received. Anybody here guilty of E-mailing this guy? And if so, what was the substance of said E-mails?  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 02-13-2003 03:07 PM                        I emailed him just now. I didn`t take part in the discussion of his first article. But I found this new article really annoying. It is curious when someone claims to be very interested in details as he does. But then his article is very badly researched.  |  IP: Logged Mathew Molloy Master Film Handler Posts: 357 From: The Santa Cruz Mountains Registered: Nov 2000 posted 02-13-2003 03:58 PM                     I've read some bad newspaper articles lately - unlike the good old days. Newspapers are bad - I'm going to get all my news from t.v. from now on. No wait, I've seen some bad television reporting lately too, guess I'll have to get all my news from the internet. OMG! All the newspapers and newsstations are on the internet! Guess I'll just have to make up my own news at home.  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 02-13-2003 04:18 PM                        After the initial postings on Film-Tech, I called Mr. Lammers at his office to better understand the problem he heard, and learn the name of the theatre having the problems. He agreed that it may not have been a speed change, but perhaps some sort of distortion that he heard. By the time I talked to Mr. Lammers, he had already received several harsh e-mails critical of his original column from other Film-Tech participants. I contacted the engineering department of the theatre circuit off-line, who said they would investigate any possible problem at that particular theatre.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 02-13-2003 04:32 PM                        The fact that you actually called him to help find the source of the problem makes the second article even worse. If there had been no constructive contact at all between film-techers and him, you could have booked the whole thing as a misunderstanding. I like polemic writing, when it is well done and has a point. Like the first post in this topic, it is really funny. But Mr Lammer`s second article is really a bad piece of "journalism" as it does not illuminate the topic but only serves to defend his personal vanity.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 02-14-2003 08:25 AM                     I can't remember the last time I saw "Film Done Right" in a theatre. All the movies I've seen in the last couple years have had some kind of sound problem during at least some part of the presentation. I think Mr. Lammers experience is more typical than anybody in our business wants to admit. Digital sound sounds great but the reliability factor still seems to be fair at best in the average theatre.  |  IP: Logged

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