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Topic: Too many Trailers article from the St. Paul paper

Kevin Wale
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 167
From: Guymon, OK USA
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 08-25-2003 09:16 PM

We do three + the attatched. I'll add two teasers as one trailer so that people who are just randomly late but know that trailers usually last about 8 minutes can know on the way that they are not yet late.

I say I'll add... I haven't built up a film in a couple of months. LOL

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-26-2003 09:50 AM

We are not first run and our budget model doesn't rely on screen ads, thankfully. If I had to run commercials before a movie, I would get out of the business. We will run PASs which we feel promote good will with the community (anti-drugs, anti-drinking and driving, dangers of smoking, Will Rogers stuff about West Nile Virus, etc.)....they show we care about are audience and they are always very appreciative - we always get positive comments.

So our attraction reel is: Cartoon (always a WB, except when we are playing a Roadshow title, then we show nothing except the feature), 1 PSA, 3 or 4 trailers (never more than 4) and ONLY of films we are showing in our theatre -- those that are "coming soon" HERE, not somewhere else.

Used to be you never ran trailers for films that you were not playing -- I have no idea why or when that changed, but it doesn;t make sense to me. If we are going to play a title, then the trailer is a marketing tool for US. If we are not going to play it, and it is stuck in the can or attached, then I see it as an ad for the studio, not for me. If they want to place ads on my screen, I'll gladly send them a price sheet and they can PAY for it. They don't give me their product for free....and they don't get my product -- my screen time -- for free. They can either pay a sliding scale for their ad, or they can give me a discount off the rental, but they don't get free ad time just by virtue of the fact that they can stick an ad on the product I am paying for. If I were selling newspapers, I couldn't stick a sheet of paper with an ad on it inside the papers before I sell them. The newspaper company would rightly complain. Same thing here. Well, maybe not exactly the same....I am not so sure this analogy works, but what the heck...you get the idea. I wish more theatres would start sending the studios bills for attached trailers!

Occasionally we'll stick another PSA at the end of the attractions if the feature is short. If we are running something long, we will drop the last PSA. We also run "Selected Short Subjects" on occasion, again depending on the feature's length and if we can get something appropriate for the genre of the feature.

And just from a logistical standpoint, even if an attached trailer were of a title we intended to book, we would want to play it, but we wouldn't leave it attached to the feature anyway -- we would move it into the attraction reel. We have a curtain close after the attraction reel and a mask ratio change before the main feature. The attraction reel is always 1.37 and the feature always gets wider even, if it is flat (except, of course, if it is pre-1952).

We advertise all our 1.85 flat pictures as being "Presented in Wide Screen Dimension." I originally wanted to call it "Wide Screen Dimension 185 as a nod to the great Dimension 150 process of the 50s. I figure if you are going to loose light and resolution because of the cropping, you might as well get some marketing mileage out of it so it comes to SOME good. Our real problem comes when trailers are in scope. We just won't run them. They all have to be flat. No problem if they are letterboxed, audiences have come to look at letterboxing as something positive. With all the TV shows and TV ads, to say nothing of DVDs that have top & bottom margins -- it's now sheik, so it doesn't bother me that the flat trailers for scope films are letterboxed in our Academy square. The important thing is that when the feature starts, the curtains and mask open WIDER.

And the last point -- we always advertise our "Show Time" and make it clear that the feature starts about 15 minutes after that posted time.

The preshow music is not part of the posted Show Time. It is usually a half hour of selected music that is timed to end precisely as the Cartoon hits the screen.

Frank

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Nathan Guerriero
Film Handler

Posts: 43
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted 08-26-2003 10:06 AM

We don't really have a pre-show policy. I always run at least one trailer, but no more than three. Sometimes they are for films we are planning to play, sometimes they are films that just look interesting to me. Sometimes I play vintage trailers, sandwiched with current ones. They audiences seem to like that. Personally, I think that trailers should be sort of like stretching before a basketball game; you know, limber you up for the movie...

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Andrew McCrea
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 645
From: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 08-26-2003 10:32 AM

We had this one woman who showed up (in mid-July), 30 minutes after showtime in a fur coat. I ripped her ticket, directed her to her auditorium, and within 2 minutes, she came back up to me and saidm with a loungy, smokers voice "The movies started.. Why has the movie started?" I told her we only put 1 maybe 2 trailers on with no commercials, and she started throwing a fit saying "I paid to see my movie and its already half over. How can you charge me full price when I don't get to see the full show? Why don't you guys put trailers on." etc. and other stupid stuff like that. I told her I'd get my manager. She came back for the 9 showing.

