Really nice of Mirimax to let us know at the last minute that the print had to be shipped out. But, it gets better! The Friday release was moved back to Christmas Day. Little elves told us that Harvey and the boys at Mirimax were not happy with the outcome of the sneak and didn't want to go up against the other Friday releases.

Incidentally, you will get a print(s) back to put together all over again on the 21st, according to TES.

My understanding is that this has not only inconvenienced folks in projection who were unfortunate enough to work for theaters that had the sneak, but also management who have already set up their web sites to sell advanced tickets! What about patrons who may have bought tickets for December 21 thru 24? "Gee folks, we're sorry, but we don't have that picture. Sorry we took your money and sold you tickets for it." In addition, what about those theaters who have already sent time schedules to the press and may not have been able to make corrections in time for the deadline? Not to mention the barn dancing that will go on to fill screens with holdovers until the 25th. A real booker's dream!(nightmare?)

WAY TO GO, MIRIMAX! Your concern for your exhibitors problems is non-existant.

Did any of you filmtechers out there experience similar problems?

The rant is on.
 

Apparently they decided to make some last minute changes which will affect 4 different reels.
So the prints that were run for sneak previews are actually not final versions and everyone has to send it back and get the new ones.
It was also said that the new prints may not even be in until Christmas morning.
 

This is not the first time that technicoler called back the prints from a sneak...I just hope that all the prints for the 25th come in on the 21st so if there are problems with a reel a replacement can be ordered...We had a defective reel on bothe of our prints of Lord of the rings...Reel #5 do to splotching....
 

Thanks to this f#(%*p by Miramax, Universal will expand A Beautiful Mind to megaplexes/upmarket theaters on Xmas Day. The UA East Hampton and the Princeton Garden Theatre will drop Amelie to pick up A Beautiful Mind. National break remains 1/4.

Darryl S: Miramax moved Imposter from 12/25 to 1/4 last week -- before the f#(%*p with Kate & Leopold. All the Pretty Horses opened Xmas Day last year and tanked! Miramax wound up handling that one because Columbia didn't want it.

Seriously though, I've had to do about 8 completely seperate show schedules for 2 theatres in 2 days. Then we get word its moved and I have to stay late (early) to redo the schedule that took me hours to get *just* right. And once I have it all done, Paramount calls us and says we're only getting one print of Jimmy Neutron instead of the two promised, leaving me to do the entire schedule again and fill another screen. Luckily it made my life easier as we just left the screen open to run interlocks for Lord of the Rings or Ali. Still, it's B.S.

I'd actually like to thank Miramax for not releasing the crap they call Imposter on X-Mas day and wasting a valuable screen. Now those seats can actually be filled with people!! I think it was just a ploy to get people to think their movie might be good and entertaining with a 12/25 release and then push it one week to the designated dumping ground month for new releases.
 

BTW, congrats on your opening. I'll stop by for a visit next time I'm in town.

To further cover the Weinsteins' a$$es, Miramax is opening The Shipping News in upmarket NYC suburbs day-and-date with Manhattan (Xmas Day). I smell another flop!

BTW, did anybody see the Golden Globe nominations? Looks like Miramax bought a few of them.
 

Our newspaper deadline for the holiday was Tuesday, December 18th.

Miramax called this morning (Friday, December 21st) to tell us that we were to open In The Bedroom on December 26th or they would give the print to our competition. So we set about changing our schedule. Then they called back to inform us that we needed to open the film December 25th. Were scrambling to get the ad changed in the newspaper. Not only has the weekly paper's deadline passed but the weekly newspapers are already out! I called Technicolor and asked when the print was being delivered as we are closing early on Christmas Eve and they said that we were already for delivery on January 3rd! They have a call in to Miramax now. Miramax is scrambling to get this print out after receiving numerous Golden Globe nominations yesterday.

Why do they have to pull this shit now!? Ky was practically to his parent's house when he received the call. They should have had their act together a month ago. They always seem to pull this shit. And they threatened us as well with giving the print to someone else. I wish we had the guts to call their bluff. They should give us something for this; all the co-op or free print shipping or something.

How can the Weinstein's have such a good company yet have their collective head stuffed up their assholes so far?

Also, Miramax in pulling this stunt has guaranteed that they will not get a review in the local newspaper.

Like either is any better.

Dave
 

The Royal Tenenbaums breaks semi-wide this Friday and wide 1/4. Disney is handling The Royal Tenenbaums a lot better than Miramax is handling In the Bedroom.
 

Recieve booking for sneaks on 'Kate and Leopold' for friday and saturday, and 'joe somebody'for sunday.
No print for 'kate' friday, it shows up sat morning (in a box, no cans) with 'joe somebody'. In the afternoon while building 'kate', I am informed joe somebody is here, huh. Two prints for a sneak, and we still don't know why we got two prints we only opened one the following friday.
Sunday rolls around and we get a fax to break 'kate down', send it back. Fast forward and we recieve the print on my one and only day off, Sunday. Ok, cool I can do this and split early on Christmas eve.
My manager informs me we are opening it in a small Dts-Dolby auditorium. Ok where are the dts discs, none are enclosed? I am informed that dts is not sending out any discs for the restructured print. Fine I'll tech it with the old dts discs that I retreived from a local megaplex that had a screening, no reason the prints time code would change right, I'm a dumbass. The discs don't synch in so I tech it in dolby thru a Ulta Stereo processor and spend the next two hours fiddling and reseting the sound to make it sound enjoyable. It had a small wave in the background noise, informed my tech and he came in to replace the sound pot, which took care of 90% of the wave.
This movie has been the worst experience and the most horrible presentation I've ever let happen. Although it showed me a lot of improvements can be made at this theater starting with thumping and recallibrating all the speakers and just basically clean like a madman. I love film and do my best to present in a beautiful manner but it is very hard when you work for a company that only cares if your on-screen. Sorry for my rambling! Happy new year!! Must now go to bed or my wife will kill me. 'night
 

-dave

 

Thanks.
 

------------------
- dave
Stay away from the meadow...

'SR' stands for 'Spectral Recording' (not 'surround', as many seem to believe), a noise reduction and headroom boosting process developed by Dolby and first used in 1987 on the film 'Innerspace' It is somewhat backwards-compatible with Dolby A-type noise reduction, however the reverse is NOT the case.

'SRD' stands for 'Spectral Recording-Digital' This was the original name given to the sound format now commonly known as 'Dolby Digital'.

DTS has no connections to either format, a quad-format print will have Dolby Digital (SRD), SDDS, DTS, and a SR track. If the film is encoded with Dolby Digital, its analog track will *always* be Dolby SR (IIRC it's a licensing issue to insure that the analog track is SR rather than A-Type)

Early DTS-only films (All Universal titles from 'Jurassic Park' to 'For Better Or Worse' and most MGM films up to 1997 or so, (Bond titles excepted-they have quad-format tracks)) had a DTS-branded A-Type compatible analog soundtrack (the 'DTS Stereo' logo usually seen in the end credits of a film). Later MGM titles used a DTS-branded SR-Compatible analog format.

-Aaron