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Posted by Tom Ferreira (Member # 70) on 06-29-1999, 03:58 PM:
Is anyone actually programming all of the trailers that are coming with prints now? When I was trained to make up films fifteen years ago, I was told to program all the loose trailers in the can with the film, but it's gotten out of hand now. Some films are coming with up to six trailers loose in the can, not to mention what's attached to the print. Trailers for Universal and New Line films are coming with Warner Bros. prints, and vice versa, Dreamworks comes with almost everything. It seems the only studios that trailer only their own films are BV, Paramount, and Fox. So let me throw this out, since I have no knowledge of film contracts and such-are we obligated to play everything that comes with a print, or can I use my discretion? When making up South Park last night, I didn't feel that Runaway Bride really fit, so I left it off, and for Wild Wild West, I didn't think Eyes Wide Shut was appropriate. Should I get a closed check, would there be a problem?
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-29-1999, 06:39 PM:
I answered this on another thread, but it became a rant, so here's my real answer...If the included trailer is appropriate to play with the feature, I program it. I try not to program trailers for R-rated films with movies aimed at kids. (Which includes a lot of PG-13s, of course.)
I wonder if this phenom of including a bunch of trailers with movies is the reason why NSS and Technicolor are always running out of trailers? Seems like they are the best form of advertising for us, but we can only get'em about 60% of the time.
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Mike Blakesley
www.goforsyth.com/roxy
Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 06-29-1999, 11:42 PM:
I try to program everything that comes with the film. Sometimes, however, I don't. (Like "Big Daddy, for example. Come on Sony, "Stuart Little" and the "Muppets From Space" aren't exactly what a 15 year old male who worships Adam Sandler is going to spend $7.00 to see next time he's in town!) I'm fortunate that my bosses have always respected my choices for trailers from our own stock too. When I train young projectionists I tell them to use their common sense and usually they wont look like fools for programing G-rated trailers on R-rated films. Also, I follow release dates on up coming movies. For example: if I know a movie is scheduled to come out in five weeks and another is scheduled to come out in three weeks, and both have trailers that are to be programed today, I make sure the trailer of the three week movie is right behind the leader and the trailer for the five week movie is right behind that. In this way, three weeks later, I can remove the first trailer behind the leader with no trouble and not have to worry about going looking for it and fingering up the print. Two weeks later, the next trailer is ready to come off. Its now right behind the leader and just as easy to get to. Sure, I get screwed sometimes by dates being moved up or pushed back, but most of the time everything falls into place. I'm sure many of you guys out there use this same method too. But maybe if your reading this and your new to projection, you might find this is a good way to keep trailers current, bosses happy, and most importantly, film looking as great as it could possibly be out on the screen.
Posted by Erika Hellgren (Member # 22) on 07-01-1999, 05:27 PM:
I'm actually amazed at how much freedom you guys seem to have with regards to trailer programming. My theatre chain's Home Office forces so many restrictions on trailer placement, that in the end, I barely have any choice as to what to put on. For example, I MUST have at least two of the distributing studio's trailers on at all times, i.e., for WWW, I must always have two WB trailers on, so I had no choice but to put Eyes Wide Shut on there along with the attached trailer.
A long time ago, theatre chains didn't care what trailers were on, as long as you kept the attached trailer, and never programmed a red band on anything. Back then I put trailers on based on what the audience would like. But unfortunately, with all the guidelines these days, I HAD to put Stuart Little on Big Daddy 
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Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 07-02-1999, 11:30 AM:
We have more freedom than most, I believe, because we're independent. My friend Greg is a general manager for a Cinemark nine screen in Ohio, and he sometimes comments about his hands being tied regarding trailers. When he first left us, I think it was tough for him to get into the groove of having someone else tell him what to program. I still follow those old guidelines that Erika spoke of such as playing the attached trailer, however, I'm not above programing red bands if they're appropriate for the print. We get about one or two of those a year in our booth. I always figure that if I don't put them on, one of the assistant projectionists will. It is better that I make the choice than possibly let another make a mistake.
Posted by Chris Wootten (Member # 283) on 03-01-2003, 07:17 AM:
I don't seem to have the same problem as you, but as I am in Australia, obviously the marketing and rules are different. Normally if a trailer comes with the film, we will screen it, subject to our strict censorship code of course, and then we add what we will be screening in the coming weeks. This is only limited to a maximum of three trailers per feature.
I have never seen a feature arrive here with more than two trailers attached. ![[beer]](graemlins/beer.gif)
Posted by Rick Stowell (Member # 1624) on 03-01-2003, 05:55 PM:
Our policy is:
Movie 1:50 or less, 4 previews (including attached)
Movie 1:50 to 2:10 3 previews ( " )
Movie 2:10 or longer 2 previews ( " )
We pick the trailers based on the genre, target market, release date, and the likelihood that we will play it.
Whether it came in the cans with the movie or not is irrelevant. It's nice being independent.
