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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Being a Projectionist is not what it used to be.
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Darren Solomon
Film Handler
Posts: 28
From: unknown
Registered: Jan 2002
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posted 01-31-2002 11:54 AM
I want to share some of my grief with you all and maybe you can shed some insight on where I should go.
First off, I'm head projectionist for a Big chain 16 screen theatre for 4 years now. Currently and during the past year, I've noticed lots of changes in management, staff, other projectionists, and corporate policies changing and not changing that have affected me in negative ways. I will give examples. Being the head projectionist that I am and trained in floor staff duties, management has given more duties to me that may seem unfair to me. Is this equal opportunity employer? Like some of the managements paperwork. Even to keep tacking on new duties and stupid tasks that are Management duties. Sorta like abusing my original Projection duties that I had first gotten when I got the job as a full time projectionist. For one, I'm in charge of making a booth schedule, should anyone need a vacation, I am required to find coverage for them for their vacation, and half the time end up working those shifts myself. I make all the managers calls for them to get our 1 Tech support guy to fix something in the booth. I have to place new ads on screen, trailers that are missing on released prints, I also, have the responsibility in sending out rectifires, Platter Motors, and keep reminding management when a Xenon Bulb is going bad. The Company now won't change out Xenon Bulbs early, and wait till they blow out. Some Xenon bulbs are 8 months old. And this either blows out, the rectifire, Bulb, or Ignitor, or all three. I even have to remind management several times on things that the company won't fix because its too costly to re-size portholes and some parts of the sound equipment just can't be ordered because they don't make them or the auditoriums masking is the way it is and nothing is 100% perfectly matched up. Some of the projectionist think the DM Manager doesn't know or is verry forgetfull and doesn't think clearly when deciding what prints to move around in our smaller houses that are the same in seating and it seems to us its a waste of a move and hard on our backs to move prints to the same amount seated theatre. If he would involve us more in where some held-over prints should go, it would go easier. This gets me to the print moving/musical prints sceme our DM manager has been doing. It has gotten worse, he will move prints mid day and in the evening before the last show on Fridays through Sundays. Sometimes for 1 show time. It never used to be this way. I understand we have new movies being released on Fridays, sometimes wednesdays and certain holidays, but to make us move prints mid-day and mid-evening, is getting rediculous, especially when we have to move prints thursday nites, friday nights and saturday nites when all shows are over. Sometimes it doesn't even give better seats when we play musical prints. Well, thats not the half of it being the head projectionist for this theatre. OOh the problems just keep creeping in on some of us projectionists. There are some managers that abuse their authority and use their power to push some of us around. Like when they must have a movie held for them so they can whatch it during a dry run nite for whatever length of time it takes until they are ready to watch it (which can be up to 2 hours later). This holds us projectionist up in other things, and when we want to go home at a decent time. Or we might have to move the print somewhere for the next day, but no, the managers want it run in this certain theatre. Some of the managers do thank us for holdin the movie or moving it, but that is rare. But if we ignore them, and dry run the print early, then the managers will be verry mad and either fire you, suspend you or force you to stop the movie.
This brings us to the verbal threat under their breath and not soo under their breath, and snap irrational desicsions they make when something goes wrong in the booth or auditorium. Sometimes they are looking for someone to blame and fire, when its not human error. They will aslo take it out sometimes on us verbally or by changing or adding a new policy(that never gets enforced for more than 1 week) that is a policy thats totally unfair or unreasonable or too far. Plain stupid. We had one for dry runs, only some projectionist could watch them one nite, and all the rest of the staff were not allowed. Managers just don't think how a quick decision will affect other projectionists or staff members. We tend to have this problem with our DM and house manager. There is such a big staff employee turnover at out theatre its sad. New employees come in every 2 weeks, in fact our theatre never stops hiring.. Now I will admit there are some bad apples that get hired, and some bad apples that get to stay as well. Why? I don't know..
