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Author Topic: Bulk trailer recycling? Jon P. Inghram Expert Film Handler Posts: 124 From: Wichita, KS USA Registered: Jan 2007 posted 02-27-2009 01:06 PM                     We've been putting trailers together into reel sized spools and sending then back in the film cans, but it looks like we'll run out of film cans long before we'll have made a sizable dent in the trailer boxes. Does anyone know if regular plastic recyclers accept film?  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-27-2009 02:25 PM                     If you listed them in the "Wanted/For Sale" forum at a price of postage + $1.00 you might be able to get rid of a few of them and raise a few bucks to buy booth supplies with. Didn't we have a "Trailer Swap" thread going a while back?  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 02-27-2009 02:34 PM                     You could just load a good sized bunch of trailers in a 5gal BIB box (take the bag out), seal up the front good, put the depot's address on them and send them back that way....  |  IP: Logged Gary Crawford Expert Film Handler Posts: 200 From: Neptune NJ USA Registered: Nov 2003 posted 03-03-2009 07:42 AM                     Are trailers copyright protected? Can you legally sell them? I wouldn't mind selling the pile I have if it were legal.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-03-2009 08:43 AM                        Trailers pre-early-1970s are PD if they don't have an explicit copyright notice on them (few did). Modern trailers are copyrighted, which means that they can't be copied or exhibited without permission from the copyright holder. This does not really have much to do with whether or not it is legal to sell the physical object, however. I'm not a lawyer, but I believe that the film distributors would argue that trailers are their property and cannot be sold by others, as ownership rights were never conferred. Would this stand up in court? I have no idea, but that doesn't stop lots of Ebay sellers of posters, trailers, lobby cards, and other promotional material. It would probably be a bad idea to try to sell anything for a current or recent release, at least.  |  IP: Logged Gary Crawford Expert Film Handler Posts: 200 From: Neptune NJ USA Registered: Nov 2003 posted 03-03-2009 09:14 PM                     The reason I asked about legality of selling 35mm trailers is that most of what I find online is usually downloads or other non-film versions of the trailer, but few actual film. I have seen some 35mm online for sale, like a pack of 10 assorted for $5, with little interest by buyers. I always save those that become award winners or others that might have some special interest to them. Maybe someday someone would buy them, I don't know, but the pile grows.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-03-2009 10:48 PM                     Someone I know... can't remember who exactly... had this problem with trailers he was selling. He was threatened by one of the studios. He then promptly sent the studio a bill for storage of all it's trailers he had accumulated over the years. He never heard back from the studio again! Mark  |  IP: Logged Andrew Bangs Expert Film Handler Posts: 148 From: Kerrville, Texas, United States Registered: Sep 2008 posted 03-04-2009 01:11 AM                        Once it goes in the trash it becomes public property and you can pretty much do what you want with it (as a physical item). This does not mean you can show it on the screen or sell it for the content of the pictures, but in the end the trick is proving you got it out of the trash in the first place.  |  IP: Logged Bob Jones Film Handler Posts: 47 From: Atlanta, GA Registered: Jun 2003 posted 03-04-2009 01:22 AM                     Someone I know... can't remember who exactly... had this problem with trailers he was selling. He was threatened by one of the studios. He then promptly sent the studio a bill for storage of all it's trailers he had accumulated over the years. He never heard back from the studio again! Mark LOVE IT!!!! CLASSIC!!!  |  IP: Logged Gary Crawford Expert Film Handler Posts: 200 From: Neptune NJ USA Registered: Nov 2003 posted 03-04-2009 09:17 AM                     Be a little hard proving I got the trailers from the trash, being I'm a projectionist! I like sending the studio a bill for storage! Priceless!  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-04-2009 10:10 AM                        quote: We've been putting trailers together into reel sized spools and sending then back in the film cans, You can send back any trailer from any studio in your Technicolor reel cans, but it's not necessary to splice them together...just throw them in loose. quote: He then promptly sent the studio a bill for storage of all it's trailers he had accumulated over the years. He never heard back from the studio again! If I was the studio I would never have sent him another trailer again either. They are the property of the studios, after all.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-04-2009 10:28 AM                     What about "Doctrine of First Sale"? Do studios actually sell trailers or do they lease or loan them? If you rightfully BUY a trailer you have the right to do anything you want with it as long as you don't publicly display it. (Except if you are advertising for particular movie that will play in your theater.) I have never seen any kind of contract that says trailers are sold, leased or loaned. Does that get covered in some kind of master contract that theaters agree to when they lease movies from studios? We buy trailers all the time. That's usually the only way we can get them. We're such "small potatoes" that studios virtually never send us trailers unless we pay for them. For all these years, I have been working under the assumption that paying for it means it's yours.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 03-04-2009 10:48 AM                        quote: He then promptly sent the studio a bill for storage of all it's trailers he had accumulated over the years. He never heard back from the studio again! After which, I would expect never to get trailers from that studio again. Not really sure how you'd explain why you had a lot of trailers to "store" in the first place. The studios have always had one method or another for returns.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-04-2009 11:11 AM                        quote: Randy Stankey We buy trailers all the time. That's usually the only way we can get them. We're such "small potatoes" that studios virtually never send us trailers unless we pay for them. Randy - I can't imagine a place that's smaller potatoes than us...but we usually get the majority of trailers we need these days. Do you play mostly older titles or something along those lines?  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 03-04-2009 11:51 AM                     Guys, Being "green" is great and all, but it is ridiculous in this scenario. Please don't send trailers back to the depots. They don't want them. Just throw them away. No one is tracking trailer returns. Nobody cares. Also their main recycler has now refused to take the mylar for recycling. China isn't buying it anymore and they aren't even taking our cardboard. So when you send trailers back to the depots, they are required to box up the film, pay to ship it to L.A. where it is then promptly shredded and then more money must be spent to pay to place it in the landfill. You aren't being "green" by any means. In fact all you are doing is causing more oil to be burned, etc. And if you put yourself in their shoes, imagine having to lug around 500 "Fox boxes" worth of prints on a given day. Those godamned boxes are heavy enough as it is! When you stuff trailers in it you can bring that box up to 100 pounds. Why don't YOU try loading up a Fox box and spend 8 hours picking it up and carrying it around the booth one day??? So throw the trailers away with yesterday's newspaper. They are worth as much. If that's still not good enough for you, at least show some compassion for the underpaid depot workers and their backs.  |  IP: Logged

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