Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: TES Exhibitor Guide

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Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 09-21-2000, 11:55 AM:

Did anyone else get this ridiculous fax? I get to work and my fax machine spits out the following:

LOOK OUT!
The wait is over...
The orange box is on its way...
Arriving in theatres this week...

THE EXHIBITOR GUIDE

brought to you by
TECHNICOLOR
The Greatest Name In Color

Posted by Dave Cutler (Member # 515) on 09-21-2000, 12:17 PM:

Didn't get the fax, but I got the 'Exhibitor Guide' today. Haven't looked through it much yet, but the binder says...

"Technicolor: The Greatest Name In Color"

Yeah, great color, lousy service.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 09-21-2000, 12:19 PM:

Was the orange box all beat up like their film cans? Did the binder have broken O-rings?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-21-2000, 12:26 PM:

I can top that....I HAVE THE GUIDE! It showed up this morning. I have already wasted 10 minutes reading it from cover to cover. Aside from having a few interesting pictures of the inside of their warehouses, it is a complete waste of time. (As expected.)

Funniest parts:

On the page called Print Preparation and Shipment, there's a picture of an Airborne driver deliviering a print. This pic is a scam all the way... the theatre marquee is "blank".... and the cans being delivered are obviously empty.

Here's a hilarious paragraph from "Customer Service" page: "Sometimes a circuited print will arrive at your theatre accidentally miscut. If so, call Customer Service. A representative can walk you through the right way to align frames on the reel, or even fax a copy of the frames showing where the actual reel breaks are..."

ALIGN FRAMES ON THE REEL???

The Guide also solves the mystery of why delivery of prints is just one day before play date.....it's for security purposes.

There's nothing about broken reels, bent film cans, the flimsy reel bands with breaking strings, cans with missing handles, etc. And of course, the pictures are all real small so you can't see much detail, and everything IN the pictures looks "perfect." There's info about "missed pickups" and such, but of course all the blame is placed on the theatres or "the studios."

There are more hilarious/ridiculous parts, but I don't want to spoil ALL the fun for everyone else!

Posted by Jeremy Spracklen (Member # 18) on 09-21-2000, 07:31 PM:

If Technicolor already has a sheet with all of the "reel breaks" clearly marked, why can't they just send it out with the other pieces of paper they stick in the can? This would eliminate the need for some theaters to leave refrence frames. If a projectionist is unsure if the splice is in the right place, they can just look at the sheet and say, "Ok, the tail of reel three is suppoused to be two men walking by a lake, the film shows two men walking by a lake, WE'VE GOT A MATCH!"

Posted by Ky Boyd (Member # 23) on 09-22-2000, 12:14 AM:

Well you never know when an extra binder is going to come in handy.

Posted by Steven Gorsky (Member # 603) on 09-22-2000, 02:04 AM:

Not to defend TES, but part of the problem is
Airborne. I've gotten other things shipped via Airborne, and they were far worse then the film cans.

After glancing through the guide, I found out I am not supposed to use masking tape, or regular clear tape for splices. Darn! I did love all the pretty pictures though, and we did get the nice little poster, but I didn't see the magnet. Our booth now has a wonderful binder to store useful papers in.

Steven Gorsky

------------------
Projectionist

Disclaimer:
Anything expressed in this post is my personal view/opinion, and not necessarily the view of the company for which I work.
Any technical questions are for my personal knowledge only.

Posted by Michael Cunningham (Member # 210) on 09-22-2000, 02:36 AM:

Yes, that is a wonderful binder for other uses!! Although it was quite useless for its intended purpose. The magnet included works quite well for holding papers to the side of any metal object (safe, filing cabinet, etc.) Other than that, it merely lists the number for Technicolor that you have to call to bitch at them [1(800)99-FILMS] that we all know anyway. Oh well.

-Mike

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-22-2000, 04:01 AM:

Well I'm extremely disappointed I did not get my copy in yet. I was so expecting a barrel full of laughs today.

By the way, if that guide states to use yellow tape for buildup, there's gonna be "words" flyin' real soon.

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 09-22-2000, 08:17 AM:

I thought the funniest part was the "sub-run" inspection.

They show these workstations with people wearing gloves and looking at film. If I remember correctly, it looked like they were inspecting just the film with no reels attached.

