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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: Cell-phone "locker" pouches used at concerts might be just the ticket....
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 06-22-2016 07:43 AM
quote: Dave Macaulay
You should have staff and policies to deal with annoying patrons - whether the annoyance is being a loud drunk idiot, a loud sober idiot, idiots having indecent sex, idiots talking during the show whether on a phone or not, idiot teens who have to follow and add to countless text chains all the time...
Agreed. Kick out annoying patrons without offering them refunds (and post a sign stating this), regardless of their reason for being annoying.
The bag thing would likely be used only by people who are basically polite and would not normally be disruptive. The problematic patrons are the ones who would not use it. Ill-mannered people will be ill-mannered regardless of attempts such as this to change their behavior.
That said, I am all for building movie theatres (and restaurants) to be Faraday cages (which is probably cost-prohibitive, but I can dream), and I do think that a cell-phone-check desk (like a coat check, but for cell phones) would be a reasonable idea. The latter could probably be promoted as a "charging service."
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 06-22-2016 11:32 AM
For movie theaters it's just this simple:
No tolerance policy. People who use their phones during the movie need to be thrown the hell out of the theater. Simple as that. This rule needs to be applied industry-wide. Not just at Alamo Drafthouse or Warren Theaters (both of which already enforce such policies).
I feel like carrying a laser pointer with me into the theater to point at lighted phone screens I see in front of me. And that's a nice fantasy. It's too dangerous to use a pellet gun to shoot out the lighted screens of jackasses too selfish and stupid to keep their phones in their pockets or purses during the movie.
The Yondr pouch has potential for working in movie theaters, but it would take some serious adjustments. What will these pouches add to theater staff demands? How badly will messing with these things slow the ticket tearing lines? Many customers will already have their hands full of stuff they bought at the snack counter. They're going to have a hard time dealing with a phone pouch. One thing is certain, this Yondr setup would add some cost to a theater's operations due to staffing issues and whatever the cost is for the pouches.
quote: Frank Cox
People will put their phone in the pouch, then remove it again before entering the zone where the pouch locks.
quote: Frank Cox
Or just avoid the whole thing on the way in. "Phone? What phone?"
A metal detecting wand would solve that problem. As screwed up as the general public seems to be these days it probably wouldn't hurt to wand them just like people entering violence-prone night clubs.
quote: Dave Macaulay
What's the big deal with cell phones anyway? They can definitely be annoying but so what? You should have staff and policies to deal with annoying patrons - whether the annoyance is being a loud drunk idiot, a loud sober idiot, idiots having indecent sex, idiots talking during the show whether on a phone or not, idiot teens who have to follow and add to countless text chains all the time...
Here's the big deal about the phones: it's a giant pain in the ass for a paying customer to do anything about some fuckhead who won't stop playing with his or her phone. Staff members are rarely ever in the auditoriums while the movie is playing. So they're going to be incredibly lucky if they can catch phone users in the act and deal with such assholes immediately. So the chore of dealing with the problem falls into the lap of the customer. Doing so is not easy and not fast at all. You gotta get up, step over a bunch of people (disrupting their show) to get to an aisle, walk down the stadium seating flight of stairs toward the movie screen, then walk another auditorium length back to the room entrance, then down a long fucking hall and into a huge lobby where hopefully some human being staffers will be present. If you find a staffer you gotta give them chapter and verse of your story, which may fall on deaf ears since some of these staffers use their phones just as compulsively as anyone. All of that shit takes time. By the way, the movie hasn't stopped playing and you're probably missing some important parts of it while on the phone complaint quest. If you do manage to get a staffer to come along, by the time you got back into the auditorium it's not so easy to point out which asshole was using his phone. It's not like a phone user keeps his iPhone™ screen lit up during the entire movie. The activity is intermittent. He's not wearing a sign saying "kick me out" either.
In the end, paying customers have a choice: sit there and endure some jag-off disrupting the show with his Apple-branded flashlight or get up and demand a refund. Even getting a refund might be an adventure. They may only offer a pass for a return visit for more of the same anger inspiring fun, if they offer anything at all. You're sure not getting a refund on all that overpriced popcorn and soda pop.
By the way, the compulsive, selfish phone users are all too aware of this equation. So they're only too happy to laugh their asses off at anyone annoyed by their phone use during the movie.
I think about that equation too. So if I actually do leave my seat to complain about a phone user, chances are currently 70-30 I'll go complain to a staffer. But that 30 percent and rising side of knows it will take less time for me to go punch the living shit out of the phone user.
quote: Kenneth Wuepper
In a jazz concert last week, during a pause in the music a cell phone ring was heard loudly in the room. The pianist, with a wonderful ear, duplicated the pitch and imitated the ring from the piano. The entire audience first laughed out loud and then gave the pianist a standing ovation.
