This is topic Summer Kid Show Irritations! 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=009327

---

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 06-03-2008, 04:25 PM:
 
I usually get new prints of things.

This summer, like last summer, I'm running kids shows 2 days a week. I'm getting a chance to see some real examples of film done wrong.

This week I am running stuff from both Deluxe and Technicolor. The Technicolor print leader was at least taped down. Badly wound.

The Deluxe print looked like a film explosion had happened in the box. 4 of 6 reels had been taped down with a sliver of paper tape, and unwound almost all the way to where the picture starts. The same slivers of tape are attaching the head and tail leaders to the print. When watching the film at a reel change today, the lovely black adhesive marks on the screen image just made me feel gooey inside... I felt like I was back in grade school running those abused educational films in 16mm, instead of running film in a professional theatre using film that had been previously used by another professional theatre.



BOTH of these poor films will leave here in better condition than when they arrived. For all I know, they will be junked after this run, but I wont be accused of doing things wrong.

Lets not even get into the 26 badly made splices that I found. Nothing seems to be missing, so how did they manage to break this thing like this? 5 of the splices were out of frame!

I guess I picked a bad week to stop drinking. Help me make it through the summer!!!


 

---

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 06-04-2008, 09:35 AM:
 
My kids shows start tomorrow. Eight weeks of hell. We tend to show films from last year, so they aren't new, but not as bad as when we would show 15 year old prints of Big Bird. I feel your pain, and am just glad I have projectionists who can competently inspect and repair a film.
 

---

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-04-2008, 01:57 PM:
 
We gave up on kid shows long ago. (We still sometimes do matinees of whatever we're showing, but there are not enough kids here to make a matinee program pay off.)

My last one was "Race for Your Life Charlie Brown" and the print was so disgusting with splices and dirt, scratches, etc. that I decided, it's not worth it....not just financially, but also on principal, having to pay hundreds of dollars to screen something the just makes US look bad....no thanks.

This is something Digital might help with.
 

---

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 06-04-2008, 02:02 PM:
 
I agree. We did it for a few seasons a couple of years back- nothing but trouble, beginning with the condition of the prints, and becoming a headache downstairs (theaters totaled, kids sick in the lobby, etc.)

More trouble than it's worth.
 

---

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 06-04-2008, 02:57 PM:
 
As we cater to the daycare centers, we certainly get enough to make it financially worthwhile, especially compared to some of our regular features.

We used to keep it strictly "G", but as fewer movies had that rating we had to go to PG and after that it was an easy step to the latest kiddie crap. I was on the verge of going straight to DVD, and may still, but for now the prints have been tolerable.
 

---

Posted by Philip Jordan (Member # 4517) on 06-04-2008, 04:42 PM:
 
We do quite well in June, we get a lot of school groups book for the last month of school, first two week's aren't to bad, but it is the last two weeks are nuts. we would get between 1000 to 1500 kids a day mon-fri, it's crazy.

As soon as that is over we open early for the summer months still do quite well
 

---

Posted by Gordon Bachlund (Member # 124) on 06-05-2008, 04:00 PM:
 
Unless you've done a kiddie show in a carbon arc changeover booth running a dozen or more cartoons, you really haven't lived.
 

---

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 06-05-2008, 04:12 PM:
 
At the Temple Theatre we used to do Christmas shows for the local GM plants and their Unions.

We had 2 Brenkert hand fed carbon arc spotlights for the live portion of the show that was usually a singer and a comic. The controls for the 3 PA Microphones were right next to the spotlights on the booth wall. So you could feed carbons, follow the actors on stage and ride gain on the pa.

Then we ran 3 or 4 cartoons to get the kids really wound up. These were run single reels with carbon light on the Simplex XLs.

Then Santa would come out on stage so we did the follow spot and PA routine again. The show ended by the children all receiving a gift as they left the theatre.

We did 4 or 5 of these each year.

