Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How many trailers per film?

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Posted by Richard Quesnelle (Member # 391) on 07-13-2000, 08:43 PM:

What kind of format do most of you guys follow when picking trailers to accompany the print and how many is too many. I put on Hollow Man, Nutty 2, 102 Dalmations + Cast Away and Bedazzled were already on X-men (and I didn't know they were on there until after I was puttin it all together on the platter--no censor bands)

Any info will be of help.

Thanks__Reg

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 07-13-2000, 09:39 PM:

We are a small independent theatre that has trouble getting trailers. We put on what we want, where we want. We never put on more than three. No one can remember more that three, so you're just waisting your time. But we still get people who come in 6 minutes late and ask "has the film started yet?" I always answer that the film started at the posted time.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 07-13-2000, 11:25 PM:

I am required to place 5 previews on every movie, plus screenvision ads, plus policy and sound format. If I had it my way there would be only on screenvision ad no longer than 45 seconds. 3-5 trailers-number depending on length of feature and wether the trailers are teasers or not. But I can't have it my way and end up playing 12-17 minutes of trailers on every movie

Posted by Ethan Harper (Member # 472) on 07-13-2000, 11:41 PM:

I use to work at a cinemark 20-plex and over there we were reqired to play 5-6 trailers depending on the movie. (sometimes 4 for kids movies) but around 15minutes of trailers plus. we had to play NCN ads and coke ads before the trailers as well. ugh.

. sorry, i just dont like those commercials. nm.

Where i am working at right now, we only
play about 10 minutes of trailers. plus no commercial ad trailers . which i am really happy about.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 07-13-2000, 11:44 PM:

I don't mind commercial so long as they are well done. The M&M PSA and the Kellogg's 'Floating' commercial's are good examples. The audience thought they were hilarious. But now we're playing a really stupid McDonalds commercial. Uck. Anyway, I don't one or two of the bastards, but 4 or 5 is too much.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 07-14-2000, 02:45 AM:

Our policy is whenever possible, to run seven to nine minutes of trailers (usually 3-4 trailers including the attached one) per feature.

Aaron
http://www.cinema-west.com

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 07-14-2000, 02:46 AM:

We run three trailers if we can and that's pretty standard. If we're pushed for time, we'll run less but our manager does the programmme and knows what we like to run so he programmes to that format. It makes it easier.

We also get to choose which trailers go with what film. The trailer ALWAYS suits the follwing feature.

I agree with Ian...more than three and you're wasting your time.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-14-2000, 04:59 AM:

You're playing that horrible McDonald's commercial too? This thing is incredibly stupid. For those who haven't had the chance to see this magnificent piece of art, the setting is a first date. The two teenagers are smiling and giggling at each other making cheezy talk "what's your middle name? He he he, giggle, giggle, giggle." Then the guy asks if she is hungry and she says that she is. So where does he take her? Well, what better place to impress a date the first time than McDonald's! He doesn't even go in, but hits the drive-through. As Hollywood luck would have it, she orders the same thing he wants, but she decides she doesn't want onions on hers...and the little order screen says "2-no onions", meaning they just screwed up the guy's order! I would expect nothing less.

Lame, just lame. Still though, not quite as bad as that Jeff Yorkes thing Coke was running last year. Oh wait, I guess I should answer the question. We play on average 4 trailers, plus policy and as of this week, commercial ads. Currently there is only one, but I'm sure greed will set in and it'll be extended to 3-5 minutes soon.

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 07-14-2000, 09:02 AM:

We are right there with Dustin; with an "EXIT" snipe, 4 Screenvision ads, 3 trailers, ,policy trailer, THX snipe, "now our feature" snipe. Comes out to about 15 min. We are running some stupid cheese ad now.

I think that the industry would really like to beat it's patrons away with a stick. But since that's illegal, we run ads.

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 07-14-2000, 09:38 AM:

My theatre (Cinemark) subscribes to the Coke and Technicolor Ads. So it goes Coke, Technicolor (McDonalds, BBC, Farmer's Insurance, VW Cabrio) total time about 5 minutes. New releases during summer runs 5-6
trailers. A couple of times, 7. After first 2 weeks, down to 5. Sound then Policy, aka "Image". That usually runs about 15-20 minutes.

Paul.

Posted by Mark Huff (Member # 480) on 07-14-2000, 10:01 AM:

Well I currently work for the dreaded company that Ethan has described (Cinemark). We now have to paly 3 to 4 NCN trailers, Coke trailer, 6 movie trailers, Sound policy, Cinemark Image trailer. All of our trailers are pre selected by our corporate office.

Posted by Dave Cutler (Member # 515) on 07-14-2000, 10:46 AM:

How many trailers do I run? Way too many. 4 is plenty, never more. Unfortunately my company (AMC) doesn't know that, and insists on running up to 20 minutes of 'pre-show.'

On X-Men for instance I have...

3 NCN Commercials (Air Force, McDonalds, Nike)
Coke Commercial (Refreshing Filmmakers)
Movietickets.com
AMC Previews snipe
6 trailers (I think it was supposed to be 7 but...)
Silence is Golden policy
Feature Presentation snipe

All is all, almost 20 minutes. But I start everything EARLY. I insist that ALL commercials are OVER by the scheduled start time (ie. the AMC preview snipe starts at show time). We run all commercials with full house lights so people can continue seating while watching something.

Personally I think commercials are degrading to my screens. I resent having to stoop to the level of TV. If they insist on running commercials, require them to shoot in 35mm and use digital sound.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-14-2000, 05:18 PM:

We run three or four trailers and I make sure they are appropriate for the movie. (No R-movie trailers on a PG feature.) We don't show any ads of any kind except the DTS logo and the Hollywood.com snipe.

[By the way, I HATE THAT HOLLYWOOD.COM BOUNCING BALL THING!!!!!! There, I feel better.]

As far as the "attached" and "enclosed" trailers, they're always missing from our films, so that's not an issue.

I do put on an extra one or two trailers on extra-popular movies to give everyone time to visit the concession stand.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-14-2000, 07:11 PM:

I'm playing just about what all the other Cinemarks are playing...

Here's what **I** say we should do...
Put our collective feet down and say that we'll only play "X" minutes of trailers. (My number for "X" is 10 but that's negotiable.)

If they make all the trailers 30 seconds long then we'll play 20 trailers! If they insist upon making those STUPID 5 minute "Mini-Features", like they did for Titanic, then we'll only play 2.

Second... If they get all the trailer and advetising requests (including the actual film) to us by Monday night at ,say 8PM, we'll have them up by Wednesday at closing. (Or whatever) If they don't then they'll have to wait until WE have time to do it!

It's not about the amount of splicing and film handling. It's about all this "last minute changes" crap they try to pull all the time! Heck! I'll splice-up trailer paks all day if I need to! Just don't go telling us that we have to get the new ads up on the screen by Friday morning when we received them at 6pm on Thurs! -- Sorry, pal! Too late!

Posted by Ethan Harper (Member # 472) on 07-14-2000, 07:56 PM:

Heh Heh Heh! I know exactly what you mean there Randy.

When I too was at Skinemark. uh im sorry i mean Cinemark, We had to go through the same crap. on top of that, NCN would randomly send one of there people to watch the trailers and make sure that all of their requests are fulfilled. If they weren't, they would yell at us and we would get in trouble. They also gave us a phone call every friday morning to ask what the presghow placement was on all screens. Ugh!

down wit commercials

VIVA LA RESISTANCE!

------------------
--"That's my story and i'm sticking to it!"--

Posted by Dave Cutler (Member # 515) on 07-14-2000, 11:20 PM:

Pretty much if I don't get trailers or commercials in by Wednesday they don't go up untill the following week. Sorry just don't have time, too many other things to do. Like this week, I was supposed to get BVD's 'Unbreakable' on all my prints of X-Men. Didn't get the trailers in untill Friday morning. Sorry you lose, wait till next week is my reaction. I do the same thing with NCN, they can complain all they want, I don't give a crap. It's not like I get any benefit from of placing their ads or trailers.

Posted by Nicholas McRobert (Member # 205) on 07-15-2000, 04:22 AM:

Oh boy..... let's just wait and see what the trailer/ad policy is like if/when this whole Digital Projection thing comes in.... I can just picture it now:

Coke (Refreshing Film Maker)
Mc Donalds (Big Date)
Farmer's Ins.
**Previews (20 mins)**
Policy Trailer
DLP Snipe
**Feature Part One (15 mins)**
USAF
DLP snipe
Coke (Film maker we've seen before)
**Feature Part Two (20 mins)**
Mc Donalds (Bigger Date -- Featurette)
Burger King (We got it OUR way)
DLP snipe
**Feature Part Three (30 mins)**
Coke (Annoying Film Maker)
DLP snipe
**Feature Part Four (15 mins)**
Coke (Film maker we'd LIKE to KILL)
DLP Snipe
**Feature Part Five (15 mins, inc. credits)**
END

But hey...look on the bright side....no "film" programme to "make up". Just *download* and watch your customers CRINGE!

