quote: Rich Ferrando

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I was looking through some old boxes in our booth in an effort to clean the place up, and found, stashed among spare reels, a replacement Reel 4 of "The Sweet Hereafter." I said "Shouldn't this go back?" and she said "It's Fine Line, and they destroy their prints, so just throw it away." I didn't listen to her. I stashed the reel with another one I found - Reel 5 of "The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys" - so that I could later call the original distributors and try to spirit the reels back without her knowing.

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quote: Rich Ferrando

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destroys their prints after they are run

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quote: Monte L Fullmer

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Why you don't see any IB, dye transfer prints. It's easier,cheaper and faster to use the Eastman contact printing process.

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It's been asserted on this board back around the 2000-2001 IBTech mini-revival that the current IBTech process no. 6 is cheaper than Eastmancolor for today's large print runs. I don't remember seeing any actual numbers then. There were other problems: the shedding on the early Gone with the Wind prints; three times as many dust speckles, primary colors often more visible than white negative or black positive dust from Eastmancolor; can never be as sharp as Eastmancolor due to registration tolerances; the lead time required to make matrices then strike the prints, hard to swallow in today's frenzied release schedule. As John Pytlak is fond of pointing out every once in a while, VISION Premier gets darn close to Technicolor without all of those headaches.

On a different subject, FTR the Brattle showed the regular versions of the LotR films.
 

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Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 01-09-2005, 11:48 AM:
 
I am not totaly sure about this but is it possable that any prints that are saved that are New Line go through the Warner Bros. Vault. Are they still owned by Time/Warner.
 

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Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 01-09-2005, 07:28 PM:
 
When I contacted all the distributors about repertory titles I got 2 no answers. First was Buena Vista which told me they don't keep ANYTHING anymore as it became too much of a hassle for them and people wanting things all the time (strange, I would think with the prints already paid for by the first run it would be nice to get that 99% profit sub-run rental on as many prints as possible) and the second was New Line. New Line was a little more specific, telling that Criterion handles their repertory but that it would only be available on disc, not film. This turned out to be untrue when I spoke to Criterion, they have both DVD and film versions of many New Line titles available. After I go to the office tomorrow I will try and get the contact information I had for them.

My favorites to deal with for repertory are Paramount and Sony, they are willing to really work with you and have extensive lists some of which goes back really far (30s and 40s even).
 

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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 01-09-2005, 08:21 PM:
 
For repertory print quality, I've had the best luck with Warner Bros. They always seem to have good prints and they seem care about making them available for bookings as needed. The rest of the distributors seem to have prints that vary more widely in quality. Universal is probably second-best, though. (I'm not including specialized distributors like Kino in this discussion.)

I don't know what the deal is with Buena Vista. I do know someone who recently ran "George of the Jungle" (of all things...) and got an "archive print" for the show (the director was present to introduce it). Not sure if that was because someone requested it or because BV didn't have any other prints. I haven't dealt much with older BV titles.

I will be showing some prints from UCLA later this month. I hope that they are in good shape, as I had to practically sell my soul to the devil in order to get them to rent to us.
 

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Posted by Chris Trainor (Member # 9) on 01-09-2005, 08:27 PM:
 
Barry:

I found Paramount to be quite awesome to deal with as far as older titles. Most of the time we just did flat rate with them. I could get nearly everything. On Saturdays we used to run classics and 95% of the titles were Paramounts. Didn't matter when... ran stuff from the 50's no problem. Some of the older movies even had recent reprints done.

The best deals I had with them were the flat rates on kids films. Twice I ran kids shows for free, they were a huge hit... and we made a fortune on concessions. Just had to pay Paramount their rather low flat rate for the week. (like $250 at the time plus ship).

--Chris
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-09-2005, 09:28 PM:
 

quote: Barry Martin

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Buena Vista which told me they don't keep ANYTHING anymore as it became too much of a hassle for them and people wanting things all the time

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quote: Barry Martin

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Criterion, they have both DVD and film versions of many New Line titles available.

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Hmmm... We've dealt with Criterion before. I believe our print of "Moulin Rouge" print came from them. Perhaps I'll give them a call and see what New Line prints they have available.
 

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Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 01-10-2005, 07:06 AM:
 
FOX is another company that has been very good regarding titles and quality for rep. (either that or we've been lucky!) Two most recent titles from them were for kid shows: "Ice Age" (AWESOME print with only a tiny base scratch for the first few minutes, Kodak Vision 2393) and "Anastasia" (Surprisingly good print for an older kid's title. Few extra frames gone at the reel ends, but no major damage. Nothing like a SCOPE cartoon! )

I didn't know BV was so hard to deal with. Is that also the case for Miramax stuff? I've been trying to compile a list of good classics that would do well around the 10-11pm set, and Miramax controls a few of the good ones, especially the Kevin Smith stuff. (Except Mallrats, which is Universal)

As for New Line, come to think of it I remember the Loew's Cineplex at Universal Studios playing a bunch of the Friday the 13th films around Halloween last year. They even ran Freddy's Dead in 3D but with no glasses available. (My friends brought their own and said it worked ok). I think in the "Midnight Movies" thread there were also a few New Line titles people had booked.

I guess it all boils down on how to approach them. If they think you're just another grind house calling to book a movie you think is "cool" only for the studio to get its print back trashed, they might have to lie and say prints don't exist. At this point, you cite a few of your buddies' theaters that ran it and ask again.

That's why I believe Warner Craft sent us such a detestable print of The Wall last year. Sub-run theater doing a one-off show on a Wednesday night? That doesn't exactly warrant an archive print. But they COULD have sent us something without green lines.

=TMP=
 

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Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 01-10-2005, 11:00 AM:
 
not to mention that the Loew's in Universal probably has a little more pull to get those prints than your average house or sub-run.
 

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Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 01-10-2005, 04:24 PM:
 

quote: Scott Norwood

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Universal is probably second-best

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When I did that first call around, I got one contact in Universal (not even sure that he works FOR Universal or if their repertory is simply run through him) but he basically told me I'd have a hard time booking anything more than 5-10 years old (despite their availability of real classics like Creature from the Black Lagoon) because I run platters. I explained to him that I considered film handling a privelage and serious responsibility and send my prints out in as good if not better condition than when they arrive and even referenced this site telling him how much I've learned and it didn't seem to make a dent. Glad to know the platter reputation is so well known.
 

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