Jazz concerts draw a select demographic crowd from the general public. We're probably talking more highly educated, affluent, intelligent, possibly more considerate of others, etc. Peer pressure isn't going to be as effective on some of the kinds of idiots more likely to be found in movie theaters than jazz clubs. This country sadly has a rapidly growing segment of its society which seems to have no concept of shame.
quote: Scott Norwood
That said, I am all for building movie theatres (and restaurants) to be Faraday cages (which is probably cost-prohibitive, but I can dream), and I do think that a cell-phone-check desk (like a coat check, but for cell phones) would be a reasonable idea. The latter could probably be promoted as a "charging service."
I'm not sure if it would be cost prohibitive. Material like chicken wire can be pretty effective at blocking out radio waves. You can line the walls and ceiling of an auditorium with that stuff for a few hundred dollars. Modern theaters require a decent amount of acoustic wall treatment anyway. And that's not cheap, certainly if you do it to THX standards. Integrating wire mesh in with the layers of other stuff would add an incremental amount of cost to a new theater build. I think it would be far more difficult for an existing theater to incorporate a Faraday cage.
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 06-22-2016 02:18 PM
quote: Bobby Henderson
For movie theaters it's just this simple:
No tolerance policy. People who use their phones during the movie need to be thrown the hell out of the theater. Simple as that.
It's not that "simple." For a big plex, you would have to have an employee or two in every auditorium, all the time, walking the aisles.
Even for a small place like ours or Frank's, it's still not simple. "No-tolerance" policy or not, I guarantee you there ARE people using their phones in every single auditorium unless, as noted above, there is an employee walking the aisles continuously. They're just stealthy about it. A lot of them are now at least courteous enough to dim down their screens.
A lot of teenagers probably consider it sort of a "badge of honor" if they can manage to use their phone in a no-phones theater and not get caught -- or even if they do get caught, it gives them something to yak to their friends about, sort of like getting a ticket for underage drinking.
A diligent no-phones enforcement policy will definitely help make everybody be more careful/stealthy with their phones, which leads to less distraction, but stopping the use altogether is nigh impossible.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 06-22-2016 02:26 PM
If a theater chain is going to have a policy of not confronting people who disrupt movie presenstations with things like bright mobile phone screens then they're asking to lose customers. It's already a pretty sad thing if the management at an individual theater doesn't have the balls to confront and deal with unruly patrons. But if they're getting orders to do nothing from on high then that's just a whole lot worse.
The Faraday Cage approach would be a passive way to solve the cell phone problem. But it could be a fairly costly solution when you multiply that wire mesh treatment on the walls and ceilings times the number of auditoriums in the complex. It would cost less to have a no tolerance policy and be willing to enforce it.
Theater staff needs to be monitoring what's going on in the auditoriums anyway. Cell phones aren't the only disruption. You'll have people talking, kicking seats, putting their feet on seats, vandalizing seats, making racket with their snack packages, engaging in sexual activity, smoking, farting, getting into fights and letting their babies cry. Crowd control must be a part of a theater's operations. If the theater or theater chain doesn't want to deal with that out of fear of confrontations or lawsuits then the theater probably needs to be some other kind of business.
quote: Manny Montes
The only issue I see is, what if a guest forgets to silence their cell phone and it goes off while it is trapped in the pouch? would that not cause more of a distraction?
Obviously staff handling these Yondr pouches would have to follow step by step checklists, with silencing the phones being one of those steps. I would hope those pouches could be numbered or something as well to keep them from being mixed up with other phones.
I think it's kind of funny how this Yondr idea was meant for concerts. That's one of the last places I would risk carrying a phone, especially if it's in some kind of standing room only situation. If you drop it there it's gonna be crushed immediately. If you have it in a back pocket it could get swiped by a thief.
The Yondr thing is still a good idea for concerts. It's annoying when there's people in front of you holding phones up in the way of your view of the stage.
quote: Mike Blakesley
A diligent no-phones enforcement policy will definitely help make everybody be more careful/stealthy with their phones, which leads to less distraction, but stopping the use altogether is nigh impossible.
That may be true, but an explicitly stated no tolerance policy on phone use would definitely convince the vast majority of audience members to keep their phones tucked away and quiet. It certainly makes a big difference at Warren Theaters locations. I rarely ever see a phone screen lighting up there.
This notion of just "asking" the audience members to be considerate with their phones, usually via some part of a policy trailer or slide, is just wimpy as fuck. All "asking" does is tell the audience that phone use during the movie is optional and there are no consequences for it.
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