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Background: I work as a security guard, for a large company. My company also provides security for some advance screenings of movies, which I've been doing on my days off for some extra hours and money.
I've worked at several different screenings. The security requirements are different for every movie. Generally speaking if I work at a screening and the movie is due to come out soon-ish, we have more relaxed procedures. I've worked at a few movies where we only had a guard in the projectionist booth and a guard or two in the theater (with night vision goggles), making sure people aren't using their phones, tablets, or other recording devices in the theater.
Then we have screenings of movies where the movie isn't even due to be released until next month. We have stricter security procedures for those, and those are where we deal with the majority of the sucky movie customers.
At the really advanced screenings our procedures are that we have a guard (or 2) scan people with a metal detecting wand, then if they have a cell phone with a camera, or a tablet, or any type of recording device they must leave it with us or bring it to the car. We also look in all purses and bags. We do not touch them, we ask the person to open it, and we look inside to make sure they haven't stashed anything in there they shouldn't have. We always announce this stuff ahead of time so people can bring their stuff back out to their car, and so they can't claim they didn't know.
Also the majority of the people who attend these screenings, received free tickets, and it's printed on the tickets, that no phones, tablets, or recording devices will be allowed.
We had a guy who was angry with us for having the nerve to search his briefcase. He yelled that, "It's only books! I'm allowed to have books in there for god's sake!" If you intend to bring a bag into the theater it's going to get searched, regardless of what you claim is inside.
We also had one woman who refused to leave her cell phone with us or take it out to her car. She told us she was going to complain at the box office because it was ridiculous. Lady we don't set the rules, we just enforce them, and the theater didn't set the rules either, the studio did. She complained to the box office, and they refunded what she had spent at the concession stand but that was it.
I dealt with one girl who didn't want to give me her phone. Ok, fine, you can put it in your car if you'd like. She doesn't have a car.. She demands an explanation. I tell her that since this is an advance screening, the studio has decided not to allow camera phones, tablets or recording devices. This explanation wasn't good enough for her. She told me the reason I gave her was stupid and demanded a better explanation. I repeated myself again, and told her she would have to leave the cell phone with us or not be allowed in to the movie. She went storming off to the end of the hallway to call her dad and whine about how mean we were for not letting her have her cell phone and what should she do. She wound up leaving the phone with us, but given the death glares she was shooting us, she was not happy about it.
When people would leave their phones with us, we had them fill out a waiver. It basically says we're not responsible for your phone if something happens to it, and if you forget it, then we will take it to our main office, and you will have to go there to pick it up. It also had a part at the bottom where people would print their name, sign it, leave an alternate phone number, then put the date.
We had several people who didn't know what the term alternate phone number meant. We also had several people who thought that the form stated we would accept all liability for their phones, and give them a replacement phone or money for a new phone if theirs was lost. No, that's not how it works, read the form.
And people who would complain that they had never had to deal with this before and they'd went to a theater that was owned by the same company in a different city and they didn't have to deal with these security measures. Yeah well we have no control over that. Then there were the people who asked if we have ever lost a cell phone. Nope, not yet...
In addition to making everyone fill out a waiver we also gave them half a ticket stub while we kept the other half and put the phone, waiver, and ticket together in a Ziploc baggie, to make it easier to keep track of everything. We also had two guards, one male, one female watching the phones at all times. (We put them all in a see through plastic tote).
At the end of the movie, people came back out and we asked them to read off the last 3 digits of their ticket, then we would find the matching ticket, and phone number. People were really impatient to get their phones back. Multiple people tried putting their hands in the tote, to just grab their phones out. We had to tell them multiple times, that they weren't allowed to put their hands in the tote, they could point to their phone, but that was it.
People were also ignoring us about reading off their ticket numbers and would just yell, Oh I have the IPhone, yeah and so do about 20 other people, that doesn't help any. It was helpful when people would describe the color, or appearance of it a bit, but we still had to verify the tickets matched up, because I could easily see someone trying to get a new and upgraded phone out of the deal.
We also had people panicking because they were the first ones to drop their phones off, and the first ones to come pick them up, and their phones were buried at the bottom of the tote, and it took a few minutes of searching to find the right one.
It was kind of hectic and busy but everyone did get their phones back, none were lost, stolen, or forgotten. We did let people bring in their phones if they didn't have a camera, and were turned off, or if they had a valid reason for needing one. Saying, "My phone is like my child, I can't live without it," (yes multiple people said that), isn't a valid reason. The guy who worked for the Department of Homeland Security (he showed us his ID card too), had a valid reason.
