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Author Topic: OOPS - I put the wrong movie on today - Free preview! Bill Langfield Master Film Handler Posts: 280 From: Prospect, NSW, Australia Registered: Apr 2001 posted 08-02-2003 08:05 AM                        For the second time I can ever remember of (since 1978), I laced up the wrong movie near the end of my shift. It was due to start at 4.30 and I finshed at 4.15, so when Andrew came in, I went to the newsagent to put lotto in (it was a 19 mill draw -didnt win btw) when I got back the usher at C#6 said 'your in trouble, (at first I thought he was giving heaps about the girl I was checking out walking in front of me!!) what film did you "load up"?' Sure enough, I had threaded up the wrong film, I had laced Danny Deckchair rather than Dancer Upstairs. Andrew had to stop it, cut it, pull the already played film and ring out, pull out most of the ads/trls for the proper film (to catch time up) and get going again. My thoughts on why I f***ed up... 1/ Getting close to end of shift. 2/ Thoughts on fixing jammed curtain. 3/ Days events I was going to discuss with Andrew at shift change. 4/ Getting that lotto ticket on. 5/ Three other screens finishing as well. 6/ Drama's with the Wurlitzer Organ. 7/ Not marking /X'ing off the days on running sheet. (I read Fri times not Sat) Anyway those are my excuses and I'll stick to them. The cool thing is, the place I work at, basically said, yeah you f***ed up, please try to avoid it. Problem simply noted on incident report(for GM) and noted in diary. At the other place (where I got fired from for posting a message here, that didnt even mention them) they would have given me a formal warning, a performance discussion, I would have had to ring three people and fax four people with the incident report. (It was my little place and I miss looking after it) The last time I put the wrong film on was about 2 1/2 years ago, I put 'The Dish' rather than erm can't remember the name, but half the patron's at the end of the show said they were going to come back to see The Dish!! (and they only got to see about two minutes of it) So my point is, I guess, have you ever put the wrong film on, how many times have you done it and why do you think it happened??!! BILL.  |  IP: Logged Tim Turner Film Handler Posts: 87 From: Chula Vista, CA, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 08-02-2003 09:36 AM                     Yes I've done this before. Threaded up the wrong movie. But I'm pretty fast at correcting it, and getting the right one on, before any customer complained to a manager. Nothing ever happened to me except for a high level of embarrassment. The Ushers would laugh at me the whole day. The very first time I did that was with Pokemon: The First Movie and I think it was Inspector Gadget. And the last time was with a movie called Undisputed and I can't remember the other one. My excuse? well I guess I wasn't paying enough attention, and perhaps I was rushing a little. Actually with the Pokemon Vs Inspector Gadget incident ,I was still in training :-D The titles printed on the tail end of the prints are also hard to read in a dark booth sometimes. Anyone ever start a movie too early? I'm talking 30-45 min too early!  |  IP: Logged Carl Martin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1424 From: Oakland, CA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 08-02-2003 06:28 PM                        i did thread & start the wrong half of spike & mike's sick & twisted to a crowded house the opening weekend, but i noticed it right off and fixed it quickly. the (extra) embarrassing thing was that i was showing my girlfriend the ropes in the booth at the time. i don't know what people thought i was doing. twice i've started a show 15 minutes early (with only a few trailers). both times i had gotten used to the showtimes which hadn't changed in several weeks and then did, and both times i was trying to do some other task simultaneously. the first time it was into reel 2 by the time i was notified. rather than cut the film, i motored it through to the end of the reel (10-15 min) and then center-dropped it and rethreaded. it's a gear-side platter and conduit going from the front of the projector to the wall, so no way to simply unthread and bypass the projector. luckily there was a long break before the next show. carl  |  IP: Logged Michael West Film Handler Posts: 67 From: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Registered: Apr 2000 posted 08-02-2003 11:36 PM                        i have always managed to catch this prior to starting - but that was on the manual starts. with the new clock starts i had finally experienced the inevitable and sadly started "new waterford girl" for five minutes - a much better movie any ways! unfortunately i will have this happen again - with running an imax then over to thread cinema 11 an 12 then running over to thread 13 - 15, then back to thread an imax then continue making up a new movie then downstairs to quickly do 3d glasses, then back up to imax....its inevitable!  |  IP: Logged Erik Stevens Film Handler Posts: 10 From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registered: Nov 2002 posted 08-03-2003 12:28 AM                     The previous cinema chain that I worked for, whenever a wrong feature was threaded, the following story would be remembered, or discussed! At a certain location, during busy school holidays, "The Little Mermaid" had just been released. The projectionist who was on duty that morning, accidently threaded "Basic Instinct". Now we all know how "Basic Instinct" start's , you can imagine how many parents were complianing, and children shreeking!  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 08-03-2003 12:34 AM                    I have had my share of wrong starts. not many but I have had it happen. Once I was showing care bears using a double mutt system. for some reason we either had three movies playing in the same house or had a platter problem but when they re wound care bears the wound it on the wrong reel. so I grabed the reel that said care bears on it started show few minutes later they were running out saying Hell Hole was on the screen. Another incident that I was told about was one where they were running matinee shows of The rescuers in a reel to reel booth that used 60's. when the reel changed over to reel two it was the second reel for scarface so it was like F*ck you motherf**ker you die.  |  IP: Logged George Roher Master Film Handler Posts: 266 From: Washington DC Registered: Jul 99 posted 08-03-2003 01:21 AM                     As far as I can remember, I've threaded the wrong show a couple times, but always caught it before starting except for one occasion at the first place I worked. However...I have had the wrong feature on screen many times due to management making impromptu changes in the show schedule and not informing me.  |  IP: Logged Per Hauberg Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 883 From: Malling, Denmark Registered: Jul 2000 posted 08-03-2003 04:55 AM                        There are two kinds of projectionists: Those who tried to mix reels, and those, who lie about it. I wote for the lotto reason. Lacing up a projector, while thinking about never to do that again, because those nice millions are coming to You next week. Not even a fully automated booth could rescue us from this. My worst go on this one is almost 30 years back: "STAR" in 70mm 7 or 8 reels c/o - print indoor about 15 mins before show - no checking, no inspection, just running "from the box". Twice during that show, I hit the wrong reel. Second time, those few people watching it, got a drink and a free ticket for some other film, and I started from reel one again, after discussing this with my audience. Never run film unchecked ! p.  |  IP: Logged Patrick de Groot Expert Film Handler Posts: 161 From: Sprang-Capelle, Netherlands Registered: Apr 2001 posted 08-03-2003 05:36 AM                     I also did mix some films. It also happened that I projected the right part before the intermission and the wrong part 2 after... This all happened with big spools on a Philips FP5. The nice thing about spools is that you can easily correct it. On another theater with no-rewind I have yet to have a wrong lace-up (knock knock). The problem with no-rewind is that you can't replace the film without help once the inner ring is out...  |  IP: Logged John T. Hendrickson, Jr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 889 From: Freehold, NJ, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 08-03-2003 12:03 PM                     Suggest you add number 8 to your excuse list: I'm human. I make mistakes.  |  IP: Logged John T. Hendrickson, Jr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 889 From: Freehold, NJ, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 08-03-2003 12:03 PM                     Suggest you add number 8 to your excuse list: I'm human. I make mistakes.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-03-2003 03:42 PM                        This is not exactly putting on the wrong movie, but it is not putting on the right one, or at least not all of the right one: I was called in to run a film at the museum and, as is many times is the case, it was a last minute deal. And it so happened that there was a new guy just hired as their A/V coordinator. He brought up one can, 3 reels. Although not usual, there are many shorter independent titles that the museum runs that are mounted on only 3 reels, so I didn't give it a second thought. I preped the print while talking to the new guy....not wise. We continued discussing the booth operation. He was very inquisitive and the conversation continued through the start and running of the show, until the last reel. Then as we were talking, I noticed that we had about 5 minutes left on the last reel. Since this booth has a glass front wall, you can see the screen from anywhere in the booth. I glanced at the screen and then began to listen to the soundtrack a little more closely. Then it dawned on me. I asked him, "Are you sure that is the only can that was downstairs for this film?" He saw the panic in my face. "Yeah, why?" I said, "Well because we have about 3 minutes left on the last reel and the thieves are still at large and the FBI are going back to town to find them and they've only two minutes to do it; we are missing the rest of this movie." The kid turned white. There was nearly a full house. He said (as the film ran out), "What are we going to do?" He said it with a kind of terror in his voice. I said, "Who's this "we," pal? I said, "You're the new A/V coordinator, you've got to go out and tell them." He looked like he was going to faint. Then I took pity and said, "Not to worry, I would go tell the audience." I told him to just say in the booth and try not to puke. I went out on the balcony and explained how sorry we were that the distributor didn't send the full film and the museum would reschedule it and everyone would be able to see it for free. They all seemed very understanding and almost sorry to see me having so much obvious embarrassment. I was just about to go back into the booth, thinking, "Gee, that's was fairly easy...I'm getting away scott free," when a guy in a bit of a miffed tone yelled up, "So, how come you let us sit through an hour before you figured out you only had half the movie?" "Good question....all I can say is 'oversight.' Everyone have a good day." And I made a quick dash to the booth, where I couldn't hide....like I said, all glass front wall. I don't like having anyone in the booth with me for that very reason -- distraction. Once I ran a double feature all week long and got so used to the order that by Saturday I didn't notice the schedule had reversed them. The manager was VERY pissed when he found out I had started with the wrong title. We didn't recover from that one as we were too far into the film. We had to just bite it and run them reversed. Frank  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 08-04-2003 02:06 AM                     When you run 15 projectors, probably 8 of those doubled up or switched out during the night, a wrong start is very common. Two accounts that come to mind: I once started 8 mile when it was supposed to be the Wild Thornberry's. I wonder why noone noticed that it was the wrong movie by the trailers. Another was when MR deeds and Scooby Doo were doubled up on a platter. We had the first letter of the film title to indicate which show to start. It was the first show of the day and I saw a D next to it and I ASSUMED that the kid movie would run in the morning. I was wrong.  |  IP: Logged Kevin Baglow Expert Film Handler Posts: 135 From: Yeppoon Qld, Australia Registered: Dec 2000 posted 08-04-2003 06:20 AM                        I like to schedual shared films one after the other- with an even number of sessions -so I can join up two films on the platter and make it fool proof.  |  IP: Logged Charles Everett Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: New Jersey Registered: May 2001 posted 08-07-2003 11:45 AM                     I came across this in the winter 1999. The Regal Commerce Center in North Brunswick NJ had a double-up of 200 Cigarettes (first show only) and 8MM in one hall. I bought a ticket for a Saturday matinee of 200 Cigarettes. What film did the booth thread up? 8MM. I got a raincheck after I alerted the floor staff to what happened. By coincidence, it was my first-ever visit to a Regal.  |  IP: Logged

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