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Author Topic: Earliest Advance Screenings William Valdes Film Handler Posts: 37 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Sep 2004 posted 11-16-2004 11:59 PM                     Hey Everybody, I just wanted to start off my first post ever by asking how early have any of you recieved a print prior to it's official release date? and what movie was it? In my (almost) two years working as a projectionist, I recall recieving a print of The Italian Job a good three months prior to it's release for a screening. The print had temp tracks for music and had no credits.  |  IP: Logged Chase Hanson Expert Film Handler Posts: 172 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Oct 2004 posted 11-17-2004 03:37 AM                     hehe, I think I remember that print. The one that I remember "teh best" was like Harry Pothead, we had that GINORMOUS print eating up space for like three weeks. I remember when LOtR:FotR came out we had it like two weeks in advance but it was locked in the vault until the day before release.  |  IP: Logged Ryan Gardner Smith Film Handler Posts: 4 From: Albuquerque, NM USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 11-17-2004 04:31 AM                        I also had that early version on The Italian Job. I've had more Paramount work prints than any other studio. As far as early screenings go, my favorite was seeing American Beauty a good six months before it was released in the Denver area. For six months I was telling friends they had to see it, they began to think it didn't exist. The print was the same edit only without credits and no digital soundtracks. Another odd one was when I screened Big Trouble on Sept. 10th of 2001 before the press screening on Sept. 11th which was obviously cancelled. Because the movie then got bumped, it didn't hit screens until April. Other than those, I've seen a few movies years before they came out because they were all movies distributed by Walden Media and the owner (who also owns my theatre) had me run the prints for him. Those movies were Danny Deckchair, Swimming Upstream, and I Am David. Two of which still have not been released.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 11-17-2004 08:51 AM                    Unless you were running separate picture + soundtrack it's probably not really a workprint (although there are rare exceptions where the term might apply to a composite print). A real workprint besides having no track would generally have each scene change be a physical splice in the picture reels although with digital intermediates this may no longer be an absolute. If it's a Super 35 show the picture will be native Super 35 before conversion to Scope.  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 11-17-2004 10:07 AM                     Many of the studios will make a dup of the workprint and send it out on preview. As Steve said if the print is a picture and track format and the picture has many splices then that is a true workprint. Paramount, New Line, Miramax, Columbia, Fox, Warner, all do the dup type print thing. And sometimes if that is the final screening cut of the picture. They will use that print as a bid type print for theatre chains. I handle Studio Post-Production and Media screenings here in New York for the major studios. For media type screenings of new releases, they start screening as early as 3 months before release, that I've handled. As for Post-Production, I've had films as early as 1 1/2 years before release. In many different film and video and sound formats.  |  IP: Logged Jason Gazaille Film Handler Posts: 46 From: San Diego, CA, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 11-25-2004 01:57 AM                     Hey Will, I remember building that print. Not only were there no credits and non-complete editing, there was only an SR soundtrack, 7 reels, and the print was flat. The final was scope and 6 reels. I was surprised that Paramount sent us that print to show for 3 screenings for the public. But the longest advance print I've received was a print of Disney's Tuck Everlasting, which we had somewhere around 6 months before release. It seemed complete, though I didn't watch it. There was only like 20 people in the audience.  |  IP: Logged Rich Ferrando Film Handler Posts: 64 From: Royal Oak, MI Registered: Nov 2003 posted 11-25-2004 11:36 AM                       We did two screenings of Miramax's "Dear Frankie" in June of this year. Miramax currently lists the film's release date in March of 2005. Miramax has a tendency to do things like this. They delayed and delayed the release of "Shaolin Soccer" for about a year-and-a-half, and kept pushing back "Zatoichi" from April 2004 to the end of August 2004.  |  IP: Logged Ever Gonzalez Film Handler Posts: 29 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Oct 2004 posted 11-26-2004 01:44 AM                     Not only did Paramount leave us Italian Job like forever, but they also left K-19 for like two months and we had it on the bottom platter of projector 1!  |  IP: Logged Jason Gazaille Film Handler Posts: 46 From: San Diego, CA, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 11-26-2004 01:49 AM                     Ever, for the hundredth time, it was on the bottom of number 2!!  |  IP: Logged Chase Hanson Expert Film Handler Posts: 172 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Oct 2004 posted 11-26-2004 10:32 PM                     ahh shit... Someone open a window...its gettin all Mission Valley in here.  |  IP: Logged Jason Black Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1723 From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 11-27-2004 12:06 AM                        Has anyone here ever ran a screening for John Travolta? I saw a work print screening of 'The Generals Daughter' while he was in Savannah filming 'A Civil Action' (or vice-versa, I forget.) Anyway, it was at our older Savannah location, as the new one was 3 days from opening (yes, they cut our openings that close when it comes to setting up the booth equipment... I recall that they had two projectionists fly in especially to run the print, complete with mag track tied into our processor/amp rack. John himself was there...as was Tim Dalton.. This was a true work print, for sure. I especially remember it having what looked like 1000 splices in it! It just now, some 10 years later, occurred to me that I had actually seen a work print... not knowing what the proper term for it was at the time..  |  IP: Logged Jarrod Cocker Film Handler Posts: 33 From: a Registered: Oct 2004 posted 11-28-2004 02:39 AM                    We got sent Matrix Revolutions Spool 5 with Runaway Juy... about 2 weeks before matrix was released world wide. We where missing spool 3 of Runaway Jusy if i recall correctly.. When we rang the Distributors - we got put striaght through to someone who was important - and he didnt belive us... He was like, tell me what the scene looks like..... Both Prints came from Atalb Australia... And i think someone there would have got in trouble  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 11-29-2004 09:26 AM                        With thousands of reels from multiple features going through a lab at any given time, an occasional mixup may occur in the shipping room. Most large release labs now use computerized tracking systems with barcode labels on each reel.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 11-29-2004 02:08 PM                     One of my reels for Incredibles had the bar code sticker on the leader for Polar Express. Same lab, printed about a week apart. The actual content was fine, only the bar code label was wrong, so no reason to complain. Still, it's interesting.  |  IP: Logged

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