Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: AMC now leaving green bands on?

This is topic AMC now leaving green bands on? in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=008236

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 09-02-2006, 03:47 AM:

Heard a rumor that the MPAA came down on AMC and is now making them leave greenbands on the trailers. Can anyone confirm?

At first I thought "great," but then I realized that this will make their trailer packs even longer. [uhoh]

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 09-02-2006, 10:04 AM:

If true, they should apply the same rule to Cinemark.

Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 09-02-2006, 10:39 AM:

If true, I would think they would also apply the rule to Pacific Theatres as well.

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 09-02-2006, 11:09 AM:

I thought one was legally obligated to leave green bands on? Thats how we operated at Century.
I have seen a major screw-up where "R" rated trailers were shown on a "G" rated film, resulting in many horrified and pised-off parents and hysterical children!

Kutler

Posted by Frank Dubrois (Member # 3042) on 09-02-2006, 12:10 PM:

I haven't seen many theatres that keep the green bands on.

Posted by John Joseph Fink (Member # 3619) on 09-02-2006, 01:28 PM:

Why now? I can't remember the last time they left them on. I remember post Colombine for a stint Regal who used to cut the bands off left them on. That was back in the era when studios were displaying the rating and MPAA reasonin right before the start of the film. I'm not a projectionist, do they still do this and do theaters cut this off as well? I also remember that I went to see some film and a piracy title card apeared from Warner Brothers? Remember these?

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 09-02-2006, 01:39 PM:

I think cutting off the greenbands is the dumbest idea ever. I think all the major chains are doing it or have done it.

They are on there for a reason.

I just got a film from the Muvico Egyptian 24. They obviously cut their greenbands there. When I went to build a print of "Accepted" I found myself confused as to whether or not a trailer was on the film. I almost put the greenband back on in front of the feature. If this would have happened I would have been ultra pissed off.

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 09-02-2006, 02:01 PM:

The one & only time I've been to an AMC recently that cut the green bands off, the trailers were otherwise cut appropriately. I could tell because every splice that passed through the SRD penthouse caused an analog reversion...
Besides that problem, it was better than going to a place with sloppy green band cuts.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 09-02-2006, 02:43 PM:

Granted, the 5 second run on the green bands can be somewhat lengthy, frustrating and drawing some impatience when some circuits are showing 5 trailers before the feature start.

Thus to trim down the running time, I would cut out some of the green to where there were only 2 seconds of the screen. Being that much shorter but still noticable, the patience and anticipation time was drastically reduced.

-Monte

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 09-02-2006, 02:52 PM:

It'll be interesting to see what the chains that cut green bands off do when they go digital. Most digital trailers are one file but for whatever reason some come with the green band seperate (mostly 'attached' trailers it seems).

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 09-02-2006, 07:34 PM:

quote: Dustin Mitchell
It'll be interesting to see what the chains that cut green bands off do when they go digital.

Cinemark's digital show of Monster House 3D had the "green bands" on the previews. That's the only time I've ever seen green bands there.

To the best of my recollection, Regal has always left the green bands on in their theaters around here.

Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 09-02-2006, 10:08 PM:

The only time I saw green bands was earlier this week when I went to see a movie at Landmark Theatres La Jolla Village 4. The other theatres that I have been too haven't had the green bands.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-02-2006, 10:58 PM:

Why would the MPAA have any say in this matter? How could they force an exhibitor to do something like this?

(For the record, I agree that removing trailer ratings is dumb.)

Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 09-02-2006, 11:05 PM:

At Pacific Theatres, where I work at in booth, they told me that they didn't want the green bands on because they wanted consistency. I can't quite figure that one out. Anyway, I happen to agree with Scott that removing the green bands is stupid.

Posted by Bernie Anderson Jr (Member # 410) on 09-02-2006, 11:48 PM:

If you go to Canada, you will see the same trailer, except they are printed without a Green Band. The MPAA has no say outside of the US. Canada's ratings are different than MPAA's. I'm probably one of the few that like the way the trailers look without the green bands. It's very reminiscent of the way trailers used to be. It runs as one complete unit of the show, not this consistant stop and start of trailers in the set. And if you have the 6 trailers we have, it doesn't seem like this endless run of trailers.

