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Author Topic: Wonder why they don't publish DCP trailers helter-skelter Jim Henk Master Film Handler Posts: 364 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Feb 2006 posted 07-30-2013 04:00 AM                     You know, if I thought for two seconds that somebody was spreading my advertising around, I think I'd send them something nice. Couple of tickets to a local major league ball game or something... Apple trailers are nice and all, but they have stripped down audio with no surrounds or anything. DCP to other format conversions are commonplace now, so what's the deal-io?  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-31-2013 01:15 PM                        Jim, the studios don't give a flying duck about anything that is not going to make them 60 million dollars next weekend. Your booking of HELTER SKELTER that will bring in an overage of maybe a few hundred dollars....your running an older title is no more than an annoying flee on an elephants ass to them. Something 30+ years old? They laugh when you tell them you want to run old titles that won't make them any money they can brag about at the water cooler. Even the "classics" departments make booking older titles worse than having root canal without novocane. That is, unless your are Lincoln Center or the Kennedy Center or the AMPAS and want to do some awards self-congratulatory "event" at the Kodak Theatre -- THEN they scramble like chickens with a dildo up their ass and you bet they can magically come up with a brand new 70mm print or a DCP scanned at 8K from ONegs. They'll get some sycophant PR writers to write some schmaltz, gooey drivel about how they are all "dedicated" to "preserving" our great film heritage ("film" being used symbolically here because, well....you know, they KILLED film). They'll televise it all and have some deep-throated announcer do the voice-over as they show clips of the greatest movies of all time...the ones they won't give you decent a DCP of or supply you with even a trailer to promote it. And all of the execs and A-list stars and directors will sit there as the camera pans across them showing their adoring, botoxed-up faces watching the big screen and the stunning images that you will never get to show on yours. They'll all be clapping like there's no tomorrow when the lights come up. Then they'll go to the brie and wine after-party a stand around mutually masturbating each other, so proud that they are the keepers and preservers of past movie history. And they might even believe it, at least till they sober up the next morning. But then the next day some guy trying to run an art-house calls up the booker at Fox or Warners or whichever and asks to book one of their classic titles and of course he is expecting to run at least a 2K DCP. Then he hears that tell-tale, barely audible snicker on the other end of the line and he's told impatiently "We have no DCP of that title; just run the BR." This is said in a tone that tells Mr. Art House that his call is a real annoyance in this booker's day. The art-house guy pauses and responds as politely as he can, "But you haven't release that title on BR yet." The booker says condescendingly, "Well then just use the DVD; no one will know the difference," in a tone that the art-house guy clearly hears as "How come you didn't think of that yourself, art-house moron?" Our art-house guy knows better than to say what he's thinking or it will be even harder for him to book the next classic title with this studio next time around. And THAT, good brother Jim, is why you are forced to use an internet low rez, insanely compressed video stream intended only for an iPad for your 40 foot THEATRE screen.  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 07-31-2013 01:36 PM                     quote: Frank Angel Your booking of HELTER SKELTER that will bring in an overage of maybe a few hundred dollars.... Um. I think you seriously misunderstood the title of this thread. Either that, or I sure did.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-31-2013 01:54 PM                        Ken, it wouldn't be the first time for me. I took it to mean he's looking for a DCP trailer for HELTER SKELTER but is relegated to playing something from an Apple trailer on the internet. I assume he plans on running the feature in his theatre and would like to run trailer (what a concept...wonder why the STUDIO didn't think of that!) He thinks plying the studio apparatchiks with goodies and sports tickets will get him something decent to put on his screen. As you can see from my post, I think he give them way to much credit. He probably would be better off plying a film collector with goodies and sports tickets to borrow a 35mm trailer print instead. Which is why some of us keep our 35mm machines in the booth.  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 07-31-2013 02:03 PM                     I took (and still take) it to mean that he's just wondering why trailers in general are not distributed "helter skelter," not a trailer for the feature entitled Helter Skelter, which would have been capitalized. (Not to mention the grammar suggests my interpretation.) Which is it, Jim?  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-31-2013 02:09 PM                        Yah, but with your interpretation, I wouldn't have been able to get my rant in about the state of booking classics from the studios. Although, anything the studios do that doesn't makes sense can easily set me off on a rant. It doesn't take much.  