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-27-2003 03:30 AM

As you can see, we take some pride in our showmanship and go to some lengths to run a show in the same spirit of the grand theatres of the golden age of the movie palaces which I knew growing up. We promote it -- it's what we do - 15-18 min of prefeature and about a half hour of Preshow Stereo Concert before we even hit the screen (we even have a snipe for our preshow music -- it says "Come Early and hear great music in 6 Channel Total Surround MegaSound.") So it's not like we make a secret of it and spring it on an unsuspecting patron. The start time of the music and the prefeature and the feature are posted for all to see.

One day my co-director calls the booth and says there is a really irate lady down here who wants her money back. I asked what was the problem. She told me that the woman said we were just wasting her time. Shes said she didn't come to the theatre to see a lot of junk. I said, "What did she say? She's calling a McLauren short, junk??" JoAnne got a little concerned at the tone of my voice and said, never mind she'd take care of it. I said, "Keep her there....I am coming right down." JoAnne got really worried and said, "No, no, stay up there. I'll deal with her." Now I am yelling into the phone "Give her back her money and tell her to pick up her fat wrinkled ass and get out of our theatre....TELL HER." Of course she didn't. I said, "Memorize her face, JoAnne....I mean it. Now tell her she's not allowed to come back to our theatre again -- EVER. Tell her to go to the freakin multiplex next time she wants to see a movie....see how she'll like seeing WEST SIDE STORY at the RKO Kenmore (a grand old single that had been tortured into a horrid little 6plex). Tell her that." JoAnne who has a personallity better suited to meet and greet the public quietly told me again that she was taking care of it and that the change-over bells just rang and I should go start my projector. As I hung up I mumbled under my breath, "JoAnne better not let her back in here." And I went to start the show, which of course put me in a much better frame of mind.

And that, boys and girls, is why they keep me locked up in the booth. Lucky I can't get down easily cause I'm five long story stairways away from the floor. [Big Grin]

Frank

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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 08-27-2003 11:11 AM

I'm surprised by the complaints that many of you have reported, because what i experience when I attend movies is complete and total apathy, regardless of what is on the screen.

When non-trailer advertising first started appearing in NYC, the ads would get booed. Now, people seem to either accept it or simply ignore it and keep talking to their friends.

Occasionally, if there a tremendous number of trailers, you'll hear a few moans, but even that is unusual.

Slightly off topic, but related to patron complaints:
I recently tried to see The Secret Lives of Dentists at a local art house. This was the third day of the run. I noticed that all the trailers and snipes were heavily scratched, but I decided to wait for the feature. The feature had three vertical scratches down the length of the film. I can't even imagine what they did to damage the print that much in such a short time. I ran for the manager and requested my money back, but everyone else just sat there and watched the film. This isn't the first time that I've run out of the theater to complain about something, but was the only one to do so.

The only time I ever saw a movie crowd react en masse was years ago at a screening of Jaws at the Kingsway Theater in Brooklyn. I think this is before the theater was multiplexed, so we're probably talking about at least 1500 patrons. Either the sound or the picture died (I forget which) at a tense point in the film. The theater was full and the crowd went nuts. The manager of the theater came into the auditorium and was screaming at the projectionist to stop the film. The film was finally stopped, then started again with proper sound and picture, but then the crowd screamed for them to roll the film back to the point where the problem started. They finally got that accomplished, the film restarted and the crowd settled down. But even then, no one asked for their money back.

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 08-28-2003 01:51 PM

We generally look at the length of the trailer pack, rather than on strict numbers. On average, we run 10-12 minutes of trailers, a policy strip then the feature.

Generally, this works out to 4 trailers. About the only time we'll run 5 is if a couple of them are teasers. My daughter got caught with bad feature timing one week & adjusted the schedule by running only one trailer. I found it a bit unnerving to see one preview, then the show start so quickly, as even I had become used to the routine. Given that, I'd guess a lot of our customers have, too... so we shoot for some consistency on this issue.

As with Frank, we also select trailers for shows we know, or at least feel strongly we'll be showing at that theatre. The studios are putting far too many trailers in the cans to run 'em all (do they really think anyone does???). We also pay attention to how the trailers "fit" with the rest of the show, so nothing seems uncomfortably "out of place".