But management is not getting off that easy. Some managers play around more than they manage, when the DM and house managers aren't around. And when the DM and house manager are around, the staff will eventually have had enough of their BS and leave as well. We think Management is poor in communicating lots of things to projectionists as well. A simple comunication to inform us that this new ad must go on screen or this new screening invoice came in or this new schedual for print moving is changing. This happens too often and makes a couple of projectionists mad. I've gotten the word from the house manager that "its your job to come to us and get the information, not my job to tell you". This information that they have and recieve should be told and given to us. Not the other way around. After all we aren't mind readers so we don't know WHEN the information comes in. We help them and do the job we should get the same treatment back! Now I can tell ya some of the problems between projectionists. When our theatre first opened it had both male and female projectionists, now its all male except for one female. Last year there was a problem with other projectionist and the head projectionists girlfriend who was also a projecionist. They stated there was favoritism and rumors of sexual encounters. But this was also between other projectionists as well. We have booth meetings and I hate them. They are mainly complaints or rants that the rest of the projectionist have with the head projectionist. They want more shifts in the booth, petty crap, and I find they aren't doing enough work in the booth. They tell me they are bored and go on the floor to help out or goof off and talk to their friendly managers. So it comes down that the projectionist have thier clique and seperated off from the head projectionist and his girlfriend and one other senior projecitonist. I've been told by another projectionist that if I sat in the booth and did nothing, then he would up and quit. When infact I don't do nothing and its my responsibility to follow up on things that mangers tell me to do and upkeep the booth and make sure everyone gets fair shifts, vacations and help up in giving them what THEY want. Even to bend over backwards, screw myself in the end and let them get days off that they need, when I myself don't get a day off when I ask for it. Maybe its this: "Teamwork". Its been gone since I became the head projectionist. But I know this, since I know how to fix the simple things on the platters, DMC brains, Projector loose screws, ect..ect.. upkeep in cleaning and organizing the booth and putting our stupid ads on screen when they are supposed to be on( Our new revenue!) the right trailers on prints that are missing them, getting screening prints dry run and new released prints dry run when they are supposed to, then I think the Booth would look and run like crap if I left. Sad as it seems to me and my girlfriend (projectionist that I trained and trust verry well and work with 2 nights a week out of 5.) would quit with myself and 1 senior projectionst. I've had alot of crap thrown onto me from the rest of the projectionists, and managers, that I'm now looking for either a career change or another theatre thats looking for a projectionst. But I've found on the internet how hard its to remain as a projectionst getting paid 9.25 an hour and its a dying breed. In my opinion, I dont see any theatre chains hiring near me or out of state near me that want just a projecitonist. They want floor staff. I've heard of the horror stories of theatre chains using mangement and floor staff as projectionists which cause even more problems. I have also been informed that our company has new policies that are changing that want us Projectionist to be supervisors on the floor staff, and lie to the Company (if asked) that we work 50% on the floor and 50% in the booth. Not that the managers would use us more on the floor, but if this happens, more things could go wrong in the booth. Not being able to stay in the booth the entire shift of ours, will allow core wraps, scratched prints and who knows what else. Film splices do snap, its murphys law!!
We've heard from the 1 manager that he was tired of me, and some other managers are probably looking forward to seing me leave. I'm holdin on as long as I can. To me it seems I've run out the welcome at this theatre, and I would stay if some policies were changed, and my duties were lessened or simplified and the managers would get off my back and more on the projectionists that seem to be slackers.
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David Stambaugh
Film God
Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002
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posted 01-31-2002 12:55 PM
I can sympathize with your overall frustration with that job situation. To me (as an outside observor), you seem to be describing 2 things.1) Managers who don't really know the first thing about being good managers. The manager's role is to foster an environment that encourages good work and job satisfaction for the people under him/her. This means delegating responsibility, and acknowledging when someone is doing a good job. Yes managers do have to keep on top of all the details, but that shouldn't mean micro-managing or having inconsistent policies that jerk people around. I could go on and on about the role of a good manager, but the point is the "managers" you are describing don't sound like managers to me. 2) As far as the other stuff, moving prints unnecessarily etc., maybe you need to step back from those issues and ask yourself if those are real problems, or if they are some kind of manifestation of dissatisfaction with the overall situation (which goes back to #1). Some of what you describe does seem pretty petty though. I made a serious inquiry with Cinemark to find out what their policy is with regard to hiring "projectionists only", vs. manager trainees who must learn the entire operation. The answer (not news to most of you I'm sure) was "We have usher/booth people, who earn minimum wage, with small annual increases. There is 1 Booth Manager [who presumably earns more than Usher/Booth people]. We also have manager trainees who must learn the entire operation including working a minimum of 1 shift per week in the booth. Only manager trainees can earn more than minimum wage and benefits". I think I have the gist of that correct. In my last job, I managed 2 PC technicians. We were supporting 100 users and about 150 PCs. My management philosophy was to give the techs a very long leash, while still keeping an eye on them. I tried to set the ground rules for the level of support I expected them to provide to the users, and turned them loose to take care of the details. If users complained to me about a tech's work, I followed up to get the tech's side of the story, without immediately placing blame. If they were at fault, I "counciled" them on their error, made sure things were smoothed over with the client, and that would be the end of that in most cases. I don't know how well this style of management would work in your business. Do the big chains have formal job descriptions? Do they do annual job performance evaluations? Are you allowed to evaluate your manager(s)? Most big companies do these things, and for the most part it is a good system for keeping the playing field level. There are very strong legal reasons for doing formal evals too. Also, if you have an HR-related complaint or question, is there someone who can tell you exactly what the company policy is? Like, having spouses or "serious friends of the opposite sex" working in the booth together, with one perhaps managing the other? Most companies frown on that. Most people here will probably agree with the premise of your original topic. The question for you is, can you make what "being a projectionist" currently is into something that is still satisfying for you. That will be 5 cents please. ------------------
- dave
Avoid the meadow...
