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Topic: You can tell when you have been had when your technician tells you:

Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 08-17-2002 06:25 PM

That you must buy a new projector because your old Brenkert will not handle the new 37mm polyester film.....

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 08-17-2002 06:45 PM

...that your screen is going to be down for a few days because the projector won't work until he can fix the electric douser.

(So then I guess we need to shut down the entire complex? NONE of the projectors in this complex had functioning electric dousers.)

By the way, let's keep these REAL quotes. True stories only. Please do not mention specific names or locations.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-17-2002 06:50 PM

...you have to buy a new projector head because your old one won't bolt up to the console you're buying, and there is no adaptor available. (Both lies, I found out later.)

(The guy who told me this is now dead -- not my fault -- and the company he worked for is out of business.)

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 08-17-2002 06:59 PM

When an intermittant movement blows up and the technician says he can't take it out of the other non-operational mono booth because the operational booth is a stereo house, and the projector needs a "Stereo Intermittant."

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-17-2002 07:29 PM

That you need "black and white gates to run B&W film."

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Matthew Bailey
Master Film Handler

Posts: 461
From: Port Arthur,TX
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 08-17-2002 08:44 PM

You can't run a 70 mm. version of a 35 print of the 1986 movie In The Shadow of Kilimanjaro-also known in German as Im Schatten des Kilimandscharo-on a DP-70 because it's not in Todd-AO format.

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 08-17-2002 08:52 PM

You know you've been had when the theater manager tells you the movie is playing in analog because all digital soundtracks wear out in about 1 week.

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 08-17-2002 09:40 PM

I edited this one out, because it probably belongs in a practical joke thread. I'll post it there if I can find it. I don't want to ruin the idea of this tread.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 08-17-2002 10:12 PM

Matthew, is that a TRUE story? I have a strong feeling you have made that up.

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Dave Williams
Wet nipple scene

Posts: 1836
From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 08-18-2002 12:03 AM

How about when your tech cuts the wire to the exhaust fan in your rectifier because it was making noise?

By the way, the noise was the dust and dirt that got into the fan compartment, and instead of cleaning it out, he cut the wire and stuck a box fan on it and said he would be back in the morning to replace the fan. He never showed back up, so I cleaned it out, rewired it, and he never did show back up, but he did submit a bill, for guess what, "cutting power supply to exhaust fan - $75.00."

Dave

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Joseph D. Olson
Film Handler

Posts: 26
From: Seattle, WA, USA
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 08-18-2002 01:20 AM

...that you haven't been a projectionist long enough to have any decent stories about dealing with tech guys.

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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"

Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 08-18-2002 01:26 AM

...when your tech runs pink noise from an external generator and he raises the volume on the generator in order to set SPL in the cinema.

...when your tech tells you that your Altec-Lansing speakers are "all wrong for cinema use" because they're not JBL's. Note: This "tech" was really only on-hand to pull speaker wires.

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Dick Prather
Master Film Handler

Posts: 259
From: Portland, OR, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 08-18-2002 03:57 AM

From an operator friend: They had to remove the XL fire shutter because you can't focus the picture properly if we leave it in.

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John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 08-18-2002 09:56 AM

You pay $35,000 (above the cost of a 35mm booth) to build a premire 70mm theater, and the tech;
Sets the masking for 70mm and 'scope at 2.21;
Puts the rectifier right next to the rewind table so mag prints are erased while rewinding;
Installs a CP200, yet buys and install an "exciter-lamp changover relay" so the sound takes an extra 1/2 second to come up after a c/o;
Runs speaker wires in the same conduit as AC wiring;
Uses 24 ga shielded wire (the same as for hooking up Dolby cells) for the auditourium subwoofer.

When you mention to a tech that you think the screen image looks cropped, he berates you (in front of your boss) saying, basically; "My work is beyond reproach, the ratio is at 2.39 like it should be!" You later find (when your boss is not around, of course) that the masking is indeed set to 2.39, but the lens is three sizes too big.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 08-18-2002 11:40 AM

-You discover that approximately 50% of the speakers in your 16 screen complex have been wired out of phase.

-Your tech insists that the onscreen flicker is the fault of the shutter, not a diode because the light does not flicker onscreen when the projector is stopped.

-Your tech goes through 3 shutter belts after installing them too tightly on the above projector with the "bad shutter".

-Your tech sets the sound levels of an auditorium by resting his SPL meter on the open port window.

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