This is topic Big Pile O' Duplicate Trailers in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Daniel Alt (Member # 2303) on 07-09-2004, 10:22 AM:
 
So for my summer project I've been sorting the trailer closet at the college film society where I project.

We have some duplicates.

OK, we have a LOT of duplicates. 4 large boxes so far, and probably more by the time I finish.

Now, I've searched back through, and read the threads about returning trailers, but they seem to suggest that they would need to be sorted by studio. Many of these no longer have the original labels attached, and it would be a big pain to go through on the order of ~200 trailers (or more) looking up the studio for each movie on the imdb.

I called my local ETS depot, and they said that when they return used reels for recycling, it goes to the manufacturer (Kodak, Fuji, etc.), and that it wasn't worth the effort for them to sort trailers by film stock. Which is quite understandable.

So my question is.. is my remaining option to just take these things and throw them in the trash? It would be nice to find some way to recycle them, but anything that involves shippipng them too far would be cost prohibitive. As we all know, film is HEAVY. Unless I can get one of those "Shipping Labels" I've read so much about for a company that doesn't particularly care WHAT trailers I'm sending them.

Or, if someone wants to come to Cleveland and just take them all off our hands...?
 
Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-09-2004, 10:47 AM:
 
Just pitch 'em, that's what I'd do. No point carrying all that in your booth. If someone had wanted them, they would've called for them by now.
 
Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 07-09-2004, 10:50 AM:
 
Daniel -- When we accumulate a large collection of trailers at the theater, I don't bother sorting them by studio. We still have a stack of labels, probably left over from the previous owners years ago, that go to Technicolor, Right Side Up (Fox), Warner Brothers, and some other strange name I can't remember right now. I remember one of them went to Wilmington, Ohio. I just fill a box, slap on the next label on the stack (unless theres more of a particular studio, then I try to use the closest match) and send them off. If you want a couple, email me.

They're all prepaid UPS labels. I know it must piss off whoever they're going to if they don't deal with trailers anymore, but I like to think that I'm at least putting forth an effort to get them recycled. Better than throwing them out myself, I guess.

You could always just put the box out after the show with a sign: FREE! One per customer. They'll go quick! [Wink]

Are there any cool trailers in the bunch that you've come across? Pre-1995 perhaps?

=TMP=
 
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-09-2004, 10:57 AM:
 
If they're older titles and not vinegar or damaged, please send them to me. I will pay shipping. Seriously.

If it's all stuff from the last couple of years, I'd toss them if they're all uninteresting titles. Keep some for projectionist training/practice, though.
 
Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 07-09-2004, 12:48 PM:
 
Verify that the trailers are identical. You may have teasers and trailer Versions A/B/C....

Also confirm that you keep the best one(s).

Trade the duplicates for needed trailers?
 
Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 07-09-2004, 01:26 PM:
 
We have sorting boxes for Warner, Fox, Paramount and Buena Vista... but the only trailers we send back are Fox and Paramount, the rest are tossed, only sorted as a hangover from the ARS days.

Kids movies get saved and cut up for birthday parties
 
Posted by Daniel Alt (Member # 2303) on 07-09-2004, 02:02 PM:
 
Let's see.. yes, lots of pre-1995 trailers, although mostly those aren't dupes, but single copies.

I'll look through for older ones in the dupe pile, I seem to recall seeing a few. Thomas, I'll get back to you, but I may take you up on those shipping labels.

Jeff, yes I'm being careful to keep one of every version (just in case we need both scope and flat versions of two different revisions of the "Sorority Boys" trailer at some time in the future).

Thanks for the input.
 
Posted by Daniel Alt (Member # 2303) on 07-10-2004, 01:30 AM:
 
After reading several thousand posts about how simply throwing film in the garbage may (or may not) be a Bad Thing(tm) environmentally speaking, I'm simply trying to figure out how to dispose of all these things in a way that is NOT the equivalent of dropping all these boxes on a flock of baby seals.

 
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-10-2004, 07:54 AM:
 
If you can get them back to a film exchange, they can reuse them (if properly labeled and in good condition), or dispose of them properly. Most send their scrap film to the Kodak FPC Film Salvage facility in Mountain City, TN:

http://www.fpchollywood.com/fscsalvage.html

quote:
Since the 1950’s, the Film Salvage Company (FSC) has provided anti-piracy support to the motion picture film industry through the secured destruction and environmental disposal of used motion picture film.

Approximately 20 million pounds of film are destroyed and recycled annually, and in March of 2000, FSC was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its recycling program.