BA

Posted by Ron Curran (Member # 3631) on 09-03-2006, 01:54 AM:

Here in Australia (as I have said in a previous post) classification tags on the head of each trailer are compulsory - it is illegal not to include them once the government classifies the film.

At least they are now animated. Prior to classification, trailers have an advertising approval tag which is also compulsory. This must be removed and replaced with the appropriate tag as soon as the feature is classified. (which is usually just after you have loaded the whole programme on the platter).

obviously things are a bit easier in the land of the free.

Posted by John Koutsoumis (Member # 1855) on 09-03-2006, 05:42 AM:

Over here in the past there was a few occasions

where I swear I did not see the OFLC (Office of Film and Literature Classification) tags. I could be wrong though.

This was sometime in the past.

Also the OFLC came down on several operators for not following procedure and showing MA15 rated trailers and the head of PG

rated films which is a big no-no (I think these were art house locations that did not have any other PG films coming up in the near future) and a few other issues.

Although I no longer see films in Theatres (yes I wait for DVD, not that I watch many new releases anyway) I think having the tags are better instead of going bam straight into the next one particularly if they are loud action film ones.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 09-03-2006, 11:23 AM:

A couple studios got upset when they found out Regal was cutting them off. If AMC and Cinemark are still doing it, that means nobody who works for them cares about it and nobody's been checking their presentation.

It still amazes me that they would make something that looks so unprofessional "Company Policy", and yet not make other things that make sense in good presentation "Company Policy".

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 09-03-2006, 01:10 PM:

It's a metaphor by way of how awful their policy trailers look [Frown]

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 09-03-2006, 02:37 PM:

Yes, D-Cinema trailers are starting to come with the green band attached. I tried to complain about it, but some studios are requiring that the trailer be coded with the green band. I, too, liked it when the green band was separate from the trailer file.

They also are encoding the blue band on the end of the feature.

Makes extra work for the encoding company because then they have to make unique files for each country that has different rating systems. They say it is to force us to play the blue band.

Would be easier to just let us program it as part of our playlist.

Posted by Donna Siegwart (Member # 3232) on 09-03-2006, 05:20 PM:

Yep its true about leaving the green bands on with AMC. We got an email a few weeks ago about it. I personally havent been putting films together as of lately, and apparently some of our managers didnt know about this change because when we went to check out some trailers yesterday on 'Wickerman' I was asked why we had the green bands on.
[Confused]

I personally thought it was dumb of AMC to cut the green bands off, back when we were a Loews we always kept them on, then when AMC came in, they changed almost everything we did.

Anyone get any complaints about previews on wickerman btw? I got some woman yellin' about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre trailer being on there, but it was on our memo to be added to the movie, so we really had no say in what was shown trailer wise. (sigh) and the trailer wasnt really that graphic either [Razz]

Posted by Alex Grueneberg (Member # 2652) on 09-03-2006, 10:42 PM:

If the trailer has a nice fade to black and the next one a slow fade out of black I agree its much smoother and keeps the "flow". However, personally a good stable well printed green band is great to focus on.

PS: Century has always left them on.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 09-04-2006, 03:19 AM:

..about the smoothest way to assemble trailers intact, is to do the procedures that are listed here in the "Tips" section. I've used this practice for quite the time -LONG before this guide was ever installed here on Film-Tech.

Trust me, it does work well and makes the presentation more professional. Just bugs the crap out of me when I see a trailer pak that where the fade out just begins, then "WHAM!" opaque tape splice and the green tag - so gaudy and sloppy looking.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-04-2006, 05:12 AM:

Agreed with Monte--it's always best to leave some as much black leader as possible between trailers, both for continuity (avoids the "rapid-fire-trailer" effect) and to hide the splices (even clear splicing tape is very visible on the green bands). One must be careful, though, as many trailers that I have seen lately have "sync pops" (quick beeps) in the tails and these should be removed. Also annoying is occasional markings on the film (such as little "X's" scratched into the negative on the "Hollywoodland" trailers) which must also be removed.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 09-04-2006, 09:50 PM:

Couldn't you just have a policy for 30 seconds saying 'the following trailers are appropriate for the feature' instead of the MPAA stuff every time? Some exhibitors do this in the UK instead of displaying a BBFC certificate for every trailer.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 09-04-2006, 10:02 PM:

I personally like the pause between every trailer. To me the green band is a good transition (combined with leaving appropriate amounts of black on the head/tail) between trailers.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-05-2006, 07:14 AM:

Agreed with Dustin. If I had enough date strips to add "Starts Friday" or "Coming Soon" between every trailer or enough black leader to add 10-20 seconds of black between trailers, I could see getting rid of the ratings bands (as long as it didn't involve cutting into the soundtrack for the trailer), but the green/red band is "good enough" at providing space between trailers that I don't see the need to buy huge quantities of black leader or date strips.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 09-05-2006, 09:05 AM:

I can take or leave the green and red rating bands on trailers. I like the pauses between trailers that the bands provide. I also like the quick rapid fire method. The method I would like to use depends on the movie I'm showing.

If I'm showing The Notebook, the bands are a nice way to break things up and make a slower relaxing pace for the audience to get them ready for the movie.

If I'm showing Spiderman, bang-bang-bang makes things move faster, and gets the audience pumped and excited without giving them a break. Then they get a break with the studio logo, they catch their breath, and then the fun begins.

So from my perspective, both methods have their place. Any global corporate wide policy on something like this that restricts showmanship and creativity in the presentation is counter productive. A simple "recommendation" from corporate would be wonderful.

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 09-05-2006, 01:40 PM:

I consider the green bands a pallet cleansing between trailers. I can watch an action packed explodey trailer and when the green band hits the screen my brain has a moment to prepare itself for something else entirely.

And with the way that EVERY single trailer nowadays has the silly last minute "shock" (a la the tire in Twister) I think you need the green band for separation.

Posted by Donna Siegwart (Member # 3232) on 09-08-2006, 06:16 PM:

So why were the bands made green to begin with? Ive been curious, why not yellow, or blue? Anyone know the answer? (Im sure someone does) [Big Grin]

Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 09-08-2006, 08:28 PM:

To essentially indicate the rating of the trailer itself,

Green Band = G rated trailer
Red Band = R rated trailer

not sure of what other colors were used

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 09-09-2006, 03:05 AM:

Green - trailer approved for ALL audiences.
Red - Trailer approved for RESTRICTED audiences.

No other color was chosen.

Lot of circuits refused to run RED BAND trailers for the simple fact of operators not knowing the procedures on RED BAND trailers - in not putting these trailers on films rated lesser than a "R." Even if they knew the procedures, the risk of public outcry was horrendous when a RED BAND trailer was accidently played on a lesser rated film, thus the simple rule of no RED BAND trailers ARE to be played...period.

Colors set up a few years later by the MPAA, when back in 1968 is when the movie ratings begin to appear at the beginning of the films.

In the early 70's is when the rating tag was moved to the rear of the film, esp when the original "M" rating was changed to "GP" (General Parental). Then the following year, that one rating was changed to "PG" (Parental Guidance) and has been with us since.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 09-09-2006, 11:46 AM:

quote: Donna Siegwart
So why were the bands made green to begin with? Ive been curious, why not yellow, or blue? Anyone know the answer? (Im sure someone does)

I can't be certain of the answer Donna, but I would guess that they didn't use the colors you mention because Yellow is associated with caution, which you wouldn't want people to associate with a General Audience film, and certainly Red is associated with danger or stop and also XXX rated films. Why they use Green for everything is the question. Seems they could take advantage of the general meanings people associate with certain colors and apply them to the rating system -- that's what the government did when they made up those very informative color codes for terror threat.

I can live with the green bands, but I think they are too repetitive when you're running more than a few trailers AND they are too damn long. All you need is "read time," which for a MPAA rating is about 10 seconds, because all anyone really reads is the rating letter in the box, not the rest of the gack, especially after the third or forth rating band goes by. And here's an interesting observance: I've played four trailers without green rating but with daters or just five seconds of added black to pace the transition. Without the greenies, patrons seem to be fine with four trailers. I've also played the same show WITH the greenies left in -- patrons would MOAN when the third and forth green bands came on the screen.