KEN
 

---

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 06-05-2008, 10:32 PM:
 

quote: Gordon Bachlund

---

Unless you've done a kiddie show in a carbon arc changeover booth running a dozen or more cartoons, you really haven't lived.

---

Hear! Hear!
 

---

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 06-05-2008, 11:19 PM:
 
We gave up on Kid Shows about 6 years ago. The last time we had them Dr. Pepper sponsored the whole thing. The movie was FREE and the kids under 12 received a free kids meal. We had a G and PG feature that ran Tuesday and Wednesday at 10am. And yet very few people showed up! We even sent letters to day cares and churches in the area well in advance of the series starting.
 

---

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 06-09-2008, 07:29 PM:
 
I really dont mind building prints for kids shows. We always fill the house, and I interlock 2 screens for each film.

I believe that many of the kids I see have never been in a movie theatre in their lives. I want it all to be a good first experience for them, and I want them to buy popcorn!

It just bugs me that theatres just tape prints back together and send it on. The prints that came today were taped together with the good old masking tape. On the other hand, it was all tails up, and the heads and tails were there.

One print has a long black w/sound before the studio logo appears. WHY IN HELL would a theatre chop the film after the logo begins to appear on the screen? How unprofessional!
 

---

Posted by Geena Phillips (Member # 3726) on 06-16-2008, 12:02 PM:
 
Luckily, we're circuiting our kids' show movies through three locations, and after the first week, the prints get built at the one of our locations I DON'T work at.

But, honestly, the quality of film handling I've seen on these has not been noticeably worse than what I get whenever we get a circuited print.

And even that is not as egregious as being booked for opening weekend, and getting a print that had been used for a preview screening, with atrocious film handling by ONE previous handler. Grrr...
 

---

Posted by Thomas Pitt (Member # 4322) on 06-16-2008, 03:32 PM:
 
I wonder if it might be a good idea to run a couple of theatrical cartoon shorts before the main movie - like the old MGM and WB shorts? I mean, they were designed to be viewed in a cinema and often have 'fourth wall' gags that only work properly in a cinema setting!

Also, cinemas in the UK often run 'old' movies (from a couple of years back) for kids shows, often movies that are already out on DVD. Invariably the cinema gets a print that's already been through several first-run and second-run cinemas, and of course has lots of damage, splicing, relics of poor film handling etc.

Is it any more expensive or inconvenient to request a new print of an old film?

Sometimes I wonder if cinemas don't pass on films when they finish their run, but just hold them in storage for ages on a platter reel or broken-down reels. Good way for them to pick up dust, dirt and static while in storage!
 

---

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 06-16-2008, 06:08 PM:
 
In my location, there isn't time for a short before the features. Shows start at 10AM and my first matinee starts at 11:45.

I'd love to run some Warners and MGM cartoons in my largest house.
 

---

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 06-16-2008, 07:11 PM:
 
Most cartoons are full-frame Academy. If you show them with a recent feature, you'll have to do a lens/plate change, which could be difficult in platter houses (unless you like subjecting the audience to thirty seconds of blank screen). In changeover houses with side masking, however, this can look great as the curtains open to a 1.85 or scope screen after the short.
 

---

Posted by Gordon Bachlund (Member # 124) on 06-17-2008, 10:35 AM:
 
Curtains! I remember them well.
 

---

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 06-17-2008, 05:28 PM:
 
We do a sat/sun morning show each week of a kids movie that's a few months old. Kids pay and adults go in free, I think the deal is. Some prints we get and some are ones that we have kept back after the proper run has finished.
 

---

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 06-17-2008, 06:54 PM:
 
Anyone know if WB is currently allowing their cartoon library to be booked? Kit Parker picked up the library for a few years but got out of theatrical distribution and since then I am not sure what's been happening with the cartoons. I heard that at one point WB pulled them from theatrical release, but I never verified that and am not sure if indeed it was true, if it's still the case. Anyone played a Looney Toons recently?

quote: Scott Norwood

---

In changeover houses with side masking, however, this can look great as the curtains open to a 1.85 or scope screen after the short.

