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Topic: Wrong movies in digital

Brad Miller
Administrator

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

posted 02-18-2015 03:09 PM

So apparently GDCs have a "chip problem" in their design.

Movie mix-up shows 'Fifty Shades of Grey' to 'SpongeBob' audience

quote:

Loveland theater accidentally starts R-rated movie in place of kids' flick

By Jessica Benes
Reporter-Herald Staff Writer
Posted: 02/18/2015 10:35:32 AM MST3 Comments

"SpongeBob GreyPants."

Or maybe "Fifty Shades of SpongeBob."

Joe Jaramillo of Johnstown sat in the MetroLux 14 theater Monday morning with his granddaughter waiting for "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water" film to start. He noticed that the previews all seemed to have a romantic flavor but didn't think much of it until the movie started and the words "Fifty Shades of Grey" appeared on screen.

"People ran out of there," Jaramillo said with a laugh. "You could hear little kids going, 'SpongeBob! SpongeBob!' as the parents were dragging them out."

He said after a few seconds, the screen abruptly went blank. Then new trailers started rolling, this time with children's themes.

While "SpongeBob SquarePants" is about an underwater sea creature and all his silly antics, "Fifty Shades of Grey" is an R-rated erotic romance movie based on a book by the same name.

Jaramillo said he was thankful that from what he has heard, the adult themes in "Fifty Shades" don't begin until later in the movie.

"What was interesting is they have the policy you can't take a kid into an R-rated movie," Jaramillo said. "Some of the trailers were coming up R-rated."

David Corwin, president of Metropolitan Theatres, said that there was a chip problem with the server and somehow the wrong movie started playing.

"It stopped pretty quickly. Someone came out to tell the staff and they stopped it," Corwin said. "Fortunately, the beginning (of 'Fifty Shades') is pretty scenic. It was obviously not intended."

He said that both movies are played in that auditorium at different times; "SpongeBob" during the day and "50 Shades" at night, which means the films are on the same computer server. Digital theaters project digital files onto a screen, unlike older film projectors.

Corwin added that the theater managers handle every situation differently. In this case, no free passes were issued because the situation was resolved quickly and without undue harm to the children.

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 02-18-2015 03:30 PM

"Hey Chip, run up to the projection room and switch that playlist."

"Yes sir!"

Chip problem resolved...

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 02-18-2015 05:10 PM

Definitely feel a black eye coming for the company that owns Metrolux ...lol.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

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

posted 02-18-2015 05:12 PM

I was just going to post this story. Why does stuff like this make the news these days? Is it because it doesn't happen as much as it used to? Does some parent run out of the theater and call the local news station?

They're just incompetent.

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Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006

posted 02-18-2015 06:29 PM

Hey Frank-
just wanted to let you know that your response to the "chip problem"
almost made me fall outta my chair laughing.

Thanks for "making my day"

Jim C

Once, way back in the 1970's I accidentally started a reel of
"The Godfather" right in the middle of a "Pippi Longstocking" movie.

But I readily admitted that I mucked up, and didn't try to blame it
on some sort of lame 'equipment problem'

("Oh gee whizz, boss - somebody mis-labeled the reels. . ")

gimmieabreak!

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 02-18-2015 06:51 PM

quote: Joe Redifer
Why does stuff like this make the news these days?

It did in the film multiplex days, too. I remember one place in London swapping Reservoir Dogs and The Lion King, because they were trying to interlock one print of each movie through multiple projectors for a set of shows starting at around the same time, and didn't get the sequence right. The Daily Mail published a shot of Mr. Whoever's ear being hacked off and a quote from a child psychologist opining that the little darlings could have been emotionally scarred for life (which, having to endure all that 1970s music, I'm sure they could have been).

Of course when you're doing that, you can't just stop and re-edit a playlist...

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

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

posted 02-18-2015 07:01 PM

If some kid was scarred for life because of the ear-hacking scene, then the parents or guardians asked for it. Did they just keep watching said movie thinking "Hmmm... when do the animated lions appear?"