I wouldn't hazard a guess at the psychology behind this, but there it is. It may also be that the length of the bands -- much too long -- people don't like being forced to stare at a static (and aesthetically downright ugly) graphic for way longer than necessary.

And lastly, if they've been stupid enough to cut the trailer so that audio runs into the green, naturally I leave it on, but it's cut down to the bare minimum, just short of looking like a mistake -- ten seconds seems excruciatingly long when it's something you don't want to look at.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-09-2006, 12:26 PM:

I don't know if it's Carmike Cinemas' policy to leave green bands intact or not, but the green bands (and red bands in case of R-rated trailers) are always intact on movie trailers at the one here in Lawton. I've seen green bands left intact at the other Carmike locations I've visited.

I personally prefer the green bands left on trailers with plenty of black in front of them. As over-bearing as most trailers are (with all the disco-whoosh phiggidy-slam/thud bullshit cliché sound effects) the green band and black in front of it serves as a badly needed break from the racket.

The current convention in designing movie trailers is very tired and really needs to be reinvented. All of the whoosh rumble stuff has actually become very silly. It's been more than a decade since that stuff seemed cool. The style of it is just as silly as the last dying days of hair band metal in 1990. Film distribution marketing departments are definitely sleep-walking on this -just like their penchant for setting many movie titles in Trajan.

I'm all for the D-Cinema trailer files encoding in the green bands and a couple seconds of black in front of them. Screw it if they have to create a number of different digital files for overseas markets. They have to do that anyway for subtitling and/or different language dubs anyway.

Frankly, when the green bands are cut off of movie trailers then the trailer pack just plays like a never-ending TV commercial break (complete with all the TV commercials thrown into the mix). If I want home TV style, I'll just watch TV at home.

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 09-10-2006, 03:12 PM:

I've seen a lot of trailers from the early 80's where the rating was shown on a blue screen with a wide stripe running across the bottom of the screen. Was this actually a BLUE screen or have the prints faded?

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-10-2006, 06:59 PM:

It was blue. I remember that style of thing mainly from 1970's era movies.

The rock band Queens of the Stone Age put out an album a few years ago titled Rated R. The cover art looks very much like that old end of movie MPAA rating notice, except that the fine print says "restricted to everyone everywhere all the time."

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 09-10-2006, 07:11 PM:

Yeah it was definitely blue... I have a lot of those trailers and some on fuji that still have color left in them.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-10-2006, 08:30 PM:

The difference on those old trailers was, the rating band used to be at the END of the trailer...I remember many a time, a cool action packed trailer would play, then the "R" rating would show, and all the kids in the audience would collectively groan!

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 09-11-2006, 01:15 PM:

When the MPAA started approving trailers the "All Audiences" tag at the beginning was blue, not green, and the lettering was different. It usually said "This special preview has been approved...." I think it changed to green around 1980. Prior to this, they used the ones with the white stripe (usually at the end of the trailer) which also showed the film's rating; this was also used at the end of movies to show the rating until they changed to the current format in 1984 when they added the PG-13 rating.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 09-11-2006, 02:44 PM:

In reply to whether the MPAA has a "legal" right to demand the color bands be shown, the answer is definitely NO. The ratings have no basis in law. They are suggestions from the motion picture industry as to the suitability of the film for children and are totally "voluntary."

Maybe, just maybe, they could make a copyright or contractual argument that you are required to show all of the trailer or none of it, but they'd have a damn hard time enforcing it.

As a single screen art theatre that is totally opposed to the ratings and volunterally chooses not to participate, I have the green/red bands removed and black leader put between them. As we only run trailers for movies we have booked, this is not a big deal.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-11-2006, 07:04 PM:

So you just let anyone into any movie they want to see?

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 09-11-2006, 10:11 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
So you just let anyone into any movie they want to see?

Yup. It's between them and their mommies.

