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Topic: Technicolor sucks

Scott Norwood
Film God

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

posted 10-23-1999 09:36 AM

Semi-related question: are Sony Pictures Classics releases still shipped by something called "Reel Easy"? We had a guy from them once who asked me "Do you guys show movies here?" while I was signing for a print of John Sayle's "Men With Guns." I really wanted to reply to him "no, we just rent them and send them back...this whole theatre thing is just a front for the mafia."

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Kenn Fong
Film Handler

Posts: 47
From: Oakland, CA 94610 USA
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 10-26-1999 03:17 AM

You folks won't believe this. Our print of "Best Man" arrived with THIRTY-FIVE splices in the first six minutes! There were a couple of other bad splices sprinkled through the print and it was dirty. Management was told this would be a new print since it wasn't going to be sneaked.

The union projectionist on duty reported this before the first show and was assured a replacement Reel 1 would arrive before the first show on Saturday. We ran four shows on Friday and two on Saturday before the replacement arrived.

Although I'm only an usher and have no special training, even I could spot all the splices on the print as it sat on the platter. It's clear this print was never inspected, although the sticker said it was.

------------------
Kenn Fong http://qwertyuiop.net
Screenwriter's Home Page

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Jim Ziegler
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 753
From: West Hollywood, CA
Registered: Jul 99

posted 10-27-1999 02:16 PM

Oh. I am sure it was *inspected*.. The little sticker don't say they fixed anything, or replaced anything, just that it was *inspected*...

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Rick Uhlhorn
Film Handler

Posts: 11
From: Cedar Park, Texas USA
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 10-27-1999 10:33 PM

Sorry guys but I have had great luck with Technicolor since it came into being. Bad reels, you bet.Crummy lab splices, yep. Beat up cans, so whats new. When you get a bad reel of film from the other guys what is the alternative. You waite until Monday so you can get a new reel by Tuesday. I talked to the Technicolor people about their little inspection stickers. Their reply, and I know this to be fact, is that the film companies pay to have prints inspected. There are different charges for different kinds of inspection. The one most commonly used is to inspect the first 50 feet. If it is ok then on goes the sticker. Sorry but I have been doing this for 39 years and even with their faults Technicolor sure beats anything I have ever seen.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

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

posted 10-27-1999 11:09 PM

With ETS I get replacement reels the SAME DAY or worst case senario, the next morning EARLY. Technicolor can have another print in town and yet can't get through the computer crap to figure out a way to transfer it to me. ETS has never let me down and I have problems with Technicolor at least every other release.

You must be located away from a major city. That is the only reason I can possibly think of where the Airborne service could be better than the multiple ETS depots.

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-28-1999 12:11 AM

From what I know, we have one ETS depot near Pittsburgh that delivers our prints. They come at about 5AM on Fri. Morn.

Technicolor, delivers to us by Airborn EX. on Wed. afternoon. Even though Cleveland is about a 1 - 1.5 hour drive from here, it STILL takes them at least 2 days to replace a reel. ETS takes about the same amount of time to replace the reel. (Maybe a little less if you call them right away.)

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Jim Ziegler
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 753
From: West Hollywood, CA
Registered: Jul 99

posted 10-28-1999 02:52 AM

I can usually get ETS reels really quick. (It is not unusual for me to request an ETS reel on Thursday night and get it early Friday morning). With Technicolor, so far thay have only gotten me one replacement reel on the same day (it took 8 hours, not bad comming from Ohio), but usually replacement reels requested on Thursday night arrive on Monday.. Not good when you have a crappy reel for opening weekend of your #1 movie...

BTW, has anyone ever noticed that it is always reel 1 or reel 2 that had lab scratches.. It's never reel 5 or reel 6...

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 10-28-1999 04:20 AM

Yeah I am always replacing reel 1 it seems. I just load it up onto a ring and drop it into the print, and drop the trailer pack on top of that. No problems at all. That is one definite good thing about Christie platters, they can easilly handle multiple layers of film stacked up on top of eachother.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

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

posted 10-28-1999 07:34 AM

I only replaced one ETS reel (R2 of "Elizabeth"...it was one of only two lab-new prints which I have handled and everything was in beautiful condition, but R2 was printed so that the picture was unsteady even though the film ran fine through the projector). I called on Friday and received the replacement on Tuesday. I was asked if I needed it on Monday, but I said not to worry about it. The replacement was shipped directly from Technicolor (the lab) in California to me in Virginia. I didn't call ETS about this...I called Gramercy Pictures in NYC...the lady I talked to there was extremely helpful.

I still have the defective reel, which I kept as a souvenir.

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Mark Tiedemann
Film Handler

Posts: 6
From: Iowa City, IA USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 11-04-1999 02:06 AM

My TES Horror story of the week,
I was suppose to open "My Life So Far", the print was suppose to open up on Friday, but it was grounded by the huricane in Florida. A week later, I was still booked for the movie, but TES called and said that the print might of been destroyed by the Hurricane, than the print didn't arrive untill Friday morning (7 days late). The print was in good shape, but lost it a week later.

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Jim Ziegler
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 753
From: West Hollywood, CA
Registered: Jul 99

posted 11-04-1999 03:59 AM

For some reason, Technicolor actually dropped off my prints of Insider on Wednesday... Of course my staff didn't bother to tell me, so I didn't find out until midnight when I went up to thread Sleepy Hollow (which is pretty good BTW...

Oh well, at least I know they won't show up Friday morning...

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Brad Miller
Administrator

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

posted 11-04-1999 05:13 AM

Wednesday deliveries are not a good sign. Beware of a used print inside those cans! 9 times out of 10, a used print will be unacceptable for play.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

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

posted 11-04-1999 07:29 AM

The funny thing is that the used prints that you all seem to be getting for first-run engagements--prints that might have been run once or twice--sound like they're worse than the prints that I was getting two or three (or more!) months after a particular film opened. Weird, huh. One wonders if Technicolor has a "film destruction department" or something like that...maybe they're testing Ian's "film-scratch" product, perhaps?

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Jim Ziegler
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 753
From: West Hollywood, CA
Registered: Jul 99

posted 11-04-1999 12:07 PM

Actually, Technicolor does have a film destruction department. It's called AMC.

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Stephen Jones 1
Film Handler

Posts: 62
From: Tulsa, OK, USA
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 11-05-1999 07:18 AM

Yes, it was very nice to have Insider arrive on Wednesday. It was the first time in 11 months that TES has delivered a print to us on Wednesday.

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