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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-28-2000, 08:05 PM:
Just tonight I saw the "Gone in 60 Seconds" (I think that's the title, anyway...) trailer, which starts off with a sort of crazed SMPTE clock-sweep countdown leader.
This got me to thinking about trailers that were obviously edited by someone who hated projectionists and wanted to upset them by creating on-screen effects that look like projection screwups.
I can think of at least two others: the "Gremlins" trailer (which I have several prints of, although I've only seen it on the rewind bench), which apparently contains a fake film-break; also, the "Shooting Fish" trailer, which was the first trailer that I ever ran and which starts off with a horizontal split-screen effect which looks very much like it is out of frame by exactly two perfs (which is impossible to correct on Century projectors without stopping the film and re-threading).
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-29-2000, 02:25 AM:
The last "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie had a fake film break in its trailer that looked very real.I thought that the effect was cool. I don't think that they hate projectionists. They are just going for "shock value". The "Gone in 60 Seconds" trailer is dumb. Not only are Angelina Jolie's lips bigger than Fat Bastard himself, but it looks like a boring movie. Typical Nic Cage. The trailer also says "Time it took you to get your ticket: 2 minutes" -- "Time it took you to get your popcorn: 3.2 minutes" What theatre is this? At my theatre it takes 30 minutes to get your ticket and at least 4 hours to get your popcorn!
Posted by Scott Magie (Member # 368) on 03-29-2000, 03:51 AM:
Agreed.
What's with Nic Cage trying to be cool lately? Doesn't he know that he IS and always will be Stanley Goodspeed?!
As for the time it takes to get your ticket/popcorn... it was embarrassing to show this preview during Christmas break because we were so incredibly understaffed. I could almost hear the audience scoffing over the annoying screeching of the trailer. You could've stolen a whole fleet of cars in the time it took for them to get their popcorn!------------------
Scott A. Magie
scoooot@bigsky.net
"Anybody wanna peanut?"
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 03-29-2000, 04:53 AM:
Coke had a Christmas trailer a year ago where the film broke and the audience entertained themselves with hand puppets. Wow did that look bad at "most" theaters! Dirt, scratches and more dirt. That trailer also made verifying that many xenons were badly out of focus (again at "most" theaters I saw this at). Oh did I forget to mention how incredibly lame that ad was? Anyone else remember that one?
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-29-2000, 12:16 PM:
I though all trailers came from hell!!
Mark
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 03-29-2000, 01:03 PM:
I actually have a couple of those "Shadow Puppets" trailers left. I use them for parctice film when training new people. It's funny to watch when that goes through. (It messed with my head when I first saw it, too!)There was also a cool trailer for "Zorro" that started out with an all-white screen, then Zorro walked out and slashed the "screen". -- Right after the Coke ad finished its run I took one of those and spliced it to the Zorro trailer. It was funny! I still have it in the cabinet.
Posted by Andrew D'Vrey (Member # 285) on 03-29-2000, 10:46 PM:
Mark: I don't think all trailers come from hell. Technicolor can't be responsible for all the world's evil.
...I think.
------------------
"And the monkey flips the switch."
- Major Don West, "Lost In Space"
Andrew D'Vrey
IATSE Local 219
Posted by Erika Hellgren (Member # 22) on 03-31-2000, 08:24 PM:
I remember that shadow puppet coke ad! It was really funny because our audience was always fooled into thinking that people behind them were actually doing those hand puppets. You'd see people raise up their arms and wonder why it made no shadow. I was very entertained by that 
That theatre did not have stadium seating, so the only way to make shadow puppets would be to get a ladder. Morons!
Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 03-31-2000, 10:21 PM:
Just remember kiddies, there is no hell, there is only technicolor.------------------
"If it's not worth doing, I have allready been there and done it"
Posted by Rob Brooks (Member # 186) on 04-02-2000, 12:24 PM:
Brad,
The first time I saw the Coke Trailer, I bumped my head jumping up fast to get to what I thought was broken film. Also after the film broke on that trailer someone yells out Projectionist in a demeaning tone of voice. I hate seeing those trailers that make it look like a projection problem.