Posted by Jarryd Beard (Member # 2543) on 09-12-2006, 07:17 PM:

As far as other countries go, are your ratings systems voluntary for theatres to follow (like the MPAA in the United States) or are they government regulated?

Posted by Ron Curran (Member # 3631) on 09-12-2006, 07:40 PM:

In Australia, the ratings are government issued and policed, with heavy penalties for cinemas.
It is illegal to screen a trailer for Chicken Little (PG) in front of Pride & Prejudice (G).
It is illegal not to attach the ratings tag on the front of a trailer once it has been classified.
It is unlawful to display a poster in the foyer without the ratings symbol, complete with the qualification (i.e. MODERATE VIOLENCE, MILD THEMES, etc.)
As you know, unlawful means against the law and illegal is a sick bird.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 09-13-2006, 10:43 AM:

Jarryd said "As far as other countries go, are your ratings systems voluntary for theatres to follow (like the MPAA in the United States) or are they government regulated? "

In canada each province has there own film review board with there own rating system as such the green bands must be removed as they are not valid here

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 09-13-2006, 12:35 PM:

Green - trailer approved for ALL audiences.
Red - Trailer approved for RESTRICTED audiences.

And the reason they are called Green/Red band trailers is that from the time that the rating code was introduced in the late 1960's, up until sometime in the 1980's, trailers and came with reusable paper bands around the them that were either green OR red, depending upon the content. The paper band would have the title and format (flat/scope) of the trailer printed or written on them.

Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 09-13-2006, 06:59 PM:

quote: Gordon McLeod was the last to post
As far as other countries go, are your ratings systems voluntary for theatres to follow (like the MPAA in the United States) or are they government regulated?

In the UK (most) films are rated by the BBFC.

It is usually a condition of a cinemas license (issued by the local council) that they uphold the age restrictions issued by the BBFC. Councils have the ability to allow cinemas to show unclassified films, change the rating (up or down), or prevent a film being shown at all.

Trailers are also rated by the BBFC and cinemas have to show them with film of the same (or higher) rating. Trailers come with a basic certificate at the begining although a lot of cinemas don't show this.

One oddity I noticed is that the trailer for 'An Inconvenient Truth' is rated higher than the film itself (PG as opposed to U). This may be due to the BBFC's viewing of the material in context.

Posted by John Joseph Fink (Member # 3619) on 09-13-2006, 07:15 PM:

Clearview Cinemas in New Jersey (one of the worst cinemas in NJ as far as presentation, but the only chain that runs a major Northern NJ art house) is now cutting off the the MPAA bands as well (and often doing a careless job of it, which is to be expected). AMC however has ceased - I saw bands in front of Wicker Man and Crank. So much for Clearview following in AMC's now dominate in Northern NJ footsteps.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 09-13-2006, 10:46 PM:

quote: Mitchell Dvoskin
trailers and came with reusable paper bands around the them that were either green OR red, depending upon the content. The paper band would have the title and format (flat/scope) of the trailer printed or written on them.

Like these trailers...

..and some of us DO remember these warnings that were printed on the band that NSS instructed for the operators on trailer return policy:

-Monte

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 09-13-2006, 10:55 PM:

Actually, at least well into the 70s, they used brown/tan wrappers for the greenbands.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 09-14-2006, 03:02 PM:

I think they stopped using those around 1989-90, since I worked at a theater that opened in late 1989 and they had a few trailers with bands around them the first few months they were open.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 09-14-2006, 08:24 PM:

Everything in the UK has to either have the certificate for the feature displayed at the entrance to the screen or immediately before the feature on screen.

I've seen a couple of films in the UK where the MPAA rating has been left on the end of the feature. Had the usual BBFC one though. Trailers are now increasingly coming with a small cerfiticate in the corner of the picture for the first few seconds rather than the traditional large rating before the trailer starts. Or there's a 'trailers are suitable for the feature' ad before they start.