Nicholas

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-15-2000, 09:29 PM:

Oh, no! I just saw the McDonalds ad tonight. Yuck. Brad's description pretty much sums it up. Our prints are pretty crappy too. They have vertical streaks that look like the developer was applied unevenly. All ten of them have this problem, so it's not just a single defective print.

As for "how many trailers," I'd answer: too damn many! I've worked at three theatres. The first one was an art house that was lucky to get trailers for anything; we were always begging for them and TES was always "out of stock." The second theatre is a place where I fill in occasionally; they run about 2-3 trailers plus a "coming soon" tag and a "feature presentation" tag. That's really the perfect length for a trailer reel--it gives latecomers enough time to get seated and doesn't show so many trailers that the audience can't remember any of them.

The third theatre where I also fill in occasionally (including tonight) is a chain-owned multiplex. On most non-BV films, they show about 15-20 minutes' worth of "stuff" before the movie. Several NCN ads, Jimmy Fund ad, coming attractions tag, bunch of trailers, Moviefone, courtesy, feature presentation, etc. It's really ridiculous.

Oh, and my vote for "worst NCN ad" doesn't go to McDonalds, but rather to Nike, for producing the worst sound mix in an ad. It's so much louder than everything else that we get complaints right when it starts. I usually run it at about 5.5 and then turn the sound up to 7 for the trailers.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-16-2000, 03:42 PM:

Our company policy is that the 'bulls**t reel' (BSR), as I call it, should be as close as possible to 15 minutes. This can be a real pain as the length of the commercials tends to vary wildly from week to week - anything from 2 to 12 minutes.

U (Universal - i.e. suitable for young kids) and 18-certificate trailers are a real problem - U because very few trailers have this certificate, so it is often difficult to find enough of them to make up a full BSR for a U-cert film. 18-cert trailers are the opposite problem - we show 18-cert features so rarely that these trailers often get sent back unused.

Leo

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 07-18-2000, 04:02 AM:

My current package:

1 COCA-COLA REFRESHING FILMMAKER
2 TECHNICOLOR AD REEL (MCDONALDS/AIR FORCE/FARMERS INSURANCE)
3 5-6 TRAILERS (NO LESS THAN 5)
4 DTS TRAILER (IF APPLICABLE)
5 CINEMARK "IMAGE" TRAILER
FEATURE.

I like the technicolor advertising program MUCH better than the NCN program. If there's one pre-show ad changing, they ship out a set of new "reels" w/ all the ads for the week spliced together, so it's just pull off the old, drop in the new. Also, we received word today that Buena Vista eased up on their policy. Now, we can play pre-show advertising on all Buena Vista prints that are not succinctly "Disney" (i.e. The Kid). I don't mind the preshow - but currently having 4 minutes worth - I make sure that my Projectionists (Usher-B in Cinemark terms) start the 7:00 feature at 6:56, etc. It then simply replaces the screen slide advertising during those 4 minutes, then a cue brings the lights to half-dim at the end of the preshow.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-18-2000, 07:11 AM:

Mike - good point about starting the show early. I like to set the automation start timers for the scheduled start time. I normally try to start each show manually about 2-3 minutes before the scheduled start, but at least the timer will start the show if I get tied up elsewhere or if there are multiple shows starting at the same time.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 05-25-2002, 11:10 AM:

Twice in the past three months I got a six-pack of trailers before the feature.

All About the Benjamins had a trailer pack that went xXx (first version), Bad Company, Frailty, Undercover Brother, Blade II, Jason X. Good mix of action titles and black flava with a religious thriller for a change-up.

Spider-Man had a trailer pack of The Hulk (first teaser), Austin Powers in Goldmember (second teaser), Mr. Deeds, Men in Black II, Stuart Little 2 (full-length), xXx (second version). Great trailer pack -- a Marvel character, a long-awaited sequel and 4 Sony titles.

Running 5-6 trailers isn't that difficult if you know what works with your audience.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 05-25-2002, 01:04 PM:

....but you can tell what your audience can handle. Just watch the audience's reaction as the trailers progress. They start squirming in their seats, sometimes they shout an obsenity, sometimes they will throw something at the screen, or maybe even display an obscene jesture towards the projection booth porthole.