Posted by Tom Ferreira (Member # 70) on 04-05-2000, 01:39 PM:
I have to laugh at the Gremlins reference. Anyone remember when Gremlins 2 had the fake film burn/break in it. Warner Bros. did send out a letter stating that this was in the film, but the manager forgot to show it to the projectionist that screened the film. Boy, was she pissed when she got to the booth after breaking a speed record.
I've just been ignoring the trailer for Gone In 60 Seconds. This film is going to have every bad cliche in the book. Whoever edited the trailer is clearly aiming at the lowest common denominator.
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 04-05-2000, 02:49 PM:
I don't mind film jokes like fake film breaks and stuff like that but I do hate when they do them wrong...1) In the trailer for Gone in 1/1440 Days the countdown leader looks like it was FLAT being played in SCOPE.
2) In the trailer for Black and White there are fake scratches in the film. There are way to many of them to be real and they dance around too much. What's the deal with fake scratches anyway? They do that on TV now! It's just TACKY!
There are probably millions more I could list but I think you get the point.
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 04-05-2000, 03:37 PM:
As many on Film-Tech have noted, there is no reason for film to have scratches when handled by skilled people on well-maintained equipment. I have seen many prints after hundreds of runs that look brand new. And unfortunately, I've seen a few that look bad during the first run. 
But I agree with Randy that the fake scratches and dirt that are so overused to portray "FILM" on television are tacky, and demeaning to the professionals who handle film correctly. Ironically, the vast majority of shows on television are shot
on FILM!
------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 04-05-2000, 06:14 PM:
Randy Said:
"In the trailer for Black and White there are fake scratches in the film. There are way to
many of them to be real and they dance around too much. What's the deal with fake
scratches anyway? They do that on TV now! It's just TACKY!"'Suicide Kings' had all of its opening titles loaded with huge scratches, sprocket runs, and bad, (I mean *really* bad) splices (all faked of course) and until I had relaized that they were fake I was ready to chuck the entire damned print into the dumpster and DEMAND a new one... heheh, ok, you got me going... ha ha ha... :P
Aaron
Posted by Robb Johnston (Member # 239) on 04-05-2000, 11:32 PM:
The Trailer for 8mm also looked like a projector snafu. In fact at one of my former theatres, there had been a brain wrap by a rookie projectionist that caused a frame to be burnt out of the trailer, and no one noticed due to the editing style of the trailer. of course after a few days the film would jump out of frame at that point, and still no one noticed why until I got back from vacation. I was to amused to be overly upset.
Posted by Andy Davis (Member # 262) on 04-06-2000, 01:42 PM:
My old theatre had an alarm for film breaks (ORC package) that produced a high-pitched tone. The theatre also featured NCN MovieTunes in the lobby. One month, there was song in which the singer held a note that was almost identical to the frequency of the film break alarm. Whenever the singer hit this note, the usher/projectionists would jump and look at the indicator panel to see what movie was interrupted. Then they would realize it was the song and their heart rate would return to normal. This song played every hour or so and the result was always the same. It was kinda annoying but funny at the same time.
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 04-07-2000, 03:58 PM:
What was the movie where the credits went out of 'register' and looked like one big, continuous brain-wrap in progress? Was it Bordello of Blood or Spawn or something like that?
Posted by Robb Johnston (Member # 239) on 04-08-2000, 12:56 PM:
Spawn did it. I built the print up and had warning. A few of my fellow projectionists ignored my note, and boy did they run when they first saw the credits running. artificial scratches, credits running diagonally, looking like the film is pulled out of the gate sideways. it was painful to watch.
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 04-10-2000, 10:46 PM:
It really caught my attention the first time I saw the credits! It took me a few seconds to realize that if the screen was going THAT crazy, the projector would probably sound like it's going to explode.
Posted by Robb Johnston (Member # 239) on 04-11-2000, 09:43 PM:
The titles in the trailer for Shanghai Noon also have faux scratches. I guess they want to give it the feel of an old western, in full color, and martial arts, yeah just how I remember them.And don't forget one of the greatest in film breaks, The MUPPET MOVIE, with the Swedish chef in the booth of the screening room.
Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 04-12-2000, 12:21 AM:
One of my favorite evil trailers was an older Pink Panther one, it was a teaser for "return" or "revenge" of the pink panther, I can't remember off the top of my head. But I remember Sellers as Clouseau doing a voice over on the trailer as if he's in the booth, and everything goes haywire, it was pretty funny.
Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 04-12-2000, 09:59 AM:
"De flum is okey-dokey"
Chef fires up projector while the film is still wrapped around him.That video is a favorite in our office .
Posted by Michael Barry (Member # 237) on 04-12-2000, 12:30 PM:
Well, these aren't trailers per se, but worth mentioning while we're on this topic...'Gremlins 2' is a good example of a film featuring a complete film break (by the Gremlins being in the booth, making shadow puppets, no less, with directional sound to match!)There is also Monte Hellman's 'Two Lane Blacktop' featuring a burn-out right at the end, and my favourite example of this is Ingmar Bergman's 'Persona', which features a sudden roping off effect and then a burn-out which lasts for several seconds during the movie. When 'Persona' was released in 1966, so many projectionists were caught unaware that they eventually labelled the cans with a warning.
Persona also starts in darkness with the first image being carbon rods striking and film running through a projector...it ends the same way but in reverse: the film tails out and the rods part. Great, great film, I think.
Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 02-07-2009, 12:25 AM:
It has been 3222 days since the last post.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-07-2009, 12:25 AM:
I must revive this ancient thread because I am currently running two trailers that are pissing me off. They aren't purposely edited to be evil, but they make me look like I am a dumbass... and that's waaay hard to do!
Take, for instance, the trailer for Sunshine Cleaning, specifically the scope version (sorry Bobby, I will not put an apostrophe before "scope". Suffer.) Anyway, the title slates of this trailer use a vignette that constantly make me think that my xenon bulbs are incredibly out of focus due to the dark corners. Since the majority of my lamphouses are STRONG X90's it is easy to see why I would think this since the xenons rarely stay where you put them due to incompetence in design of most things STRONG. The audience constantly comes out of the auditorium, berates me for not being able to focus a simple xenon, asks for refunds and the theater goes out of business. This happens to me nearly every time this trailer shows.
Another one that chaps my ass is My Life in Ruins, again the scope trailer. This trailer is for a flat movie and it has a giant black bar on the right side... ONLY the right side. Basically this trailer was printed much too far to the left of center. It makes it look like I have trouble aiming the projector at the screen. Customers complain, ask for refunds, the theater goes out of business and I am again embarrassed because of another evil trailer.
Posted by Jack Theakston (Member # 4484) on 02-07-2009, 12:31 AM:
Your customers even know what a Xenon bulb is AND understand vertical alignment? Kudos to them but it sounds like they're in that .000001 percentile of the country.
Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 02-07-2009, 02:30 PM:
Joe, best solution to the problem, don't run those trailers. And if the head office complains, tell them to get ![[sex]](graemlins/sex.gif)
Many years ago while working for the local art theatre chain, a trailer for one film came in..it was 12 minutes long!!
The owner and chief projectionist got together and decided to edit it down to a more reasonable running time.
The chief then sent out instructions expecting the projectionists at each theatre to edit the trailer themselves. I told the chief to stuff it and edit the damn thing himself. After some grumbling he did and sent me the edited copy which I promptly placed on the screen. It ran for 5 days before we pulled it, cuz it turned out we weren't getting the feature. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-07-2009, 03:56 PM:
When I see an evil trailer they go bye bye. If the green band isn't centered vertically, or the letterbox/pillarbox is off center, or whatever the technical problem...into the trash can they go!
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-07-2009, 05:43 PM:
If they go in the trash how do you deal with clauses in the booking contract for a specific trailor in a specific location
A projectionist can only advise the manager of a presentation issue not enforce their own presentation policy
Posted by Jonathan Althaus (Member # 5042) on 02-07-2009, 11:22 PM:
Theres always the excuse of "Oh yeah, that trailer got ruined in a brain wrap, so it had to be pulled off"
Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 02-07-2009, 11:47 PM:
![[thumbsdown]](graemlins/thumbsdown.gif)