Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Recommendations for getting a custom 35mm trailer?

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Posted by Dan Chilton (Member # 2288) on 12-11-2005, 08:33 PM:

Has anyone created a custom in-house trailer to run before features and had it transferred to film? Something similar to the chain ads (i.e. the happy film guy from AMC or the spinning crown of Werhenberg). A local film student made a short commercial (20 seconds) for our theater and it's really funny. I was thinking, if the costs weren't too high, that maybe I could get it transferred to 35mm in flat and scope and play it for awhile in front of our movies. Any suggestions?

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 12-11-2005, 08:36 PM:

I do believe that there is a company in GA called "Screen Vision" that can help you out on this. Check BoxOffice magazine for some info on your idea.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-11-2005, 09:40 PM:

And hold on to your hat when you talk price -- it's VERY expensive to get any kind of custom film made. If you're talking thousands of prints, then the price per print is low -- but if you only want a couple of prints, you'll probably spend about a grand, at least.

Posted by Tao Yue (Member # 836) on 12-12-2005, 01:19 AM:

ScreenVision is for cinemas seeking advertising to run on their screens, or for advertisers seeking cinemas to run their commercials on. Dan appears to be looking for a simple film transfer.

A list of tape-to-film transfer houses: http://www.dvshop.ca/dvcafe/dv/tape2film.html

One transfer house which caters to the low budget, low quantity customer (just over $1K for a 3-minute sound transfer): http://www.dvfilm.com/specials.htm

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 12-12-2005, 03:03 AM:

Thx Tao, for I couldn't exactly remember what were Screenvision's procedures were. Just that it seems that it was Screenvision who would do 35mm transfers from a customer's source, but I got things turned around. - Monte

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 12-12-2005, 07:02 AM:

Presumably most of that $1k goes into doing the transfer: so after the initial investment, you'll be able to have subsequent prints made for $100-200 each if needed; assuming you keep the interneg and track neg safely. If there's any chance of your needing further prints later, it's probably worth making sure that your transfer house creates a negative and prints from that, rather than lasering out straight to release print stock.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-12-2005, 07:24 AM:

The problem with something that short is that you'll be running into all sorts of lab minimums. I am assuming that this is a tape-to-film transfer. You can probably save money if you can find someone who is doing a longer project and combine them to avoid paying the lab minimum fees. Also, it may be cheaper to have a post house electronically squeeze the image and do two tape-to-film transfers (one of the normal version, one of the squeezed version) rather than have the image optically squeezed.

Note that most tape-to-film transfers look pretty bad; you might just be able to re-shoot the thing on 35mm for about the same price, anyway (assuming that it can be re-shot).

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 12-12-2005, 06:54 PM:

Would it be out of theory to run the trailer on a small LCD or DLP projector that could be wired into non-sync before the show? We are screening a trailer for a fellow manager's documentary film during one of our upcoming midnight shows via our mini-DLP.

Posted by Jarryd Beard (Member # 2543) on 12-12-2005, 08:12 PM:

Has anybody had any experiance with Filmack? I know they put together the Christmas greetings for individual theatres, complete with local business logos. If you go to their web page, they have a link for video to film transfers. No prices are listed, but it wouldn't hurt looking in to. They seem like a good family-run company with a lot of cinema history. Just look at a few of the vintage trailers they've produced. i.e. Drive In Trailers

Posted by Wayne Keyser (Member # 2420) on 12-12-2005, 10:10 PM:

I was gonna say Filmack - I have a 1970 catalog sitting on my desk just now - they've not only got cinema history behind 'em, they used to be THE specialists for custom snipes and verry short custom stuff on the order of "patronize Bill Bazotz Chevy at the corner of First and Main" or "Vote for Joe Smith"

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-13-2005, 03:36 AM:

Filmack is where I got my price estimate from. We were looking at having them do a very short "75th anniversary" tag for us... nothing fancy, just a still picture with still text. It was still well over a thousand dollars for three flat/three scope prints of 15 seconds. I don't know beans about production costs but I'm sure the price would've been about the same if I'd wanted 1,000 prints.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 12-13-2005, 08:36 AM:

Another lab that does very good work transfering video source to 35mm film is Metropolis Film Lab in New York City. They also do custome snipes, although that is not their main business. If you are not in hurry, they can be reasonably priced. You can call them at (212)563-9388 or email at metrojack@hotmail.com . They are not always fast in getting back to you, but they do good work.

Posted by Wayne Keyser (Member # 2420) on 12-13-2005, 09:21 PM:

"It was still well over a thousand dollars for three flat/three scope prints of 15 seconds."

The big bucks go for original production or transfer from 16mm tape (if that's what you got) - prints are likely fairly cheap in comparison - a bit like making any product, the first one costs $1,000,000 and the second one and all others cost 39¢ each.

Posted by Kevin Baglow (Member # 721) on 12-14-2005, 09:36 AM:

I'm bangkok at present getting a custom 30 sec ad made for an Australian Drive-in. If you email the hi res pic, and sound I can tag it into the job that's getting printed tomorrow!?