FSC is a division of FPC, Inc., which happens to be a subsidiary of the Eastman Kodak Motion Picture Group. We are located in Hollywood, California; Mountain City, Tennessee; and Milan, Italy.

 
Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 07-10-2004, 10:37 AM:
 
When returning prints, fill the extra space in the shipping cases with duplicate trailers.
 
Posted by Daniel Alt (Member # 2303) on 07-10-2004, 12:00 PM:
 
John:
What is a "Film Exchange"? I called my local ETS depot, and they won't take them. Would this involving driving the film down to Wilmington?

Jeff:
We can try that. At two movies per week, and room for probably no more than 6 or so trailers per can, I estimate we'd have them all gone in about 3 years.
 
Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 07-10-2004, 03:04 PM:
 
Sending surplus trailers with prints is not a useful strategy. You'll either send them to your local ETS depot, who is not prepared to deal with them, or you'll send them to Technicolor in Wilmington, who is also not prepared to deal with them.

In both cases, no one who could actually use the trailer is going to benefit.

Send them to Scott if you're running out of space to keep them in your own inventory.

--jhawk
 
Posted by Daniel Alt (Member # 2303) on 07-10-2004, 04:13 PM:
 
Scott'll be getting a nice care package from me once I'm done cataloging the entire collection. But that'll still leave a ton of film to dispose of.

Can I build a home film recycling lab in my basement? A few vats of chemicals and some PVC pipe, and I'm cranking out my own recycled tires and welcome mats in no time?
 
Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 07-10-2004, 04:39 PM:
 
Do you have any policy trailers? I'd be verry interested in takin them off your hands!
 
Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 07-10-2004, 04:50 PM:
 
Daniel, I'd also be interested to see what titles you have. I'm a trailer freek and would gladly take some off your hands. Just drop me an email.

AJG
 
Posted by Daniel Alt (Member # 2303) on 07-11-2004, 12:09 AM:
 
Just to reiterate: I am interested in RECYCLYING. While I know a number of people collect trailers, we're just not in the business of running a trailer clearinghouse. The logistics of trying to list just the duplicate trailers, and then send these 6 to Bob, and those 4 to Stewie, and the other 137 to Fred, etc, etc are just more than I care to contemplate.

Scott asked first and asked nicely, so I'll probably send him a box, but I suddenly have nightmares about the "Me too! Me Too!" syndrome, and 17 people all wanting specific trailers. If anyone actually wants to come to Cleveland and poke through the boxes, fine. But doing this inventory is already going to eat a big chunk of my summer, and that would be too much.

Plus, I want to stay as legal as possible. These trailers will NOT be appearing on ebay. This thread is NOT a solicitation for offers to buy the things, because they are not for sale.

Thanks for everyone that offered useful advice. I'll probably be contacting the recycling center in Tennessee that John mentioned.
 
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-11-2004, 08:21 AM:
 
Maybe Film-Tech could have a "Trailer Exchange" forum, in addition to the "Equipment and Supplies Wanted / For Sale" forum.
 
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-11-2004, 09:44 AM:
 
If the situation in the US is in any way similar to that in the UK, I can see that being very useful, especially for second run and arthouse/rep cinemas. In all the time I worked in the business a batch of trailers got printed when the film was first released, but after they were sent out the distributor didn't keep any. There were (and I think still are) two agencies which handle trailers and publicity material on behalf of the big distributors. Theoretically you were supposed to send trailers back to them after use, but in practice no-one can have done. One of them didn't even provide postage-paid labels, so of course no cinema is likely to spend £10-20 a week in mailing the things back if they weren't forced to.

If you got a film back (or for the first time at your theatre) six months to a year off release, you had about as much chance as Osama bin Laden in Mossad headquarters of getting your hands on a trailer - the relevant agency just no longer had any. So of course I started hoarding them, using intuition to decide how likely we were to get a given film back again after it went through the first time. I recently visited a projection box I used to work in and saw around 100-200 trailers I'd collected over a year or so, most of which probably hadn't been used since.

If cinemas could be confident that distributors would hold onto one or two prints of every trailer relating to a film they have in distribution, no-one would feel the need to do this.
 
Posted by Alexander Smith (Member # 1769) on 07-11-2004, 06:35 PM:
 
You refer to National Screen Services (who don't supply
pre-paid postage labels) and Moving Print Distribution
(who _do_ supply postage labels).

We return all NSS trailers via our film-transport people,
and all MPD trailers get posted back to them.
 