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Neil Hunter
Film Handler
Posts: 74
From: Salisbury, NC, USA
Registered: Oct 2001
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posted 01-31-2002 02:05 PM
Darren,Sounds like the place is being run by a bunch of children. I know how you feel, though. My last theater was like this. All of the management were just kids looking for a paycheck, and nothing else. They had almost no sense of responsibility, or what it takes to get the job done. They were just running that theater into the ground, and no one above them could figure out why. Also, my last booth had all male staff except for one female. SHe thought she ran the place. She would try to get you into some sort of trouble or make you feel bad for mistakes or problems that sometimes weren't even human error. We had booth meetings and I hated them as well. SHe would be very vocal while you were on a shift together, but dead silent in the meetings. Now, in my new booth, I get extra tasks thrown on me. I got off easy in my last booth cause it was union, so I couldn't do work outside the booth. Now I am an usher with booth training, as my company says. When there are new managers workig, I generally help out and log in computers, fix problems on the floor, deal with customers, etc. Sometimes I don't mind, but when I have 8 trailer changes and three prints to build up and two to break down in one night, I get a little flustered. I don't think there is really much you can do about your situation, sadly. I do hope that it gets a little better. My solution was to finally leave.
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Paul Harnden
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 107
From: Chandler, AZ, USA
Registered: Oct 2001
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posted 01-31-2002 11:10 PM
Darren, I totally agree with Keith, leave the dipshits!! I've worked in very similar situations at Regal, and yes I was promoted from floor staff, but luckily I was trained thoroughly by a great projectionist (he also was the one who told me of the site). What you wrote pissed me off to hear that this sorta things happens throughout. Especially the part with the managers wanting you to run a print for them afterhours. I've had this done to me, and I finally snapped and made my own policy, "If you want to see a private screening of a movie, and I'm not going to stay there to watch it, then thread it and run the damn thing yourself." You'd be surprised to see how much it works, as well as gets management to learn how to run the equipment properly. You're the head projectionist there, if they push you too hard push back. Remind them that without you their equipment would be running poorly and that you doubt that's part of the company's policy. If they get more uppity on you, flip 'em the bird, drop what you're doing, and walk the hell out of there. You're better than them.
And don't worry about switching professions if you don't want to. There's plenty of other theaters out there who are looking for good projectionists, go check around.
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Darren Solomon
Film Handler
Posts: 28
From: unknown
Registered: Jan 2002
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posted 02-01-2002 01:30 AM
Thanks Keith, David, Neil, Paul, and the rest that replied. In the past the previous head projectionists, had left the job abruptly as some of you described. I really don't want to do that, and would like to use the theatre I'm at for a good reference for another job. But I want to include some additional details from my original post.
I wasn't the one who decided to put my girlfriend in the booth, it was the DM and House Managers decision. They have fired a previous projectionist for an absurb reason. A Dry run was not held for the management. They were mad, so that former projectionists had enough BS and put in his 2 weeks, and then the management said, don't bother, your fired. Whats contradicting is that same projectionists that got fired, came back as a floor supervisor several months later. This type of thing happened to another projectionist that quit on bad terms, but later was alowed to come back as a projectionist. The age of some of the managers are from 21-24, and the House manager is 26, and the DM is 38 yrs old. Its is my job to make a booth schedual, change out trailers, thread movies, move them, troubleshoot problems, run the new and old movies and Booth maintenace. But the rest of the projectionists are to share some of the duties I delegate out. Its difficult to talk to my House and DM managers. Our regional manager is probably the same. I've bumped into him several times, but never had a conversation with him. I know some of the things I've talked about may seem petty, but the musical print thing, has gotten a little out of hand. I've had other projectionists tell me its rediculous to do soo much print moving. But as I know when we bring up a little bit of why a print is moved to there, and why not here, I get the same, "You should have talked to me before, its too late now, it is your job to move the prints." Maybe I'm getting tired of it all. So what is the straw that breaks the camels back?
None of our managers have a shift up in the booth. When I first started working at this job, I started on the floor, so I am "Crosstrained". But it was always a seperate time schedual shift for the booth and a seperate paycheck code for the booth people, which meant we are different than floor staff. But this has changed. As we are now told we are not projectionists, our name tags cannot have that on them(only our name), and that we are floor supervisors. Well if thats the case, and this is supposed to be equal opportunity employer, then I would like to train the rest of the floor staff supervisors in the projection Booth the basics, and have the managers know how to the run the booth. This might end up having to give managers and Supervisors 1 shift in the booth? And this would start a shift war with my other projectionists. Myself and my girlfriend were on the verge to quit some days, but we are not going to give them the satisfaction. We would like to leave on good terms. Maybe since they are changing soo much in their policies, I should find out what the company policies were. Well, enough said, myself and my girlfriend are currently looking for new jobs. Thanks
Darren S.
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