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Topic: Reperatory prints

Mike Heenan
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1896
From: Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 08-16-2001 01:50 AM

Hi, I was wondering what prints of older movies are out there that are in decent and watchable shape? As I work in a cinema supper club, we show both old and 2nd run flicks. Right now, we're thinking about running Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, has anyone here seen prints of this recently, and were they in decent shape? Thanks for your help!

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Dustin Mitchell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1865
From: Mondovi, WI, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 08-16-2001 07:01 AM

I don't know about stuff as old as that, but even working at a multi-plex we still run special shows of not-so-old movies once in a while. Two that spring to mind wers "October Sky" (about a year after its original release) and "Grease" (the reissue, just this year). Now while October Sky was in pristine condition, no dirt, no scratches (it even had the attached trailer still), Grease was in horrid condition, with spots that had more dirt than picture (though only in spots and not through the whole print) and about a couple hundred splices. It did run in Dolby just fine believe it or not and although I didn't get to run it in DTS the disks were in the can.

Bottum line, running rep stuff you take your chances with the kind of print your going to get.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 08-16-2001 07:54 AM

Older, well-used prints can vary in quality. Be prepared to spend more time to thoroughly inspect and (if necessary) repair any damage from previous theatres. A few passes through an efficient film cleaner will usually work wonders.

If your print is coming from a local or private film exchange, get to know the people there so you can personally ask for them to select the best print available.

Unfortunately, once a movie has been released for home video, new 35mm prints are rarely struck. There have been fortunate exceptions (the recent retrospectives from Columbia and Warner Bros.), and individual re-releases of restorations of pictures like "Vertigo", "Rear Window", "Apocalypse Now Redux", etc.

I recall that "Young Frankenstein" had a recent printing for a limited re-release, so there are some good prints in circulation.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 08-16-2001 08:39 AM

Worked at a place having a Marcello Mastroianni series. Ran "8 1/2." It was an orginal B&W 1963 print, and oh-boy, it looked it. Lot's of splices and missing sections. Forced to run it on a platter; I was worryed about the several cement splices. Also, "City of Women" 1980. Color fading away; not too many splices. Pretty weird film, too.

"Stop Making Sense" 1984; but the print was newer because it had a Dolby digital track added. Good shape, except for the usual dirt and splices at the reel heads and tails.

You have to take what ever prints are still left.

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Jonathan M. Crist
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 531
From: Hershey, PA, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 08-16-2001 10:12 AM

Keep in mind that several repatory providers will not allow their prints to be run on a platter system. The constant splicing of heads and tails coupled with the possiblity of damaging an entire print are the reasons most often cited.

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Darryl Spicer
Film God

Posts: 3250
From: Lexington, KY, USA
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 08-16-2001 10:48 AM

now wait a second here....if there is an issue of splices then unless you are running the film on 20min. reels there will be splicing involved. Most repatory theaters use 6000ft reels. They require some splicing. I think it may be more of an issue of possable scratches. Plus having a platter system in a theater where you will be doing a lot of film changes is not the smartest idea. 60min reels are the way to go in these cases.

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Mark Lensenmayer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1605
From: Upper Arlington, OH
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 08-16-2001 10:55 AM

I had an interesting experience with repetory prints last night. Went to see MOTHRA. They had advertised BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE, but the curator said that Columbia had LOST the only print they had of this title. So, they substitued H-MAN.

This isn't the first time this site has been told a certain print exists, only to find out the only print has disappeared.

As for MOTHRA, this was another weird situation. If I understood correctly, the negative of the American version had been edited. Then, someone decided to put the original parts back in, but there was no available soundtrack, so, at various points in the film, the sound just disappeared! So, no sound for 3-5 minutes at a time.

Now, with MOTHRA, you can get away with this...the audience just made up its own dialog, or just started to sing the MOTHRA song as sung by the two little girls. It was fun, anyway.

It's too bad that so many titles are just not available in good prints.

With older prints, it seems to be just the "luck of the draw".