Posted by Joel N. Weber II (Member # 3530) on 09-17-2006, 08:06 PM:

The choice of red and green seems a little unfortunate from the perspective that the most common form of colorblindness involves an inability to distinguish between those two colors. Though I bet someone who's aware of this can in theory read the text in the red bands. On the other hand, that's not nearly as obvious as noticing the color difference (assuming one can distinguish the colors).

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 09-18-2006, 12:32 PM:

Now, dont quote me on this one, but, if my memory serves me, the 'X' rating used a yellow background. Saw it on "Fritz The Cat."

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 09-18-2006, 05:17 PM:

Thats right Bruce... I think I remember I had a Love God? (don knotts) trailer with the yellow X or Mature rating tag, as it was IB tech print.

Posted by Blaine Young (Member # 3992) on 09-20-2006, 12:24 AM:

Out of morbid curiosity (I think taking off the green band is tantamount to sacrilege) and in the interest of showmanship, how does one account for the missing soundtrack that is stored on the snipped part of the trailer? Was it deemed "ok" to simply allow the sound to drop in part way into the trailer?

Blaine

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 09-20-2006, 02:22 AM:

From what I understand that's exactly the case.

On a side note, I prefer leaving the green bands on as previously stated-however, as a 'censor' feature they're worthless. The trailer for the new 'Texas Chainsaw Massacare' movie is green band-which in theory means you're supposed to be able to run that in front of a movie of any rating, including G. What a crock of shit. For me the color of the 'band' on a trailer has absolutely no relation to whether it is appropriate or not. I remeber the first 'Road Trip' trailer was red band. Then they came out with a second one that was green band. The difference? In the red band version it showed a guy holding a joint and in the green band version he was holding a Dorito chip.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-20-2006, 02:28 AM:

Since the studios and NATO are now "encouraging" the theatres to only play trailers with appropriate films (i.e., no PG-13 or R trailers with G movies), I think the trailer-makers have been pushing the envelope with what they're including in trailers. I remember the Clint Eastwood one a few years ago where he said "I don't give a rat's ass about Jesus Christ" ... in a green-band trailer!

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 09-20-2006, 10:32 AM:

Well Mike opens up a huge can of worms with the rating system in general in that the elusive "guidelines" are basically in the minds of the secret panel and are about as consist ant as shifting sand (and the subject of a very pointed documentary, NOT YET RATED). Seems from year to year the threshold of this or that red flag changes, not only due to the changing mores of the culture -- which is appropriate -- but also the political machinations of MPAA members as well.

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 09-27-2006, 05:25 PM:

I saw a movie at AMC last night with the greenbands on. The only problem that I noticed is they cut it right at the first frame of green so you can see the splicing tape in screen. They could at least leave one frame of black to hide it.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-27-2006, 07:50 PM:

Even if they did leave one frame of black, odds are it would still jump a little bit as the splice goes through. There really is no real reason why they couldn't at least leave 8 frames of black (the length of a Neumade splicer block).

This link is quite outdated in terms of actual leaders being used today, but if you scroll halfway down the page you will see how easy it is to mark your splicer in regards to 8 frames away from the cutting blade.

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 09-28-2006, 11:37 AM:

It's amazingly pathetic how few booth people seem to be able to utilize the LAD frames, now present on so many trailers. True, it was usually easy enough to interpret where to cut via the outdated methods, but now it's like a non-threatening lady tells you where to cut [thumbsup]

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 09-28-2006, 12:54 PM:

quote: Chris Hipp
The only problem that I noticed is they cut it right at the first frame of green so you can see the splicing tape in screen. They could at least leave one frame of black to hide it.

What's even worse is when the cut at the end is in the middle of the trailer's credits including active sound, then "BLOP" - splice and instant green tag of the next trailer..

When I worked for Edwards that was taken over br REG, the new DM critiqued me on my trailer pak assemblies saying that the short black segments inbetween the trailers needs to cease. I didn't listen to him, obviously.

...just horrible sloppiness in trailer pak assemblies.

