Build it and they will come 18 June, 2008
Posted by Drop Box Junky in Entertainment, Movies.Tags: FACT, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Iron Man, management, piracy, vip box
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It’s 9am on a Sunday morning and we have been summoned for a staff meeting. Gathering up students at that time is only possible through threats; they work but most turn up half an hour late under protest. I work two days a week at the cinema on top of my five days for a full time job, so an extra two hours on a Sunday morning is not helpful, especially since I did not get home from last night’s shift till 2am. What would have helped is all the managers being there, at this first meeting too, as a statement. But they don’t have to attend, do they?
The General Manager is prodded about the sales figures and admits it’s not going to plan. The cinema is part of a new large shopping mall, built on the belief that firstly standing still is suicide for a town centre and secondly, the town is expanding and local people were not shopping there. But the thinking went too far and the new mall is expected to compete with neighbour towns and larger malls in bigger towns. And it hasn’t worked. The hinterland is disturbingly rich but they are not coming into the town centre and mixing with the riff-raff in the new mall.
The cinema relies on the punters shopping in the town and then making an impulse decision to stay an extra couple of hours (paying the extra car parking fee) and watch a film. Like who does that? By the time you’ve hung around outside numerous women’s fashion shops whilst she tries on clothes that either don’t fit or don’t match her shoes you’ve had enough and it’s time to go back for the football scores.
The scariest clue for the poor “admits” is the almost complete lack of tickets sold for the VIP boxes, complete with their own bar. At the moment it is a complete waste of money. To exacerbate matters at the weekend staff numbers drop (some bother to phone in “sick” some don’t), so there are never enough to open the VIP boxes. Those that just don’t turn up often never come back. Turnover is so high it must also be a drain on the costs. The recent Council scare has meant whatever staff turn up have been piled in to watching the cinema screens for couples humping on the back row and then sharing a fag in the loo. And piracy (apparently this is a hot spot and we are being bribed by FACT with cash if we catch ‘em).
Iron Man could not have come any sooner to bring in desperately needed income for the cinema. It is not a blockbuster but, with so much drivel on the screens (Russell Brand in Forgetting Sarah Marshall – purrleeeeze!!), it cannot fail to succeed. But the cinema has no hope of reaching its company’s regional average. It is at the whim of the success or failure of the new town centre mall. And it ain’t looking good.
The Honeymoon is Over 17 June, 2008
Posted by Drop Box Junky in Entertainment, Movies.Tags: Fools Gold, In Bruges, multifunctional, sales per person, supervisor, training
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It’s a Thursday night so it should be relatively busy. Fools Gold is on the main screen which is not a good sign. The weather is warming up, so crowd pullers are needed to keep the profits coming in. In Bruges is all we have tonight.
I find out that the day has been appalling with even the shift managers joining the mulitfunctionals for a chat. This is not good. Already they are not showing late night films and Concessions had only one rush all evening. The Sales Per Person is holding up compared to other sites but, as I check the screens, the numbers are poor. One screen has no one in it. It usually takes at least two multifunctionals to clean a screen but I manage on my own even with a rush of change overs. It’s a slow night all round.
After three weeks’ training and then a stern effort to impose those standards it appears the rule book is being thrown out of the window to hold on to customers at any cost. On the floor I am presented with a customer with a ticket to see the wrong film. The rules are he needs to exchange it for a correct one so the system has an accurate record of attendances for films. Bollocks to that, the manager says just let him in.
I’m on the floor tonight which means cleaning screens between films. The manager’s job is to construct the screenings for the night. Oh look, in one screen the film finishes after the next one starts! Luckily ( or not for the company) no one is actually watching the earlier screening so projection cuts the film early in time to start the next film. Projection diplomatically point out to me that the times for another screen are completely wrong. It’s not clear at all that the duty manager tonight has any idea of this.
A lot of staff have left already and another batch will go when University finishes for the Summer and there will be no one here to train the new crew. So far only one multifunctional has been appointed to supervisor. But will they cull the establishment numbers to keep costs down?
Take my shiny new iPod…..No, I insist 1 June, 2008
Posted by Drop Box Junky in Entertainment, Movies.Tags: lost property, sales per person
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It’s the backward weirdy human rule in life that when we leave our stuff behind in the cinema we only come back to collect the rubbishy sentimental stuff that other lowlifes decide they quite fancy.
I’m standing behind box office in the waiting room for the back office, it’s a cold airless, window-less chair-less clinical room that you have to wait in before you go into the cash office, to have your money counted and then get bollocked for not upselling enough and for having no explanation as to where the fify quid went that your float is down on. But I’d rather be here than waiting at the dentist’s. Anyway, it’s where the bulk of the lost property goes. The valuable stuff should be in the cash office but no one seems to give a fuck. So there is a steady stream of staff coming through here to stroke the shiny new dark grey iPod Nano 3rd generation some stoopid eedgit has not only left behind in a screen but not bothered to come back to collect. There is a long list of underpaid staff here who are in the valley of temptation because the managers have not bothered to hold it in the cash office.
