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Author Topic: Summer Kid Show Irritations! Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 06-03-2008 04:25 PM                     I usually get new prints of things. This summer, like last summer, I'm running kids shows 2 days a week. I'm getting a chance to see some real examples of film done wrong. This week I am running stuff from both Deluxe and Technicolor. The Technicolor print leader was at least taped down. Badly wound. The Deluxe print looked like a film explosion had happened in the box. 4 of 6 reels had been taped down with a sliver of paper tape, and unwound almost all the way to where the picture starts. The same slivers of tape are attaching the head and tail leaders to the print. When watching the film at a reel change today, the lovely black adhesive marks on the screen image just made me feel gooey inside... I felt like I was back in grade school running those abused educational films in 16mm, instead of running film in a professional theatre using film that had been previously used by another professional theatre. BOTH of these poor films will leave here in better condition than when they arrived. For all I know, they will be junked after this run, but I wont be accused of doing things wrong. Lets not even get into the 26 badly made splices that I found. Nothing seems to be missing, so how did they manage to break this thing like this? 5 of the splices were out of frame! I guess I picked a bad week to stop drinking. Help me make it through the summer!!!  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-04-2008 09:35 AM                        My kids shows start tomorrow. Eight weeks of hell. We tend to show films from last year, so they aren't new, but not as bad as when we would show 15 year old prints of Big Bird. I feel your pain, and am just glad I have projectionists who can competently inspect and repair a film.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-04-2008 01:57 PM                        We gave up on kid shows long ago. (We still sometimes do matinees of whatever we're showing, but there are not enough kids here to make a matinee program pay off.) My last one was "Race for Your Life Charlie Brown" and the print was so disgusting with splices and dirt, scratches, etc. that I decided, it's not worth it....not just financially, but also on principal, having to pay hundreds of dollars to screen something the just makes US look bad....no thanks. This is something Digital might help with.  |  IP: Logged John T. Hendrickson, Jr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 889 From: Freehold, NJ, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 06-04-2008 02:02 PM                     I agree. We did it for a few seasons a couple of years back- nothing but trouble, beginning with the condition of the prints, and becoming a headache downstairs (theaters totaled, kids sick in the lobby, etc.) More trouble than it's worth.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-04-2008 02:57 PM                        As we cater to the daycare centers, we certainly get enough to make it financially worthwhile, especially compared to some of our regular features. We used to keep it strictly "G", but as fewer movies had that rating we had to go to PG and after that it was an easy step to the latest kiddie crap. I was on the verge of going straight to DVD, and may still, but for now the prints have been tolerable.  |  IP: Logged Philip Jordan Film Handler Posts: 9 From: Lisburn / Northern Ireland Registered: Oct 2007 posted 06-04-2008 04:42 PM                     We do quite well in June, we get a lot of school groups book for the last month of school, first two week's aren't to bad, but it is the last two weeks are nuts. we would get between 1000 to 1500 kids a day mon-fri, it's crazy. As soon as that is over we open early for the summer months still do quite well  |  IP: Logged Gordon Bachlund Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 696 From: Monrovia, CA, USA Registered: Aug 1999 posted 06-05-2008 04:00 PM                        Unless you've done a kiddie show in a carbon arc changeover booth running a dozen or more cartoons, you really haven't lived.  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 06-05-2008 04:12 PM                     At the Temple Theatre we used to do Christmas shows for the local GM plants and their Unions. We had 2 Brenkert hand fed carbon arc spotlights for the live portion of the show that was usually a singer and a comic. The controls for the 3 PA Microphones were right next to the spotlights on the booth wall. So you could feed carbons, follow the actors on stage and ride gain on the pa. Then we ran 3 or 4 cartoons to get the kids really wound up. These were run single reels with carbon light on the Simplex XLs. Then Santa would come out on stage so we did the follow spot and PA routine again. The show ended by the children all receiving a gift as they left the theatre. We did 4 or 5 of these each year. KEN  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 06-05-2008 10:32 PM                       quote: Gordon Bachlund Unless you've done a kiddie show in a carbon arc changeover booth running a dozen or more cartoons, you really haven't lived. Hear! Hear!  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Weigel Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1062 From: Edmond, OK, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 06-05-2008 11:19 PM                     We gave up on Kid Shows about 6 years ago. The last time we had them Dr. Pepper sponsored the whole thing. The movie was FREE and the kids under 12 received a free kids meal. We had a G and PG feature that ran Tuesday and Wednesday at 10am. And yet very few people showed up! We even sent letters to day cares and churches in the area well in advance of the series starting.  |  IP: Logged Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 06-09-2008 07:29 PM                     I really dont mind building prints for kids shows. We always fill the house, and I interlock 2 screens for each film. I believe that many of the kids I see have never been in a movie theatre in their lives. I want it all to be a good first experience for them, and I want them to buy popcorn! It just bugs me that theatres just tape prints back together and send it on. The prints that came today were taped together with the good old masking tape. On the other hand, it was all tails up, and the heads and tails were there. One print has a long black w/sound before the studio logo appears. WHY IN HELL would a theatre chop the film after the logo begins to appear on the screen? How unprofessional!  |  IP: Logged Geena Phillips Expert Film Handler Posts: 198 From: Norcross, GA / USA Registered: Apr 2006 posted 06-16-2008 12:02 PM                        Luckily, we're circuiting our kids' show movies through three locations, and after the first week, the prints get built at the one of our locations I DON'T work at. But, honestly, the quality of film handling I've seen on these has not been noticeably worse than what I get whenever we get a circuited print. And even that is not as egregious as being booked for opening weekend, and getting a print that had been used for a preview screening, with atrocious film handling by ONE previous handler. Grrr...  |  IP: Logged Thomas Pitt Master Film Handler Posts: 266 From: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK Registered: May 2007 posted 06-16-2008 03:32 PM                     I wonder if it might be a good idea to run a couple of theatrical cartoon shorts before the main movie - like the old MGM and WB shorts? I mean, they were designed to be viewed in a cinema and often have 'fourth wall' gags that only work properly in a cinema setting! Also, cinemas in the UK often run 'old' movies (from a couple of years back) for kids shows, often movies that are already out on DVD. Invariably the cinema gets a print that's already been through several first-run and second-run cinemas, and of course has lots of damage, splicing, relics of poor film handling etc. Is it any more expensive or inconvenient to request a new print of an old film? Sometimes I wonder if cinemas don't pass on films when they finish their run, but just hold them in storage for ages on a platter reel or broken-down reels. Good way for them to pick up dust, dirt and static while in storage!  |  IP: Logged Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 06-16-2008 06:08 PM                     In my location, there isn't time for a short before the features. Shows start at 10AM and my first matinee starts at 11:45. I'd love to run some Warners and MGM cartoons in my largest house.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-16-2008 07:11 PM                        Most cartoons are full-frame Academy. If you show them with a recent feature, you'll have to do a lens/plate change, which could be difficult in platter houses (unless you like subjecting the audience to thirty seconds of blank screen). In changeover houses with side masking, however, this can look great as the curtains open to a 1.85 or scope screen after the short.  |  IP: Logged

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