Mark Lensenmayer

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-16-2001 11:38 AM

All the rep theates I know run 20min reels only as there is no point in makeing up a print for one show only that is a waste of manpower

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John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 08-16-2001 12:14 PM

I'm with Gordon... usually you either can - or can not- splice the print. The distributor tells you up front, or should. Usually prints run for a week here, so it's worth it to put it on a platter if allowed. If not, it's 20 min reels only. There's no "in between."

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Steve Scott
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1300
From: Minneapolis, MN
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 08-16-2001 04:51 PM

We recently ran a couple of kids movies for a special morning matinee show (when business got slow). We received Babe & Fly Away Home, both were from TES.

Anyway, the Babe print had a few reels that were just loaded with scratches near every tail and had a darkening layer of dust on about a few hundered feet of one reel. On top of that, there were at least six mid-reel splices from the previous theater that broke on the first run (Blame me for trusting all of our projectionists to know a good splice from a bad one) The film also managed had a tendency to stick as it fed through the platter brain, and I was preventing at least five wraps! Since we only ran it for 2 shows, I didn't bother calling for a different print, but I did pay extra attention to Fly Away Home when it came in (built it myself, watched it with crossed fingers) . The only problems with it were more countless scratches and a pretty scratched optical soundtrack.
Neither of the prints seemed to have been taken care of in storage and I can only wonder what the theaters that had these as first screeners did to them (and for how long?)

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Steve Scott
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1300
From: Minneapolis, MN
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 08-16-2001 05:02 PM

We recently had a kid's matinee showing of Babe & Fly Away Home that proved how long a kid's movie is run before it's put into storage.

With Babe, whoever built it (one of the five other guys in our booth) didn't inspect any of it, and therefore missed the six or seven mid-reel splices that would later snap during the show. The film stock had been resting for so long (probably in storage) that it had a tendency to stick and nearly cause a full brain wrap (on about five occasions). But the real nightmare of it was that the print looked AWFUL. The end of each reel was covered in scratches, and had a base coat of dust that dimmed the light considerably. Fly Away Home was better. No lab or other mid-reel splices, but the scratches were still rampant, and the optical soundtrack was scratchy (I suppose this was from wear since I threaded the machine normally, and this sound system usually doesn't have this badly sounding SR processing).

I take pride in using film cleaners and taking whatever steps necesary to extend the life of a print, and these two examples of neglect just bother the hell out of me!

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Steve Scott
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1300
From: Minneapolis, MN
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 08-16-2001 05:04 PM

Sorry, browser problems, thought that the first post didn't get through!

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Barry Hans
Film Handler

Posts: 92
From: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 08-16-2001 05:59 PM

I believe we ran Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstien a little over a year ago. I think it was part of a Warner package. They were both in excellent condition. We ran Young Frankenstien on 20 min. reels due to no splices in it. I don't know how they have held up since we ran them, but they were in great shape when they left Oak St.

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Ky Boyd
Hey I'm #23

Posts: 314
From: Santa Rosa, CA, USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-18-2001 10:39 PM

Folks, the correct spelling of the word is repertory. When booking any repertory titles, it always pays to have the bookers ask questions about print quality. Unfortunately, sometimes the studio people don't know. We played a gorgeous print of It Happened One Night last year and have seen gorgeous prints of October Sky, Pal Joey, and North by Northwest. The Shadow of a Doubt print we received was good too. This year we received both a crappy print of All About Eve and an excellent print of All About Eve - the secret is that the good print is booked by Fox Searchlight while the crappy prints of All About Eve are at Criterion. One of the worst prints we played was The Princess Bride which had been beat to hell and back.

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Aaron Sisemore
Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day!

Posts: 3061
From: Rockwall TX USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 08-19-2001 05:08 AM

Sometimes, the only good prints of a given title are those in private hands. Some distributors (Sony and Fox come to mind) will allow you to use privately held prints in some repertory situations, especially if there are no prints available from other non-studio outlets (Kit Parker, Swank, etc).

Just got done with a [second midnight] screening of 'Heavy Metal' using a very good condition original 1981 collectors' print (which has FAR better picture and sound quality than lab-mint prints of that hideous 1996 'reissue' did). It was pretty dirty however. After two passes thru Film-Guard, the print now looks even better!

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