Comments on: This Will Go Over Well, We’re Sure: Michael Bay Writes To Theater Projectionists

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

Michael Bay is a terrible director, but that projectionist comes across as a smug loser who can\’t show basic respect to one of the people who provides him with a job. I won\’t see Transformers 3, and the sooner Bay\’s career ends the better, but I\’m glad someone actually cares about giving the audience the best theater experience possible. Cinephiles should be thanking Michael Bay for this.

By: Carl Fake

Carl Fake — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

I\’m not sure if \’The Playlist\’ is just going along with the gag,
or if they really didn\’t notice Carl Fake\’s phone number had
555 in it. Maybe the last name would have been a clue.

By: BJ

BJ — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

How about 2D?

By: Eddie

Eddie — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

wait. I don\’t get it. Am I reading the Onion? This is just manufactured news bullshit to make fun of Michael Bay. If you pay to see a Michael Bay movie, you know what to expect. So, what\’s the point in slamming the guy, especially with a lame fake letter that sounds like it came from some film school dropout who doesn\’t have the guts to do anything of real value with their life. dumb.
Do I expect to have an out of body, spiritual experience on a rollercoaster? no. Well, that\’s a Michael Bay film. A rollercoaster. Amusement, not high ART. Accept it for what it is. I think I\’ll probably like the movie, cuz sometimes I like a good rollercoaster ride and I don\’t expect it to be a religious experience. jeez.

By: Jafarius the Liontamer

Jafarius the Liontamer — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

Seriously loved that response fromt he PjGA, but all fun aside, TURN UP THE DAMN PROJECTOR LIGHT IN EVERY THEATER I\’VE BEEN TO IN THE LAST 5 YEARS!!! Everything looks like it\’s in the damn shadows, Michael Bay may be a horrible screenwriter and a hack at directing, but he\’s right as right can be about this, I\’m tired of poorly lit projectors in the movie theaters.

By: joeyjojo

joeyjojo — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

I think the real difference between Malick and Bay is that Malick\’s movie might actually play in theaters that employ projectionists.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

Seriously, what the hell? Are we supposed to piss on Michael Bay whenever he does anything? Can we not acknowledge this as at least a half-step in the right direction?

By: Mr. Arkadin

Mr. Arkadin — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

Bay should also personally visit homes and calibrate home-cinemas (i.e. TVs), because most people have no fucking clue and everything looks like shit.

anyway nice story 😉

By: Revenant Shadow

Revenant Shadow — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

THAT was a superb retort,Mr. Fake!

By: Kimber Myers

Kimber Myers — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

Nice reporting, Oli!

By: Edward Davis

Edward Davis — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

Major LOLS at Kyle.

By: DS

DS — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

So what you\’re saying is that for Terrence Malick, who is without question a better filmmaker than Michael Bay, is less of a dick for sending out a letter to projectionists saying \”I\’d like my film to look this way,\” since he hasn\’t made a film in six years, as opposed to Michael Bay, who\’s worked hard to deliver a specific visual experience on a film that is admittedly based on a toy line, but is nonetheless important to the filmmaker, and is more of a dick for sending a letter to projectionists detailing how he\’d like his film to be presented because he\’s not Terrence Malick?

That\’s like if you\’re at a dinner party, and your kid, who often accompanies you to dinner parties, bites a guest, and everyone says, \”What a shitty kid, he bit that guest,\” only to see another kid bite another guest, but excuse his behavior on the grounds that \”He hasn\’t been to a dinner party in five years. He doesn\’t know any better.\” Maybe he hasn\’t, but it doesn\’t excuse the fact that he bit a guest. Filmmakers shouldn\’t tell projectionists how to present their films, but you can\’t blame them for wanting to hold that presentation to a certain standard. Many artists have certain standards for how they want their pieces to be presented. Even the sub-standard ones should be allowed to have as such.

