Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Simple end to end process, good telephone support |
| Disadvantages: |
Boring assignments in antisocial hours |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
no |
You may well have noticed from my profile that I love going to see movies. In a bizarre, almost perverse kind of way, I enjoy bad movies almost as much as good movies and seem to have developed into something of an amateur critic. Traditionally, most of the films that I have watched have been on DVD or terrestrial television, but since I've been living in a city centre, I've found myself going to the cinema a lot more than I used to. The trouble is, going to the cinema isn't cheap. An adult ticket will set you back something between £3.50 and £6.00 per film, so if you go with someone else as I always do, you're looking at £10 a throw. The idea that I might be able get some of my movie fix for free was therefore rather appealing, and once I'd read about it, I signed up for www.cinecheck.com instantly. Apologies in advance for the length of this opinion, but there's quite a lot you should know before you hurtle off to sign up.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
www.cinecheck.com is the online branch of a company called Theatrical Entertainment Services - or TES from here on in. TES operates throughout the world, and employs thousands of representatives in various countries, who monitor the previews of forthcoming films and advertisements that are screened before the main feature in cinemas. The enormous throughput of cinema-goers on a weekly basis is such that advertisers are prepared to spend huge amounts of
money on getting their adverts shown before films, but they need to know that their money is well invested. Employees of TES compile market research information that enables their clients to measure how effective their advertising campaigns really are. In return, they get paid small fees for the checks, and as long as the cinema managers don't mind, they normally get to see the films for free too.
REGISTRATION AND GETTING STARTED
In order to register as a checker, you need to go to www.cinecheck.com and click the "Sign Me Up" link on the left-hand side of the screen. The web site is extremely basic in layout, comprising of a single home page with a handful of functional links according to your interest in the company. You will be asked for your basic personal details, as well as an email address to which all invites to do checking will be sent and which will be used as your user id if and when you log into the web site on a future occasion. Once you have registered all the necessary details, you get a confirmation message on the screen that confirms your registration and advises that the company will be in touch. It is then simply a case of sitting back and being patient.
I signed up early in January this year, but despite the fact that there were a number of major new film releases during the month, I heard nothing from that at all. By February, I was a bit puzzled and decided to give them a quick call to check that everything was in order. I was advised that the database of checkers is only updated on a monthly basis, and that as such, my details had only appeared in the active list of members in February. It was therefore not until March that I was finally invited to check a film. It's worth bearing this in mind if you are particularly keen to get going because it's likely that you'll need to wait at least a month before you hear anything from them.
MOVIE ALLOCATION
Movies are allocated by a small group of employees known as dispatchers. These people operate on a simple regional structure, and according to where you live you will be directed to the appropriate dispatcher for your area. When you undertake your first assignment, you are sent a user guide that clearly explains how things work and this states that each of the dispatchers operates according to their own preference. Some of them like the agents to contact them to get new assignments, whereas others prefer you to wait until they contact you. In all honesty, I haven't really established what my local dispatcher prefers as I have only undertaken one (joint) assignment and although this was sent to me via email, I suspect that regular checkers would want to contact him to beat the rush.
That aside, the process basically works like this. On a Tuesday or Wednesday an email is sent out to registered users advising them of a film that has become available for checking. The email details the name of the film, the pay rates applicable and links to each of the regional dispatchers email addresses. Also, there is another URL, which takes you to a list of participating cinemas. This is very important, because you cannot simply assume that your local cinema will be on the list every time. I've been invited to four films now, and on each occasion I can safely say that the list of participating cinemas in my area was completely different. There is a good geographic spread of cinemas taking part, but I did find that on two occasions, Manchester had nothing at all. The email advises that this may be due to the fact that cinemas in these areas have already been allocated. This again leads me to believe that some individuals have built up agreements with the dispatcher through regular assignments being completed. It's worth bearing in mind that the dispatchers don't get paid if you don't do your bit, so they are likely to allocate work more readily to people that they know they can rely on.
If you do find a cinema near you that's taking part, you can then email the dispatcher to register your interest or telephone them directly if you prefer. The first time that a film became available, I left a telephone message that somehow got lost, and as such the cinema I was interested in had already gone by the time I got a call back. The next time a cinema became available I made sure that I kept ringing until I got through. Indeed, more recent attempts have not enough resulted in a call back. Why they can;t allocate the visits online, I'm not entirely sure.
Once you have been successfully allocated a cinema, the dispatcher will then assign the work to you online. You then have to log in to the site, and print off the paperwork relevant to the cinema(s) that you are going to visit. The paperwork doesn't normally become available until a Wednesday afternoon, and needs to be downloaded separately for each cinema to be visited. The paperwork is normally just a simple template on which you record the details of the specific adverts and trailers that you see as well as the timings of the adverts and screening of the movie. It's all laid out in a very logical fashion, but my advice is to print two copies of everything - it will become clear why in a bit.
THE CHECKING PROCESS
For each assignment, your job will be to check the trailers and advertisements prior to a certain film in all the different screens on which the film is being shown. In small cinemas, this will only be 1 or 2, but in a big multi-screen complex, you could be tasked with checking five or more screens. It's worth bearing this in mind before you check the assignment. Part of your assignment paperwork is a letter of authorisation that you have to present to the cinema manager on arrival. This enables you free entry to the cinema, and you are also permitted to have a guest with you. The cinemas that I visited told me that I had to sit at the front, and it's worth bearing in mind that it is entirely at their discretion whether you can stay and watch the film or not after you have done your thing. When you have finished you need to get a manager's signature on your sheets to prove that you haven't made it all up. One manager rather comically asked me whether he had passed. When I answered, "Give me some free tickets and I'll let you know!" he didn't seem to see the funny side.