It's fun and I get to see movies early and for free and I get to make some extra money out of it. I just forgot how annoying dealing with the public can be.
I've worked at several different screenings. The security requirements are different for every movie. Generally speaking if I work at a screening and the movie is due to come out soon-ish, we have more relaxed procedures. I've worked at a few movies where we only had a guard in the projectionist booth and a guard or two in the theater (with night vision goggles), making sure people aren't using their phones, tablets, or other recording devices in the theater.
Then we have screenings of movies where the movie isn't even due to be released until next month. We have stricter security procedures for those, and those are where we deal with the majority of the sucky movie customers.
At the really advanced screenings our procedures are that we have a guard (or 2) scan people with a metal detecting wand, then if they have a cell phone with a camera, or a tablet, or any type of recording device they must leave it with us or bring it to the car. We also look in all purses and bags. We do not touch them, we ask the person to open it, and we look inside to make sure they haven't stashed anything in there they shouldn't have. We always announce this stuff ahead of time so people can bring their stuff back out to their car, and so they can't claim they didn't know.
Also the majority of the people who attend these screenings, received free tickets, and it's printed on the tickets, that no phones, tablets, or recording devices will be allowed.
We had a guy who was angry with us for having the nerve to search his briefcase. He yelled that, "It's only books! I'm allowed to have books in there for god's sake!" If you intend to bring a bag into the theater it's going to get searched, regardless of what you claim is inside.
We also had one woman who refused to leave her cell phone with us or take it out to her car. She told us she was going to complain at the box office because it was ridiculous. Lady we don't set the rules, we just enforce them, and the theater didn't set the rules either, the studio did. She complained to the box office, and they refunded what she had spent at the concession stand but that was it.
I dealt with one girl who didn't want to give me her phone. Ok, fine, you can put it in your car if you'd like. She doesn't have a car.. She demands an explanation. I tell her that since this is an advance screening, the studio has decided not to allow camera phones, tablets or recording devices. This explanation wasn't good enough for her. She told me the reason I gave her was stupid and demanded a better explanation. I repeated myself again, and told her she would have to leave the cell phone with us or not be allowed in to the movie. She went storming off to the end of the hallway to call her dad and whine about how mean we were for not letting her have her cell phone and what should she do. She wound up leaving the phone with us, but given the death glares she was shooting us, she was not happy about it.
When people would leave their phones with us, we had them fill out a waiver. It basically says we're not responsible for your phone if something happens to it, and if you forget it, then we will take it to our main office, and you will have to go there to pick it up. It also had a part at the bottom where people would print their name, sign it, leave an alternate phone number, then put the date.
We had several people who didn't know what the term alternate phone number meant. We also had several people who thought that the form stated we would accept all liability for their phones, and give them a replacement phone or money for a new phone if theirs was lost. No, that's not how it works, read the form.
And people who would complain that they had never had to deal with this before and they'd went to a theater that was owned by the same company in a different city and they didn't have to deal with these security measures. Yeah well we have no control over that. Then there were the people who asked if we have ever lost a cell phone. Nope, not yet...
In addition to making everyone fill out a waiver we also gave them half a ticket stub while we kept the other half and put the phone, waiver, and ticket together in a Ziploc baggie, to make it easier to keep track of everything. We also had two guards, one male, one female watching the phones at all times. (We put them all in a see through plastic tote).
At the end of the movie, people came back out and we asked them to read off the last 3 digits of their ticket, then we would find the matching ticket, and phone number. People were really impatient to get their phones back. Multiple people tried putting their hands in the tote, to just grab their phones out. We had to tell them multiple times, that they weren't allowed to put their hands in the tote, they could point to their phone, but that was it.
People were also ignoring us about reading off their ticket numbers and would just yell, Oh I have the IPhone, yeah and so do about 20 other people, that doesn't help any.
It was helpful when people would describe the color, or appearance of it a bit, but we still had to verify the tickets matched up, because I could easily see someone trying to get a new and upgraded phone out of the deal. We also had people panicking because they were the first ones to drop their phones off, and the first ones to come pick them up, and their phones were buried at the bottom of the tote, and it took a few minutes of searching to find the right one.
It was kind of hectic and busy but everyone did get their phones back, none were lost, stolen, or forgotten. We did let people bring in their phones if they didn't have a camera, and were turned off, or if they had a valid reason for needing one. Saying, "My phone is like my child, I can't live without it," (yes multiple people said that), isn't a valid reason. The guy who worked for the Department of Homeland Security (he showed us his ID card too), had a valid reason.
It's fun and I get to see movies early and for free and I get to make some extra money out of it. I just forgot how annoying dealing with the public can be.
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