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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 08-28-2003 08:03 PM

I've been counting ads, trailers and snipes recently and I can tell you that AMC and Loews theatres in NYC have been playing up to 13. Frankly, I don't mind the trailers -- only the ads really bother me and most of the snipes bother me because IMHO, they're so aesthetically poor.

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 08-29-2003 08:13 PM

My preference is three trailers.

Paul Linfesty wrote:

quote:
there was only one before STAR WARS at the Chinese, a 35mm shortie for THE WORLD's GREATEST LOVER, shown in 35mm 1.33!)

Paul,
You must not have seen the movie in its first month when the trailer was for Sorcerer. There's a great quote in the book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls from one of the Sorcerer crewmembers who went to see Star Wars at the Chinese knowing their Sorcerer trailer was running.

"When our trailer faded to black, the curtains closed and opened again, and they kept opening and opening, and you started feeling this huge thing coming over your shoulder overwhelming you, and heard this noise, and you went right off into space. It made our film look like this little, amateurish piece of shit. I told [director] Billy [Friedkin], 'We're fucking being blown off the screen. You gotta go see this.' "

I sure miss the days when scope and 70mm presentations were preceded by flat/mono trailers. A fine example of showmanship, and a great way for the feature to make a big impact.

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Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 08-29-2003 09:19 PM

Mike, you are right. I saw it on Thursday, the day after STAR WARS returned following the SORCERER engagement (I attended the 5:25 pm show).

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 08-29-2003 09:26 PM

quote:
I saw it on Thursday, the day after STAR WARS returned following the SORCERER engagement (I attended the 5:25 pm show).

Wow! Do you remember what size popcorn you had? [Smile]

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Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 08-29-2003 09:44 PM

I didnt have refreshments. I actually bought my ticket at 5:20pm (no line - everyone else was seated already, and it was at least two-thirds full) and got a great seat 2/3 way back. Only projection flaw: one of the reels allowed to run all the way out, tail and all and we were left staring at a pure white light screen for around thirty seconds!

That week I caught STAR WARS on Tuesday at the Plitt Century Plaza (followed by the 1pm 2001: a Space Odyssey showing at the Cinerama Dome), Wednesday at the Avco Center I, and AGAIN at the Century Plaza the same day I visited the Chinese, all showings starting at 10am! Admission was 4.00 for all shows (all other movies playing at the first runs were 3.50, except the 4.00 price for BRIDGE TOO FAR).

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-30-2003 04:39 PM

Marty, 13 trailers? Man, that's a slew -- we are talking roughly about half an hour of prefeature! Me, I don't mind trailers either, but I am clearly in the minority. All of my collegues keep trying to get me to cut the number of trailers back. They really nixed my idea of playing a few classic trailers just for the historical perspective of them.

I've gotten the staff to accept up to 4 (they would really rather only three, but I outrank them); 5 seems to be their breaking point when they start whining at me. Then again, trailers for older titles are usually longer than the 2 to 2.5 min things they make today. The original trailer for GUYS AND DOLLS that I just ran clocked in at about 4.5 min! Imagine stringing 13 of THOSE together?! After the first screening, I realized it was really boring and edited it down (most of the time was taken up by Ed Sullivan blabbing about the movie and obviously reading off cue cards). Out he went. Besides, most of the younger audience kept asking each other "Who the &$#@ is Ed Sullivan?"

Frank

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Brad Miller
Administrator

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

posted 08-30-2003 04:52 PM

quote:
"Only projection flaw: one of the reels allowed to run all the way out, tail and all and we were left staring at a pure white light screen for around thirty seconds!"

Steve?

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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 08-30-2003 08:26 PM

quote:
I've gotten the staff to accept up to 4 (they would really rather only three, but I outrank them); 5 seems to be their breaking point when they start whining at me. Then again, trailers for older titles are usually longer than the 2 to 2.5 min things they make today. The original trailer for GUYS AND DOLLS that I just ran clocked in at about 4.5 min! Imagine stringing 13 of THOSE together?!

Some of those 13 were really, really short because the whole thing had to of come in at under 25 minutes. Next time I'll also keep track of the time.

But shouldn't the decision as to how many trailers be shown be up to audience reaction and not up to the staff?

I saw American Splendor in a local theater yesterday (first day of the run) and there were absolutely no trailers, snipes or ads. That really surprised me, but maybe they didn't have time to put it together as yet. I was actually a little taken aback when the movie started right away, because I wasn't expecting it. I actually think not having anything was a negative, because the audience wasn't settled in and one's eyes weren't accustomed to the darkened theater (but bright screen) as yet.

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