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Author Topic: Will green band-cutting be allowed to continue? Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-18-2003 03:20 PM                     Never to go with the crowd.... I have no problem with the ratings bands on previews or features and feel they are most appropriate at the beginning. At the end, they are worthless since everyone has left. Unlike 1-sheets, boxoffice signs, mini-marquees....etc, the rating strip on the film IS the rating for the film and is less subject to theatrical error. It probably wouldn't offend so many here if it was part of the opening title sequence. I know of one theatre that places the blue band at the head of all of their features. It is truely the patron's last chance of claiming they were not informed. It plays a specified length and if shown at the beginning of the film then only late commers will miss it. I don't feel that the ratings are for parents only. Some people just don't want to see films that have "adult content" or even foul language...no matter how good the film is (in other people's mind). Steve  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 01-18-2003 07:03 PM                    I'm just reiterating the stated objective of the MPAA. quote: The basic mission of the rating system is a simple one: to offer to parents some advance information about movies so that parents can decide what movies they want their children to see or not to see. ... Indeed, if you are 18 or over, or if you have no children, the rating system has no meaning for you. Ratings are meant for parents, no one else. Obviously that doesn't stop others from taking an interest, especially if they are easily offended. But people would be better off if they kept the true purpose in mind.  |  IP: Logged Mark Maxwell Film Handler Posts: 55 From: Tyler, TX, USA Registered: Jul 2002 posted 01-20-2003 01:09 AM                     I went to a theater in Tyler, Tx that cut out the green bands. To me, it made since to leave them on because it literally says that the following preview has been approved for all audiences, and by who, and list filmratings.com for any questioning. Several times I had been griped at because of trailors that were on certain movies and and I have to tell the customer I have a trailor list to go by, and it was approved by the ratings board. That brings me to a question I want to bring up in a minute. When Jurrasic Park 3 came out, my print had an attached preview for American Pie 2. A lady came out and complained that it wasn't apropriate for her 8 year old son. Apperently she thought seeing Jason Bigg call 911 and saying, "I glued myself too...myself" would be more damaging than seeing people getting eaten by big monsters he might have never imagined before. I had always figured that if a preview came with on a print, they for damn sure wanted it played. I told her that we can't edit a final print. I'm still against it, but does anyone know the actuall policy on that?  |  IP: Logged Dustin Mitchell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1865 From: Mondovi, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 01-20-2003 02:25 AM                     The attached trailer must be played with the print it came with, though the consensus on Film-Tech seems to be it is acceptable to place policy and/or sound format trailers in between the attached trailer and the feature. Not playing the attached trailer is a breach of your booking contract.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-20-2003 02:44 AM                     Mark, when someone complains I always remind them "do you remember right before the preview that green screen that said the following preview has been rated for all audiences?" They of course say "yes" to which I reply "that means that the MPAA has rated that particular trailer G and that there is nothing in that trailer that would not pass for a regular G rated movie." While I do not promote some of the poor trailer placement sent out by the studios and bookers, this tactic shuts them up EVERY time. ...of course you can't use that one if you've whacked off the green bands.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-23-2003 08:27 PM                     I don't like seeing those green bands. They are garrish. We used to edit them out at all of the American theatres I worked for. I regarded the red and green bands as a guide to indicate how the trailer might best be programmed. I wouldn't show them any sooner than I would show head and tail leaders. As it happens, they are irrelevant in The Bahamas because there is a separate rating system here. Previews themselves are not rated locally but it is assumed that if the Americans gave a particular trailer a green band then it must be okay to run it on a similar feature. Red bands remain intact, however. This is so that they can always be identified as "red-band" if they ever get saved for later use on another feature. Come to think of it, the last red band trailer I ever got was for "Lord of Illusions" and, before that, "Showgirls." Those were ages ago. As someone pointed out, there is no requirement to run the bands, which means this is a matter of personal (or corporate) taste. I don't believe that school of thought is necessarily more correct than the other. As for the soundtrack appearing in the green band area -- I sincerely hope that no trailer editor is stupid enough to put anything important in that space -- in any event, that audio will not get heard in my theatres. I think this "soundtrack issue" is little more than an evil attempt to force theatres into showing the awful green band. This is another example of how self-centred the U.S. can be. It is insulting to the people of Canada, The Bahamas and other countries. ~Manny. (An American Original.)  