|
|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
|
Author
|
Topic: What the customer said when they saw the film being carried through the lobby...
|
|
|
Matthew Nock
Film Handler
Posts: 82
From: Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Jan 2003
|
posted 04-06-2003 09:47 AM
Hi Michael,
luckily, all the sites I work in, and have worked in, we manage to avoid taking film through our lobbies ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
if you are having to move film through a lobby, I am guessing you work for an older hoyts complex in sydney? *grin* Oh wait, you have nice Kinotons in your picture - so it cant be an old hoyts complex! they liked to use old Cinemeclunkas.... hmmmm.
Generally, we get the typical "DVD is better" type discussions with customers when they see prints come into our theatre - but nowadays, cause the exchanges here in Oz ship prints in cardboard boxes, instead of trunks, people tend not to realise what they are... lucky! people used to get curious with the film trunks.
Cheers,
M@
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
|
posted 04-07-2003 01:51 AM
At City Screen in York I regularly had to carry complete programmes on platter collars down a 50-yard corridor to get at screen 3's box. The original plan was to build a path across the roof in order to avoid having to take films through public areas, but money got tight and it never materialised (probably not a bad thing - carrying films through the rain would not have been a good idea.
Customers' reactions ranged from the 'haven't you got digital yet?' responses described above, to completely ignoring me and downright stupidity. On one occasion I was fighting my way through a queue of SODs (senile old dodderers) waiting to get into a matinee of The End of the Affair, who resolutely refused to let me through. When I evenually said 'excuse me?' to the woman at the back of the queue, she gave me a lecture about pushing in! She then commented that 'films always start late here, they never start them on time'. I then held the film in front of her, with title clearly visible on the end spacing and told her that this one would also start late if she didn't let me through!
BTW, this (and other) incidents have convinced me that all cinema staff, including projectionists and managers, should wear some sort of uniform which clearly identifies them as staff when at work. If you don't, people will just assume you to be a customer. When the public areas are crowded, I found that this could seriously slow you down if you were trying to move about the building in an emergency.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
|
posted 04-08-2003 11:05 PM
I have had many people ask stupid things like, "Don't you have digital yet?" My answer is usually something like...
<Snicker>
No!
</Snicker>
If I like the looks of the person I'll often add...
<Beckoning Gesture>
Follow me...
</Beckoning Gesture>
At which time I give them, literally, a two minute long booth tour. If it's time to start a movie I will smartly thread one up and let it roll as a demonstration. The point here is not so much to instruct but to impress. When they see you "tame the iron beast" with such a casual, well-rehearsed and precise attitude they usually walk away with their heads spinning.
Once in a while somebody will try to draw me into a conversation about DVD players and Dolby Digital and all that consumer electronics crapola. ![[dlp]](graemlins/dlp.gif) ![[bs]](graemlins/bs.gif) I just cut them off mid-sentence and tell them that I only own a 20 inch color television an old mono VCR and a cheap DVD player that cost $50.
I don't have cable TV.
I live within 10 miles, as the crow flies, of the hilltop where all 5 of the major over-air broadcast towers are located... AND I am in direct line of sight of ALL of them!
I live within 50 miles over water of Canada and two or three Canadian over-air broadcast towers.
I can pick up at least 6 TV stations (and even more when the weather is good) with nothing more than a pair of Radio Shack rabbit ears.
The ONLY thing that impedes my TV reception, besides weather, is the I.L.S. antenna array that's at the end of the airport runway, literally 1/4 mile outside my back door. Late at night when the airport shuts down and they turn off the system (...or put it on low power... or whatever they do...) I can get crystal clear reception. (Yes, yes... At night, the layers of the ionosphere change and you get better reception too! )
Essentially, I show them that, even though I know a thing or two about consumer electronics, I STILL don't spend a lot of money buying useless crap because:
- You could spend $20 per week (every week) going to the movies and spend just a little over $1,000 in a year... Less money than you would spend on a "good" hi-fi home video theater... NOT INCLUDING the cost of video rentals and popcorn that I buy!
- The quality of a movie on film is 100 times better than ANY POSSIBLE video display technology we have available today... Even a Hi-Res Digital TV "Plasma Display" which costs tens of thousands of dollars!... Including the much-ballyhooed digital video movie screens!
![[fu]](graemlins/fu.gif) (Of which there are less than 100 operating in the WHOLE WORLD!) ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif) - And, FINALLY... If you go to a theater where film is "Done Right"... All you have to do is walk in, sit down, eat your popcorn and enjoy your movie. You'll never have to lift a finger if you don't want to!
For some stupid reason, people seem to forget what a VALUE it is to go to the movies... Even IF tickes average $7.00 in the USA... Even IF you end up paying $20 per person after buying your ticket and your snacks!
| IP: Logged
|
|
Bill Langfield
Master Film Handler
Posts: 280
From: Prospect, NSW, Australia
Registered: Apr 2001
|
posted 04-10-2003 11:28 AM
Hey Michael and all,
Yes when moving a print in a sleeve to another projection room, stuff happens...
1/ People are are dumb asses and you have to ask them to move, gezz. (This is possible because they are stunned, by the sight, of the two crazy people rushing through the foyer with the print, clearly/posibly they have no idea what we are transporting and why)
2/ 'Hey there is our movie, whoa look at the size of it.', Yet still block your path
(Loved Brad's comment about the whole print in sleeve being reel one, I'm going to use that one )
3/ 'Whoa,(to friends) Look at the size of that video tape'
4/ What the hell is that.
5/ They tend to want a peek into the projection room when they see you carting the film in there, because they thought it was on tape or disc, and are shocked when they see the platters and projectors.
6/ Taking trailer box boxes from candy that the lazy courier left there rather than taking to bio, and then a patron saying 'is that the movie'
7/ Having a patron hear us while moving the film say 'The GM is a F***ing A**H*** for making us move these films for the sake of 20 more seats' (Which wont get used anyway)
Bill.
| IP: Logged
|
|
Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
|
posted 04-10-2003 11:42 AM
One place where I often fill in has two separate booths, where going from one booth to the other requires walking through an auditorium, which I suppose is either better or worse than having to walk through the lobby, depending upon one's point of view.
Anyway, I don't normally carry entire platter loads of film through there while films are running, mostly because I'd hate to drop one in front of an audience. I do, however, often carry 6000' reels full of film when new prints will be opening in the "lower" booth, as the good rewind bench is in the "upper" booth. Anyway, people usually just point and stare and make inane comments like "look, there's the movie!" It's kind of fun when there's are lots of kids in the audience (they just stare), but annoying with a crowd full of stupid adults who make feel the need to say something to make themselves sound intelligent (even when the result is the opposite). It's sad to see how many people think that a theatre is nothing more than a really big version of their home VCR.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic