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Topic: Returning trailers

Ken Lackner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1907
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 01-27-2002 09:09 PM

How do you guys keep track of which trialers go back to which companies? Sometimes one studio has more than one address, and sometimes more than one company will be located at the same address. In such cases, does it matter which return label you use to send back which trailer? Thanks.

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 01-28-2002 05:46 AM

Ken,

You return trailers?

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Michael Brown
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1522
From: Bradford, England
Registered: May 2001

posted 01-28-2002 06:10 AM

I second that

You return trailers?

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Christopher Duvall
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 500
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 01-28-2002 06:27 AM

I do as well. From what I understand, the materials can be recycled. On top of that, some of the studios run contests for those that return trailers. They usually pick a random sender and send the sender $50 or something of the like. It's good practice.

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Ben Stephenson
Film Handler

Posts: 29
From: Manchester, England
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 01-28-2002 09:00 AM

In the UK there are normally only 2 places to return trilers, MPD & NSS. But if they are any good they find there way to my home

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Ken Lackner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1907
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 01-28-2002 12:28 PM

Fox requires that their trailers be returned. (Not in a nasty New Line way.

) Others politely *request* that they be returned, for recycling I assume. Paramount is the one that does a random drawing each month for 10 $50 prizes. All these companies provide prepaid return shipping labels. I try to comply with the studios' requests whenever possible.

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Wes Hughes
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 175
From: Raleigh, NC, USA
Registered: Aug 2001

posted 01-28-2002 03:31 PM

in 19 years working in a cinema I have only returned one trailer...

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Will Kutler
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1506
From: Tucson, AZ, USA
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 01-28-2002 06:46 PM

Although most studios ask for trailers to be returned, it is generally not enforced. The only one that I have heard enforcing trailer returns in Lucas w/Star Wars.

Speaking of trailers, has anyone ever seen the THX "WOW"? Really a great THX advertisement w/only a few prints in exixtance.

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Michael Gonzalez
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 790
From: Grand Island , NE USA
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 01-28-2002 06:48 PM

We send in trailers all the time. On three seperate occasions, I've "Won" the $50.00 contest from Paramount.

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John Hazelton
Film Handler

Posts: 42
From: Oakland, CA, USA
Registered: Jun 2001

posted 01-28-2002 07:42 PM

I used to program a college film series. We ran all of our features in 35mm or 70mm. In the past 3 years or so, it became much harder to get trailers to advertise our upcoming shows. With the studios taking most trailer distribution in-house, and Technicolor buying NSS, trailers became almost impossible to get for the non-theatrical market.

Even when I ordered trailers for movies that were still in second run, we were told that there were no trailers left. I was told we'd have to depend on trailer returns from commercial theaters. I can recall only one time that we got a trailer we'd been waiting for.

I was usually reduced to trying to buy the trailers on eBay with my own money, if we could get them at all.

Please consider returning the trailers (if they're not too trrashed). You might actually be helping a fellow projectionist.

(While some may think it's the distributors' problem for not providing enough trailers to begin with, unless they change their minds, this is the only way to get trailers back into circulation.)

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Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 01-28-2002 07:57 PM

I've got to agree with the previous post. I've gone into booth "closets" and found literally tons of dead trailers. In such cases, I've instructed managers and projectionists to return what is current and toss the rest in the dumpster. Distribs provide free shipping, there are people that can use the things, and it costs to send the stuff to the dump, where it isn't recycled. Please return these things.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-28-2002 08:09 PM

I have _never_ received a used trailer for anything. Not even late-run limited-release art-house stuff. The only trailers that I've ever run that weren't new and sealed are those which are either old ones from my collection or recent ones which came from other theatres.

This leads me to believe that distributors have no intention of recycling the trailers by sending them out to other theatres. I assume that by "recycle," they really just mean that the plastic gets shredded and turned into Coke bottles or something.

Has _anyone_ ever received a used trailer from a distributor?

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Miguel Angel Martorell
Film Handler

Posts: 81
From: Valencia, Spain
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 01-28-2002 08:11 PM

We have a guy that delivers the film to the cinema from the distrubutor warehouse and returns it. The same thing with the trailers. All are returned. No exception. A funny thing, this guy is also projectionist and the plumber for all the ABC cinemas. GREAT GUY!!!!

About the WOW thx trailer is the one that features images from Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc?. If is that trailer our only screen with thx showed it for two months from the inaguration. After that, Kelonik (our cinema machinery supplier)report us about the inmediate return and I never have seen it again. It´s a pity because it sounds f******* great.
Sorry for my english and saludos

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Tao Yue
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 209
From: Princeton, NJ
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 01-28-2002 09:07 PM

I second Scott. I've also never gotten a used trailer from a distributor. Which also leads me to believe that they simply shred them -- seems to me to be more of a draconian copyright issue, given the fact that occasionally they send nasty emails to some eBay trailer sellers.

If that is the case, then you would actually be doing fellow projectionists a favor by not returning trailers and keeping them for possible use in second-run. Does anyone have the facts on this?

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Tao Yue
MIT '04: Course VI-2, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Projectionist, MIT Lecture Series Committee

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John Walsh
Film God

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

posted 01-28-2002 09:14 PM

I also have never received a used trailer.
I never received a prepaid return address to return trailers.
I just threw out about 100 trailers.
I have a feeling that if a lowly projectionist won the $50 from Paramount, it would be sent to the home office and never reach the projectionist.

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