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Author Topic: ROTK Screening Screw-Up Shane Hoffmann Film Handler Posts: 68 From: Fond du Lac, WI, USA Registered: Feb 2003 posted 12-03-2003 05:00 PM                     I just came across this article at TheOneRing.net I hear that New Line Cinema is out for blood over Monday's catastrophic Washington screening of its Christmas blockbuster "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." I'm told that the first full-dress battle scene, more than a hour into the 3-hour, 17-minute epic, was run upside-down for some 30 critics at the Loews Georgetown. "At first I thought, 'Wow, that's a totally cool camera angle, from the perspective of someone who was felled in the battle," one witness told me yesterday. Baltimore Sun movie critic Michael Sragow said: "It was the first massing of forces, and you got these elephant creatures coming on screen upside down. Obviously, it was about the worst way to see a movie." Worse still, the influential audience had to wait 45 minutes while the projectionist re-threaded the film, only to restart it after a huge gap in the action. In due course, an upside-down Frodo appeared, and the screening was halted again for another 45 minutes. "Obviously we're upset as anyone would be, and we're in discussions with Loews," a chagrined New Line spokeswoman told me. "We want to know if Gollum was in the projection booth."  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-03-2003 05:27 PM                     You'll have that happen when you send out a print to arrive two hours before a screening in a platter house.  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 12-03-2003 06:24 PM                     I had this exact thing happen years ago at an important INDIANA JONES sneak. Ran fine until one reel popped up upsidedown. After MANY apologies from the management and ONE HOUR to reset, they ran the film again, only to pop upside down at the next reel break. I didn't want to wait another hour as this was a work night, so I just left. The management was in the lobby saying it wasn't their fault, that the film had come in only 1 hour before the screening. And this was a platter house.  |  IP: Logged Per Hauberg Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 883 From: Malling, Denmark Registered: Jul 2000 posted 12-03-2003 06:41 PM                        -haven't done it myself - yet... but I do remember it happening at the Palads Theatre of Copenhagen for the presse screening of "The Shining" - the reel, that had been turned "upside down" was the labyrinth, and here too, everybody started thinking - "Well it's Kubrick...", but after about three minutes, even the projectionist got a hint...! After half an hour of waiting, the screening was cancelled. Poor guy up there.  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-03-2003 07:35 PM                     A few years back at the Mann's Regent Theatre in Westwood, California. They were doing a Press Screening of a Warner film. The projectionist built the print up earlier in the day for the show. (He was a Very Good projectionist, I say that because he was) So at 8pm the Assistant Manager goes up to the booth to start the show. So now the show is running, everything is fine at the Regent. But when it hits reel 3, everything is upside down. The assistant runs up to the booth to fix the problem, before stopping the machine fully. She tries to open the gate of the AAII. That AAII was a funky machine to begin with. So now they have a cancelled show and a messed-up projector. So that is how the projector that Mann Theatres left for Landmark Theatres got all banged-up. The projectionist had all the time that day to do it right but something happened and that reel got placed in wrong.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-03-2003 07:43 PM                        I did that once but never before an audience. It was the horrible movie "Star Trek: Generations" and a reel came up upside down and backwards. Whoops. I went up and fixed it. That's why we pre-screened movies. The worst I ever did in front of an audience was a Dolby Aurora trailer upside down in a mad rush at the Telluride Film Festival. The trailer is short and boring, and I don't think anyone cared. Still embarrassing, though.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 12-03-2003 07:49 PM                     quote: You'll have that happen when you send out a print to arrive two hours before a screening in a platter house. EXACTLY! New Line has only themselves (and Jack Valenti) to blame for the screwup.  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 12-03-2003 07:51 PM                  I hope "Triumph" the dog does interviews/comments with the people waiting in line when it opens here in the US. His bit with the Star Wars thing was hilarious! >>> Phil  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 12-03-2003 08:07 PM                     While I do strongly agree that prints should arrive early enought to screen, it is not hard to build up a print correctly even in a crunch. I usually build up 7-10 prints with two people in 5-6 hours. and have never had a problem like a backwards reel. Common problems are forgetting to put on a cue or a misplice in the trailers. If the soundtrack is away from you and the picture is to the right then it is heads out. I just thought about this while typing that, do all rewind benches go left to right?  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 12-03-2003 09:15 PM                        With standard print orientation, the analog soundtrack is outboard (toward you), the emulsion side faces the lamp, and the image is upside-down in the gate. Another way to remember is the the "Heads are toward the Head", i.e., the top of the image is towards the head end of the print.  |  IP: Logged Ian Price Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1714 From: Denver, CO Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-03-2003 09:26 PM                     I've done that with trailers a couple of times.  |  IP: Logged Nate Lehrke Master Film Handler Posts: 396 From: Denver, CO Registered: Oct 2002 posted 12-04-2003 12:58 AM                     I ran the ROTK on Fri morning, (Go here 1 hour 30 minutes before start, with three security personal armed with night vision goggles and metal detectors) About 45 minutes left of the film, the 'guard' assigned to the booth came down screaming about something. I ran upstairs and saw the beginnings of a tail wrap! The magnet had been tossed and there was about three minutes of film already wrapped, but I was only off-screen for about 4 minutes to get it fixed, than back to the awesome movie! No particular point to my post  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-04-2003 01:22 AM                        Screw New Line. If 1) they are too cheap to PAY for a test run in advance of their own press screening and 2) if they are too stupid to send a print early enough so it can be carefully checked at buildup for this kind of mistake and 3) if ANY studio is that clue-less that they will allow a brand new print that is to play for the a press screening to be run without a trained projectionist in the booth for the ENTIRE run, then the deserve whatever failure can and will happen in a booth -- brain wrap included. And then, of course, everyone knows that even if a reel were to hit the screen upside down, backwards, and/or soundtrack reversed, it wouldn't take more than a minute or two (not 45min) to correct the problem IF the transport were reel-to-reel and not platter. Now THERE'S a distinct advantage R-T-R transport has over the platter transport that even Brad has to admit.  |  IP: Logged Chris Trainor Expert Film Handler Posts: 161 From: Greenville, RI, USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-04-2003 03:07 AM                        Most theaters are too cheap to pay much more than minimum wage to their projectionists, do you think they'll spring for a second projector to run reel-to-reel? Heck, a few of the theaters I know about that were RtR split their houses and split up the projectors to save money. --Chris  |  IP: Logged Tom Ruhling Film Handler Posts: 4 From: Germantown, MD, USA Registered: Nov 2001 posted 12-04-2003 03:21 AM                     Well, Hey! That's what you get for $8.50 an hour. The Georgetown runs an usher operator scheme. Lets not be too harsh on New Line. They probably paid for a dedicated operator. It would not be the first time Loews pocketed the $$$ and hoped for the best. In regard to time, I run an 18plex. My last weeks print night was nine in, five out, and 16 moves. Total time--nine hours to completion, by myself, error free. No excuse for this shoddy showmanship. (You would think that with five booths and four levels, my theatre would have more than one operator at any given time, but that is not the case. Instead they will be cutting our hours and are hoping to put an usher to the task for 30 hours a week. Unfortunately no one seems to want to run my booth for $8.50. They even put one employee on probation for not "steeping up" to the challenge). You get what you pay for. Unless you are New Line.  |  IP: Logged

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