Cool News
To those who attended tonight's Chicago PONYO screening...
Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
I just got a call about the mishap at the PONYO screening tonight (Thursday), and I'm really sorry. We've been really lucky over the years, and haven't had too many technical problems at our screenings. The law of averages says it's bound to happen every so often. The last one I remember was a messed-up print sometime early last year. But today's backwards reel toward the end of the film was pretty terrible, and we're going to do what we can to make it up to those of you willing to check out the film one more time all the way through.
We're going to screen the movie again next week. Keep an eye on this space tomorrow (hopefully) for the details. We had a full house tonight, and I want to make sure that you get a chance to see the film all the way through. And we may even have room for a few extra bodies if you want to bring some more guests. Again, we'll have the update tomorrow. We're all about making things good around here. Hope this helps. Stay tuned for this AND an additional contest for another new film very soon.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com
Follow Me On Twitter
-
+ Expand All
-
!!!!!!!!
-
*fart*
-
The Japan Times gave the film four out of five stars, and praised the film's simple thematic elements and its visual scheme, and compared the film to Miyazaki's classic animation My Neighbor Totoro
-
There's something wrong when Delgo gets more screens than the average U.S. Miyazaki release.
-
That is ghetto shit. Projection 101: soundtrack side on the LEFT. Head UP. Tail DOWN.
-
Disney delivers their prints in plenty of time to run a FULL QC. Ghetto, ghetto shit!
-
Disney handled the situation well. It was a free screening to begin with, so handing out more freebies was a generous move. They even gave us a free pass to a screening of our choice.
I loved the first half of Ponyo - it's visually stunning. And the MUSIC! Man. I'm looking forward to seeing it all again next week. Thanks Disney/Capone. -
Honestly I wasn't bugged, but I took my 10 yr old daughter and I thought she might be disappointed. Actually she was BLOWN away! She loved it and we only saw the first half! Cap and the rest of the gang were exceptionally gracious, I simply want to express my gratitude on behalf of my daughter and myself! Thank you for a great night not perfect but close!
-
I've never heard of such projectionist neglect! I've put together hundreds of films and never flipped a reel. My junior staff who have only been putting together prints for a few months wouldn't pull anything like that. Which CHICAGO theatre was responsible for this?
-
The whole theater was laughing when the mix-up happened. We had a blast of it. I'm pretty sure most of us in attendance took everything in good spirits & were forgiving.
-
It was bad enough that it was upside-down, but also running backwards? I've never seen it so bad. Definitely a film worth seeing again though, and we also got free passes to another film. Well played, and thanks again Capone!
-
I mean the District 9 screening last night made up for any foibles tonight, and we got free stuff out of it, so I'm straight.
-
But judging from the response from a couple people, it's not that bad a deal. I mean, sure, it's lame to see an incomplete movie, but you got free passes to something else as well as a make-up screening next week.
-
and where the guy says, "Season's over asshole!" the light bulb on the projector burnt out, and we had to wait 20 minutes to find out what happened.
-
I remember back during my theater days, we had a sold out sneak preview for 'Walking Tall.' The person who put it together messed up reel 4 or 5, and I remember the mass of 200+ people shouting and angrily demanding a refund, their Saturday night ruined. It didn't help that one of the head honchos was there from the theater chain as well.
I've seen all manner of 'film horrors' in projection booths as well. There's enough material I experienced in 5 years of theater work to make a TV series. -
I took my family to see the Dark Knight on opening weekend, and there was no sound for the last 20 minutes of the movie. Luckily, I had already seen it the day before. People were sooo pissed.
-
I travel into the city, wait in line for an hour and a half, then get to see an hour of the movie before it shuts off. Awesome. God forbid you TEST OUT THE REEL to see if it works. Fucks sake that's amateur. And no, I won't be able to go to the screening next week b/c I'm out of town. It was the equivalent of a girl blowing you then stopping right before you were gonna cum. The part of the movie I saw I enjoyed, which made the shutdown all the more painful. No, I'm not really mad at Capone. Just venting my frustrations. Sorry if I hurt any feelings.
-
It's a curse. Every time I venture out to a regular theater, something like this happens.
-
The first half was absolutely brilliant (as usual). Having done projection for several years, the flipped reel was unfortunate but understandable, mistakes happen. AMC and the movie rep handled the situation very well and I think any sort of crisis was averted. I was happy with the experience all in all. Some Ponyo is better than no Ponyo.
-
those miyazaki movies need any help can they get...fuckin snoozefests.
-
*cricket* hahaha.
-
I've been a projectionist for 7 years now and I've only seen that happen once. But it was probably the worst possible moment it could've ever happened.
LOTR: ROTK midnight! Interlock between two theaters. Elephant tramples an orc, then next shot...
BAM!