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-12-2004, 08:48 AM:
 
Our film transport people wouldn't take NSS trailers unless either we paid for the transport on our account or NSS raised an order before the collection. Basically I just couldn't be doing with the hassle of it. If they asked us for specific trailers back then of course I'd send them. But to be honest I don't think they really wanted them back. In fact the only instance I can remember of them taking any interest was when the last Star Bores film came out before I left the business, when they kept bombarding us with memos about how we'd be shot at dawn if the trailers ever left the building, blah blah. They must have been afraid that we'd try to flog them on eBay or something like that. Unlike posters and standees and things, trailers have no resale value to Joe Public, so my guess would be that NSS didn't make any serious attempt to get them back because they didn't want the hassle of disposing of them.
 
Posted by Andrew Shingleton (Member # 2257) on 07-12-2004, 09:39 AM:
 
Off topic, but I worked at a place where one of the Phantom Menace trailers went walkies and never came back. Caused all sorts of trouble, and I believe cost a few people their bonus'. Apparantly we had to do some serious negotiations in order to be allowed to actually play the movie!

But on topic, we send our trailers back with our regular film courier as soon as we have enough used trailers to fill an old chip box from the candybar. I think the main reason is because despatch wants to reuse the boxes - whenever new trailers come they're in old boxes with a new sticker slapped on the top. I have no idea what happens to the actual trailers though.

But from what I've gathered from discussions on film-tech the system must be different here because we very rarely play the attached trailers on prints (in fact prints rarely come with attached trailers anyway).
 
Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-12-2004, 11:54 AM:
 
For the second run and retrospective houses, trailers are like gold. Trailer are simply unavailable after a picture plays out. So when it comes around for us to play a titles, I have to find the trailer on the collector's market, which is absurd. So of course we collect them. Scott has the right idea, glean as many as you can when and wherever you can, especially if you know there is a likelihood that you will play a particular title in the future.

Art houses who do collect trailers are usually cooperative enough to lend out titles to other cinemas who are in need of them. This kind of group support has saved my neck quite a few times (as it will this summer for MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES and THUNDERBALL, both of which are coming only through the kindness and generosity of other collectors and art houses.

I have often toyed with the idea of creating a trailer cooperative for just this purpose, where the members would add the titles of the trailers they have saved and then that database would be made available to the members. When a title was needed, it could be requested from the member who had it. There would have to be some way to assure that each member ran a "film done right" booth and that the trailers would be handled with the utmost care. This might be easier said than done, but I think with a little creative thinking, some sort of guidelines could be established and verified that would let members feel comfortable about sending out their fairly rare trailer to another member theatre. I guess 1-sheets and other kinds of ads could be included as well -- press books immediately come to mind.

It's crazy that there is this big issue of returning trailers and that the studios supposedly want them back (which is a joke) when everyone knows the distribs have not one iota of intention of storing them for future use, and the best we could hope for is that they dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way and not just toss them in a dumpster as we have seen happen so often in the past.

What is just so absurd is that a trailer is an advertising aid; when the theatre has booked the feature at a percentage, that advertisement would only help to bring in more ticket sales which the distrib has a vested interest in (his percentage). Yet, book any older title and try to get ANY advertising for it, even the most fundamentals, like a trailer or a press book. Impossible. They even laugh at you when you ask.

I have taken to making friends with a video store and asked for the standees when he's done with them. They are great advertising pieces, but impossible to get from the studio once the film is moved to the "classics" divisions. You have to do some creative stuff to block out the video references ("scenes not shown in the theatre" kind of crap), but it is worth it being able to display those incredible pieces in the lobby -- they are works of art in and of themselves....that they can create all these shapes and 3D effects, yet the thing folds up and compresses into a single box is, to me, a marvel. But you have to go and scavenge for these things for yourself or do without, because the studios certainly show no interest in supporting theatre advertising after the initial release.

It would be great if such an arthouse cooperative would kept track of where all this stuff is who was saving what.

Scott, if you sort out this box of trailers and send me a list the titles, I would be happy to share -- I have a list of mine as well; perhaps this could be the start of a mini trailer cooperative.
 
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-12-2004, 12:25 PM:
 
Frank--you (and anyone else who wants it) will get a list. I'd be more than happy to loan out whatever people need, given some advance notice (as others will attest--I can be slow at times) and reimbursement for shipping costs. Lest the MPAA have a fit about this, I'll make a point of saying that this offer applies only to theatres or other venues which have actually booked the film in question and will be paying the appropriate rental fees to the distributor.

For those who don't know, I currently have a pretty good collection of mainstream trailers from the '80s and late '90s and also many art-house titles released in the early- to mid-'90s. This is not well organized yet, unfortunately, but someday will be. Nothing is for sale but, again, if anyone wants to borrow a specific title to advertise a film which has been booked and licensed, let me know (no, I don't yet have a list...sorry).
 
