Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: A round of applause for DTS 'Sonic Landscapes' tag!

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Posted by Michael Barry (Member # 237) on 09-07-2002, 10:23 AM:

At the beginning of our Saturday night session of 'The Sum Of All Fears', we had an appreciative audience...

I was standing at the back of the theatre to monitor the start of the session, and as the DTS logo became visible at the end of the 'Sonic Landscapes' tag, a section of the audience sitting in the balcony gave a hearty round of applause! They just gave enough to make their appreciation known, rather than going over the top. No-one seemed bothered by it at all.

I don't think I've ever witnessed anything like this. Has anyone else? My guess is that they were either pleased to see the tag itself (I have never seen it used in any other Sydney cinemas...except for the ones I've worked at - I always bring my own!) and/or pleased to confirm that the feature would be shown with digital sound.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 09-07-2002, 12:25 PM:

I've seen this happen a few times with THX snipes that really sounded good. Also the old Dolby Digital Train (BRING BACK THE TRAIN!!)

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-07-2002, 01:30 PM:

I've seen people applaud at the end of the sound tag after about 25 minutes of trailers and ads. They knew the feature was actually going to start.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-07-2002, 01:51 PM:

I remember the excited audience reaction to the EFX scenes in the trailers for "Independence Day".

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
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Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 09-07-2002, 03:23 PM:

We too had audience to applaude when THX trailer is shown.
It is a big satisfaction when this happens!

Antonio

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-07-2002, 03:24 PM:

The thing that will get me to applaud is DTS being able to get more trailers made. Aside from the THX "Broadway" snipe used on so many DVDs, I would have to say I see the DTS "piano trailer" (sonic landscape) almost as often --or at least it seems like that. I have hardly any DVDs at all which include a Dolby Digital trailer ("T2", "Akira" and "The Abyss" are it).

There's lots of different THX and Dolby Digital trailers. But as often as the DTS ones are seen (particularly on DVD) it would seem like more DTS trailers would be made. I like the original flying disc trailer, but it is 9 years old now. And "Sonic Landscape" is the only other one out there. DTS should have at least two or three more promotional trailers (not to mention a specialized one for DTS-ES). I know it costs a decent amount of money to get such trailers made, but advertising is an investment which can potentially make you a lot more money.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 09-07-2002, 03:27 PM:

David,

I also love the Dolby "Train" trailer and it always sounded great especially at the Waikiki Twin in house #2. The "CANYON" and "EGYPT" trailers are also not too bad. As far as the DTS trailer, "SONIC LANDSCAPE", it is not a bad trailer but much to short and very subtle compared to the original 'Flying Disc' trailer which I love very much.

-Claude

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 09-07-2002, 04:50 PM:

Why don't DTS change just the sound files of their trailers? A different arrangement, just to have them changed randomly, each print could have a differetn trailer!

Bye
Antonio

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 09-08-2002, 12:19 AM:

I thought train sounded good at our theater until I heard it in brad's screening room

I prefer dolby Egypt myself. Many anime films carry the dolby trailors, even the Aroura trailor is on my "Blue Sub 6" Dvd's.

Josh

------------------
"Film is made of silver, video is made of rust"
'nuf said

Posted by Brad Haven (Member # 954) on 09-08-2002, 06:13 AM:

Unfortunatly i haven't seen a dolby or a dts logo on any film at any cinema for many years

Hoyt's Millennium??, i know you have some...please?

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-08-2002, 03:31 PM:

Considering DTS is approaching the 10th anniversary of its format debut (has it been nearly a decade already!?), it would seem like a very appropriate time for the company to produce and release a new trailer or batch of new trailers. Didn't Universal Studios' advertising department have something to do with the production of the original flying disc trailer (as well as come up with "the digital experience" logo)? If so, why can't they help out in the promotional effort?

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-08-2002, 04:15 PM:

Applause statuses that I have witnessed on the following snipes around the Dallas area:

DTS flying disc - insane amounts of applause with Jurassic Park, then never again.

DTS sonic landscape - never.

Dolby Train (original) - always, every time, at Northpark and Hollywood (the only 2 theaters in town that had the original version of the snipes).

Dolby Train (2nd issue) - only at Northpark, but we pulled it after one week because we were not impressed.

Dolby Train (3rd issue / current version) - no applause that I have noticed, but it does sound pretty good, just not as good as the coveted original version that Dolby seems to refuse to be willing to re-release all because some theaters with less than good systems blew some speakers.

SDDS pyramid - only on From Dusk Till Dawn. Not quite sure why that movie, but it got applause only on that one.

SDDS newer snipes (3 total) - none.

THX Broadway 70mm mix - the best EVER "deep note" mix of this logo. Applause and excited screaming guaranteed every time. The current digital version of this trailer does not match the sound quality of this version.

THX Broadway Dolby A mix - only at Northpark. Framed way too high.