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 4594) on 05-25-2002, 02:12 PM:

We are an indy and every week I do a complete trailer inventory and put together the trailers with the owner...

It goes:

Jordan's Furniture Ad
Moviefone
Pepsi Barbie Trailer
2-4 trailers
*Feature*

The Jordan ad isn't that bad, the audience always seems to get a giggle out of it. What drives me crazy is that we are half sub-run, half first run art...we use the Barbie trailer on both sub and art! Personally if I were going to watch and art film I wouldn't want to see a barbie fart in a pepsi cup! Don't get me wrong though, I do like it.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 05-25-2002, 02:17 PM:

I started off running something like 8 minutes worth of trailers, but latecomers (audience majority) forced me to go longer so I immediately ramped up to a 20 minute program which I have gradually whittled down to about 12 mins or so.

------------------
~Manny.

Some people can read "War and Peace" and come away thinking it's a simple adventure story while I, on the other hand, can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe.

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 05-25-2002, 09:16 PM:

I just wish that, if the studio is going to attach trailers, that they be appropriate for the film. I remember the "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" trailer on "Time Machine" got a very loud "What the F***" from somone in the audience the first show. It was the same thing I thought when I saw it the night before.

-Adam

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-25-2002, 09:44 PM:

Adam, to give another example to support your argument, Fox put "Like Mike" in the can with Episode II. Every other trailer in the pack gets applauds, but that one is so inappropriate people have been booing at the screen when it comes on.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 05-25-2002, 10:32 PM:

The current AMC (ex-GCC) policy is as follows: NCN (usually 2-4 ads, including the same Jordans Furniture thing that Rachel has), movietickets.com, 6 (yes, _six_) trailers, AMC snipe, feature. GCC always had Jimmy Fund trailers in the summer, too, but I don't know if AMC will have it as well.

Landmark (smaller art-house chain) has a much more reasonable trailer policy: Landmark logo, Pepsi Dolls (yuck), 3 or so trailers, IFC snipe, feature. No slides and no ads. However, they seem to have an annoying habit of changing most of the trailers every week for no apparent reason.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 05-26-2002, 03:28 PM:

I guess I am spoiled running in art houses. We NEVER have to run ads. We ONLY run trailers for films we are actually going to play, and then usually limited to 3.

We try to open every show with a Warner Brothers cartoon at the top of the attraction reel (when fickle Warner Classics allows them in release), followed by usually the 2 or 3 trailers, occasionally I've gone to 4 and then always a PSA (our "community give-back" coincept); when at all possible we like to run an Academy Award winning short, also when we can get them. Attraction reel runs at 1.5/1 ar (our compromised 1.37). Curtains close, Pause, Curtains open, mask changes to wide screen, feature starts.

Since we play films that are not in a theatre near you (not current releases) any studio trailers that are attached to the head of R1 always meet the splicing block knife, unless per chance, it is a trailer for a film that we've programmed (this only happend once that I can remember), then we will play it, but it still has to come off R1 of the feature and has to go onto the attraction reel because of the curtain business.

We try to keep everything on the attraction reel to no longer than 15min, but if we are playing a short, we can go longer. We always state two times in our ads -- curtain time and starting time of the feature. We also mention that our preshow music concert starts about 20 minutes before curtain.

Patrons seem to like being able to choose if they only want to come just for the feature and not the preshow stuff (just a handful actually do this). Most get here before the curtain and about a third come the full 20 min to hear the preshow music.

Posted by Bill Langfield (Member # 818) on 06-06-2002, 01:16 PM:

10 ads and 7 trailers (all teasers tho) that had to go on Spiderman.

Was not easy to carry this head-program from the spinning
thing on the bench to the BIG spinning thing next to the projector.

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 06-06-2002, 05:17 PM:

Brad: I had a woman complain that the trailers on our print of Star Wars (bourne, sum of all fears, and the attached minority report) were inappropriate for Star Wars, it being a "kids movie". I couldn't believe it. I tried to explain that star wars was in itself pretty violent and in no way a kids movie. She felt as though i was making excuses. I later saw her storming out of the theater, two kids in tow, at the scene when (spoiler) anakin goes after the sand people.

As far as trailer attachments, i'm going to cut off the green band of three cool teaser trailers (matrix 2, bond 20, and hulk) and make a sort of combo trailer similar to the ones shipped with episode one. I remember that I liked the way that they worked on screen when placed at the head of the pack. (i'll be sure to check the soundtracks before I chop away though! )