It beggars belief what customers do not come back for. Bizzarely, though, a lot of customers do come back for missing odd gloves and scarves that have walked, probably with another customer.
I’ve handled a Mercedes Benz car key and pondered how that rich person managed to get home and avoid their car park fine. I’ve seen wallets stuffed full of credit cards. Yes credit cards can be cancelled but why not ask the cinema first before going through all that hassle???? And what about all the other personal cards we hold in our wallets and purses? Membership cards, driving license, reward cards…. Businesses are not slow to charge for a replacement card these days.
And then there are mobile phones. Maybe people are thinking leave it at the cinema, report it lost and ask your telco for a nice new one. But what about all the personal information we have on our phones? While we are on the subject of personal information on mobile phones, never leave it lying around if you don’t want other people to look inside it. Being a manager in a cinema is not a job if you want to liked. So if you are married and then start taking time off with another member of staff it’s only a matter of time before the rumour mill kicks in. And when you leave your mobile phone unattended with messages on it that are best described as embarressing……before you know it everyone else has read them..
Kitten and other stories from within the cinema 17 May, 2008
Posted by Drop Box Junky in Entertainment, Movies.Tags: kitten, management, multifunctional, projectionist
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Respect to the “My Soul has been crushed by Cineworld” group on Facebook for this collection of portraits about the experience of working for Cineworld:
The cinema trilogy trailer http://youtube.com/watch?v=d_sk6Ff2tRU&mode=related&search=
The multifunctional http://youtube.com/watch?v=0bZzZ9UkgUw&mode=related&search=
The Projectionist http://youtube.com/watch?v=tZKFFK4×4Fc&mode=related&search=
The Manager http://youtube.com/watch?v=HFvPtWFCtYg&mode=related&search=
Kitten Trailer http://youtube.com/watch?v=cjRbbhO_axI&mode=related&search=
Kitten http://youtube.com/watch?v=AilyBJ5szac&mode=related&search=
all cineworld staff members should remember this
Nobody comes here anymore 16 May, 2008
Posted by Drop Box Junky in Entertainment, Movies.Tags: customers, security, Speed Racer
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Nobody visits to see films here any more. There are only lunatics left in the asylum.
Security reports a blockage in one of the male cubicles of monumental proportions. The mess is so bad a pair of underpants are removed.
Security are called to investigate a man talking to himself in the corridor to the screens. He is stroking a poster advertising a new movie. Thankfully, he is found to have a bluetooth headset for his phone. Still…
I have to ask some late teenage girls to remove themselves from the Gents toilet where they are talking to a boy. “Can I talk to him here?” one of them asks me…..”No, you are inside the Gents toilet and blocking the door.” “Can I talk to him here then?” “Why can’t he come out of the Gents and talk to you?” I ask. ‘Thick as shit’ I hear security mutter behind me.
One person watches the new movie Speed Racer in the screen on their own….
How Not to Run a Cinema 7 May, 2008
Posted by Drop Box Junky in Entertainment, Movies.Tags: customers, management, supervisor
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Want to get your cinema shut down. Easy peasy. A few simple rules.
- Let customers smoke and have sex in your cinema. Don’t manage your team so there is no organisation on the floor and customers can break the rules.
- Allow kids to run between screens. See above.
- Let your duty managers hide in the cashiers office. Don’t manage your duty managers so they sit in the cashiers office listening to music when they should be on the floor.
- Screw up your film times. Set start films so they finish after the next film is set to start.
- Demotivate your staff so they have no pride about working there. See above. Take an age to recruit supervisors so the only one you have goes off sick with stress, too many new multifunctionals leave, teams are left on their without direction, and managers openly criticise the lack of progress – “it’s a joke.”
- Don’t listen to your customers. Allow them to go to the Council and your Head Office and wait for your neck to go on the line.
Rules are for Breaking 1 May, 2008
Posted by Drop Box Junky in Entertainment, Movies.Tags: 21, Box Office, Fools Gold, multifunctional, Pathology, students
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The films on tonight may bedesultory (21, Fools Gold, Pathology…..) but it’s busy. Very busy. On Box Office the two of us pull in high takings as the queue never dies down. Curiously, with the high traffic the management have stopped showing films after 10pm. This may be because of low attendance (except for staff) and the cost of keeping staff on site through the night.
There are lots of rules in the Box Office and how these are applied is largely down the discretion of firstly the multifunctional on the box, secondly, the manager on duty that night, and thirdly how the rule is recorded. Rules on Box Office are very important to give backbone to the authority of the Multifunctional but needs to applied with a liberal dose of common sense and consistency from the duty managers. Sadly, the latter is badly missing in this building.