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 07-31-2013 02:12 PM                     This I have noticed.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-31-2013 02:27 PM                        As much as I agree with Frank on this subject, I can say that I actually had to use a trailer from youtube once. I just burned it to DVD (this was before they supported higher-rez formats) and played it on a theatre screen. I expected it to look terrible, but it was really pretty watchable. Not that I would ever recommend doing this to anyone who isn't totally desperate, but it did work better than I ever expected that it would. The fact that it was a 4x3 aspect ratio and the screen itself was not especially large probably helped somewhat, though.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 07-31-2013 07:15 PM                        What I would like to see is the studios create an on-line repository of DCP trailers. Since digital cinema greatly expands the ability to play older titles for a variety of reason, it would be nice if trailers didn't simply disappear.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-31-2013 08:04 PM                        At least with titles that have made it to DVD and now BR, we have a better chance of getting trailers when they attach them as extras or "special features" to a DVD/BR. I have taken to ripping any trailer of any title that I think I would have even the most remote possibility of playing on my screen. Netflix is a FANTASTIC and inexpensive resource for building a good trailer library. At least this is better than it was with film, where if National Screen Service or Consolidated didn't have a trailer for your title, you had nothing. Well, actually, the last desperate recourse for you was to order what Filmack (out of Chicago) called a "trailerette." "Trailerettes" were nothing more than Robbie Mack putting a still from the picture up on his Roxberry and shooting 20ft of it on tinted B&W stock. He'd add the title and the stars' names superimposed and then some background music totally unrelated to the movie on the soundtrack. If you were lucky, most times they just shot a window card. Honestly, as hokey as those looked to the staff and they told me so, at times I'd found myself quite happy for being able to even have a trailerette to show on my screen -- at least it got the feature name in front of the audience. Filmack would even put a opening date on it for you and your theatre name. I never let them put a date because, for example, DUCK SOUP -- I knew I was going to run that many times over the years; putting a date on the trailerette would make it useless except for that one engagement. Ah, what an industry!  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-31-2013 08:35 PM                        quote: Frank Angel But then the next day some guy trying to run an art-house calls up the booker at Fox or Warners or whichever and asks to book one of their classic titles and of course he is expecting to run at least a 2K DCP. Oh yeah, like they'd answer the phone;>  |  IP: Logged Jim Henk Master Film Handler Posts: 364 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Feb 2006 posted 07-31-2013 09:01 PM                     Yep, 'helter-skelter' was just meant as a short synonym for 'all-over-the-place'. Thought that might be confusing, but said, nah, I'm just being A-R about it. "Sorry bout that, chief. Missed it by *that* much" - Maxwell Smart And the sending goodies comment was just meant more as something like: if I was running something like a shoe store downtown, ran an ad on the local TV station or put it up on YouTube or something like that, and saw that somebody did something that actually made it go viral, or started passing the silly thing among their friends, I think I wouldn't look a free publicity gift horse in the mouth. I think that I'd want to say thank you. So it just seems kinda self-defeating to hide your ads (trailers) if you're a business. Poor business choice, I think. I'm just sayin...  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-31-2013 10:06 PM                        The studios are indeed strange animals. They'll produce standees that cost hundreds of dollars each, but when it comes to the VERY BEST advertising we have (trailers) they won't help you. Even dumber, if you want to show an old product, they want to charge you an exorbitant price for it even thought it would cost them zero dollars. I personally would love to run a "classic" movie every single week as a one-time show or matinee, but I can't afford to spend $200 or $300 for the privilege. ($50 or $100 maybe, or better yet why not just make it a percentage? Any money they would make would be gravy.) They don't WANT us to grow our industry, I guess.  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 08-01-2013 02:40 PM                     A few years ago the Temple Theatre ran a classic film every other week end. To advertise these titles to our audiences we had Film Mack make up the entire series as one of their "trailerettes". It came with the piano music sound track and each week we removed the trailer for the title being shown. Because that made the sound a botch, we muted the sound track and simply asked our organist to provide an improvised background on the Barton. This was very successful and not very expensive at the time. (Shades of the silent screen era)  |  IP: Logged

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