With each screening, you note the time the adverts start, the time the trailer starts, the time the movie starts and the details of each advert and trailer shown. There is normally a period of about fifteen minutes to spend checking, during which you tend to get about six minutes of adverts and eight minutes of trailers, but you have to ensure that you get there before the lights go down in each theatre. For me, this was a fairly comical affair, as my screenings were back to back for an hour and fifteen minutes, so I literally had to run from one screen to the next.
What you will normally find is that the adverts for each movie are always the same. I watched six screenings of the same movie and in each case the advertisements were identical. This meant, of course, that I had to sit through six excruciating showings of the same material, and as you can imagine, by the end of it all I was virtually reduced to a gibbering wreck. In once cinema, I had terrible trouble seeing a thing, and made a complete mess of the sheet because I couldn't see what I was writing. As the paperwork has to go back to TES with a manager's signature on it, it is for this reason that I recommend you print two copies, so that you can re-write them afterwards.
SUBMITTING YOUR RESULTS
The actual checking can be done any time between 17:00 on the Friday and 22:00 on the Saturday, but you should note that the results need to be submitted to TES online or over the phone by 22:00, so you need to allow time to do this. The online data entry is identical to the sheet, with simple text boxes for the times and details of the adverts, which you then submit into the database. For my assignments, they only wanted to know what the adverts are, but there are also columns for noting audience reaction to each of the trailers and on some assignments you will be asked to complete this information too. If your
Internet connection goes tits up there is a free telephone number that you can call where somebody will note down your results for you.
Once this has all been done, you then need to post off the completed sheets to the company's head office. Your pay claim includes the cost of postage, so to keep the cost down, my advice is not to use recorded but get a proof of postage receipt in case things go missing. The company is insistent on prompt returns of information and will actively pursue you if you miss deadlines. Even though I had submitted in plenty of time, I got a phone call on Sunday morning to ask where my returns were. They quickly realised their mistake and apologised, but I was surprised at how keen they were.
PAYMENTS
OK, here's the deal. You get a basic payment for each cinema that you visit (normally around £10) and then an increment of something like £1.50 for each additional screen that you do. You also get paid £1.00 for the online data entry. Overall, for a visit that involved two cinemas and six screens, I think I got paid just over £20. (You could add to this the fact that I could have got tickets for two people for two different films, which is worth another £20 as well.) Payments are made monthly into your bank account, and are subject to tax and NI deductions. When you sign up for the site, you have to send off either a copy of your P46 or a P45 if you have no other employment at the time. This results in a fairly significant deduction from what is basically a low rate of pay - something to consider before you sign up. It's also worth bearing in mind that you cannot claim anything back for costs incurred travelling to the cinema or for the cost of postage for returning the completed paperwork.
SUPPORT
The end to end process is well supported and very robust. My local dispatcher explained things to me very clearly and responded promptly to emails with questions. There is also a head office help line number, which is manned during office hours and the advisors there have always been very helpful too. The web site is quite simple, but logically laid out and I had no issues with the data entry. The user guide sent to you when you first sign up really gives you everything you need to know. As all the contact numbers are free, there is no cost associated with contacting the company.
IS IT WORTH IT?
The resounding answer to this question for me is no. There are a number of reasons why this is the case.
Firstly, the rate of pay is not reflective of the effort required on the part of the checker. For £20, I spent an hour and a half watching (the same) trailers and adverts. I wasn't permitted to sit in the decent seats in the theatre, so had I stayed to see the movie (I decided not to in the end) I would have had a crap view anyway. Once the £20 has been subjected to tax, you might end up with £15 if you're likely - I think I ended up with about £12. From a personal perspective, I only did this to get in to see the film free, but the pain of the work was such that I just couldn't be bothered to stay. All in, I must have spent 3 hours working on the project, which works out at minimum wage pay rates. No thanks.
Secondly, I felt like a right tit. Given that the assignments have to be completed on a Friday or Saturday, you will be sharing the theatre with lots of people who are out at a normally sociable time. I was sat there on my own like Billy No Mates with a sheet of paper and a pen in my hand and I know that people thought that I was quite mad. Although the scheme suggests that you can take a mate, none of mine were keen to sit through loads of adverts, so whilst they were propping up the bar in the pub, I was sat watching the trailer for Kangaroo Jack for the sixth time. If I could have done it during the week, I might have felt less conspicuous.
Thirdly, I don't like the way that work seems to get allocated to people in different ways. The Printworks in Manchester is one of the largest cinema complexes in the UK, and yet it has only appeared on one of my invites. This suggests that there is a regular checker out there who always gets this cinema. You then start to feel as though you are being fed the scraps. The only local cinemas that tend to crop up on my invites are small, local places that I wouldn't be seen dead in.
In summary, I think TES have got a bit of a nerve. The reward for these surveys should be at an absolute minimum a payment plus vouchers to go and see the movie for free at a time to suit you. This means that you could watch the film at another time and you could get better seats. It seems only fair to me. As it stands, I really cannot understand why anyone would bother with this.
Not recommended
