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Author Topic: Damaged Print Cost John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 04-14-2003 10:32 AM                        Here's a recent price list from a smaller lab: http://www.colorlab.com/prices/pl2003.pdf Of course, higher volumes of release prints usually can negotiate lower prices. Current catalog price of 35mm Kodak VISION Color Print Film 2383 is about 9 cents ($0.09) per foot (raw stock).  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 04-14-2003 10:58 AM                        quote: I destroyed Dennis The Menace (sp) . Congratulations on your good taste!  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 04-14-2003 04:05 PM                     quote: So pretty much the only time you could be reasonably stuck with the full cost of the print is at the beginning of the run (all prints are playing in first run theatres "on the break"), or at the end of the run or in repertory, when you can assume that the excess prints have been junked. Well put John. That was what I was inferring about the "wide print" a couple of days ago, but you put it so much better. I also agree the specific legalities of this is one of those discussions that really won't go anywhere, so unless anyone else has a story to tell, we're probably off not continuing that aspect of this thread.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 04-14-2003 06:55 PM                        Do distributors order "extra" prints, with the expectation that some small percentage of a large production run will either be defective, or be damaged, and thus need replacement in that first week or so of release? Do the labs themselves automatically run some small percentage of extras to cover lab defects? I guess another way of asking this is, if you screen a print on Thursday night and find that a reel is bad, and you contact the distributor for a replacement, where is that replacement coming from?  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 04-15-2003 01:46 AM                        The size of the production run is probably the key to it. The more prints there were to start with, the more likely I'd guess it would be that spares will become available and that (assuming the damage doesn't happen during the opening weekend) the perpetrator of an accident won't have to pay. If a replacement print is needed, then that'll have to be done on a one-off basis and probably by a smaller lab, which will obviously be more expensive per unit than a production run of a thousand or so. All the extra overheads, like shipping the interneg to the lab, setting up the printer, grading (unless the interneg itself has been graded for one-light release printing) and so on, will be incurred just for that one print.  |  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 04-15-2003 02:08 AM                        Dave, I usually get my replacement reels sent from the film depot. They are shipped same day bus or courier. As far as I know they just take the reels from a spare number of prints. How many spares they keep is probably based on the percentage of the total prints. I'd assume that the distributor would charge the cost back to the lab for prints with printing defects, but I really don't know. The labs might only guarantee a certain number of no-defect reels where the distributor might swallow the cost for a small number of defects. For prints that are damaged by theatres, the distributor swallows the cost or charges the theatre. I've never damaged a print so I can't say how often a theatre actually gets charged.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 04-15-2003 03:34 AM                        quote: For prints that are damaged by theatres, the distributor swallows the cost or charges the theatre. ...and in some cases, there won't be any cost to swallow (apart from shipping). Let's say that Big Blockbuster III opens with a 1,000 prints. After a week, 150 theatres drop it and one of the remaining ones trashes their print. Presumably there are now 150 surplus good copies sitting in depots, so there is no need to get any new prints made. On the other hand, let's take a French arthouse movie. Let's make this a worst-possible scenario: only three prints were made to start with, and all were imported across the Atlantic from France. The film is black-and-white, over three hours long, and had laser subtitles put on it in New York before going into distribution. Each of those three prints has a year of back-to-back three day bookings lined up. Then a university film society trashes their print. I hope they're well insured. Cost of a 15,000 foot b/w print made at a small lab in Paris, flown across the Atlantic and then subtitled?  |  IP: Logged Steven Pickles Film Handler Posts: 81 From: Gainesville, FL, USA Registered: Mar 2001 posted 04-17-2003 10:04 AM                     John C, Which print of yours was damaged? I'd just like to know out of curiosity. Steven  |  IP: Logged John Carpenter Film Handler Posts: 96 From: Fort Walton Beach, FL, USA Registered: Nov 2002 posted 04-17-2003 02:26 PM                     Steven - Check your email... and for the others, let me put it this way - This was the first chance to use Sony's new 800 number since they switched from TES to ETS and after a call on Saturday afternoon we had a new print delivered to us that night - great service as far as I'm concerened!  |  IP: Logged John Carpenter Film Handler Posts: 96 From: Fort Walton Beach, FL, USA Registered: Nov 2002 posted 05-01-2003 04:54 PM                     For those of you who are interested... we found out we are being charged $1680 for the damage!!  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 05-02-2003 08:57 AM                        quote: For those of you who are interested... we found out we are being charged $1680 for the damage!! How long was the print? For example, if the print was 2 hours long (10,800 feet plus leaders), you were charged less than 16 cents ($0.16 US) per foot.  |  IP: Logged John Carpenter Film Handler Posts: 96 From: Fort Walton Beach, FL, USA Registered: Nov 2002 posted 05-02-2003 09:51 AM                     quote: How long was the print? For example, if the print was 2 hours long (10,800 feet plus leaders), you were charged less than 16 cents ($0.16 US) per foot. The film was just shy of 2 hours  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 05-02-2003 10:36 AM                        Seems like a fair price then if it was due to carelessness. It was an expensive mistake, but a learning experience.  |  IP: Logged

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