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This topic comprises 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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Author
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Topic: List some dumb things you have seen projectionists do
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Monte L Fullmer
Film God
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Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted 03-24-2006 02:57 AM
Two stories here...
1 - Knowing an operator that would slop up a print with 20 ft of shoe polish on each end of the splice and still use yellow opaque tape at the join. I asked him on this and he told me that he doesn't want to waste his time hunting for the splices (typical lazy-type operator who gets paid royally and still has very lazy booth operations..) on breakdown. ....for a three plex.
2- (this one really tops them all for me...) I was a booth manager for a megaplex and had 6 assistants under me. One assistant (assistant "A"), determined to make a notch with the theatre, was working with my other assistant (assistant "B") for the day session - I wasn't scheduled until the evening shift. We were playing "SW-EPI" back in '99.
I arrived for the evening shift and assistant "B" told me something that I just about flipped over and should have fired assistant "A" for his stupiditiy.
Assistant "A" was covering one half of the building and had called Assistant "B" over to 'verify' something. Assistant "B" got over there and about crapped a brick. Here was a P35 machine, running WITHOUT any loops whatsoever, hammering away like mad. - in the middle of SW:EP1.
Assistant "B" immediately slammed down the machine and reset the loops for normal operation. (guess what happened is that he did something to the Ultramittent shoe to pop them open, thus losing the loops..) and asked Assistant "A", after doing the resetting: "Why the frik didn't you shut down the machine immediately when these loops were lost! Don't you have common sense when these things happen to obviously know what to do?"
Then, the CLASSIC answer was: "Thank you very much. I do have common sense. It's just that I needed someone to come over here to verify that there is something wrong before I shut down this machine...! "
...we had to order a replacement reel that was damaged DUE to "his common sense."
..to this day, even though Assistant "B" has gone off to other lands and adventures, we occasionly keep in contact and remind each other to "use common sense to verify something.."
..that was the worst one I've ever heard about...
-Monte
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Jason Winn
Expert Film Handler
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Posts: 131
From: Mesquite, TX, USA
Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 03-24-2006 12:32 PM
This one guy I used to work with was building up the print Van Helsing. He somehow "forgot" an entire reel! He put the reels on like this: ...4, 5, and 7. He skipped reel 6! He didn't even realize it until it was being screened by one of the other projectionists. They were putting away the cans and he saw an extra reel just lying around. He had to stop the movie and add it on.
The same guy I just mentioned above was "attempting" to build up Elektra one night. Notice I said "attempting" because this has to single-handedly be the worst build-up job I have ever seen. First, he put two of the same trailers on. He had two Mr. and Mrs. Smith trailers back to back. Then, he forgot to put the Fantastic Four trailer on. By the way, Fox was advertising Fantastic Four to be shown before Elektra, so it was a big deal. Then, he had two (not one, but two) mis-splices during the trailer pack. But it gets better! He left a piece of tape on the print about halfway through the movie. When it ran through the projector, it caused a brain-wrap. It was a huge mess. About a foot and a half was chewed up and had to be cut off. Plus, I think some of the film got scratched due to the brain-wrap.
Last but not least, the same guy I mentioned both times above started a movie nearly 25 minutes late one time! That is unacceptable! You know why he started it late? Because he just forgot about it. He was sitting around doing nothing and wasn't paying attention to his performance schedule. He wasn't even in the booth, so he didn't hear the projector beeping. What really surprises me is that the customers in the theatre waited so long before they told someone their movie hadn't started yet. It was a weekday and we weren't really that busy. I think there was only like 5 or 6 people in the theatre. But, that is still unacceptable. I never started movies late. I don't see how someone could start a movie 25 minutes late. The best part is, after it happened, this guy was laughing about it like it was no big deal. I just wanted to slap some sense into him.
Oh, guess what happened to this guy? He got promoted to booth manager! Go figure!
Hey, Brad, you were talking about one of the local head booth guys. I think these two guys might be related.
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