The queues are long and yet customers still turn up after a film has actually started. That’s half an hour after the programme time allowing for up to 20 minutes of previews and trailors. Now everyone knows the beginning of film not only sets the scene: the plot, the characters and the mood, notably it gives the viewer basic information for the rest of the film, in particular the characters. So why on earth do people think it is okay turning up late? Company policy is very simple: turn up late and you piss off the rest of the audience so, no, you not going to be let in. After a lengthy wait this older middle class and rather short-tempered gentleman attempts to see a film that has already started and is indignent when refused. After a tour of other films on offer, unfortunately including what has already started, he storms off in a huff.
To my disbelief the dour Scottish Duty Manager then ticks us off on the radio. Yes we can let that horrible man in to a film late as long as we inform him of the times. I expect the overworked manager has backed down for a quiet life.
It seems the world is a student and aged 14 years old. The student rate is for students and if you are a student then you will have proof. Yes there is a grey area for 15-16 year olds at secondary school who are technically students but schools don’t provide ID like further education institutions do so the child is technically an adult in our view. But the point is practically every young person tries it on. And I mean almost all of them. It’s a badge of honour to the point that the young women with these have-a-goers (and they are typically young men) get very pissed off with them. The rules of the house are very simple: no ID no student rate. No Buts. No ignorant looks. No coy smiles from the girls. Well, maybe.
Grand Designs 26 April, 2008
Posted by Drop Box Junky in Entertainment, Movies.Tags: building design
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A night out at the flicks is an event for some. So first impressions count. You approach the building with a bold entrance. You enter the main hall which should be cathedral-like in its scale and impression. Throughout it should feel “special.” After all we are implored to make the customers’ day “special.” But in a simplistic way what should happen before everything else is recognising you are approaching a cinema.
This new building changes the rules. One could say it compromises the lot for the sake of squeezing it on top of a shopping mall. The priorities are definitely with the major shopping chains. On my first shift a retired gentleman having a look around the site approached me and engaged himself in an animated discussion about the poor visibility of the site. And how right he is. Yes, there are large signs stating very clearly there is a cinema in this building somewhere – but where?
The main entrance is shared with a bowling alley and a well known restaurant chain. Both of which have clearly visible signs above the entrance. So why does the cinema chain have some grayed out sign hidden by glass? One has to look twice to see it and ask the question is this where we go in then? There is simply no single obvious sign to say “yeh, here we are!”
So one goes up the escalator and is presented by the box office. So, no cinema yet then? The experience of purchasing cinema tickets is best described as clinical, and a wee bit cold judging by the lack of heating in this area. Frankly, one is left nonplussed. No sense of anticipation or excitement at all. Then up yet another flight of escalators into the main concessions hall. No one knows its there and have to ask! Oh, and if you booked by phone the machines are hidden around the corner…
The curious feature of the concessions hall is how one feels as if one is entering by the side door. No grand entrance, no sense of anticipation by being in a large hall full of customers For a large cinema it does not give off that impression. When I walk in to cinemas through the front door I stop and take in the surroundings – 180 degree absorption of everything on offer. Here the customer is entering at the side so there is some dislocation. On busy days the view will be blocked by the rows of queues for concessions.
One has to walk to the right to get bearings of where all the features are in particular the entrance to the screens. What on earth were they thinking?
The design of the piece de resistance – the largest screen has a few hilarious flaws in it too. The private boxes are too low and have already attracted unwanted attention. The private box to the farthest left (and the seating in front) is, err, too far to the left, and, as a result, has been pitched at a lower ticket price. The back row of seats starts and then, well, runs out space to continue. So it just stops.
Respect has to be Earned 17 April, 2008
Posted by Drop Box Junky in Entertainment, Movies.Tags: Cash Office, management, multifunctional
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Three of us arrive on time ready for our shift. It’s first thing in the morning. I check the floor, the Control Room, the Cash Office. Where the fuck is the day manager? One of the team recounts the tale of when he turned up on time for his shift but it took ten minutes before he could find the (Scottish) Manager, only to be told off for being ten minutes late. The young man tries to call him on the radio. No reply. No surprise there – I can see the manager cussing the radio now. We are outside the Cash Office as the obvious place to wait. It’s my turn and I ask for him on the radio. He replies “How can I help you?” I want to strangle him. I politely explain we are outside the Cash Office awaiting our shift instructions for the day. He is on his way. We never got an explanation.
“The staff just want to enjoy their work and have a laugh every now and again.” She said to me, complaining that she was misunderstood by one of the managers and bollocked for mucking around. There is one dour Scot who I have seen smile only once, and that was when he had his head up the arse of the manager watching the sun shine. He really needs a personality implant if he wants to get on with his own staff. Sitting in the Cash Office playing old music so loud you can’t be bothered to say hello is not the way to be civil.
The two day managers who treat as humans not serfs are popular with the staff. It’s not difficult to be polite and muck in. Firm but fair always earned respect and these two guys earned it. The Deputy is rapidly becoming some sort of Cruella De Vil with her patronising tone. Such a nice young woman ruins it with her aggressive ego. One multifunctional has already crossed her by telling her he was a having such a great day until he saw her.
