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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: TES - do they really want to solve problems?
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Brad Miller
Administrator
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Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 04-30-2001 08:11 PM
Ok I know these forums are flooded with anti-TES posts and no known projectionist likes having to deal with them, but this little scam of theirs has gone on long enough.Here's the senario. Film runs at a theater for a trade or press screening. Film is to open in a week, maybe two at that theater. The film received is a finished print and there are no lab defects in it. The theater is happy with it. ![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubb/smile.gif) Then on Monday the week after the screening playdate a call comes from TES. They have decided that instead of letting the theater keep the print, they want the film broken down on Tuesday for a late afternoon pickup. They assure the manager that the film will be returned to the theater on Wednesday. (Yes, the very next day!) So my big question here is: what in the hell are these people smoking? I have come up with a few reasons for them wanting to do this. (Please pardon my sarcasm.) Scenario #1 TES gets a percentage of that $18 per pickup and $18 per delivery from Airborne and they don't want to miss out on a single penny! Tell me I'm wrong here. Scenario #2 TES wants to ensure that all films are handled as much as humanly possible. The idea of an unnecessary breakdown and re-buildup intrigues them, as there is always the good chance that dirt and scratches will mark the print from such foolishness. (This idea stems from their "Integrity Inspections", of which everyone knows is a complete waste of an otherwise perfectly good sticker.) Scenario #3 TES knows this will waste the theater's payroll time to have someone break the print down and then rebuild it back up a day later. TES also knows that the theater will be charged an additional $36 to have that print picked up and re-delivered. (TES wants theaters who are running film to see how much cheaper digital projection will be by over-shipping film prints so they can implement their crappy video projectors.) Scenario #4 TES is actually not to blame, because Airborne has secretly broken into the TES computer systems and are churning up shipping business for themselves. (Hard to believe) Scenario #5 TES thinks that Tuesday night is the magical night of the week for bootlegging and that if a theater was actually going to commit this crime that Tuesday would be the only day they would consider doing it. (This of course stems from their practice of never delivering a print earlier than the afternoon before it must start playing. As if that would really stop a bootlegger. All that stops is the chance for a theater to replace a defective reel before the first public showing.) Scenario #6 TES employees hate projectionists. (This is evident from their choice of reels and "give us that print back 2 minutes after it finishes it's last run on the projectionist's busiest day of the week" philosophy. Then again, Thursday wouldn't be such a busy day if TES delivered prints a little earlier.) I'm sick to death of this. I've received press screening prints that are to run on Wednesday and they want the print back that night after the show...only to get that same print right back the next afternoon for it's regular playdate! I challenge a representative from TES to register and answer these kind of problems publicly RIGHT HERE in full public view. I know they read these forums from the web stats pages and within 24 hours I will know that they have read this specific thread. TO TES: If you guys are really serious about wanting to do a decent job of distributing film, come join us, listen to the complaints here, answer questions and help everyone to understand why you do the things you do, then do what it takes to solve any remaining issues. I think most people on this forum will wholeheartedly agree with me that the idea here is not to constantly complain, but to see some specific improvements so everyone's jobs will go smoother. Am I right? (I will register any representative from TES immediately upon receipt and verification. Please include your direct extension at the 1-800-99-FILMS number so I can verify you work there. I will not request any further information from TES reps for registration.)
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Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler
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Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 04-30-2001 09:33 PM
So, uh, we all know that the films aren't inspected, right Brad? Put together reels of dead trailers, slap the heads of the film du'jour on and put 'em in the can. (Be sure to weigh the film to match the print.)The print stays made up, TES gets the churning money, and your dead trailers get to rack up frequent flier miles. The only way TES can tell is if they actually inspect the print <chuckle> or have lied and ship the "print" to some other location, in which case you've caught them in just as big a lie as they've caught you. Document the times you do this, then when it reaches 25 verified times, contact the trade journals and NATO and demand the practice be stopped, as being totally worthless.
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Ethan Harper
E-dawggg!!!