THX Broadway DTS mix - never. Sound had a little bit of distortion in the mix and image was framed too high.

THX Broadway SRD mix - only at Northpark, but a very good mix. Framed properly.

THX Broadway SDDS mix - never. Sound also had a little bit of distortion in the mix, but was framed properly. Printing on these were horrid. One of the SDDS tracks would keep bouncing between the primary track and the lower quality digital fallback track. I noticed this on every print I got my hands on or witnessed elsewhere.

THX Broadway MUL mix (current) - only at Galaxy on big action movies like Star Wars in auditorium #5 (dts) at fader setting of "8". Excited screaming usually accompanied this along with someone yelling "turn it up" after the deep note faded out before the feature began, followed by audience laughter and further applause. Customers would complain if the THX Broadway was not on whatever movie was playing in #5, and cranked appropriately.

THX Simpsons - laughter for the first month or two, then nothing. This is interesting, as people constantly refer to it when the Broadway is ran. (See above)

THX Tex - laughter for the first month or two, then groans 6 months down the line.

THX Tex II - "moo cow" version of the Tex logo. Same as above, laughter, then as the humor dried up, groans.

THX Cimarron original mix - Incredible. Again this is one of those "theaters blew speakers, so we won't print any more" situations. Applause every time.

THX Cimarron current mix since around 1988 - Nothing to write home about. Applause for the brief occasions this was ran at Northpark, but probably mostly for the visuals. Never any applause elsewhere.

THX 2000 - big super short disappointment. Never any applause.

THX Cavalcade - too short and felt "rushed" in my opinion. This one should have been the best of them all. Never any applause.

Has anyone ever received complaints on sound logos? I have only received complaints when they were nonexistant or "old" (meaning they are tired of seeing the same one over and over, Broadway being the exception.)

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 09-08-2002, 06:11 PM:

I think that the key is knowing which movies to run them on and also how long to leave them on the print. I usually remove them when its time to move the print out of its first theatre. This not only solves the problem of avoiding Dolby trailers in a DTS room -- or vice-versa -- but it also limits the wear-and-tear factor. Furthermore, I don't think it's a good idea to just generally run the trailers all the time because that's how they become boring. This is especially true in the case of DTS because their long-awaited second trailer ("Sonic Landscape") was a major disappointment and we have no indication that another trailer is forthcoming any time soon...or whether it will be entertaining.

TIMING - I believe that if people come out to see a movie when it is new (and still running in the best auditorium) then those are the people who want a super presentation with all the bells-and-whistles. I don't think the people who come out to see a movie near the end of its run are very interested in the sound snipes (a possible exception would be a repeat viewer). In fact, these "late bloomers" are most likely to be the ones complaining about a movie being "too loud" so...no snipes for them.

CONTENT - I won't be putting a snipe on something like RUNTELDAT or the upcoming "Veggie Tales" movie. The first movie doesn't "show off" the system and the second won't attract an audience that cares about seeing snipes.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-08-2002, 06:50 PM:

THX "Grand" trailer has gotten some applause here in Lawton from time to time. It seems to be the best of the ones available to play in DTS. I wish "Cimarron" was available in MUL form so it could be played in DTS.

Many around here think the THX "Broadway" and DTS "Sonic Landscape" trailers are boring. DTS has made the flying disc trailer available again as a result. It gets some claps and laughter at times. The THX "Cavalcade" trailer seems to me just a re-tred of the specialized "T2" THX trailer on the Ultimate Edition DVD.

I agree somewhat about the use of digital sound snipes on movies. Some are appropriate for use and others are not. This really falls into play for the case of DTS, where you have either the piano trailer or disc trailer. The flying disc is great for action movies and such. The piano trailer might be decent for a romantic epic. But for a lot of ordinary fare, the snipes may not be needed. If DTS had a wider variety of trailers, then might not be the case.

If you have a Dolby Digital-equipped theater, you have something like 7 different trailers of which to use. You can easily find one appropriate for any kind of show. "Train" is a good general purpose trailer that could fit on just about any kind of movie. "City" is more appropriate for action films. "Canyon" might be good for a big adventure film or western. "Egypt" would be good for any chick flick. Same might be true for "Rain". I would run "Aurora" on science fiction shows or maybe an animated movie (this one is sedate enough not to scare the kiddies).

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-08-2002, 10:32 PM:

Dolby Digital "City" always scared the crap out of the audience. I loved it. I'd stand in the back of the auditorium and then B-O-O-O-M!!!!!!!!!!!!! the audience would all jump in their seats. I wonder if this blew any sound systems. We were the mighty UA Greenwood Plaza, so nothing ever went wrong, except when Ian worked.

Posted by Michael Barry (Member # 237) on 09-08-2002, 11:12 PM:

That opening 'boom' on the City trailer seems to have been toned down in subsequent releases - or has it?

