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Author Topic: Electronic Device Policy Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 05-25-2014 12:01 PM                        Just wanted to get a "Movie Business" view on this subject. I am noticing a new trend with the patrons at the theatres. Even though I am pretty much out of the management end of the business, I typically handle a shift here or there. I have been noticing this "thing" as of late - it quite annoying: I do a theatre walk and spot a parent playing "Candy Crush" on their iPhone or Smartphone. I walk up to the parent and ask them to turn their phone off. The parent then says, "Oh, the phone is off, I am just playing a game". I then again ask them to turn off the device altogether. I then get a "Well, the policy just asked us to silence our cell phones, not to turn them off" response. To which I wait until they turn the device off. This has been a trend that I have been noticing lately. It's weird enough that they paid for a ticket NOT to watch the movie, but the attitudes I get are quite disturbing. The other thing is the age of some of the people. I had to tell at least 6 elderly people to turn off their iPads/Tablets the other day (!!!) Within our company, I am proposing to create a whole new policy trailer. One that denotes turning off ALL electronic devices as opposed to just silencing their cell phones. Do they not understand how annoying it is to have all that light shining into faces throughout the auditorium? What are some of the things your companies are doing to deal with this?  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 05-25-2014 12:54 PM                        I have this sign beside the exit from the lobby to the hall that leads to the auditorium: I have "the rules" posted on the other side of that entrance. Notice rule number 2 on the list: I have another sign posted beside the actual entrance to the auditorium that also says "Turn off your Cell Phone." I play one of the Cinetize cell phone policy trailers at the beginning of every show (before the trailers start). I watch for the light from cell phones while the show is on. If I see your cell phone light, I'll tell you once to turn it off. If I see it again during the show, I'll invite you to come out to the lobby with me, and once you're there I'll tell you to leave. I very rarely get to the second step these days. I used to have to throw someone out about once or twice a year but haven't done so now for... a good long while. Can't remember the last time I did that, in fact. I generally see a few cell phones going right up until I start the show and they all disappear within the first minute.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-25-2014 01:28 PM                        Like your rules sign, even though the ones who will violate it will not read it. We do have policy slides and snipes that say Turn Off Cellphones. When I have to enforce it I usually say "Please don't use that in here." Cuts down on discussions about what turn off means. I just love the people who think they are hiding if by holding it their purses or really low, as if a beam of light in a dark theatre isn't noticeable. Some day I hope to make a policy trailer that is a shot of the dark theater and followed by cell phone lights coming on, individually scattered around the theatre and eventually a cascade of 385 lit cell phones.  |  IP: Logged Edward Havens Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 614 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Mar 2008 posted 05-25-2014 02:15 PM                     If you're only noticing this "trend" now, consider yourself fortunate. In Los Angeles and San Francisco, we've been dealing with this for years. All these techno "saavy" people who think the rules don't apply to them because they bought some gadget. People who think its' rude to ask them to follow proper etiquette when in a private place with mixed company. If you have the ability, you should absolutely change your policy wording. Something like "Please respect your fellow moviegoers, and turn off all electronic devices. Should you need to use your electronic device during your visit, please go out to the lobby before using the device. Thank you."  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 05-25-2014 02:19 PM                        The objective of "the rules" isn't necessarily for people to read on their way past, but rather to head off people who, when told to do or not do something, will reply, "Where does it say that I can/can't do X?" "Look at rule number whatever on that sign" takes care of that argument. I find that a lot of people don't seem to realize that their cell phone creates light in the room. My approach to any lit cell phone is to say, "Your phone is lighting up the room. Please turn it off." People don't seem to think of that factor on their own until it's directly pointed out to them.  |  IP: Logged Robert Harrison Expert Film Handler Posts: 239 From: Harwood Heights, Illinois, USA Registered: Jun 2005 posted 05-25-2014 02:51 PM                     In one their early seasons, "SCTV" had a bit where some guy in a theater was talking and an usher came up to him and shot him. A title appeared on screen WELCOME TO THE CLINT EASTWOOD CINEMA. Obviously, this was way back in the "Dirty Harry" series days and before cell phones, but gee, don't you just wish...? Through the miracle of DCP-O-Matic, I made a still image which reads... AND NOW ITS TIME FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE LOOKING AT THAT LITTLE SCREEN YOU ARE HOLDING IN YOUR HANDS TO PUT IT AWAY AND LOOK AT THIS SCREEN FOR AWHILE. After several months, I noticed that since there was no sound during this clip, that most of the jugheads who were looking at their device didn't look up to see the message, so recently I put some sound effects on the clip to hopefully get their attention; it consists of phone sounds and a voice at the close which says THE NUMBER YOU HAVE REACHED HAS BEEN DISCONNECTED. What I would REALLY like to do is make a special video of people sitting in a church, all of them looking at their devices. The following song would play on the soundtrack, to the tune of "Onward Christian Soldiers:" O, O, HOLY SACRED CELL PHONE NEVER SHUT THEE OFF MUST STARE AT THY SCREEN EACH MINUTE OF THE DAY I WOULD SURELY DIE IF I PUT MY CELL PHONE AWAY And then have a narrator say something like: "If you must worship your phone, please do so elsewhere. The other folks here today would like to watch the movie you supposedly came to see without distractions. Also, shut up!"  