When Technical problems Arise.

One thing I noticed when I worked in the multiplexes and to a smaller extent at Western Film is that the audience usually thinks there is someone sitting watching the movie in the projection booth. When something goes wrong nobody goes out to the lobby to tell the staff. I've seen people sit as long as 20 minutes before someone let the staff know. That incident happened at the Wellington 8, the wrong lenses were being used so the picture looked all distorted. It was about 20 minutes into the movie before I got the call to fix it.
In a multiplex there is usually only one person running up to 12 theaters, sometimes more. Everything is automated so all he or she has to do is thread up and start the show. In some theatres you are lucky if they can stick around long enough to focus the picture.
We had a minor hiccup at Western Film last night. The power blinked for a split second. This can cause a couple problems. The lamp may go out and not come back on by itself. If the power is off long enough the platter can get shut off but the projector keeps going with the result of hundreds of feet of film on the floor.

When the power blinked last night the lamp went off but everything else kept going as usual. Our projectionist immediately went in and turned the lamp back on so the screen was dark for less than 30 seconds. The odd thing was that the power usually only blinks or goes off up there during thunderstorms. It wasn't raining. We are always extra vigilant watching the theatre during storms for exactly that reason.

I had a technical issue as an audience member once that was quite interesting. I went to see The Birdcage at a theatre that was downtown. Great theatre, I was so pissed when they tore it down. The movie was playing in DTS, one of the kinds of digital sound. A mistake had been made in the printing of the film so when the 4th reel came on the DTS was playing the sound from the first reel?! It actually matched nicely so no one noticed for a couple minutes until we started seeing people talk but hearing no dialogue. I figured out what was happening, it took me a minute or so to get out of the middle of the crowded theatre and past the upset patrons to tell the projectionist to turn off the DTS. Once he did everything was fine.

In short, if something goes wrong while you are watching a movie, let someone know!