-Monte

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 09-28-2006, 03:28 PM:

I can't count how many times I've seen that recently, Monte. The most recent time was the UA Riverview in Philly. Not only were the trailers like that, but also the splice between the last trailer and the studio logo for the feature. How the hell does that freakin happen?? Isn't the last trailer attached to the feature? Or do they change the order around for no reason at all? No Feature Presentation snipes in between, so that's not the reason. Ugh. Disgusting and horrible film handling there. It used to be their flag ship theater in Philly too. [thumbsdown]

We count off several frames of black on the head and tail of the trailers. Although, I have to say I never considered (and probably never would have considered) marking the splicer like the one in Brad's link. I'll be doing that tonight. No more excuses from the lazy people. [thumbsup]

Posted by Blaine Young (Member # 3992) on 09-30-2006, 02:12 PM:

My rule of thumb for cutting trailers is to frame up somewhere in the leader on or on the first green-band frame, and then backup to where the DTS timecode starts (changes from the 'header' dashes to the actual timecode for the trailer) and then cut. At the end, I go to the fade-out (if there is one) and then advance about 2 feet. This makes for smooth transitions most of the time. The only thing that causes me to alter this method is if there are those odd printing marks in the image where the master film has been spliced together. My objective is to have smooth on-screen transitions and odd light sections that bounce around or green marks in the middle of the frame are distracting. Of course I also temper all of this with imperfections in the soundtrack area to prevent audio pops.

It's probably worth noting that the "Flags of our Fathers" trailer that came with prints of "The Guardian" didn't have a green band at all. It goes from black to a fade-in on the Warner logo.

Blaine

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-30-2006, 02:17 PM:

Interesting. I didn't get Flags of our Fathers with the prints I handled. No green band=trash for me. I wouldn't have played it just like how I throw away attached trailers on used screening prints that have been cut on the green band. (Damaged film is damaged film and does not get run.)

Posted by Blaine Young (Member # 3992) on 09-30-2006, 02:23 PM:

Sorry for the confusion. "Flags" was enclosed along with a half-dozen other trailers. It was unused and had the Paramount printed tag on the outside.

Both "Guardian" prints we received were used from the sneak screening a couple of weeks ago, and the originally printed attached trailer for "The Prestige" was not returned or re-attached and Technicolor had spliced in a new copy of the trailer on both prints.

Am I a lone crazy projectionist that actually splices the attached trailer back onto the print when it ships out?

Posted by Ross Oba (Member # 3433) on 09-30-2006, 03:06 PM:

I know that sometimes the attached trailer may be for a movie that was already released, but I leave it on anyway.

Posted by Bob Plummer (Member # 3874) on 10-01-2006, 05:38 AM:

My two cents on the Green band issue.

If you have an organized projection booth, (Like a big board with information on each print that is in your booth, including order of trailers, etc.) then there shouldn't be a problem with cutting the green bands off/mixing trailers, etc.

From a downstairs standpoint, it gets teenagers all riled up because they have to be the first to yell out "green screen," much to the irritation of ... everyone that isn't acting immature.

Personally, the trailer show runs faster, and people seem to complain less about the length of the trailers, as it seems to flow better. Many people associate the green screen as another 2 minutes between them, and their movie. Without the green screen, people seem to get lost in the trailer show and not realize the passage of time.

I believe the major reason why AMC tried to do it without green bands was that if the trailers were attached to the properly rated movie, there wouldn't be a problem (i.e. G & PG would stay on G & PG films, and R previews would only go on R films, etc.)

From a technical standpoint, I get why it's better, but from a theater operator standpoint, it's less of a pain downstairs.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-01-2006, 05:44 PM:

I have never seen or heard of such problems as you described in that above post Bob.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 10-01-2006, 06:51 PM:

Me neither on that one. But, the one advantage with trailer paks are that some patrons ask how long the trailer paks are which gives them the buffer on the snak bar runs they can still do, especially when circuits load up the screen with 20 plus minutes of trailers and ads (and the patrons know that 5 trailers are counted with the green tag..)with the advertised time is when the film (or digital presentation) hits the screen...

- just gotta get that percap up, or the mgr gets the grief from home office..

Posted by Andrew Peter Chobaniuk (Member # 3886) on 10-04-2006, 12:39 AM:

we dont have the green bands up here, and when we see them we cut them off