Posted by Don Bruechert (Member # 1538) on 03-01-2003, 09:27 PM:
I'm similar to Rick. We rarely put more than 3 trailers on a film with the sometimes exception that there was one attached to the film we didn't know about, and lately we have just been assuming all of the films have trailers on them and only putting on two. I did feel bad that Jungle 2 was so short, so I put a bunch on there to make it seem longer. The nice thing is us managers never see any contracts. The film shows up in the lobby and we build it up - there is rarely even any paperwork in the cans like you guys talk of, although we just got a used Kangaroo Jack on thurs and there was a note in there about an attached trailer.
What I like to do is pick trailers with safe ratings for what we are playing, and then I will program the trailers based on the content of the film and a wild-ass guess of how long I think it will be around. If I think a film will be around 4 - 6 weeks I will put on a trailer maybe 3 weeks out, and then maybe 5 and 8 or so. That way if it is around for a while the trailers aren't all outdated. Once a film is built right we don't mess with it until we need to tear it down, so there is no swapping out trailers in a few weeks. I did however program some Academy Awards trailers on from Pepsi, and I put hem first in line so I can yank them after the awards if I need to.
The other thing I like to do is if it is a kiddy film throw on a kiddy trailer or two, and then an appropriate one to tempt the parents. If it is an action/horror/guy flick I will program on a chick flick for the girlfriends, one of similar content, and then something off in left field to try to get people to think outside their genre. Same thing goes for chick flicks - you gotta have one for the boyfriends, but I might throw on a kiddie trailer to try to get the moms to bring in their kids to that movie when it comes out....
It all comes down to programming for the audience - I could care less about who's trailers they are. Since I'm a newbie, if I ever get busted I will just say nobody ever told me - I will get away with that the first time, and then I suppose I should know better! Most of the time there is stuff in the film can that is never going to make it in our city anyway so why waste the customer's time....
Posted by Daniel Burns (Member # 1549) on 03-02-2003, 01:44 AM:
You know i'm srry if someones already said this because I havn't read the whole thread yet, but it seems to me that distributers get free shipping if they send extra trailers in the cans. And you'd think that would add up after a while. Or maybe I'm wrong.
Posted by Nicholas Roznovsky (Member # 861) on 03-02-2003, 09:27 AM:
Unless it's attached to the print or I've received a direct order from corporate (very, very rare), I always go with my own mix of trailers designed around the target audience of the particular film. In the end, these people will be coming back to my theater, so why shouldn't I advertise something they'll want to come back for?
If you really sat down and slapped all of the "programming suggestions" together (including the ones in the can and the ones we get via fax and mail), you'd end up with about 25-30 of trailers before the feature. And although that's acceptible some places, we never have more than seven or eight minutes of trailers.
In general, I've found that wisdom rarely comes in the form of a letter thrown in a film can.
Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 03-02-2003, 09:30 AM:
Is there any truth to the assertion that first-run booking contracts require programming of trailers?
Every once in a while someone mentions this, but I can't tell if it is speculation or not. Obviously second-run contracts don't require it, since you're lucky if you can get the trailers at all...
--jhawk
Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 03-02-2003, 10:19 AM:
John -- I believe so. I've seen some notes in some cans indicate that EVERY trailer from that studio that has been included or attatched MUST be played. I think this is how Regal got the shaft with Rush Hour 2.
Back when I first started at Regal, we played 3 trailers with each print, including the attatched. Very soon after (2 weeks or so) we had to play four, then five, then came the rolling stock. They used to be more lenient too. I remember getting a list each week of 8 or 9 trailers, and we got to choose 5 from that. When I left, the policy was 5 minutes of rolling stock, 5 trailers, and that stupid Pepsi Girl snipe. Around that time, the policy was that we were given a list we had to go by, in order, for the trailers. I liked when we got to choose. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
=TMP=
Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 03-02-2003, 10:23 AM:
"Notes in a can" are not "contracts."
But all the notes I've seen seem to be of the form, "Please program this trailer..." not "You are contractually obligated to program this trailer..."
Clearly the situation is different with chains, and I can imagine the large chains may have seperate agreements with studios about trailer placement; I meant for the general case, though.
--jhawk
Posted by Nicholas Roznovsky (Member # 861) on 03-02-2003, 11:16 AM:
The notices in the can are most certainly not binding restrictions. If that were true, they could pull all of my prints since I don't have the fader at the director's favored magical setting of 7.
Trailer requirements on prints have been (in our case at least) extremely rare. The last one I can remember that was written in to one of our booking contracts was the combo trailers Fox made to stick in front of The Phantom Menace.
Occasionally, I've had checkers (or auditors, if you prefer to take the job of counting people in a theater and make it sound grandiose) who were told to be checking for specific trailers on prints, but nothing has ever come of this in the end. We're a pretty small chain though, so I imagine things might be different for the big dogs.
Posted by Rick Stowell (Member # 1624) on 03-02-2003, 11:20 AM:
We are a first-run independent, and we are not required to play any trailers other than those attached. On a few occasions, we've even removed that if it was inappropriate. I laugh sometimes when the notes in the can say something like "your regional office has already approved..." or "your owner has agreed to play...". It ain't so. We've had many checkers and they make note of the trailers and we've never had a problem with any film company.
Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 03-02-2003, 12:29 PM:
I'm pretty certain the only trailer you are required to play by contract is the attached.
Posted by Kara J. McVay (Member # 1285) on 03-02-2003, 06:24 PM:
I am looking for a catchy slogan to put on my website, because we only run 2 maybe 3 trailers and nothing else. People show up 10 min after the show starts and act suprised when the movie has been on the screen for 5 min. or so.
Any catchy slogans you all can think of would be appreciated. I will credit the author on my website. (I know this is a very exciting offer) Don't overload the server with ideas ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Posted by William T. Parr (Member # 677) on 03-02-2003, 06:44 PM:
The theatre I work at was recently taking over by an actual tehatre chain, Up until that chain took over we had an open policy about how many previews to put on. I always kept it at 8:30 to 10:00 woth of previews not including any sound trailers. Once the nameless theatre chain took over, I was reduced to no more than 3 previews and where I had been advertising sound systems immediatly before the movie, I was told under no circumstances to removes the attached trailer and put anything in between it or the feature. I could, however play the sound trailer only as the very first trailer on the screen. I found out this past week, that the person in charge of my theatre for the company is violating his own company policy by doing this as it is the company policy for 10 minutes of previews. This is the same guy that feels that it is a waste of money to re certify my THX auditoriums siting that nobody cares about THX anymore. Go Figure
Posted by John Westlund (Member # 913) on 03-02-2003, 06:47 PM:
We usually play our DTS logo first followed by a policy trailer telling people to keep there feet off the seats etc. Then usually 3 or 4 previews. We always play the attached trailer just before the feature.
Posted by Nicholas Roznovsky (Member # 861) on 03-02-2003, 07:14 PM:
Our order goes as follows:
1) :10 "Coming soon" trailer
2) 6-8 minutes of trailers (incl. attached ones - that's right, we cut the prints because customers hate seeing "Our Feature Presentation" and then having to sit through another damn trailer. I wish the people deciding to attach these trailers and then demand no cuts actually had to deal with a customer once in a while.)
3) :55 policy and feature presentation trailer
4) applicable sound format trailer
5) A high quality motion picture ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Posted by Gracia L. Babbidge (Member # 582) on 03-03-2003, 10:41 AM:
My 'normal' lineup -
- Pepsi ad of the month (:30 - :60)
- Gift Certificate spot (:30ish)
- 'no talking / smoking / littering / feet on the seats pretty please and thank you for choosing our theatre' policy trailer (:60)
- one of the best tools for keeping business coming - trailers! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
- feature itself
Every week we get an email with trailer placement requests, which I comply with as much as possible, and the requests often leave a little room for other things, in which case I just apply some logic as to what ought to get programmed.
Occasionally there are trailer requirements that I must comply with, and even if they strike me as odd, I do my job and place what I must.
It is a highly rare thing for me to remove an attached trailer from a feature. In fact, I can only think of two incidents of attached trailer removal in the past three years. 1 - Yanked the 'Screwed' trailer off U-571, as I had to ship out Screwed before U-571! 2 - Removed 'XXX' trailers from the prints of 'MIIB' that I built, as at that point, we knew that we would not be booking 'XXX', and who wants to do the advertising for their competition?
Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 03-03-2003, 11:34 AM:
In the golden age of the single screens, there used to be a reason theatres played trailers -- to promote the films that they would be playing IN THAT THEATRE. You never played trailers for films that wouldn't play in your theatre, except for the occasional "cross plug" for another of your theatres close by. Today that rule still applies to the art house folks; we still follow that rule: never play a trailer unless you've booked that title. We don't want to confuse our patrons.
As far as the trailers attached to the front of the feature, I've read and reread the studios' Master Contracts and all it says is that we are obligated to play the contracted feature from beginning to end, without any edits or omissions. I take that on face value and interpret it to mean exactly what it says -- the FEATURE, not the leaders and not the junk on the front of reel 1 or, for that matter, the junk at the end of the last reel ("When in Southern California, visit Universal Studios"), or the MPAA rating where ever they put it.
Of course this is a moot point because all the trailers that are in front of any of the features that we play are either missing by the time we get the print, are for titles that have long gone to video. But even if we were running first run and prints came in with the studio trailers in front for titles that I haven't booked, I would remove them for this reason: if the studio wants to advertise its product on my screen, they can either pay my going ad rates or give me a reduced rental on the feature. And as already stated, it is not good marketing practice to make patrons think they can see a title at your theatre because you are running the trailer, when in fact, they can't.
Occasionally we do play first run sneaks; I will run the studio's trailers on these because the studio is paying for the screening so I show anything they send me, but I STILL remove the trailers from reel 1 because logistically it doesn't work when using a curtain. We put all prefeature gack on an "attraction reel" so we can close the curtains after the attractions (reset the mask) and open again for the main feature. Curtain protocol -- few remember it, but there was a way it was done and at one time all the first run theatres and even the classy second run houses followed it. We still do. Thing is, many times distrib excs come to see the sneaks in our theatre and never once did I hear a complaint because there was a pause and curtain between the attractions and the feature. In fact they love it that way.
Frank