'Cause they know how crappy they are.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-22-2000, 01:01 PM:

The problem of bent film cans could be solved (or at least reduced) if they would put the proper number of reels in the cans. When those flimsy 3-reel cans arrive with only two reels inside, they are invariably crushed. That could be one use for the busted flange reels...put an empty, busted one inbetween the two full ones in a 3-reel can.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-22-2000, 01:17 PM:

Mike Blakesley said: "The problem of bent film cans could be solved (or at least reduced) if they would put the proper number of reels in the cans. When those flimsy 3-reel cans arrive with only two reels inside, they are invariably crushed."

How common is the practice of not filling the shipping case with reels to prevent shifting and damage during transit? I can understand shipping a 5-reel feature in two 3-reel cases if 2-reel cases are not available, but there should be three reels in each case, even if one reel is empty.

BTW, how do the DTS disks fare during transit? What type of packaging is used (I've only seen the plastic "reel" insert with the jewel boxes). Is the packaging adequate?

------------------
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 Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-22-2000, 02:19 PM:

They typically put a 5 reel movie in two 3 reel cans. The "loose trailer" is supposed to magically save the cans (and the film) as that third reel spacer. Alternatively, the dts caddy is supposed to do that. (The dts caddy seems to protect the discs fine.) Of course, neither work acceptably and it is rare when I find a spare reel in that third slot. TES used to have this corrugated wafer thing to fill the slot which was a good idea, but fell apart. Whenever possible, I tear up the foam packaging from a xenon shipping case and that makes large nice squares that are the width of a reel. TES should consider something along those lines.

By the way, those trailers commonly get destroyed when they are crammed in the extra slot in a can. At best, they are dirty as hell from the flaky cardboard inserts.

Posted by Glenda Cockrum (Member # 542) on 09-22-2000, 02:43 PM:

Well, I saved the inserts I thought I might have some use for later, and now my ten year old daughter has a "neat/cool" binder to take to school

No chance this binder will get mixed up with someone elses ! Glenda

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-22-2000, 03:55 PM:

When I've shipped films to others (collectors, not theatres), I've had good luck with using old 2000' metal lab cans as "spacers". This seems to work fine for me. I'm surprised that neither ETS nor Technicolor seems to have figured this out. They could put the "enclosed" trailers inside the can in order to keep them protected from the dust and junk that one normally finds in old shipping cases.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-22-2000, 05:15 PM:

If you get a film that isn't "on the break," the enclosed trailers are gone.... and TES is too lazy to put something in there to keep the cans from getting mashed.

John: The DTS holders work fine, although they sometimes get broken too, but not as much as the reels do.

I like the idea of using lab cans to hold the enclosed trailers. Then the can could be put back in to ship out, even if the theatre is keeping the trailers.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 09-22-2000, 05:25 PM:

I have, on several occasions, made use of Technicolor's "Breakdown Sheets". They have saved my life more than once.

It was Princess Mononoke that I received on the day of the show and only had a (relatively) short time to build, FilmGuard, and screen the print before a crowd of badly dressed college students beat down my door.

They faxed the sheet to me. It is NOT just a description of the changeover frames. It is an actual scan of each frame, marked Reel-1 (head) -- Reel-1 (tail), etc. It was very helpful.

**IF** you call up TES and are nice to them, they will fax the sheet to you in 1/2 hour or less.

TES peeves me off a lot but on THIS issue they have been very helpful.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-22-2000, 06:18 PM:

Well I mine as well go ahead and announce what I have been working on for a couple of months now since it sounds like TES is doing something similar. Ever since the debate here on the forum over whether to cut ID frames or not, I have been trying to get with the studios on photographing the first and last frame of each reel to be able to create an archive right here on Film-Tech. Of course this would not include older films, but would start with whatever films were currently in release. Here is the example page I made back when Gone in 60 Seconds was released the FIRST time. You will note the page was designed with printing in mind. CLICK HERE FOR THE SAMPLE

I chose to shoot the entire film, edges and all for further verification of sound formats as well as picture format. Unfortunately, no studio has responded regardless of which office I direct the plea to.

If anyone knows of a good contact at ANY or all of the studios, please pass the info along. Such an archive would be a great assett to projectionists who receive a used print with or without leaders or ID frames. It would also serve as a nice method for break-down verification in the booth. Since it is layed out in a manner to be easily printed, theaters could keep a printout of this on file or insert it in the film cans for when it comes time to break the print down. Nice projectionists could even leave the printout in the cans for the next guy when they ship the print back.

