Camera incident at movie theater.

[a1rabbit]

Here's the story from my blog, I thought I'd share it with all of you and see what your thoughts are, how you would handle the situation, if you'd feel the same way as me or if you'd have caved and handed over your camera without question or taken it to your hot car in a high theft area without camera insurance.

Pirates of the Caribbean...
2007-05-26 11:25:21


Full sized picture here.

I know what you're thinking "This picture has nothing to do with Pirates of the Caribbean you idiot! And the picture is not even that great to make up for it!", you're right. This is a poster of Mr. Die Hard himself, Bruce Willis. So what your asking now is "Why Ian, why would you post a picture of Bruce Willis and title it 'Pirates of the Caribbean?'" Let me tell you why.

The other night I went to the first showing of Pirates 3 with my girlfriend, the night turned out to be an experience I'd rather have missed out on, not because the movie was bad but because the quality of service at the theater was sub par. As you can probably guess I have a camera, shocker right? Well I took my camera with me to this opening as typically you can get some good people shots, people dressed up like pirates, people acting foolish, etc. I don't necessarily go to movies when they open just to see the movie, there are times I go to witness the atmosphere created by the fans.

Unfortunately there was no atmosphere at this opening other than the poor one created by the obvious uncaring of the theater staff. They did not rope off designated line well, they used a yellow rope and a curb which might be high quality service for Sports Day in elementary school but not for an opening release movie.

It was nearing 6pm, the line was getting hungry and in need of nourishment, myself and a few random people made our way inside to get some grub where we were greeted with a new cashier who took ages to serve a single person, not his fault for being new though. It was during this escapade that the theater staff decided to allow everyone in without notice nearly two hours early, many people who had been in the front of the line ended up missing out on their pick of quality seating due to not having their ticket on them, in my case I had the tickets in my pocket and my girlfriend who was in line to save our spot did not have hers to be allowed in. At other openings I've been to they typically give a warning of 15 minutes before they allow people into the theater so that those whom have left the line for a bathroom break or food have time to get back and be rewarded for their ridiculously long wait for the perfect seat.

Once into the theater we found some seats we could deal with and proceeded to eat, this is when the hostess and manager decided to do bag checks and when my night went from bad to worse. I was there with my camera bag strap wrapped around my ankle so I'd not forget it when I left or have it snatched silently during the movie. A flash of light hits my face; I think I'm being pulled over for speeding and am trying to find my insurance papers, oh right! I'm in a movie I thought to myself, this is the hostess blinding me with her light and telling me I can't have a camera in the theater.

I show her the camera and explain that it's incapable of recording video, she tells me to take it to my car and I refuse, I tell her I'm not leaving a camera in my car that I've not had a chance to put insurance on yet. Her only other response is that she must confiscate it; to which I reply, "Does your theater have insurance for a $1500(cdn) camera and gear if it’s lost or damaged?" she says "no..." at this point I offered her my battery and memory card, thus making my camera inoperable… She refused.

I asked to talk to a manager, a nice fellow actually and probably the only saving grace of the night. He comes over to me and stands beside his hostess, by this point I have a small audience watching our dispute. The manager blurts out something about not allowing cameras, signs and the sort. I asked if he would be asking everyone with a cell phone to put it in a box or take it to their cars, since you know, almost every cell phone now has a camera built in. His face went blank, the hostess had a look of shock as the audience around me laughed and blurted out "Ya, why don't you take everyone’s camera!", they responded with the only answer they could... "No, we won't take everyone’s cell phones.....". It's an obvious answer really, but it seemed like they had never been faced with that question before. The manager said he would put my camera in the theaters safe, and although I was not thrilled with the idea I am not one to cause more of a scene than what was already created and I quickly agreed to the terms. I talked to the manager on the way to and from the safe, he said I was right and they have had problems in the past with people recording cell videos or photos and uploading them to sites right from the theater seats. He obviously understood my plight and I understood his predicament.

When I came back from depositing my camera in the safe I had a couple people confront me and tell me that I was right, that taking my camera away from me was not fair if they were not going to take everyone’s cell phone too. While we talked about it a couple flashes went off from other cameras throughout the theater. They went on to tell me that once I showed them my camera bag and left to take it to the safe that the hostess pretty much stopped checking any other bags, I guess I was the example for the event which probably bugged me more than anything else.

Although the customer is NOT always right they still deserve to be treated fairly and just and equally to all other individuals present, in this case at the theater… They should not pick and choose when to enforce rules or who to enforce them on. They can’t just enforce these rules here and there when it suits them, I could have gone to any other movie that night and not had my bags checked, and I never have before, at least not at a theater.

As for the photo of Mr. Die Hard, It was sadly the best photo opportunity of a night that should have been more than it was.

[Dennis+]

I was once in a similar situation. We went with our DJ-crew to something called the MediaMarkt in Germany. This is a nice store with lots of electronics and cd-singles. So we always went there to check out the latest hits.

Once I took my camera with me because we made a whole day out of it and I thought it would be funny to capture things on film. We had a blast, searching for music and the staff at the store even took pictures from us.

Then this security guy walks up to me and demands me to give him the camera. He was quite agitated while I remained calm. I asked him why I should do this and he told me picture taking wasn't allowed.

However, there were no signs at the entrance prohibiting people from taking pictures. The store manager quickly came and explained that they would not allow it because of the risk security measures were photographed. This sounded plausible to me and at this point I showed them the photo's so he could see it was only us on the picture.

Still, he wanted me to delete them and I refused. He became agitated to and threatened to call the police. I politely told him to do so, because there was no sign at the door prohibiting picture taking. I also told him that the police couldn't do much about that. He finally agreed if I would not to take anymore pictures, an offer which I accepted.

After a few weeks we came back and there was a large sign at the door: NO Camera's

[a1rabbit]

Ya, that is similar except you were right in the fact that they had no signs posted, I'm glad you got to keep your pics and they let you go about your business. The theater on the other hand does have signs that say no cameras. But I was not going to leave my camera in the hot car in a high theft area without insurance. I knew it was not allowed, but I've done it countless times before, even at openings.

The funny thing is they did not check my girlfriends bag which on any other day would have had our camcorder in it, we just happened to forget it at home.