I just had to make a few quick notes. One, the Cafe and Concessions are CASH ONLY. Seriously, everyone has to be sick of me complaining about it, but people still don't get it. First-timers, I'll allow. Well, only with Cafe. Cafe only has it written once or twice, and then you only really see when you reach the register. With Concessions, we have a sign when you enter the line, a notice on the price board, a sign on the pillar between concession ordering and paying windows, and a last notice on the register itself. So no sympathy, especially when it says in BOLD "Cash Only" and yet people still ask if we take FSU card or any kind of card at all. There are even those special few who, having walked past and seen the signs, ask if we are STILL cash only, as if we would have changed to accepting cards and yet have left the signs up.
Two, we only accept the currency of the United States of America, and no bill larger than a $20 one. Yes, I have to be that specific. We accept your dollar coin, your Susan B. Anthony coin, and your JFK half-dollar. We even accept the $2 bill. Just no $50s or $100s. Who really walks into a bank and asks for that large of a bill anyway? Anyway, why do people try to pay in foreign currency? I haven't had the euro, I'm waiting for it (don't do it after reading this or I'll "spill" your soda on ya) but I have had CANADIAN currency. If you are the girl I just talked to today, don't feel bad for trying to use a Canadian quarter (it is similar to the U.S. quarter after all) but you should feel bad for trying to get me to accept it afterwards. Canadian currency is not equal to U.S. currency (ever wonder why your book has two prices on the cover? The larger one is Canadian). I can feel the weight difference (Canadian is lighter) and even though state quarters help camouflage it, our money doesn't have a queen on it! The first time someone used a Canadian quarter, I didn't catch it till afterwards, so we lost money, but I HAVE caught four more and told their owners to pony up U.S. money fast or be denied their food. Also, your friend telling me she passes off pesos at other places just puts me on guard to catch those as well.
So please, bring cash. We are cheaper than a commercial theater, and the profit from concessions pays for staff and helps pay for movies. New blockbusters are EXPENSIVE and we try not to use up your SGA fees on just movies. It's not that hard to carry the $9 you would spend on a movie ticket and use it to buy a large popcorn and two large drinks. If you come to the movies with friends who talk about getting popcorn, please remind them we are cash only, so I don't give them a dirty look when they order or stand in line for 10 minutes without realizing we are cash only.
Quick, third note. $0.50 popcorn is GONE. It's over, we have a new special. It's on the front of the schedule. Every Tuesday and Saturday is 50% Small Popcorn and Small Soda special. Normally, a Small Popcorn is $2.75 and a Small Soda is $2.25. That is $5 total. At 50%, that is $2.50. This, for those not current in economics or math, is a $0.25 popcorn special. We made it CHEAPER! Stop complaining.
Thank you, and come to the Middle East Film Festival.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Getting ourselves out there!
So I'm working in fits and starts, but it's happening. As Vice Chair of PR (Marketing) I'm the one doing the facebook, youtube, and blog happenings. Your updates? Most likely me. Wanna know what some movie is on our schedule? If it's not a Monday movie, I posted a trailer to our youtube page. Look, I'm blogging right now.
New features on the facebook fan page: discussion board topics for all fans to request movies for Classics and Midnights. In no way does this beat actually coming to Film Committee meetings (details when you ask the next time you come to a movie), but it makes more people feel involved and takes some strain off of us. Also, this blog is now an RSS feed into the Fan Pages Notes. Easy access. Upcoming, more photos and some video of SLC and its events.
I'm also working on getting us on IMDB.com as well as other movie websites, so our $5 ticket price for non-students gets more action. Anyone who wants to spread the word is also more than welcome, First Friday at Railroad is a great place to start.
How many people like or don't like the new names for popcorn and soda sizes at our concessions stand? It seemed to fall in place easy enough, though I expected more people to be using the new names.
One last note, people who show up to a movie and are upset that they can't get in. Do you know why they can't get in? It's a packed house. Or they cut in line. If you show up to a movie right at start time, you better hope no one else wanted to see the movie. We open the doors for seating 30 minutes before start time, and by that time we usually have a line. Also, the late showings of movies always are the most filled. If you want to try and guarantee a seat for yourself, show up to the early show and make sure it's a half hour before the movie starts. Don't complain to us that you ran over from somewhere to just get there 5-10 minutes AFTER the movie started. If there are seats, we'll let you in. If not, too bad. We try to show movies at multiple times, on multiple days, just so the highest number of people can see it. We aren't keeping you out on purpose.