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 09-22-2000, 06:47 PM:

Actually, the only thing I don't like about DTS is the round "disc shipping" holder. The clear rectanglular plastic cover (that holds the two discs) fits too tight, so it is usually broken.

It also looks like people have tried to force that holder into older shipping cans that are not wide enough. So the "round" part of the holder is broken, because it only goes in half-way, then someone stomps on it, forcing and breaking it.

What would I do? Probably use the same kind of plastic (that is used for the individual disc holders) for the round carrier. It's not brittle, and won't crack as easily.

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 09-22-2000, 06:53 PM:

That sample that Brad did is really nice... and not just for ID'ing reels.. You can also see that the film is in 'scope; SR-D, DTS, and SDDS (and on Kodak stock!) The distributors have been telling us some films are in scope, when they are really flat, and visa-versa.

A picture like that, either included in the can or avaiable on a web site, would be really useful.

Posted by Dave Cutler (Member # 515) on 09-22-2000, 08:40 PM:

One good thing I did notice in the guide. It's tips on preparing a print for shipment are good. Maybe some people will actually figure out that using masking tape to reattatch the head and tails is not a good thing. They tell you to splice on the base side which is good, but they don't tell you how to determine which is the base side. Some people might not know.

Maybe Brad can do a little something in the tips section on preparing a print for shipment?

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-23-2000, 12:45 AM:

Already working on it Dave.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 09-23-2000, 05:42 PM:

Prints should be shipped in the cans that accomodate the number of reels that the print is. Period.

The DTS disks can be added to one of the cans, either in a DTS round carrier, or as some ETS prints have done, just in the clear 'Pride' jewel cases (a lot thinner than the round thingy and a bit more rugged than a hard plastic jewel case) with the jewel cases placed on top of or in between the reels and then closing the can. It does fit without damage.

'Enclosed' trailers should be shipped in a plain cardboard box or plastic bag along with the print, just as many studios do now for other treailers that they wish top have played with a certain competitors' prints...

This would eliminate a lot of the bullshit associated with damaged reels, damaged trailers, damaged cans, etc...

Aaron

Posted by Tim Sherman (Member # 569) on 09-23-2000, 11:00 PM:

Classic technicolor, The binder i recieved was broken!! not too shocking with the way technicolor operates. One of the rivets that holds the metal rail to the hard cover was broken when i got it out of the box. box was in perfect shape so i don't blame airborn (for a change). i just thought that was funny one of the big promotional thing that tes does and it is in the same shape as the reels we get every week. just thought everyone would get a kick out of that.

Posted by Tom Kroening (Member # 201) on 09-24-2000, 01:11 PM:

Tim! You're not supposed to use the binder to prop up that wobbly makup table!! No wonder it broke : P Although that is a very creative use for it.

Brad, I've usually had the best luck contacting fox. Just call the regular fox number and ask for the corporate office number. Good luck

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-26-2000, 12:33 PM:

Brad -- the photos of the frames around the reel changes are a great idea, and perfect for Film-Tech's "Feature Info & Trailer Attachments Section". I will bring this up at the meeting of the Inter-Society Committee for the Enhancement of Theatre Presentation" at ShowEast, to see if there is any objection to posting "copyrighted" feature frames of current films. I think the MPA and NATO will agree it's a good idea, and should be done, but we do need to check. The only caution would be when other countries have a different version, that may not have the same editing or changeover points as the USA.

BTW, you were going to send me an example of the trailer leaders that had the flared white framelines in the black section, that couldn't be cut out because of the 21-frame sound advance. I plan to show the trailer splicing section and the samples at the Inter-Society too.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-26-2000, 03:05 PM:

Oops. I forgot all about that John! My mistake. Let me try and find one and get it out to you a.s.a.p.

Perhaps you could take some printouts of the Gone in 60 Seconds example page with you to show. If you can stir up some interest and help explain how beneficial such an archive would be, I'll bet everyone will be all for it.

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 09-26-2000, 03:15 PM:

Another trick I see TES doing is: When they have an extra reel space (like when they only put 3 reels into a 4 reel case) they will bend in the side of the shipping case to keep the reels from moving around.

Of course, the next time that case is used, (with all reels) the last reel fits too tight. The cover sometimes won't close right, either.

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 09-26-2000, 04:52 PM:

we got the guide at my theatre and there was nothing in it at all!!! just an empty binder!!!