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 05-28-2014 07:22 PM                        switch OFF your mobile phone!!  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 05-28-2014 08:13 PM                     quote: Edward Havens In Los Angeles and San Francisco, we've been dealing with this for years. On more than one occassion, I've even seen Bozos pull out full sized laptops & start checking e-mail or web surfing in the middle of a movie here.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-05-2014 08:54 AM                        OK, it's time to stop dickin around with trying to figure out ways to modify social behavior that is clearly moving in the totally opposite direction. The populous has become compulsively addicted to this social media thing regardless of how annoying it is to others or even if it puts them at fatal risk and causes thousands of car accidents every year. A majority seem to have taken this activity to be included as one of their inalienable rights and inseparable from the pursuit of happiness, able to do it anytime, anywhere they want regardless of consequences from simple inconsideration to severe personal and public safety. Trying to tell them they can't do it in the naive hopes that they might comply is futile. It's time to attack this scourge on a much more productive front. Get the damn FCC to issue a variance so theatres and restaurants and cars that are in motion can use signal jammers within the confines of these defined, designated spaces, like I understand it done all the time in Europe with the blessing of the ERO. Either that or we just start including Faraday cages in all new cinema builds. I for one would LOVE to watch them frantically pushing buttons to no avail and then see their heads explode. Seems that the FCC should be seriously aware of the need for allowing local jamming rather than resisting it as it has so far so as to protect the communication conglomerates who fight it because it might cause them to loose a few dollars as their subscribers can't use up minutes when they are watching a movie. Then all those hundreds of thousands of signs exhibition puts up at every screen admonishing patrons to turn off cell phones -- would now say: Sorry, (OK, drop the 'sorry') There is NO cell phone service within this theatre; if your need to use your device is that urgent, pick your fat texting ass up and walk to the lobby. If you are in what may be a life-and-death critical situation, for example, a lawyer awaiting a jury verdict in a mass murder case or a doctor with a sick patient depending on being in constant contact with the hospital, then perhaps you shouldn't be here watching a movie in the first place.  |  IP: Logged Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 06-05-2014 09:28 AM                        Instead of installing all kinds of technology to combat technology, and expecting the FCC to care, it seems to me that the more beneficial way to address the problem is what has been discussed many times: Monitor the theater for cell phone use and all other kinds of distracting behavior and clamp down on it quickly, consistently, and courteously. It may take some time, but people will get the hint, and even the people that are caught will see the logic and probably not hold it against you. The added bonus to this approach is that not only are you curbing cell phone use, but you're taking care of those without enough manners to realize that putting their feet up on the seats is wrong (and other disrupting behaviors), and you can also detect issues with the presentation instead of depending on your customers to tell you about them. By doing all this, you're showing your paying customers that you are paying attention and want to deliver the best possible experience in exchange for their admission dollars. Seems like a win all-around to me. All that said, a finely-focused EMP blaster installed in each auditorium does appeal to the engineer in me!  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-05-2014 11:22 AM                        quote: Frank Angel I for one would LOVE to watch them frantically pushing buttons to no avail and then see their heads explode. Alas, that doesn't get them to turn them OFF. They will just keep them on and keep punching away at them. What we need is a variance for movie theatres to use a baseball bat on them (user or phone, take your pick).  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 06-05-2014 03:51 PM                        OK, guys, you are TOO nice. Opening #1 trailer: "Please do not use cell phones at all tonight" trailer 2 and 3 Trailer 4: "No cell phones, dammit." Trailer 5 and 6 Trailer 7: Graphic of cell phone in use with usher coming down aisle with large gun: "BLAM" "When usher escorts the cell phone user OUT, the audience is expected to cheer wildly and throw things at him." Thank you.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-05-2014 05:54 PM                        I would buy such a package. There should also a PG version where the cellphone user just gets beaten up. In all seriousness though, turning them off doesn't help in the slightest with phone nuts because phones are like cigarettes. If the phone nut doesn't look at the phone now and then, he starts to go crazy with the craving. Even if it's just to check the time. I'd bet half of the phones that get turned off at showtime are back on before the movie is half over.  |  IP: Logged Steve Matz Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 672 From: Billings, Montana, USA Registered: Sep 2003 posted 06-05-2014 10:22 PM                     Women who was seated behind Rude Cellphone User Theater Patron who refused to turnoff Cellphone...Stumbled leaving theater!  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 07-05-2014 09:56 PM                        After a good number of years, I just finished throwing someone out for his cell phone. I started the movie, saw the light and told him to turn it off. He turned the screen off and I started walking away. I was no more than five feet away before he turned it on again and continued texting. I threw him out. Three of his friends decided to leave with him. This guy is in his mid-twenties; should be old enough to understand simple rules and instructions. Maybe he was showing his girlfriend what a tough guy he is. I don't think I've seen this guy before and if he never comes back I won't miss him at all. Grrr. What is wrong with some people? Of course he has to make a production about getting thrown out, too.  |  IP: Logged

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