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Posts: 325
From: Plano, TX, USA
Registered: May 2000
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posted 04-30-2001 10:28 PM
I wonder if TES even has the courage to try and prove themselves. They have shown us over and over again just exactly how much they do care about quality. I am personally getting fed up with their low level minded intelligence. There have been numerous times when I have ordered replacement reels only to recieve one of lesser quality from the first. One time I recieved two reels with absolutely no digital or analog audio on it whatsoever!!! What good did that do me? Nothing more than waste my time. It is a good thing that I knew how to inspect film at that time (unlike TES) or else there would have been 40 minutes of silence on a brand new film. I think it would be best to recieve our prints on Wednesdays instead of on Thursday so we could then have 24 hours to replace the defective reel instead of having to deal with the angry mob of customers that are dissatisfied the next day. Why should the theater have to lose money when refunds are handed out every Friday to these upset customers. At least ETS can understand this! It is time that the people at TES get their acts together! I truly believe their general rule of thumb is as follows: When ever a perfect reel is found, TES employees are trained to throw or slam that reel onto a wall or workbench. Now that is just common sense. Brad. I too have experienced the infamous breakdown a print and recieve that same exact print 24 hours later. It was not uncommon for the theater that I previously worked for seeing as to how they handled a lot of trade and other screenings. I remember having to deal with the frustrations of breaking down a print only to see the same exact one return to us the following day. It's highly illogical! Then there were the times that we shipped out a perfectly good print only to recieve one that has been run through a toilet. How frustrating is that? What is the point? Why did we just say goodbye to a flawless print only to recieve one that is most of the time not even playable. Just so somebody can make a couple of extra bucks while paying customers are forced to suffer with horrid presentations? Why should that theater be punished and end up with a bad reputation? That is just complete nonsense. In my opinion, I think that the theaters that never call in for replacement reels shoud get all of these ruined prints simply because THEY DONT CARE about their presentation. My theater should be on the A list because there is not a week that goes by that we have to change out 2-3 reels on every movie that we get in. It is time for some answers. When will TES stand up to their name. I highly doubt they even have the guts to register. TES would defintely be higly more respected if one of their representatives were to register and shed some light on these matters and maybe even make some improvements. If you wonder why projectionists hate TES so much, it is because we are having to deal with the consequences of their problems. ------------------ --"That's my story and i'm sticking to it!"--
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Dustin Mitchell
Phenomenal Film Handler
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Posts: 1865
From: Mondovi, WI, USA
Registered: Mar 2000
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posted 05-01-2001 01:09 AM
Although we've never run a trade screening, we have of course run many sneak previews. As a matter of fact, we are scheduled to run A Knight's Tale this Saturday. I can say with complete confidence that TES will let us keep the print until it opens the next Friday. I can not remember a single time TES has ever requested pickup of a print that ran for a sneak. Even if the print is scheduled to run at the competition a mile away, they don't pick it up, the other theatre just comes over and picks it up. I think you guys should take John's advice-just say no. If a TES representitive calls and asks when they can pick up the print, just say, "I'm sorry, but we are scheduled to open that on Friday, is it really nescessary to pick it up?" You'd be surprised what you can get by asking politely. A situation that comes to mind are the opening movies on Wednesday, April 11th. Now we were losing two 'orange can' prints that week. In the past, TES has been fairly sporadic in its pickup policy for movies that end on Tuesday. Sometimes they'd come in on Wednesday to pick them up, sometimes they'd wait until Friday. In this case, I had to plan on when to have these prints torn down, since the Tuesday night usher/projectionist didn't know how to break down movies. So I called up TES and asked when those prints were scheduled to be picked up. The representitive said Friday, AND added that if we need more time, we could reschedule for Saturday ! Airborne actually ended up coming on Wednesday for one of the prints, but the manager that day said "No, we were told they would be picked up on Friday." We were not charged for a late pickup.The moral of the story, try to work with TES. Politeness and openess will get you very far in this world.
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Adam Martin
I'm not even gonna point out the irony.