...elephant is upside down and there's nothing but static. The managers drew straws to see who would have to go into the two theaters to tell these 650 people they weren't seeing the last 40 minutes of the movie tonight. He ended up getting pelted with a shoe. There was a riot. Popcorn, sodas and shoes thrown at the screen...the curtains on the walls torn down. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen.
I've built thousands of prints and have probably made every kind of error possible at one point or another, but I've never done that. The guy responsible got demoted and it's a rule at my theater that any print that can be pre-screened, MUST be pre-screened.
But having had experience with these special screenings I can tell you the studio always delivers the print so that you have just enough time to build it before it plays, there's never enough time to screen it for errors.
In these cases you have to be extra careful when building it up. It's a stupid mistake, but it's an understandable one.
If studios gave us the time we needed to screen them then these things wouldn't happen, but they're so goddamn paranoid about piracy that it'll be a cold day in hell before that happens. -
A BIG mishap occurred there at all. The projectionist turned off the projector during the credits, blacking out all but a few of the 'photos' at the end. I was assured I missed nothing, but when I saw the movie again, I realized I had missed about 2-3 minutes of hilarious jokes. Don't act like it only happens 'once in a while.'
-
Lol, hat sounds funny. Damn. I bet people were PISSED! Especially since that movie was so long.
-
I remember going to see Dogville in Brooklyn Heights and the film burnt out just as James Caan was showing up...The cinema were very nice and offerd us three free screenings or our money back. Unfortunately we were leaving the next morning.
-
When the Mexican nanny and the kids are wandering through the desert, the film got all wavery, and then the image burnt out, and I thought, "Wow, Gremlins in the projection booth...!"
-
seeing a preview for Tombstone where the film caught fire just as Bihen or Powers Booth or someone was pointing a gun at the screen, I thought it was part of the trailer until we had to wait 10 min or so for them to fix itI also had the electrcity go out in my little town during the climax of THE FIRM
-
Opening night of Phantom Menace: the film broke right when the double doors opened and Darth Maul was igniting his double lightsaber while duel of the fates started.
-
My wife, who wasn't sure she would like the movie, woke up this morning and said "Ponyo wants Ham!"
So totally worth going IMO, we both look forward to seeing the film in its entirety. Thanks Capone for the invite! -
Wouldn't it be nice if Capone offered those who attended last night the first crack at the next advanced screening?
-
and am shocked that this happened, it's not a hard task to build a damned movie properly. Nobody screened it beforehand to make sure it was alright?
-
I've been a projectionist for 19 years, myself - and this has gotten easier to do in about the past 10 years for a couple of reasons. 1) For sneak previews before release like this, the studio does not always deliver the print a day in advance to allow for a QC run. I've had prints delivered - with an agent holding them - that we were not allowed to build up until an hour before the scheduled sneak showtime to prevent piracy - and the print would be torn down the moment the credits ended...at which point it was returned to the agent. However, at this point, #2) kicks in. The theatre needs to have their most experienced projectionist build the damned print, not the newbie who just goes around pushing buttons during the day and doesn't know how to splice without supervision. The only time I've really had this problem arise in my tenure is when someone built the print who shouldn't have. That being said...sometimes shit does happen and it's unfortunate. Kudos to Capone for trying to make it right for everyone.
-
I second the motion for first dibs on the next film screening. -
Haaaaaaaaam! -
When the film melts, it does just that--melts. The prints aren't catching on fire. The bulb is hot enough to put a hole through the film when it's not moving.
-
When we had the film 'Mr 3000,' some people were noticing little white dots on the screen.
When we observed the film, there was a realization that the bulb was not calibrated properly, and because of this, the heat was causing small dots to appear. If it would have kept that way, eventually we'd had a huge hole in the middle of that Bernie Mac film.
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 439 total posts 159 posts
- WTF HOLLYWOOD: SOLARBABIES -- 144 total posts 142 posts
- Herc’s Seen Tonight’s Return Of THE WALKING DEAD!! Discuss Also DOWNTON ABBEY, FEAR FACTOR, PAN AM, ONCE, SIMPSONS, DYNAMITE, LUCK, SHAMELESS, BAIT CAR, THE GRAMMYS And More!! Sunday Is Sweeps Day 11!! -- 155 total posts 140 posts
- Avid Comic Reader Hercules Does Battle With Tedium During Kevin Smith’s COMIC BOOK MEN! -- 55 total posts 45 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 196 total posts 45 posts
- I am The Behind the Scenes Pics of the Day! No, I’m the Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day! -- 35 total posts 35 posts
- If the Behind the Scenes Pics of the Day drops her pen, pick it up, but don’t look at her legs or else it will be on your record. -- 60 total posts 34 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 127 total posts 32 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 513 total posts 29 posts
- The Sensorties Revisit The Friday Docback (And Still Smell)!! DOCTOR WHO Story #7 Again, The Coming Of Season/Series 7, And More!! -- 118 total posts 27 posts