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Topic: Summer Movie Camp

Jim Leko
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: Redondo Beach, CA, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 07-23-2002 09:32 PM

Man, what a difference. The Summer Movie Camp we had last week, featured Wizard of Oz. This was a horrible print (surprised the DTS/SR-D soundtracks played without dropouts). 2 screen interlock, and both sets of PTR's were jam packed with dirt after the first run. Scratches all over the film. Horrible.

This week, we played Shrek. BEAUTIFUL print. Not a spec of dirt on it, not a scratch on it. PTR's picked up nothing. I wonder if one of you filmguard people had the print last :-)

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Darryl Spicer
Film God

Posts: 3250
From: Lexington, KY, USA
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 07-23-2002 10:33 PM

what was the print #. if it was a very low number it may not of had very many runs put on it. maybe only a special screening or two. Maybe someone here may have the number of there print they got still on record.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 07-24-2002 12:57 AM

Funny, as normally a low print number is a bad sign in my experience. Generally the low numbers mean "screening prints" which in turn tells the projectionists "you will run this print one time and never see it again, so feel free to be sloppy with it". Then that print plays at some other theater and possibly a dollar house, whereas generally the higher numbered prints play at one theater and possibly a dollar house. I find more damage to those screening prints many times than a print that has ran for a couple of months at a regular engagement.

I saw a print of Shrek a month ago and while it was not *perfect*, it was in very, very, very good condition. It ran in SRD without a dropout and of course the theater cleaned it multiple times with FilmGuard while it was in their possession.

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Jesse Skeen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1517
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 07-24-2002 01:48 PM

I got a strange thrill out of doing these last year, since most of the prints came in such horrible shape. I felt like my name should have been added to the credits for "Film Restoration". Of course the company's Booth Certifier(TM) showed me a thing or two by using one to train some new people by having them just cut off the frames that had splicing tape left on them!

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 07-24-2002 02:37 PM

Jesse said: "Of course the company's Booth Certifier(TM) showed me a thing or two by using one to train some new people by having them just cut off the frames that had splicing tape left on them!"

Continuity??? What's that?

Always try to minimize any lost frames when splicing or removing tape splices.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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Scott Norwood
Film God

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

posted 07-24-2002 04:59 PM

We do this, too. What I haven't figured out is why the prints don't usually arrive by Friday, but instead come on Monday or Tuesday. It seems terribly inefficient, both for the delivery company (since they don't bring the prints with the usual Thursday delivery) and for the theatre (since the prints can't be inspected over the weekend). Since these are all older films which are readily available at the local video store, I can't imagine that "piracy prevention" is the justification for this shipping practice, but I can't imagine what it would be.

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Jesse Skeen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1517
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 07-24-2002 06:13 PM

Where I worked last year we got the "kids' movies" at least a week in advance, a few came as much as 2 weeks before the week they actually played. Most of them were from Warner, who had a form inside to put your comments about the print, but I later heard they just got shipped right to another theater anyway!

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Scott Norwood
Film God

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

posted 07-24-2002 07:24 PM

I should add that GCC (AMC) does these things on Wednesday mornings. We've never received a print more than a week in advance, but some have sat in the lobby for a month before being picked up to go to another theatre.

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Jim Leko
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: Redondo Beach, CA, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 07-24-2002 08:33 PM

We show our summer movie camp movies on Tues and Wed morning. We don't get the prints until Monday. I will check the print number when I get to work tomorrow morning.

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Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-24-2002 09:36 PM

We run our kids shows on Thursday mornings. Oddly enough, our print of "Wizard of Oz" was apparently switched out somewhere in Texas for an original copy - mold and all. We notified the proper authorities and hopefully the person will be caught.

------------------
"Running through life at 24 frames per second"

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Steve Scott
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1300
From: Minneapolis, MN
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 07-26-2002 03:15 PM

My print of "Fly Away Home" that I showed last year for a movie camp was horrible. The SR tracks were scratched and it was infested with dirt and emulsion scratches.
The print of "Babe" that we ran the year before that was even worse. Bad splices, weak splices (all mid reel) not to mention no DTS discs and a very poor SR soundtracks.

The message is to inspect these things very carefully and be ready for scratching up the wazoo.

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Kyle Caudill
Film Handler

Posts: 92
From: Wichita Falls, TX
Registered: May 2002

posted 07-26-2002 09:42 PM

Mousehunt was my Kid Show this week. I believe this was the worse print condition I had ever seen. There was no heads or tails leader on the reels indicating which reel was which. Two reels were actually spliced together. The film from one reel ran to the other reel and was spliced to that. The film form another reel was wrapped around the sides of the reel. So eventually we were able to get the reels figured out. So we thought, we had two number 3 reels and no number 4 reel. At times there was 12 vertical scratches on the print.

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Thomas Procyk
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1842
From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-27-2002 11:26 PM

Kyle -- Sounds exactly like a print of "Baby Geniuses" I ran for a kid's show. No heads OR tails, and that same strange splicing from one reel to the next. Does the theater before think they're saving us time or something!?! To add more confusion, mid-reel splices often didn't have the same picture before & after the splice!!

We never did figure the print out and even contemplated video projection of the DVD or something. But the manager said not to worry, that it was a free kids show and to just run the print. And we did. And no one complained or cared.

=TMP=

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Kyle Caudill
Film Handler

Posts: 92
From: Wichita Falls, TX
Registered: May 2002

posted 07-28-2002 11:53 AM

Oh I forgot to mention...we had an note in it that stated:

Do to high demand we are doing everything possible to make sure you receive the best possible print.

Thanks
Technicolor

We have one group that complains. Ours cost either .50 or 1.00 depending on if you buy the cheaper package. We were interlocking and had a big mess during the first show. It was off for about 20 minutes so we gave rainchecks. Big mistake, every little problem the same teacher wants rainchecks, we have since quit giving them out for kid shows. The teacher is using them herself and not giving them to her kids.

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Darryl Spicer
Film God

Posts: 3250
From: Lexington, KY, USA
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 07-28-2002 12:29 PM

Kyle, one thing that needs to be done to prevent the handing out of rainchecks for these type of showings. A disclaimer posted stating that due to the condition of the kid show films and the substantialy low cost in tickets for each film. No rainchecks will be given out. If you give out a raincheck for each kid you are esentialy handing out hundreds of dollars. If they complain to much I guess you could just give them a $.50 refund for each child.

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