A company ( youknowwho) contacted me about a trailer check next week. What is that? Would i actually be able to watch a movie?

Trailer checks are the easiest checks to do. All you have to do is write down the names of each movie they show during the previews, normally on every screen the movie is actually playing on. Sometimes it will also ask you to note the audience reaction (if any) for each preview.

If it is a first show, you only have to check the trailer for the very first show of every screen. and the audience reaction. If it is not a first show, you will have to check the trailer of each show in every screen. Some require that you determine the demography of the attendees. The paperwork becomes available around the evening before the show.

As soon as the paperwork becomes available, check the times the movie will be scheduled to show. Sometimes they schedule it way ahead and the movie may not even be showing in that theatre on that very day. Update the status on your log each time.

It looks here like you are required to purchase tickets for EVERY showing of the movie. How in the world does one remain covert if evry 2 hours they are going to the ticket booth?

Oh you did not get the trailer check. Did you get the Blind Check or Comprehensive Check?
Your pay is so much more but they usually give those to seasoned checkers. Ask your scheduler. If there are more shows and screens, you may have to have a partner whose ticket will also be reimbursed. Check how many shows there are. You will be able to get around it. I have done that a number of times. I was nervous at first. And I also did not like the movie which I had to see a number of times. It helps if you like the movie. Is this the one where you have to count the patrons? When you read the directions, I think you don't have to purchase a ticket for every show, only for some.

Our trailer checker is very efficient she has looked at the schedule online and found when she can view the most trailers in the shortest amount of time. She comes to the box office an lets us know she's in the building. Sometimes she may leave and come back later if she cant beat a gap in the showings. After she's done she checks out and has one of the managers sign her sheets. Of course once in awhile we get a fresh one that wonders around lost and asking questions for half a day. I dont think this "shop" has any secret squirrel to it. If we are not showing the right trailers or something wrong with the ones showing we want to know it too.

Trailer=Preview= average 2.5 minute teaser about coming movies and attractions

Knowing the trailer time will help you figure how long you have to wait till you can get to another showing if they list the trailers they expect you to see.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2015 05:44PM by Vlade.

You need to safely allow 15 minutes between show times if they happen to be scheduled close to one another... amazed that nobody from the audience has ever asked me what I am doing, serious movie buffs included, and that is good because I don't want to create any competition.

Once management gets to know you well enough, you can stay and watch the movies or return on another night/ day.
But it takes a long time to gain that privilege.

There are a lot of different kinds of checks. Most are explained in this thread. The one where u have to go to every single showing of the movie takes (of course) all day over 12 hours. You just write down the movies that show in previews, and few other things about that show. The kind mentioned above where you have to buy tickets for each show, etc., truly takes two people. These are usually supposed to be covert checks. The most common kind of regular theater checks are just to go to the different PRINTS (digital, 3d, big screen) that is usually 2 or three movies, and write down the names of the previews shown, in order, and audience reaction. A few of these u have to go to the first show, whatever print it is. There are more than one company that does these, and they do them differently. I will do the trailer checks if the shows are not too far apart (with different prints). If I want to watch a movie, I usually ask the manager if it is ok to do so, and they always say it is.

@Arch Stanton wrote:

You need to safely allow 15 minutes between show times if they happen to be scheduled close to one another... amazed that nobody from the audience has ever asked me what I am doing, serious movie buffs included, and that is good because I don't want to create any competition.

Once management gets to know you well enough, you can stay and watch the movies or return on another night/ day.
But it takes a long time to gain that privilege.

You don't juggle? I usually get lucky that lots of my trailers that collide from different movies are in auditoriums right next to each other, so I bounce back and forth. If not, that's why I have webcams on the spare cellphones and set the phone in a front row seat...

Thankfully, the theater I have most of my morning checks in is in a commercial area, so not a whole lot of traffic on Friday mornings and people asking--usually they think I work there and assume I am there to answer their theater type questions. Sigh.

Oh, as for first checks mentioned above, while they are strongly preferred, you get what you can get sometimes. When I first started, I had a real day job (or was I in grad school by then and just staying up late to study?), so I got later showings. Saturday, I had a volunteer gig and came on to a theater just before noon ($10 bonus because my sidekick was in USVI for her daughter's wedding...nice). Not too shabby, because they had a 5:05pm showing that I had to get--three hours after the last of the midday bunch. Oh well, got an install and Friday's reports done in that time, since the site was down Friday night.

Oh, I don't watch too many movies, anyway, so I don't stay and watch. Now, Minions, Peanuts, Shaun the Sheep and Everest I may stay for when they are out. Then again, I rub shoulders with enough guest services types that I could probably take a movie in on their free movie privvies.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2015 08:36AM by AlfredB1979.

I don't watch the movie unless the shop requires it or I paid for the ticket. It is usually, specifically stated on the Authorization letter that the rep or his companion is not allowed to watch the movie. I follow the requirements even when the manager authorizes that I watch it. As in other similar threads of this nature, there are those who would find fault in this statement. But it really is not fair to the establishment and I don't want to have a record that they could point out if any part of the report is questioned. I remember reading somewhere here where they accused a shopper of watching the movie during trailer checks, that's why he was removed from the movie assignments.

There are other types of theatre shops where the patrons are counted and demography is considered. I don't want to be counted as a paying customer when I did not pay. If there are only a few patrons, the difference would be very obvious againts the establishments record and the poor shopper doing the tally has to explain the discrepancy. In the same show, there could be other shoppers doing their own type of theatre shop which reports on the audience and I would actually not be a legitimate part of that audience.

All I can say is I follow the dictates of the Guidelines and the Authorization Letter and I take them seriously.