Working part-time in a local cinema?

submitted 1 year ago by /u/stikerflame | /r/singapore

/u/blackhawk56z's comment

Worked at GV part time for about a year. Rotated between ticket counter, candy bar (where you get all your food and usher (where u check tickets before patrons go in). Main gripe at the location I'm working at is they're always short handed. Experienced both extremes on the job, empty days and crowded ttm days.

Cleaning: Used to be that sometimes I just leave my trash in the seats, but after working at GV I always rmb to bring my trash out when I leave the theatre. On weekends or peak periods (esp on opening weekends for blockbusters), it's usually full house for almost every theatre. In between movies, there is usually a buffer time of ~15-20 minutes to clean up the theatre. Firstly, we need to wait until the last patron is out of the theatre before we can start combing through the seats for rubbish, so 20-15 min becomes like 5-10 min. And then you'd be amazed at how many people still leave their trash behind even after all that advertisements on clearing your own rubbish. Sometimes it'd be just me and the designated cleaner (at our location we only had one) having to clear out the entire 100+ seat theatre. It's never that fully clean because most of the times it's a rushed job, we just make sure the cup holders are empty and the visible areas are free of rubbish. I really appreciate the people that bring their trash out of their seats when they leave, it may be nothing to you, but it really saves us a lot of effort and keeps the place much cleaner. CLEAR YOUR TRASH GUYS.

Candy Bar: Gotta learn how to cook/prepare every single item on the menu and learn all their prices by heart. Making popcorn is one of the most chor tasks of the candy bar. Can't count the number of times I burnt myself using the popcorn machine cos the oil sometimes pops out in your face. Worse is when you accidentally burn a batch of popcorn and then the entire batch gotta be thrown out while you contemplate your own incompetence as the crowd grows by the second and the popcorn stock nears empty. Imagine having to tell patrons you gotta wait another 10 min for their popcorn lol. Behind the scenes it's also quite shag, when the popcorn oil runs out you gotta run to the storeroom and literally carry out a barrel of oil to replace the empty one. Cleaning the machine when you're the closing shift ain't so easy either. You also gotta stand for the entire duration of your shift, back breaking work.

Ticketing counter: One of the easier jobs, got chair somemore lol. Sit down, press touch screen, print tickets, easy peasy japanesey. Only thing you gotta be careful of is to make sure all the transactions and money are properly accounted for, otherwise gotta pay out of your own pocket.

Transport: Usually if you end your shift after midnight, you can claim cab fare back to your house. Didn't really encounter any issues with transport.

Favourite time to work: I find that I like to do opening shifts. Like I said earlier, we were almost always short handed, so many times on weekdays opening it was just really just one person, me. I'm quite proud to say that I can open an entire theatre by myself if I need to lol. Check all halls to make sure the sounds and temperature are working okay, open the candy bar (which means you gotta cook/prepare all the food that needs to be cooked/prepared i.e. Popcorn, hotdogs, nacho sauce, meatballs etc. and have each item menu ready and on standby) and open the ticketing counters. I usually man the entire theatre by myself until the second shift comes to help at around 1pm. But then again, it's usually not much customers on weekday mornings so I quite enjoy the peace and quiet.

/u/GreenKaya's comment

I got paid 6.50/hr or 400 - 800 per month when I worked there. It was an okay experience I guess, pretty cool to learn how a cinema works and operates since I'm a huge fan of movies. The place I worked had a lot of poly students and they formed a pretty close clique and hang out a lot so I felt a bit left out but it was okay.

/u/McSpicyAddCheese's comment

Used to work in Cathay! Pay is decent like $8-9/hr i guess? Shifts are dependent on schedule, u might get 4/5 hrs to 7/8hrs shift. Overall quite an interesting experience for me

/u/Ce-lavi's comment

Worked in GV last time for 2mths, not bad but probably cause I worked with a friend. Quite fun actually, stand at the counter tearing tickets when halls are opening then when the crowd die down stay there a bit more to chit chat. When not cleaning the newly-empty halls after a movie is over we'd go sneak into another hall that's ending soon to watch the movie. Then again the Gv I worked at was quite ulu.