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I hope there wasn't a B&E or something happening anywhere that might have need one of those four black and whites.

4 officers is highly excessive given that they only needed a single Arclight security dude to do the exact same job.

And the guy in this story isn't a journalist, it doesn't appear - not sure why that comparison is being raised.

The guy screwed up, and I'm glad they called him on it.

But, as the guy's defenders seem to suggest, it would be nice if Arclight staff were that hardcore about busting the annoying texters and so on. It's great they defend the corporations for piracy, but they're also supposed to be all about the viewing experience.

As far as press screenings, I have heard and seen several firsthand stories of security confiscating someone's cell phone only to ignore the actual camera right beside it in a handbag.

Consider this.

If I took a huge early video camera in to film American Werewolf off the screen (back when it seemed to take years for films to reach home video) and a staff member came up to me while filming and said "what are you doing" and I said "filming the movie" and he said "oh cool". And what if this was after already seeing the film 4 times in the cinema and then finally buying it on vhs for $89 and wearing the tape out from watching Agutters nude scene.

Was I a pirate if no one else watched that filmed version except me and a tree fell in the forest?

this one is so simple.

Leave your fucking cell phone in the car. Who the hell do you need to talk to between the car and the theater.

People went to the movies for decades before cell phones were invented. So why can't the rule be, 'hey you fucking moron, watch the movie, don't pick up your cell phone.' you don't need to check the time, see if anyone called, or read a text message. you are there to watch the movies. I don't care if he was there with Michael Gondry. Knowing a filmmaker should make him more sensitive to the death of the theatrical experience called by self important fucks who are too fucking stupid to realize that with great technology comes some responsibility.

"I didn't mean to call you a meatloaf, Jack!"

Totally unrelated. But speaking of the news that Invictus is the name of Eastwood's Mandela movie... I just randomly stumbled upon the fact that the Invictus poem was actually Timothy McVeigh's last statement at his execution.

This dude is damn lucky that the LAPD didn't Tase him and beat him to death.

Weird story this brought to mind:

Back in summer 2001, I went to see the Planet of the Apes remake with a bunch of friends. One of them was kind of an oddball, always had weird projects going. That day, he had been carrying around an old child-sized tape recorder with mismatched batteries, and recording different snippets of conversations and assorted noise -- basically gathering distorted sounds throughout the day. For what, I have no idea. Likely nothing.

So we went to the movies, and he brought in his tape recorder, carrying it around as he had been all day. None of us really thought much of it, and he certainly wasn't trying to hide it. We sat in the front row, and I guess he had it on his lap. The movie began, and an usher came in (actually came in! I haven't seen an usher during a movie more than a handful of times in the past five years) and seemed to be eying my friend. But didn't say anything, so again, I didn't think much of it.

A few minutes later, an usher came in again, and asked if my friend could come with him. He was escorted out. The rest of us were a little confused. A few minutes after that, another usher came in and asked the rest of us (four other guys) to also please come with him.

We exited the auditorium and found cops from the Albany sheriff's department, stern-faced and interrogating us about what we were doing in that movie. I don't remember exactly what they were asking, but they were basically assuming we were bootlegging the movie and threatening us -- not asking for an explanation, say, but asking for ID, acting as if we were lying from the outset, pretty much trying to scare us (success!), and eventually (after, I guess, no one "admitted" to the piracy that wasn't going on) telling us we had to leave, and if we asked for our money back, they'd press charges against our friend.

Apparently my buddy was taken into a room, they played back his distorted tapes (which I guess he had turned on during a noisy ape-fight part early in the movie) and were interrogating him about it ("are those ape noises on that tape?!"). Even though, you know, it should've been pretty clear at that point that an audio cassette of distorted ape noises was no kind of bootleg.

Basically, an usher saw my buddy with a tape recorder (which could not be used to bootleg anything for any number of reasons, and which he wasn't trying to hide at all), thought this was part of some kind of scheme to tape the audio of a movie and match it to a video someone else was making? Or something? And rather than saying "hey, you can't have that in here" or "hey, what are you doing?"... called the cops.

Obviously, he should not have brought a tape recorder into the theater in the first place, and one of us should've said "hey, is that going to get us in trouble?" (it honestly did not occur to us). But my sense of frustration was more that, seriously, an usher can't tell the difference between a Fisher Price audio tape recorder and, oh, I don't know, something that records VIDEO? Hell, even if you want to kick us out of the theater, why do you need to call the cops to do that?

Point is, I think these Arclight ushers probably overreacted but it seems like these cops handled matters *way* less dickishly during a time with far more piracy paranoia.

"this one is so simple.

Leave your fucking cell phone in the car. Who the hell do you need to talk to between the car and the theater."

such typical l.a. idiocy...some people actually take the train when going to the arclight...

yes, im sure the guy who came with Michael Gondry hopped a train to the arclight.

you'd be surprised who you see on the train....not everybody feels thay HAVE to drive in l.a. anymore.....
i'm always amused at the shock on publicist's faces when i turn down parking validation at an arclight screening because i *gasp* used public transportation and then walked two blocks....