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 01-23-2003 08:59 PM                        quote: It is insulting to the people of Canada, The Bahamas and other countries. I only get a few a year with green bands on them, so I usually just don't show the trailer at all. The only time I will is if the soundtrack doesn't overlap the band. Like Brad and others, I also don't like the T.V. commerical effect so I space trailers out with either the usually generous amount of black leader (with silent soundtrack) or add some black leader between trailers.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-23-2003 09:43 PM                     I like to use black in between them, too. It's great to hear the commentary from the audience after a trailer. I haven't programmed trailers in a long, long time though.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 01-23-2003 09:56 PM                    Why would you find it insulting? It's not a manifestation of the US government but of the motion picture industry whose product you are playing. I can see your point if you are playing a US trailer for a film produced in some other country but for American films it's simply the rating assigned by a trade group of the companies including the one that made the movie in question. Would you feel differently if the organization was called the Motion Picture Distributors Assocation? I can't see that I would be offended if some anime' movie was preceded by a snipe saying that an association of Japanese filmmakers says this movie should be seen only by those 15 and up. I'd think mmmkay...that's interesting.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-23-2003 10:09 PM                     It's okay if you don't see it my way. I'm just chiming in with my 2 cents, and I welcome your 2 cents but It's not worth arguing.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 01-23-2003 10:16 PM                        Personally I don't find it insulting at all. I'd just like to keep both my projection license and our theatre license, since we could loose both by showing them. OK, I can't loose my projection license anymore because they scrapped licensing in 2001 but I could still loose the theatre license. Same goes if I can't produce a trailer certificate for every trailer in use and feature certifcate for every feature being shown in the event that a theatre inspector decides to pay me a visit.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 01-23-2003 11:03 PM                    I'm not a big fan of the MPAA ratings system, hence my oft stated wish that it be used for parenting only and everyone else should remain oblivious to it. But if its existence has managed to stave off the sort of official government ratings, certificates, theatre licensing, regulations and paperwork etc. you folks have then count me on bended knee before CARA. There but for the grace of Jack Valenti go us. (And due credit to NATO, too for helping to get it going.) It may be lame but at least it's a private industry lame, not a government lame.  |  IP: Logged William Hooper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1879 From: Mobile, AL USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-24-2003 01:54 AM                        Steve: I don't think Manny meant the US government. He meant businesses (& the people who run & work in them) in the US. It certainly does seem like oversight that locations outside the US might not be able to run the mpaa bands. On the other hand, they probably just didn't know that it would be a problem either. It seems a standard thing. Crap don't work right for what you need out of the box, cuss the manufacturer for not thinking about that, manufacturer remains clueless & whistling in manufacturer-land until somebody has a near stroke and calls them up & says "Dipstick, aren't you aware that..."  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 01-24-2003 06:56 AM                        Some links to first-hand information on the MPAA film ratings: http://www.mpaa.org/movieratings/about/index.htm http://www.mpaa.org/movieratings/ http://www.filmratings.com http://www.natoonline.org/ratings.htm  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 01-24-2003 09:00 AM                    quote: Then how do you deal with trailers that have sound starting on the first frame of picture (and printed 20 frames out on the green band)? Cut that off too? Tsk tsk... Film Done Wrong. Agreed. Which is why we leave them on in those cases - but no more than two seconds or whatever is sufficient to leave the sound intact - which ever is longer. And that trailer is moved to the front of the trailer pack so the green band doesn't end up being a break in the middle. Those trailers are quite rare these days. I think I've seen three in the last six months. Our GM questioned me about that practice, and when I explained why it was there, and he was cool with it. Rarely do we have to bend the rules - but only slightly, and only for the sake of making a better presentation. [ 01-24-2003, 02:09 PM: Message edited by: Mark J. Marshall ]  |  IP: Logged

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