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Posts: 3686
From: Dallas, TX
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 05-01-2001 11:08 AM
Not to defend TES, but any time I had a problem with print delivery (in particular, sneak holdovers or send it to the competitor a mile away), I called my booker and told him what I wanted. He, in turn, called the studio and made the arrangements and let them argue with TES. Airborne would usually still show up, followed by a call from TES, but I would just say, "We made other arrangements with the studio. Call them."But then, I had a great booker. He was previously a theater manager. Eventually, he started making the arrangements for me when he booked the event.
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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster
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Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 05-01-2001 12:14 PM
I hate TES too. Frankley they suck big time, but sometimes these films are EK or wet gate prints made only for trade screenings and are in short supply. These are previewed while the main run of prints are still being churned through the processing machines and QC'd(yea really)and boxed up. Doing a main run of 1500 to 2000 prints can take a week or better to complete. Also there could be last minuite critical changes in editing, sound, or some other aspect of a film where the actual release prints will differ slightly from the trade screening version. For instance they may WANT you to have an I.B. print if your theater is a large grosser. Any of these reasons would definately necessitate a recall of your preview print. On the other hand I never heard of a theatre being billed for pick up or drop off of a trade screening print. That is usually paid for by the studios promotional department. If you have to tear down a print its not your fault OR theirs. Your theater could have one screen set up with r to r, C/O operation so trade screenings can be run painlessly. Just my nickles worth..... Mark @ GTS
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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler
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Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 05-01-2001 03:44 PM
How timely. I sent TES a very long answer to their survey last month. I just received a call from TES in response to that survey.I was told that delivery dates aren't set my TES but they are set by the individual studios. I told her that it wasn't just my theatre that wants their films on Wednesday but all theatre would like them a day earlier. She said that every theatre that requested films earlier should individually call each and every one of their distributors to ask for their films earlier. I guess TES really works for the distributors and not the theatres. I understand that some theatres have called TES and successfully gotten their deliveries changed to Wednesday. So the fact that this woman told me that it is up to the studios sounds like a line to alleviate TES of responsibility. I have asked TES to deliver my prints on Wednesday before but to no avail. So does this mean that this woman is lying to me? Or does it mean that TES as an organization is lying to me? Or is it that this woman doesn't know the truth? Either way, it is a poor way to run a business. I will write a letter to my booker and ask them to contact each and every studio to have them change our deliver date to Wednesday where appropriate. I understand that not all films can be here than early. But if they are available that's when I would like them. This is a pain in the ass for my booker and me. What we need is an industry group to contact the studios on our behalf to get this done. We are an industry group, we are Film-Tech. The only other industry group I belong to is NATO of California/Nevada. Perhaps I can get them take an interest.
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Gordon Hedges III
Jealous of everyone not me
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Posts: 212
From: Severn, MD
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 05-01-2001 07:16 PM
You got to hand it to TES. I was finally able to work on building a print last Thursday (after being left to run the floor the past few months) and was disappointed to find out the cans have not arrived. Upon calling TES, they said that we were not book for the film "One Night at McCool's". I corrected her and also informed her that we are to open the film the next day. She called back a half hour later to say that it was shipped to a different theatre by mistake. It was sent to a cinema draft house (run by a different company) that only shows second runs. Good thing it was only a mile away and I could easily drive there to pick it up myself. But that was just one of the rarities of not recieving the print on time at the correct location. I thought nothing of it until I got a call on Friday from TES if we received our Open-Captioned print of "CHOCOLATE". Yes we did, but it was to be booked at our sister theatre down the road. Not to us. I just said yes and informed him that it would be sent to its BOOKED theatre so he can make a note of it. I really do find it strange that the prints are delivered a day before they are to be shown to the public. Especially when we screen it after the theatre has closed for the day and we may need replacement reels after the our intial screening ASAP. But most of the time when I do ask for replacements, they tell me to call someone else from the studio at 2AM to get one here. That is truly fun when it is only ONE person to contact. TES should definitely take responsibility on the deliveries and customer service. Many problems are due to their part, but they try to pass it on to someone else. I will try to see if TES (or Airborne) to deliver our prints a day earlier. I would truly enjoy screening the print without worrying of my other duties on a typical Thursday close. From Marquee to Trailer replacements. I will try the advice given and cross my fingers that it would work.
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