Also, some people don't wanna get it stolen.

What I don't quite understand about it is that the ushers obviously saw him bring his phone out and take a photo (that they thought could be video) and yet they hovered around him for two minutes - wouldn't they have seen that he didn't have his phone out? And then why take him out of the movie towards the end?

ok, fine. let's assume there are those who do take the train and those concerned about having their phone stolen.

so i suppose if these environmentally consciouss, civic minded people could just exhibit some self control there wouldn't be an issue.

It's a very American trait: lack of self control. Just because you have a cell phone doesn't mean you need to use it whenever you feel the need.

I always think back to this one time at a screening of Daredevil. This guy gets on his phone an hour in and has a conversation at full volume.

"I'm at a movie."
"Daredevil"
"It ain't that good."

And when the crowd started to "Shhhhh" and ask him to be quiet, he exclaimed

"I pay my bill! I pay my bill! I can talk if i want!"

The combination of people unable to exhibit any control and a massive entitlement complex is killing the American filmgoing experience. I say "American" because the last time i saw a movie overseas, you could have heard a pin drop. People actually paid attention and posessed an attention span.

There's no excuse for the SNAP FLAP. Just a lot of excuse making.

Go to a movie and watch the movie. Put your fucking cell phone away. Consider there are people around you that may want to enjoy the movie and that by playing with your cell phone that you may be ruining the experience for someone else.

Consideration. It's not that complicated a concept.

Only an asshole takes a picture during a movie.

anghus wrote: The combination of people unable to exhibit any control and a massive entitlement complex is killing the American filmgoing experience. I say "American" because the last time i saw a movie overseas, you could have heard a pin drop."

I've been looking for someone to lead a movement. I handle more of the behind-the-scenes stuff if you wanna be the mouthpiece?

It's not that I'm not 100% behind you but I can see the convenience and legit circumstance for bringing a phone to the movies. 1) for the heavy lines/cattle call screenings. Sometimes you just gotta jump in line to be assured the chance of getting in. You could then use your phone to call your friends to find out if they're farther up or further back. Can't always jump out of line to look for them or you could miss out.

Along those lines, say you're planning to catch a flick and not sure about timing. Like rushing to make it after work. The phone can be used to say, "hey look, I'm still on the freeway. Go ahead and go in and I'll get there during the previews." Or say something like, "We didn't get tix for the 8 showing, we're in for 8:30. Did you get that? eight-THIRTY?" Or say where in the theater you might be sitting.

Relative necessities related to viewing the film. But otherwise I agree, an over inflated sense of self worth is the culprit that could be solved w/correcting physical reinforcement.

I don't care if you use your cell phone outside, at the box office, in the lobby, in the bathroom, walking down the hallway, even in the theater when the lights are still on. You're talking to somebody, I'm talking to somebody, who gives a shit really? Is it really going to fuck up me figuring out which famously funny actor is "T_M HA_K_" for the nine millionth time in a row?

But once the lights go down, your phone has to do the same. It's movie time, assuming that's what you're in the theater for, since you just took a Jaws-sized bite in the wallet like the rest of us. If your text messaging was so goddamn interesting, why didn't you save $20 to $30 dollars and sit in your car (sorry - or on the train)?

I wish to God that ushers could be given a device like those voice guns from "Dune" that would annihilate a person's phone when they say the words "SHUT THE FUCK UP", or "SELF IMPORTANT JACKHOLE". I'd even be open to the idea of federally subsidizing ex-sharpshooters (just the good ones) returning from Iraq or Afghanistan to be posted in the projection booth in order to take out the phones with rifles. And they should be paid a little extra if they can clip somebody's kneecap in the same shot (and DOUBLE extra if an iPhone's involved).

No warning shots from them either. The warning shot will be an usher that jogs up to the front of the theater just before starting time and fires a .357 Magnum at the crowd (it'll just be blanks, but the kid better keep the gun aimed high a little or you'll wind up Jon-Erik Hexum-ing the 13 year old Seuratophile that still loves sitting in the front row).

"But what do you think? What should be the applied standard for taking pictures of the screen in a movie theater in 2009?"

I was going to say they should get four LAPD police officers to come down to the theater for a half hour or so to make sure that the filmgoer gets to keep the picture and make it back to the movie in time to see the ending, but somebody stole my idea.

THE GUY WHO TOOK THE PIC IS A FUCKING ASSHOLE, and if some cocksucker lit up his fucking POLAROID while I was trying to watch a movie at the PREMIER VENUE IN LA and I was ASSIGNED-SEATED next to this smarmy asshole, I'd have thrown a haymaker, Gondry sycophant or not.

Which is code for, I would have SAT THERE IMPOTENTLY AND STEWED ABOUT IT FOR ALL 99 MINUTES, then gone back and paid ANOTHER 14.5O to see it a second time the next day, because this cocksucker RUINED THE MOVIE FOR EVERY SINGLE PERSON SEATED IN HIS VICINITY.

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