Posted by Daniel Alt (Member # 2303) on 07-12-2004, 06:06 PM:
 
I think we would certainly be interested in getting involved with any sort of trailer cooperative. Frank, if there's anything else you're looking for for your upcoming season, drop me a private message?

I'm about 1/2 way though cataloging our collection, and I've listed about 1200 trailers so far. The dupes I'm trying to get rid of are mostly newer titles, but the core collection (which of course is NOT getting recycled) has some amazing titles.

Once the list is complete, I'd be willing to send it out to rep theaters that might be interested. The organization here is run by students; they would have to make the decision as to what we would or wouldn't be willing to loan out, but I'll certainly argue for reputable users to be able to borrow the things.

Like Scott said, this would be ONLY for theaters that have paid for the rights to exhibit the film.
 
Posted by Daniel Alt (Member # 2303) on 07-15-2004, 04:24 PM:
 
Update: I've finished our catalog. (give or take a dozen or two unlabelled trailers I've got to identify yet). If Frank, Scott, or anyone else would like a copy of the list, drop me a private message with a real email address. The file is in Excel.

We'd probably be willing to loan out trailers for movies you've booked, in exchange for reciprocal loans of trailers you have that we need. I can't make a promise for certain until August when the student management of the film society returns, but I doubt they'd have a serious problem.
 
Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-17-2004, 09:39 AM:
 
Hey guys, this is a great start. I have trailers that date back to the late 70s. I had a comprehensive list that got eaten by a computer crash and I am reconstructing it (very time consuming and one pain in the butt). As soon as it is complete, I will share it with anyone who, as Scott points out, is running a legitmate theatre operation, and by that I mean showing 35mm in a theatre setting and booking 35mm prints -- doesn't have to be a commerial theatre. And also as per Scott, lead time is essential as most of us have pretty full plates as it is.

This cooperative is essential for anyone running older titles, given the absurd situation where even the big studios that have Classics Departments and who are striking prints of their older titles seem to be oblivious to the need for trailers, which are one of the most effective marketing tools known to man. Odd that they never seem to lack for trailer elements when they are making their chock-full-o-extras DVDs. Why they can't simply slice on the trailer negative to the end of one of the reels of the print negative when they are making new prints is beyond me. Then for every new print struck of a particular title, they would at least have a trailer to rent out with it.

Anyway, as I said, this is a start. Anyone else who wants to give this a try....sign up here. We probably should set up some ground rules as well. Like, absolutely no cutting of frames -- ever, and how much insurance and what would be the best shipping method, etc.
 
Posted by Tao Yue (Member # 836) on 07-21-2004, 11:28 PM:
 
Daniel: 1600 trailers at half the collection is rather impressive, what's your final count and how long have you guys been operating?

Frank: one step that could alleviate some repertory trailer problems is getting a (gasp) video projector and running them off DVD. Of course it's generally preferable to run 35mm for somewhat newer repertory titles, but once you get older than 1984 there's a real problem with fading, and odds are the trailers haven't been kept at ideal conditions.

Often there's a better choice of trailers, too. If I had a choice of the following, I'd pick the first over the second, but it'd be tougher finding it:
 
Posted by Peter Mork (Member # 1336) on 07-22-2004, 02:02 AM:
 
At the West Newton we have tons of old trailers, mostly art and family titles, going back to the seventies. Yes, the old ones are faded but that is part of their charm.

What I've always wanted to do was trade American trailers of current titles for English or Australian trailers of the same titles. Or in the case of foreign language films, the trailer shown in the country of origin. Unlike a lot of places we do run trailers for titles "now showing" on other screens, and I would USE these alternate versions and would like to hear from anyone desiring a one-on-one swap.
 
Posted by Daniel Alt (Member # 2303) on 07-22-2004, 09:06 AM:
 
Tao: The CWRU Film Society has been around for about 35 years or so. Some of the trailers we have definitely predate our existance, and were probably aquired by raiding the assets of theaters that were closing in our area.

The final tally is 2,176. (Turns out the second half by volume had fewer trailers, because they were in smaller boxes) That doesn't include two reels of 70mm trailers I haven't catalogued yet, or 3 boxes of 16mm trailers I have no intention of cataloging. There's also a couple of 3/4" videotapes, which is odd, because to my knowledge we've NEVER had the capacity to play those.
 
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-22-2004, 09:17 AM:
 
The videotapes probably came with Electronic Press Kits for films that you booked at one point. I guess you were supposed to have sent them to a local TV station to broadcast as part of a news or current-events show.

(And if you're tossing any of the 16mm stuff, I'll take that, too!)
 




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