I noticed that when it's on DVDs, the extreme bass from that opening moment certainly seems to have been passified somewhat. It now seems compressed.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-09-2002, 12:48 AM:

I haven't seen the "City" trailer on any DVD movies myself (which ones have it?). But the Dolby Digital demo DVD seems to have that snipe cranked up pretty loud.

Posted by Michael Barry (Member # 237) on 09-09-2002, 09:42 AM:

I really should get the official Dolby demo DVD one day! That would probably contain the most 'correct' mix of them all.

I guess I just found that the 'city' trailer didn't provide me with quite the impact I was expecting, say compared to the T2/THX trailer, which definitely does!

Region 4 discs seem to do fairly well when it comes to Dolby trailers. The 'City' trailer in particular is almost standard on region 4 versions of Columbia/Tri-Star titles. The equivalent region 1's do not seem to have these. Roadshow titles (the local company that distributes New Line, Franchise and Regency titles, amongst others) always have a Dolby tag on their discs, and they choose from all available tags, which is pretty good.

FWIW, I'm pretty open when it comes to DVD buying, and more often than not end up getting the region 1 version of a movie. Usually it is because the title isn't available locally, or simply because I kind of want the 'definitive' version with all the extras and the cool packaging. For vanilla releases where both versions only contain the movie and the trailer, I just get whatever is easiest, or simply rent it.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 09-09-2002, 10:28 AM:

Brad
Did you ever run the THX-Wayne's World logo trailer?

We ran that one in Westwood, Ca.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-09-2002, 12:08 PM:

I too wish that DTS would make some new trailers.

I like the idea of new soundtracks for the old ones, too....would be an easy job for a production house, I'd think.

But if I really had my DTS wishes granted, I would wish for:

- A trade-in program to go from a 2-drawer to a 3-drawer unit (at a reasonable price)

- Or an add-on disk reader to convert a 2-drawer to 3-drawer.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 09-09-2002, 12:29 PM:

Manny is right about timing and content. I've only seen sound snipes get applause on "appropriate" movies. (DTS on Episode 1, but not on A Night at the Roxbury. Dolby City on Lethal Weapon 4, but not on 6 Days/7 Nights.) Our theater had half Dolby, half DTS, and one SDDS so chances were that prints were going to be moved to the opposite-equipped house. We usually took them off when the print moved, unless it was still a strong movie and moving to a house with the same format.

We also had the 1:30 SDDS "Adventure" or whatever it was called. It had all 3 trailers: Ocean, Jungle and Volcano. The Flat version was printed off-center. Usually the audience would be very attentive to it, as it played right after the policy, then you'd hear comments like, "All that just for Digital Sound? WTF?"

Where do you usually place your digital sound snipes? We played them after the policy, but later on a memo came out to play them before the policy. ("Only the feature should play after the policy trailer.") I personally prefer after the policy, just before the feature. It seems more part of the movie than a trailer that way.

=TMP=

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 09-09-2002, 01:08 PM:

Just for your information, all of the SDDS trailers "Ocean", "Jungle" and "Volcano" were photographed here in Hawaii at the Volcano National Park.

-Claude

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 09-09-2002, 01:54 PM:

Thomas, I put my sound trailer after the policy, immediately before movie. If the movie comes with attached trailers, I put the sound trailer between sound trailer and the real start of the movie. The audience has to understand that in that moment the movie is starting. Also, I use two different fader level for policy and movie. If sound logo has to be put before the policy which fader should I choose? Higher one? And after that a washingmashine promo... no no!!

Low policy/trailer and then, after few seconds of black leader, the sound logo played at the proper level. "the audience is listening"...

We also should't put anything between policy and movie but it is just a 30' trailer...

OT: yesterday in our THX theater after the broadway logo: "Yessss, I want it in my car!!!"

Bye
Antonio

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 09-09-2002, 02:41 PM:

Both Signature Theatres and Consolidated ( Waikiki theatres Only) show digital sound trailers before the regular movie trailers. Consolidated used to show the trailer just before the feature as Antonio prefer. Although I also prefer it this way, it does sometimes cut into the soundtrack of the feature such as the first two seconds of the 20th Century Fox fanfare if the projectionist were to splice the tail of the sound trailer almost at the first frame of the Fox logo.

-Claude

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-09-2002, 08:43 PM:

At UA we played the digital logos after the policy, directly before the movie. Then for some stupid reason we could never figure out we were told to play them BEFORE the policy but AFTER the trailers. That lasted about a week. The DTS would keep playing for a bit and the Mann Theaters policy trailer would begin playing in DTS while the audience watched the UA policy, which was analog only. The audio switched back to SR after a couple of seconds and the sound was totally different, obviously. We felt it was stupid to play something in digital and then switch back to analog right after you told the audience you had digital. The digital logos then went back where they belonged... after the policy!

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 09-10-2002, 12:48 AM:

I have to agree with Darryl, mostly the applause comes when it's realized that all the advertising/trailers are over with, & the sound format indicates a seque into the feature.