By: astroboi

astroboi — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

The REAL projectionists union, IATSE, has so few members running shows that it\’s likely that the person showing YOU a video presentation is a minimum wage worker whose duties include taking tickets and cleaning up after the show. In all probability that person is not in the projection room during the show. If you experience a poor presentation when you sit through the show you paid eight or ten bucks per person to watch, thank the owners of the theater chain for canning the responsible adult who used to show your presentation. I won\’t call it a FILM as it probably isn\’t one. No, you are paying top dollar to watch someones tv. A big tv admittedly but thats what it is nowadays. Mr. Bay would be better off to send his letter to the purchasing agents of the theater chain who constantly order lamps with too low a wattage to be effective or the bean counters that require managers to milk ten thousand hours out of a lamp that is rated at three. \”childrens toy.\”….good one.

By: Papushi

Papushi — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

That Harmony Korine story sounds awesome.

By: MSJ

MSJ — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

Carl Fake?!!!!! Ahahahaha. If this \’Fake\’ person is real, though, he may have some issues. I am thankful that he merely expresses it in this letter, instead of a shotgun on a crowded theatre.

By: dudu

dudu — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

\”Also, congratulations are in order for making a movie based on a children\’s toy that\’s ten minutes longer than 2001!\”

By: Jenna

Jenna — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

This is pretty great!

By: Redletterprints

Redletterprints — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

SNAP.

Heart.

By: Edward Davis

Edward Davis — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

Wow, i tip my cap to you, Sir Lyttelton. Someone knight this man.

By: TJ

TJ — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:25 +0000

I\’m stoked. Now I need to find the nearest 6-foot lambert screen in my \’hood. I\’ll settle for nothing less.

By: C.C. Clark

C.C. Clark — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:24 +0000

What delicious irony that a relatively high tech, high maintenance operating technique like 3D should become all pervasive on the heels of the exhibitors firing all the qualified personnel who could have made it operate properly. I was involved in 3D presentation from 1970 on and it simply is beyond the \’ken\’ of the popcorn boy (or girl) who is in charge of running the machinery these days. It\’s rather like walking into a MacDonalds and demanding escargot and foie gras. Mr Bey would do well to revise his expectations for presentation because without the experienced and well trained (and believe or not, caring) projectionists to perform the necessary adjustments and the knowledge to run the equipment properly, the audience is pretty much doomed to sit in dark underlit theatres watching out-of-focus, out-of-frame, out of phase and out of sync presentations. They\’ll come away feeling nausea and headache from watching bad 3D and finally stop coming altogether (read: already happened). Believe me when I say that in my 40 odd years in the business, the ONLY real quality control was the projectionist. We wouldn\’t let management get away with the cheap-assed cut corner crap they\’re pulling on the audiences now, the good ones wouldn\’t, anyway. This is what we warned about. This is what paying top buck for a second-class product looks like. Get used to it Mr. Bey, it\’s going to get worse, much worse.

By: StanSki

StanSki — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:24 +0000

Carl Fake Rules! I love it when the working man cuts some self important douchbag down to turf level. I haven\’t been to a theater or rented any of the \’latest, coolest, magnificent, blah blah blah\’ movies in years. Moron-a-Vision doesn\’t impress me.

Bay\’s letter tells why. With \’directors\’ like him, who needs tampons.

By: Shani

Shani — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:24 +0000

1. The second Transformers movie was so bad that the visual effects were all it had going for it. Obviously under those circumstances, you\’d want them to look their best.

2. It\’s rarely projectionists who are responsible for dim images – it\’s the theater owners, who save money on their electricity bills by running the bulbs lower.

3. The Fake letter is just that. But it\’s hysterical, nonetheless.

By: Edward Davis

Edward Davis — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:24 +0000

@shani@ratphooey.com

re: 3) Glad someone is catching on.

By: Odemit

Odemit — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:18:24 +0000

As funny as Carl Fake\’s letter was, I sadly have to take Bay\’s side on this one.

About every second time I watch a movie in my city, it is the wrong lens, curtain isn’t open all the way, the room lights are left on, or the second real is played first. The camera\’s are run by 16 year olds who were given 5 minutes of training and aren’t paid enough to care.

One movie I was able to see the boom mike over every scene and even after complaining they never fixed it because the \”projectionist\” was too busy running the other 17 rooms in their super-ultra-mega-plex.

I’m sorry if the real projectionist got offended but I think it’s reached a point where directors *need* to take an interest in how their movies are actually being shown.