---

Scott -- there is nothing like it. We still do it that way. BTW, platter operations can do it that way too if they have the chops and if they have the motorized curtains & masking....which is a BIG if. Oh wait -- the REALLY big 'if' is if they have that additional plate and lens sized for 1.37!
 

---

Posted by Thomas Pitt (Member # 4322) on 06-18-2008, 03:30 PM:
 
You can get 3-lens turrets and plate changers; why not use the 3rd lens to project Academy ratio prints? In fact I think the Pictureville cinema in Bradford does just that - the main projector has one lens for flat, one for scope, and one for Academy ratio. The Academy lens is used mainly for the B/W intro film on This Is Cinerama, but it can be used for Academy prints of movies as well.

Pictureville also doesn't use screen masking - instead, they open up the curtains to different positions to 'mask' the screen image accordingly.

Disney did a theatrical short on the beginning of Meet the Robinsons (and one other that I forget). In this case however, the original Academy picture was zoomed out to fit within the 1.85 frame - using half the film area the original Academy picture would have done! I guess this is so multiplexes didn't have to modify their projectors with a separate Academy lens just for this feature

Michael - kids PAY and adults go in FREE? Surely it's the other way round?
 

---

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 06-18-2008, 07:12 PM:
 

quote: Thomas Pitt

---

Michael - kids PAY and adults go in FREE? Surely it's the other way round?

---

Well obviously it's the adult who pulls out their wallet,
but the child ticket is paid for with the accompanying adult going for free.
 

---

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 07-28-2008, 04:55 PM:
 
Well, we're down to the last week of kid shows. ITS ALMOST OVER!

All of the prints, except the first couple of weeks, have been fairly nice.

Until TODAY!

I built a print that had the heads stuck to the tails of the reels, and not the right reels either. There was lots of edge damage due to sloppy winding, and best of all, someone decided that their way of filling the reels was better than just using the reel change cues. The final reel, out of the box, was cut in the credits. This is always an indicator!!!

It is all back together now. I hope that Deluxe appreciates this.


 

---

Posted by Warren Dewey (Member # 3609) on 07-28-2008, 11:45 PM:
 
Frank-- Merilee at Warners will still book Looney Tunes but she will no longer pull individual titles. They come three on a reel, usually grouped by character, meaning 3 Daffys, 3 Bugs, etc.

Some prints are still marked Kit Parker, some are full frame, and some are pillar boxed. You don't know what you have until you look.

I have an old list of available titles I can fax if you like. Some are good tie-ins to old Warner shows, like "Carrotblanca."
 

---

Posted by Thomas Pitt (Member # 4322) on 07-29-2008, 01:10 AM:
 
Not here...
Most UK schools have a long 6-week summer vacation that includes the whole of August. We've still got "You don't mess with the Zohan" and "Space Chimps" to be shown in August, not to mention other films like "The X-Files: I want to believe" and "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor"

I've found UK cinemas tend to be open earlier during school holidays, so they can get more showings in for the 'kid' movies. During normal weekdays, they often don't open until late afternoon or evening, when people finish work.
 

---

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-29-2008, 01:31 AM:
 

quote: Gordon Bachlund

---

Unless you've done a kiddie show in a carbon arc changeover booth running a dozen or more cartoons, you really haven't lived.

---

quote: Warren Dewey

---

Frank-- Merilee at Warners will still book Looney Tunes but she will no longer pull individual titles. They come three on a reel, usually grouped by character, meaning 3 Daffys, 3 Bugs, etc.

---

quote:

---

Well, we're down to the last week of kid shows. ITS ALMOST OVER!

---

Amen to that!! I've been here for all but two of them, and I have one last one this Wednesday. Luckily for me I'm running DVD's for the shows, so no prints to build or break.
 

---