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Author Topic: Picketing Jonathan Smith Expert Film Handler Posts: 201 From: Youngstown, OH Registered: Jan 2010 posted 05-23-2011 04:24 PM                     So, I am picketing CInemark Strongsville for paying me $7.84/hour to run 175,000 feet of film around upstairs, now that they've kicked my union brethren out of valleyview. Any advice for snappy signs? My first one reads: 175,000 Ft. 35M/M $32,000 FILM 14 Scrns 950 TKT $7.84/hr TO DO IT!!!! Obviously that's TMI. Please help me shut these cock-0suckers from Plano down in Southaprk!  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 05-23-2011 04:56 PM                        Keep the message really simple, don't confuse the dumb ones. ("Smile & Wave, Boys, smile and wave.")  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-23-2011 05:45 PM                     Well, if you want to go with the film angle for your slogan then keep it as simple as possible. 33 MILES OF FILM but only $7.84/hr. Remember this: Regardless of HOW WRONG the other guy is, if you yell and scream and call people names, it will be YOU who people will look at as the bad guy. My best advice is to make your point, make it short and make it sweet. The thing that I think is good about the slogan above is that it will make people ask you what it means. Most people don't realize the sheer magnitude of equipment needed to operate a modern multiplex theater. When you tell them that you are in charge of 33 MILES of film, many people will be utterly flabbergasted. A movie projectionist has one of the most misunderstood jobs that I know of. The general public doesn't understand that there is a little more than a mile of film for every hour's worth of movie. They don't understand the responsibility you have. Many people literally think that all you do is press a button and walk away. When you put it in terms they can understand, people are more likely to understand the work you actually do and they are more likely to see things your way. But, stand there and shout rude slogans and all people will think is, "Yeah, yeah... Another bunch of a-holes bucking for more pay..."  |  IP: Logged Caleb Johnstone-Cowan Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 593 From: London, UK Registered: Mar 2006 posted 05-23-2011 06:22 PM                     How about something like '$7.84/h to make Hollywood look like a $1m'. More people should know the importance of the Projectionist as the final link in the chain to getting that $100m blockbuster on the screen.  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 05-23-2011 06:57 PM                     1) Keep it simple. 2) Inform the public at the location you are picketing, but do it professionally. Never look like a group of Mad men. 3) Make a Fact Sheet on the Pros and Cons of having experience in the the booth. And of what could happen with their Movie going experience with non-operators running the booth. Many union operators have seen this before.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 05-23-2011 07:04 PM                    I hate to say it, but it's the way of the theatrical world these days. My suggestion is to do what I did: Quit and find something more lucrative. Maybe it sucks but that's the way it is. On the bright side, I volunteer at a non-profit theater now. I have much more fun and satisfaction working there FREE than I did when I left the big chain. Plus working with carbon arcs and change-overs is just cool. I guess my overall point is to go somewhere that you can make a difference if that is what you really want to do (like me) as long as you can live with the modest stipend that they call a paycheck these days. But you won't be able to change the top of a multiplex corporate structure mindset from the bottom. It will not work because there's way too much pressure from all sides. If you're looking to earn a living, working in the booth at a multiplex is becoming less and less of a way to do it. Either way, I wish you the best of luck.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 05-23-2011 08:49 PM                     If you don't like the pay why did you take the job. Working as a projectionist hasn't been a career job in 40 years.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-23-2011 08:49 PM                     As much as Cinemark detests unions, I'm shocked to learn they didn't convert their union locations to digital first. I mean, really? They didn't think of that? I'm with Mark on this one. 35mm is about to be gone REAL quick. It isn't worth the hassle to fight for a job that will end soon.  |  IP: Logged Joshua Waaland Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: Cleveland, Ohio Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-23-2011 08:55 PM                     I have yet to see a movie at the Strongsville Cinemark bit we go to that mall all of the time. I am surprised that booth isn't digital since it just opened like two years ago. I too have worked many booths for minimum wage and that is just how it goes. This is not a trade anymore and you are lucky to even be working in a booth with digital rolling out. I worked at Macedonia in a split union booth and I knew some of the people at the Vally View location. The Cleveland union has been dying a slow death for years. Time to move on and find something else.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 05-24-2011 01:34 AM                     Assuming you wrote the sign exactly as you posted it, are you expecting the average person to decipher what you wrote and know it's about projectionists being paid little?  |  IP: Logged Kurt Zupin Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 989 From: Maricopa, Arizona Registered: Oct 2004 posted 05-24-2011 06:34 AM                     Good luck with the strike. I have to agree with Brad on this though. Your fighting a losing battle friend. On a side note talking about people once they understand what we do. I got in the elevator to head up to the IMAX booth the other day and a man came in to go the second floor. I pushed the button for him then put my key in and hit the 3rd floor button. Its marked with an M on the elevator and he asked me, "Oh going to the Managers floor huh?" and he laughed. I laughed and said no, heading up to get your movie ready and make sure you have a good time watching the movie. The elevator stopped and before he got out, he set his drink down and asked to shake my hand. He said "I've never met a projectionist in my life, thank you for what you do. I really appreciate it." I was flabergasted, I managed a thank you as the door was closing. This wasn't a young guy either, he was in his late 40's early 50's. See we are appreciated  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Smith Expert Film Handler Posts: 201 From: Youngstown, OH Registered: Jan 2010 posted 05-24-2011 07:01 AM                     I did quit the job. The booth is non-union. And, ironically, I think you are right that not being able to unionize it actually DID keep 35mm there the longest. Like I said, they spent $3 million to digitize the neighboring Valley View, spending the equivalent of 133 years wages to put in digital projectors that I simply cannot see being operational still in ten. My strike is personal. It is about costing them as much money as possible and giving the two neighboring fair-wage (one of which is NOT union, but is run by the former owners of Strongsville Cinemas who suddenly stopped getting prints when the assholes set up shop) theatres business and taking it away from Cinemark. The goons called the cops on me the other day> Don't know who it was in particular, but like me or not I fucking worked side by side with you for TEN MONTHS! Are you REALLY going to crack open the chapter on picketing in the corporate handbook (I am sure there actually is one) and try to jail throw the picketers under the bus after working with them side-by-side all that time? It is just me and a couple of signs. You are right I need to keep it simpler. Have another two-sided sigh: FAIR WAGE PROJECTION HICKORY RIDGE 8 6 MI. MDBGH. 16 5-1/2 MI. As far as 35mm being gone real quick, that is right, but until it is, the cock suckers pay my friends HALF of what they should make. If they would've just paid me the fuck ten, I never would've complained, fought, not worn their uniform, gotten pissed off and ended up in not one but two IATSE locals, and never been the film loader on the movie in town this past summer. So by exploiting the fuck out of me, I actually have to hand it to them. I got to see Usher's dancing girls in teh buff, Lady Gaga drunkenly prancing around, Miley Cyrus, Carry Underwood, Michael Buble all thanks to the Projectionist's Union and their relationship with the Stagehands' Local #27 here in town too. Have gotten plenty of $20+/hr. jobs working for live theatre as well. Thanks for all the advice guys. Please do not patronize Cinemark wherever they may be. Those Nazis really are the scum of the Earth. All the chains are evil, but none as evil as cinemark, at leas out of the big 3. In fact, from now on, cinemark gets no capitalization, an I think I am going to post all the dirt I know on them to the wiki article on projecitonists, and maybe give them their own! What does Colonel Nathan R. Jessop say at the end of "A Few Good Men?" Jeffry, Staci, Kati, Jessie, that's for you, especially whichever of you tried to get me a DISORDERLY CONDUCT for peacefully picketing on a sidewalk at 11PM in the rain. Whichever of you drove by with your lights off, have the courage to at leas tlook me in the eyes in the pouring rain. Whichever of you took a picture for the corporate goons, you should have just manned up and asked for one I could've provided myself. And whichever of you thought it was a good idea to pay $7.84/hr. when the POLICE OFFICERS there mak,e $35/hr. you just took the bar down SO FUCKING LOW that there is a STORM OF SHIT THAT IS GOING TO SWEEP BACK ONTO YOUR PLATE :-D  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-24-2011 08:47 AM                        Sadly, as far as the chains are concerned you are disposable. And as far as the audience is concerned, you are invisible. Movies happen by magic, right? I proposed in a post a while ago that projectionists start working strictly for tips. Have a card with your name on the screen before the movie and be at the door when it gets out. I'm sure you would clear more than $10 an hour. Maybe a step above begging, but it would at least put a human face on the job.  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Smith Expert Film Handler Posts: 201 From: Youngstown, OH Registered: Jan 2010 posted 05-24-2011 09:39 AM                     Martin I like that. As the owner of Ohio's only motion picture processing laboratory (shameless plug!) which, formed in 2011 has the dubious distinction of probably being the LAST new movie lab in the U.S., I'd be happy to provide this service. What, 22 feet of 35mm oughta be good enough for the title card? We could even personalize it, saying "If you see a scratch, you don't have to tip me!"  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 05-24-2011 09:45 AM                        Hey! What's wrong with BEGGING? (Sales guys do it all the time!) Louis  |  IP: Logged

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