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Brad Miller
Administrator

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

posted 02-18-2015 07:24 PM

Apparently the lions come in sometime after reel 4, which is the reel with the ear-hacking scene.

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Justin Hamaker
Film God

Posts: 2253
From: Lakeport, CA USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 02-18-2015 08:28 PM

I think pretty much everyone has a story of threading the wrong movie when it came to film. Whether it was two unmarked prints on the platter, a screwed up schedule in the booth, or being distracted at the wrong point. It was all too easy for a human error to cause that to happen.

I have a very difficult time seeing this happen with digital. The most likely scenario to me is that some kind of issue got the auditorium behind schedule. Maybe it wasn't turned on soon enough at the start of the day, or the previous show got behind. Maybe there was not enough time between play lists, so the schedule didn't load (on GCDs I've found you need to have about 2 minutes between playlists or this can happen). For whatever reason someone had to manually start the show and they selected the wrong SPL.

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Martin McCaffery
Film God

Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-18-2015 08:39 PM

quote:
the situation was resolved quickly and without undue harm to the children.

Just the harm that was due [evil]

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 02-18-2015 09:29 PM

quote: Justin Hamaker
very difficult time seeing this happen with digital

It can happen since the "booth clowns" in the 35mm world graduated up to wearing penguin outfits, but still retains the same "above my pay grade" mentality.

Happened at our plex a few months ago: Trainee fellow, when building the SPL, added in the wrong feature CPL to the list and didn't catch the error. Thus, saved the SPL and put it into the scheduler.

Next day, sure enough, TMS screen showed the proper feature assigned to that one house, but on the scheduled performance, the wrong feature hit the screen.

Luckily, this didn't cause a violent issue as in the story above since it was an easy fix - to stop the SPL, go into the edit window, take out the wrong feature CPL, put in the correct one and resave the edited SPL.

The fellow was lightly warned to be more careful in the future builds to double check before saving.

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 02-18-2015 09:32 PM

quote: Justin Hamaker
I have a very difficult time seeing this happen with digital.

I've done that a few time with digital, but I've caught it before an actual picture showed up on the screen.

I usually play just one show per week, so on the odd occasion when I have two different shows, one at 7pm and the other at 9pm, I have occasionally forgotten to switch the playlist before starting one of them. I notice about a half-second after hitting "play", though, and stop and do the switch. Nobody ever knows that it happened, though.

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John Roddy
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 114
From: Spring, TX, United States
Registered: Dec 2012

posted 02-19-2015 01:25 AM

I actually just recently dealt with a server that was running an outdated schedule, and started the wrong feature as a result. For whatever reason, the LMS refused to push the correct schedule, even though everything seemed find on that end. The only conclusion we could come up with was that someone screwed up when modifying the ticketing system. Of course, that was all due to a very last minute change (I verified the schedule the night before, and it changed the very next morning). There were no network issues or any oddities with the server at all. It was just weird.

This kind of thing happens a lot. That's why both of my theaters have dedicated projectionists to go in and double-check everything. The reliability of these systems is a joke.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

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

posted 02-19-2015 11:56 AM

John - what LMS and server are you using?

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

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

posted 02-19-2015 12:44 PM

I don't believe we've had this problem and we monitor Cinedigm, GDC and Dolby TMS systems. Mind you, the GDC TMS depends an awful lot on the end-user to get things right on their end...it isn't entirely automatic by any stretch. Likewise, the Dolby TMS, though drag and drop, isn't going to help you too much but it will run whatever you say you want to run.

We HAVE had bad schedules come from some POS systems to the Cinedigm system...however, the cause is easily proven by looking at the schedule that the POS sent out. Thus far, I'm unaware of a wrong movie playing in any of our theatres.

Reliability depends on equipment choice, implementation and operation. At the speed most of this stuff was installed, I'm amazed it works as well as it does.

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