Concessions closes 30 minutes after the last show of the night begins...and is CASH ONLY.
This week, 3:10 to Yuma was badass, The Fall was beautiful imagery, Open Mic night needs performances (I know there have to be more people on campus who wanna get on stage), Get Smart looks extremely funny, the ADVANCED SCREENING of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is expected to have enough people show up to fill the theater to capacity at least twice over (so get there as close to 3pm as possible, for it's 5pm start time), and we know everyone is coming out for Donnie Darko. Is this an awesomely scheduled week or what?
New features on the facebook fan page: discussion board topics for all fans to request movies for Classics and Midnights. In no way does this beat actually coming to Film Committee meetings (details when you ask the next time you come to a movie), but it makes more people feel involved and takes some strain off of us. Also, this blog is now an RSS feed into the Fan Pages Notes. Easy access. Upcoming, more photos and some video of SLC and its events.
I'm also working on getting us on IMDB.com as well as other movie websites, so our $5 ticket price for non-students gets more action. Anyone who wants to spread the word is also more than welcome, First Friday at Railroad is a great place to start.
How many people like or don't like the new names for popcorn and soda sizes at our concessions stand? It seemed to fall in place easy enough, though I expected more people to be using the new names.
One last note, people who show up to a movie and are upset that they can't get in. Do you know why they can't get in? It's a packed house. Or they cut in line. If you show up to a movie right at start time, you better hope no one else wanted to see the movie. We open the doors for seating 30 minutes before start time, and by that time we usually have a line. Also, the late showings of movies always are the most filled. If you want to try and guarantee a seat for yourself, show up to the early show and make sure it's a half hour before the movie starts. Don't complain to us that you ran over from somewhere to just get there 5-10 minutes AFTER the movie started. If there are seats, we'll let you in. If not, too bad. We try to show movies at multiple times, on multiple days, just so the highest number of people can see it. We aren't keeping you out on purpose.
Concessions closes 30 minutes after the last show of the night begins...and is CASH ONLY.
This week, 3:10 to Yuma was badass, The Fall was beautiful imagery, Open Mic night needs performances (I know there have to be more people on campus who wanna get on stage), Get Smart looks extremely funny, the ADVANCED SCREENING of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is expected to have enough people show up to fill the theater to capacity at least twice over (so get there as close to 3pm as possible, for it's 5pm start time), and we know everyone is coming out for Donnie Darko. Is this an awesomely scheduled week or what?
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
HD - BS Buzzword
It's been on my mind since I can remember, what is High Definition? The generic answer that the guys at Best Buy will tell you, is that it's about the pixels, specifically, the height of the video. DVD is at 480 lines, most downloadable content runs 720 (whether it's VOD, streaming, or a good old fashioned download), and Blu-Ray boasts 1080 lines of resolution.
But here's the funny thing, I can rip a DVD to my computer and then re-encode it to a 720 or even 1080 size picture. Guess what happens then? I could legitimately sell that movie (assuming I had the distro rights to do so) and call it "High Def." Is that a load of crap? Absolutely.
So where's the real kicker for High Def? It's in the bitrate, to some degree. I'm not saying size doesn't matter, it does (no matter what your mother told you), but the human eye can't even tell the difference between 720 and 1080 if the screen is smaller than 38 inches (and I doubt you've got 38 inches).
So what is bitrate? Bitrate is the amount information the video actually holds. You're probably familiar with this term from the copious amounts of CD ripping you did in middle school (or gradeschool, god I'm old). The higher the bitrate, the better the sound, the bigger the file. This is especially so for video, most people can recognize quality differences in video than in audio, and video has a lot more info.
So why is HD BS? Because the companies telling you that it is the latest and greatest aren't talking about High Def, they're talking about a buzzword they can use for marketing. This buzzword makes you buy tons of new techie toys and allows them to charge more for a product. Don't believe me? Here are some numbers from George Ou.
As you can see, HD is nothing more than a marketing trick to fool the innocent and weak. Trust in the companies providing HD content? I won't, not for now, except perhaps for Sony (developers of Blu-Ray). But Blu-Ray has less fan 5 years of life left in it, replacements have already been developed. See Ultra High Definition Video.
The bigger problem is America's infrastructure. At the dawn of the internet, we were kings. Now, we have some of the slowest bandwidths, up and down. The beautiful thing is that the providers are investing nothing to fix that, in fact they are doing quite the opposite by instituting bandwidth caps. This means when physical media dies, and believe me it will in the next 10 years, and all we're left with are downloads, they're either going to look like crap or eat up all your bandwidth.
