This is topic Running Logos for 6 to 8 months...sound reasonable ? in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Mauro Mastrosimini (Member # 140) on 08-18-2002, 11:59 AM:
Hi everyone,I run 15 minutes of ads and trailers before a sesion. They include of course Company Logos, Dolby trailers, etc. I need to order new Company Logos (Dolby, DTS as well). When asked: "How long will they last ?" => 6 to 8 months...does that sound reasonable ?
If you had the chance (money) to change them every 3 months, that would be great, but given the economic disaster we´re living here in Argentina, I need to squeeze a couple of months more.
What do you guys think ?
Saludos
Mauro
Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 08-18-2002, 12:13 PM:
Mauro,
you shold be able to get 6 to 8 months with proper handling and cleaning procedures. Dolby trailers are free on a 3 month replacement schedule if you are signed up with the service and have the processors....in fact the Dolby trailers are printed at Cinecolor.
Richard Fowler
TVP-Theatre & Video Products Inc. www.tvpmiami.com
Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 08-18-2002, 03:31 PM:
What's all this about Dolby trailers being free every couple-o-months???I get a free batch annually and just to make sure they last I only run them on "special" movies. That is, I tend to only run Dolby/DTS snipes on the big sellers, where I'm sure they'll get plenty of good exposure. I almost never run Dolby/DTS logo snipes on quiet movies (but if I did, then I'd only use the "Egypt" or "Aurora" snipes).
So how come I'm only getting my trailers annually? Did I miss something, or is this because I'm outside the U.S.? If so, that's a lousy excuse.
~Manny (from the Greek, meaning: "like a man.")
P.S. I just got some Dolby CP-650s and a quick glance at the trailer selection makes me wonder: Is the "City" snipe out of production? It's not on the list.
Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 08-18-2002, 04:29 PM:
As a frequent movie patron, I always enjoy the THX & digital sound trailers whenever they are played. In Hawaii there are three theatrical chains. They include the largest with the most screens-Consolidated Theatres which is actually owned and operated by Pacific Theatres. The next largest is Wallace followed by Signature. I do not attend any film presentations at Wallace because their theatres and presentations suck big time but Signature Theatres are not bad. They are the only ones that feature THX in one of their theatre complex. No matter how many screens are in a complex, they always play a digital sound trailer and THX in the houses that have them. With the exception of the Waikiki Twins and the Waikiki #3, all of Consolidated other theatres do not play digittal sound trailers anymore. A projectionist friend who works for the company once told me that the reason they do not play the trailers is because of the constant moving of a print in a complex. He told that a print can open in a SRD house and two days later, it can be moved into a DTS or SDDS house because of various reasons. Due to this constant change over , I was told that it is not feasible to run digital sound trailers. I find this reasoning very difficult to accept because Signature Theatres has always ran the sound trailers in multiplexes that has more screens than Consolidated's. Another thing that bothers me about Consolidated is their unwillingness to play the HPS-4000 sound trailers at their Flagship theatres, the Ward 16 and the Waikiki Twins because in my opinion, HPS-4000 sound is much better than THX especially the top of the line, the XL which the Waikiki and four of the largest theatres at the Ward have. -Claude
Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 08-18-2002, 10:04 PM:
I just went to the Dolby.com site and can't find any logo's for sale anywhere. Anyone direct me? How do you get new copies every three months?So many questions... 
Posted by Aldo Baez (Member # 790) on 08-18-2002, 10:07 PM:
Anyone have any tips for keeping them clean? My boss wants me to clean them with the formula 141 we get... I don't think that's a good idea but he wants me to keep them clean. What cheap alternative is there to keep them decently clean??
Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 08-18-2002, 10:13 PM:
I usually just call the San Francisco office and speak with someone in Dolby Marketing.As for keeping them clean:
I only run them on opening weekends
I don't use them for all movies (as previously stated)
Handle them with gloves
Keep your projectors clean
A lot of people here will tell you to use FilmGuard. I can't wait to switch over to that. I'm still using PTR cleaning systems.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-18-2002, 10:46 PM:
Properly done, trailers should be able to be ran for a year or two without dirt buildup or damage. I have ran policy and sound logos for 3 years without any marks. However all it takes is for one person to do a sloppy breakdown job, or one person to handle the trailer wrong one time to screw that up. This is why it is my policy to assign ONE person in the booth to handle these sort of things and only in an emergency situation should another do it.
Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 08-19-2002, 04:29 AM:
I had DTS trailers that lasted for three years, thanks to film guard. I imagine they are toast now, I am not there to run them anymore. The new staff does not run the cleaner most of the time. So bye bye trailers. They were georgeous.I had seen just two years ago a perfectly preserved simpsons THX trailer. It was years old but fantastic shape. Amazing. I do not know if they used film guard, but they did a great job.
Dave
Posted by Mauro Mastrosimini (Member # 140) on 08-19-2002, 02:02 PM:
2 Years !!!! Wow !! Ok, so my next question is how you handle the weekly make-up and break down of ads and trailers.
I have to re-build about 6 ads, 4 trailers and 4 Logos (Dolby Included) on every film on Wednesday nights. They´re spliced together on a work bench and then spliced on the film on the platter.
Does everyone use cotten gloves ? We tried them once but found them very dificult to handle the film, pull the old splicing tape of the film, etc.
Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 08-19-2002, 03:15 PM:
I have only once even tried cotton gloves, to horrific results. Instead, I would wash my hands with a water based soap, then rinse them in alcohol. This would prevent most of the greasy fingerprint problems you get when handling with bare hands. Of course, when finished, you have to use plenty of water based lotion to get your skin back.Always peel the tape. Film Guard is great for this purpose. Never just keep cutting the frames off, you end up running out of frames.
Never let the film hit the floor, EVER.
Do not speed wind anything. EVER.
Don't cinch the film either.
So much is just caution. Careful care and love will make them last for years.
Dave
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-19-2002, 05:48 PM:
You're going to have to provide some info on the equipment in your booth for tips on specific trailer change-outs. What kind of platters? What kind of rewind bench? Also, what kind of splicing tape do you use? (Do not just say "clear" or "yellow". Give a brand name with that.)
Posted by Karen Hultgren (Member # 395) on 08-19-2002, 07:31 PM:
Hey Dave! If you need trailers, please let me know. I can send you some free DTS trailers.Karen at DTS
khultgren@dtsonline.com
Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 08-21-2002, 11:12 PM:
We need some new dolby trailors for our theater. Who do I call and who do I ask for? Do you need to be signed up for some kind of service? We have a CP-500.Josh
Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 08-22-2002, 12:17 AM:
Thanks for the offer Karen. I am taking a long break at the moment from operations however, recovering from a crushed foot. Working on getting a new theater up sometime next year, will get with you then.
Dave
Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 08-22-2002, 03:30 PM:
Since we run alternative, sadly we don't get to see a lot of digital, meaning DTS, prints -- couldn't afford Dolby and didn't even consider SDDS (too many silly letters) -- so I can't run digital trailers that advertise "Digital" when we are only running analog (drats....if only I could short out that morality section of my brain like the big corporate guys do.... 
). So we run the Smart snipe -- anyone ever use it/see it? It has a star-space field background with stars zooming toward the audience and the words "A WIDE SCREEN STEREO Feature Presentation" animate in the frame. There is a killer electronic music track with one of the best use of surround ever, with a chord that zips around the theatre and you can actually perceive it going around in a circle; it ends with an organ sustaining a wicked low chord that really shows off your bass enhancement. Quite effective. Unfortunately it has a voice-over that actually intones "The following feature is presented in Wide Screen Stereo" (whatever that means). That is a bit corny for my taste, but the over-all effect is impressive. Before I found this I used to use the wimpy Dolby logos -- the ones they had before digital, which were just the logo against a star-field (I can't remember if they were even animated), but the Smart is much more spectacular. Like Manny, I don't put them on every film -- quiet films don't seem to warrant a big opening like that, like I wouldn't use it on ORDINARY PEOPLE.
I always want to use an opening snipe in front of the film logo because that is a buffer on which to open the curtain so I can project the actual film logo on a full screen with the curtain fully opened. Years ago someone complained that the opening Fox logo shouldn't be projected on the curtain as it is opening. I agreed. But since opening the curtain is sacrosanct and the Fox logo is sacrosanct.....well, you can see my dilemma. The feature presentation snipes solve the problem. Some would say the green band would solve that problem too....yes, it would, but oooops, it's already in the garbage.
Since we play pictures at most for one weekend....many times only one run, my snipes last for decades rather than years. I have been playing the same Johnny Smoke (a Heart Association anti-smoking 90 sec animated PSA) for over 25 years. Film-Guard recently gave it renewed life -- I probably will get to play it for another 25....or at least someone will.
The Smart trailer is filmed with scope aperture but composed for 1.85. It might be a bit of a stretch using it for 1.85 in houses that only have the two ARs, but since we always play a 1.37 attraction reel before the feature, the audiences still see 1.85 as being significantly wider than what precedes the feature.
I think the Smart trailer is still available from them directly.
Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 08-22-2002, 04:15 PM:
Hi Frank. Many of our theatres did not have Smart equipment but Kintek sound processors before they put in Dolby because they were cheap and it's ability to produce pseudo stereo from mono soundtracks. The only problem with these processors that I disliked was the single sound source from behind the screen when the processor had combined the left, right and center channel all into one track. Sound coming from only the center with mono surround sucked and I made an effort to stay away from these theatre as much as possible.
On another subject you covered in your topic, I had a discussion with one of my projectionist friend regarding the opening of a curtain at the start of a feature. He said the curtain should start opening the second the studio's logo flashes on the screen and must never open and expose a blank screen. I had this discussion after I saw "LAWRENCE OF ARABIA" in 70mm at the now defunct Northpoint Theatre in San Francisco and again in 70mm a few months later here in Honolulu at the Kapiolani Theatre which is also gone. When I saw the movie at the Northpoint, the curtain opened as soon as the overture ended exposing a blank screen and in a second or two, the super sharp Columbia logo flashed on the screen and it was beautiful. When I saw it again at the Kapiolani, the logo flashed on to the curtain which was still closed and it took it's time opening and the first thing projected on the fully opened screen was the first title card. If projecting the studio logo on a screen is standard policy, that is fine and well but I think exceptions should be made with some films such as "Lawrence" because the Columbia logo used in this picture was specially created for the 70mm road show engagement and should be shown in it's full glory!
-Claude
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 08-22-2002, 04:23 PM:
Kintek made several processors one was a mono to synth only system and then they had a centre and surround only and also 2 complete 4 channel systems