This morning, I decided to use "0" as a "perfect score" and let the ratings be a weighted average of how many deductions were noted on each showing I attend. Letter grades are printed with each score to let people know what is good and what isn't. A previous rating of "90.0", for instance, before the change, meant that the weighted average of deductions per show was 10 points, which is dreadful (the way I deduct), and not good as a "90.0" would indicate in most people's minds. A score of "-10.0" with "D-" printed under it takes away that false interpretation.

I don't believe I have ever explained my deduction system very well, so I will provide a list of categories in which I have deducted in the past. In the listings of attendances, after the text descriptions of any problems, there are "problem codes", which consist of a letter followed by a number, indicating the severity. For example, "A1 M1" indicates slight alignment and misframing problems with a showing. Such a presentation used to be scored as a "98", and now is scored as a "-2". "M10 U5" indicates severe misframing and fairly distracting brightness uniformity problems (not focusing the bulb), which would be an "85" in the old system, but now would be a "-15". Here are the codes currently in use, in no particular order of importance or frequency. The problem codes allow automation of statistics concerning which problems are most frequent at different theatres. Text descriptions of the problems are always present in addition to the problem codes so that verbose notes can be made if needed.

code letter,"description"

A,"aperture/aim/alignment"
L,"lamp turned off during movie (content missed)"
M,"misframed"
B,"intermission music audible during movie"
T,"time (started too late or too early)"
C,"credits not shown in entirety"
D,"digital audio problem (cut out, lack of)"
m,"masking not pulled in to match image size"
U,"nonuniform brightness"
H,"poor contrast"
d,"audio balance/distortion/lack of channels"
F,"lamp flicker or brightness fluctuation"
f,"focus"
R,"material played with projector setup for wrong format"
b,"light from booth illuminating an area on the screen"
S,"print scratches or damage"
J,"image jitter"
E,"exit sign throwing light on screen"
w,"screen wash lights throwing light on screen"
W,"water/roof leaks (water dripping)"
G,"shutter ghosting"
a,"loss of audio"
r,"film loaded backwards and/or upside down"
l,"auditorium lights turned on during movie"
t,"problem not fixed after reporting it"
s,"screen in need of repair"
N,"ambient noise"
i,"show stopped during movie and restarted from beginning of previews"
O,"scene missing from movie"
c,"crooked anamorphic lens element"
z,"other problem (catchall category)"

Minor problems get 1 point, and the number of points goes up with how distracting the problem is. It is my general policy not to count off more than 2 points for anything that occurs during the previews or more than 2 points for anything occurring during the credits.

Here is an example review of an attendance (Carmike 8, Decatur, AL), showing examples of many types of deductions:

quote:

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2001/07/22 19:15, Auditorium 7

Legally Blonde

Grade: -24 (Current grade weight : 0.9528)

Image comments: Image lacked 6 inches to a foot touching left edge of screen. (-2) Jagged edge of aperture plate visible (fading) at right portion of top edge. (-1) Brightness not uniform. Image was of sufficient brightness just left of the center of the image, with the corners and rightmost part of image being very dim in comparison to the bright portion. This problem has become quite severe in this auditorium. (-10) Anamorphic lens element slightly crooked, making vertical lines slant leftward at an angle of 3 to 4 degrees. (-2) Several flat trailers were played with scope lens and aperture. (-2) Projectionist too lazy to do proper flat/scope changeovers? Projector shut off about 10 seconds after credits began. (-2)

Audio comments: Optical. Noise was audible during quiet scenes and significant distortion was noticeable during the previews and the entire movie, especially during background music in scenes. (-5)

Other comments: Auditorium width: 44 feet. Screen width: 34 feet (scope mode). Scope film; appears to have been filmed in super35.

Problem codes: A3 U10 c2 R2 C2 d5

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The letter grade breakdown is as follows:

-2.5 to 0.0 is the A range
-5.0 to -2.5 is the B range
-7.5 to -5.0 is the C range
-10.0 to -7.5 is the D range
Below -10.0 is the F range.

I believe this system more accurately reflects the quality than having scores of 90.0 and above being "passing". The change keeps all scores with the same "distance relation" to other scores as they had before, since subtracting 100 from all previous scores is basically all that was involved.

For plenty of examples, browse the "Presentation Quality Reviews" section of the hsvmovies.com site and let me know what you think of the system.

Positive or negative feedback is welcome. Questions about any aspect of the site are also welcome.

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Information Site