So the next time your cable company tells you it's added more HD programming, it's because they've actually lowered all the bitrates to be able to fit said programing through their shamefully unimpressive bandwidth. The next time you pay more for an HD stream or download, remember that the quality isn't even as good as DVD (which is more than a decade old). Well, America seems to be failing at a lot of things lately, why not fail at the internet and video as well.
But here's the funny thing, I can rip a DVD to my computer and then re-encode it to a 720 or even 1080 size picture. Guess what happens then? I could legitimately sell that movie (assuming I had the distro rights to do so) and call it "High Def." Is that a load of crap? Absolutely.
So where's the real kicker for High Def? It's in the bitrate, to some degree. I'm not saying size doesn't matter, it does (no matter what your mother told you), but the human eye can't even tell the difference between 720 and 1080 if the screen is smaller than 38 inches (and I doubt you've got 38 inches).
So what is bitrate? Bitrate is the amount information the video actually holds. You're probably familiar with this term from the copious amounts of CD ripping you did in middle school (or gradeschool, god I'm old). The higher the bitrate, the better the sound, the bigger the file. This is especially so for video, most people can recognize quality differences in video than in audio, and video has a lot more info.
So why is HD BS? Because the companies telling you that it is the latest and greatest aren't talking about High Def, they're talking about a buzzword they can use for marketing. This buzzword makes you buy tons of new techie toys and allows them to charge more for a product. Don't believe me? Here are some numbers from George Ou.
As you can see, HD is nothing more than a marketing trick to fool the innocent and weak. Trust in the companies providing HD content? I won't, not for now, except perhaps for Sony (developers of Blu-Ray). But Blu-Ray has less fan 5 years of life left in it, replacements have already been developed. See Ultra High Definition Video.
The bigger problem is America's infrastructure. At the dawn of the internet, we were kings. Now, we have some of the slowest bandwidths, up and down. The beautiful thing is that the providers are investing nothing to fix that, in fact they are doing quite the opposite by instituting bandwidth caps. This means when physical media dies, and believe me it will in the next 10 years, and all we're left with are downloads, they're either going to look like crap or eat up all your bandwidth.
So the next time your cable company tells you it's added more HD programming, it's because they've actually lowered all the bitrates to be able to fit said programing through their shamefully unimpressive bandwidth. The next time you pay more for an HD stream or download, remember that the quality isn't even as good as DVD (which is more than a decade old). Well, America seems to be failing at a lot of things lately, why not fail at the internet and video as well.
Friday, September 5, 2008
In a world where...
In a world where movie trailers can make or break a film, one man stood out: Don LaFontaine. His long and prolific career (over 5,000 movies) earned him the nickname "The Voice of God."
according to the BBC:
"LaFontaine died in the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday from complications caused by an ongoing lung-related illness, his agent said."
He was 68.
LaFontaine's voice can be heard on such memorable trailers as The Godfather Part 2, Batman Returns, Shrek, and Independence Day among many many others.
He is survived by a wife and three children.
In memory here are some fun links, the first is his version of the pledge of allegiance, which puts all my forced recitations in grade school to shame:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfjZj4NY7EM&feature=related
the second is his Geico Ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJMGS7l0wT8&feature=related
The third is 5 Guys in a Limo, where Don LaFontaine, John Leader, Al Chalk, Mark Elliot, and Nick Tate (all voice-over stars) display their unique talents to comedic effect
The New York times has a rather touching obituary:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/arts/television/03lafontaine.html?_r=1&ref=movies&oref=slogin
And the BBC's obituary has more information on some aspects of his life and death:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7595352.stm
according to the BBC:
"LaFontaine died in the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday from complications caused by an ongoing lung-related illness, his agent said."
He was 68.
LaFontaine's voice can be heard on such memorable trailers as The Godfather Part 2, Batman Returns, Shrek, and Independence Day among many many others.
He is survived by a wife and three children.
In memory here are some fun links, the first is his version of the pledge of allegiance, which puts all my forced recitations in grade school to shame:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfjZj4NY7EM&feature=related
the second is his Geico Ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJMGS7l0wT8&feature=related
The third is 5 Guys in a Limo, where Don LaFontaine, John Leader, Al Chalk, Mark Elliot, and Nick Tate (all voice-over stars) display their unique talents to comedic effect
The New York times has a rather touching obituary:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/arts/television/03lafontaine.html?_r=1&ref=movies&oref=slogin
And the BBC's obituary has more information on some aspects of his life and death:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7595352.stm
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