Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Distrib Getting Rid of (repertory) Prints

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Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 02-18-2010, 11:09 AM:

I was booking kids shows for this summer and one of the distribs (who will remain nameless) informed me they only had a few titles on 35mm. Word had come down they didn't want to store them. I have the option of DVD or harddrive. Only 2 of the 5 films I wanted were available. One of them is in current release the other came out last year. Two of the films not available I showed on 35mm last summer and one of the unavailables came out at Christmas. None of the films are "classics" or more than a few years old.

I asked if this policy applied to all of their films and was told yes, even their "art" division. Their non-theatrical distrib may have the 35mm prints, but we all know what shape they end up in pretty quickly.

I guess this is one way to force digital upon the small indies. Anyone else running into this problem?

Posted by Jonathan Smith (Member # 5609) on 02-18-2010, 11:31 AM:

I'd be pissed if I were to run into this problem myself. Thank God I haven't!

If I did, I would be inclined to pay a personal visit to the print depot with a lead pipe with an IATSE logo stamped on the front!

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 02-18-2010, 12:29 PM:

quote:
If I did, I would be inclined to pay a personal visit to the print depot with a lead pipe with an IATSE logo stamped on the front!

There are a couple people doing federal time for visiting an AMC and a Loews manager in Chicago with a lead pipe among other things. I don't know if they had stamped IATSE on it or not though!

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 02-18-2010, 01:36 PM:

quote:
If I did, I would be inclined to pay a personal visit to the print depot with a lead pipe with an IATSE logo stamped on the front!

Alas, the nearest depot is about 200 miles from here.

Just heard from another theatre that another big distrib is doing the same thing.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-18-2010, 01:42 PM:

So, who are these distributors and what titles are not available?

There are still many theatres with no video projection capability at all, so there should be a demand for prints for that reason alone (reliability and image and sound quality notwithstanding).

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 02-18-2010, 02:06 PM:

The studios don't want to pay print storage anymore.

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 02-18-2010, 02:07 PM:

quote:
If I did, I would be inclined to pay a personal visit to the print depot with a lead pipe with an IATSE logo stamped on the front!

And why, pray tell, would you want to blame someone else for your actions?

I don't think the IA would give a damn about the availability of prints. They'd be more interested in running whatever media were available. That is, assuming there is even a projection local left in your area.

Posted by Bernie Anderson Jr (Member # 410) on 02-18-2010, 02:15 PM:

Too bad, they won't sell "us" those junked prints.

Posted by Jonathan Smith (Member # 5609) on 02-18-2010, 02:34 PM:

Guys, I'm joking.

If someone has actually done that, they were out of line.

I herald back to a different time where the employers were screwing the employees just as much. When they did strike, they meant it, because their kids were going hungry.

Just saying. . .

BTW, there is a print local in my area, Rick, the Local #160. There's one in almost every industrialized city. Everyone ought support their union. They really are in everyone's best interst; they're in the interest of better projection.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 02-18-2010, 03:20 PM:

quote: Bill Gabel
The studios don't want to pay print storage anymore.

Yup, that's what they said. I did offer to store a few for them.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 02-18-2010, 03:37 PM:

Before TES & ETS ran their depots NFS ran many of the depots. When they closed hundreds of smaller studio films sat in their former depots waiting to be destroyed. I saw hundreds of cans sitting there in Pico Rivera.

It costs alot of money to keep these prints in storage. This is one of the ways the bean counters have found to keep their jobs and cutting costs for the studios.

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 02-18-2010, 04:10 PM:

quote: Bill Gabel
This is one of the ways the bean counters have found to keep their jobs and cutting costs for the studios.

Ah yes, the Bean Counters.

No disease in the history of the world has caused more pain and suffering than those [sex]

ers.

Now if this is how the studios think they can force digital on exhibitors then they are very much mistaken because -:

1. Many exhibitors can't afford the conversions. There is a financial crisis guys caused in a large part by bloody bean counters.

2. Just because the studios want something doesn't mean everyone will dance to their tune because, hey, they need the exhibitors just as much as the exhibitors need the studios.

3. There will be a huge market just sitting there for an independent studio to tap into if they cater to those exhibitors still unable to afford the digital conversion and are willing to supply product on 35mm.

4. With Ratzenberg et al pissing off the exhibitors the way they are and the backlash with "Alice" in the UK, they may well find a big fat rough-ended pineapple up their collective arses if the continue to force these issues.

...but then again, this may be just what they want.

Does this sound like an over reaction?

Posted by Demetris Thoupis (Member # 833) on 02-18-2010, 04:24 PM:

In Cyprus actually I am not sure if its the actual distribution who is enforcing it or a law but normally after 5 year run the print should be destroyed and signed by an authority that it has been destroyed. It breaks my heart everytime I see prints cut to pieces!! The way they are destroyed are placed on an a flat surface and an x shaped blade comes down chopping the reels in 4 [Frown]

Demetris

Posted by Tony Ratcliff (Member # 1196) on 02-18-2010, 04:30 PM:

I actually ran into a little of this last summer.
A couple of the films I wanted were "not available" until I told them I could do DVD.
They told me that there were only a small number of 35mm prints and they went fast.

So I'll not be surprised to find the situation worse this summer.

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 02-18-2010, 06:47 PM:

So if you're able to do DVD/Blu-Ray do they apply the same terms as to 35mm?

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 02-18-2010, 08:08 PM:

quote: Demetris Thoupis
In Cyprus actually I am not sure if its the actual distribution who is enforcing it or a law but normally after 5 year run the print should be destroyed and signed by an authority that it has been destroyed

Some sort of regulation in Spain also demanded that the prints, at least of foreign films, be destroyed after 5 years. Something about their distribution license in the country expiring and studios don't bothering to renew them (costs $$$$ and makes little sense). Not sure if that's still the case, but probably.

As a result, it's extremely difficult to offer 35mm retrospective festivals and the like in the spanish-dubbed language. Most prints for foreign films would have to come from overseas and be, most likely, in a foreign language w/o subtitles.

DTS helps, but that's a new thing.

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 02-18-2010, 09:04 PM:

Yes, the same terms.

But, you do not have to pay for shipping to and from, and you have no prep time to make-up and breakdown.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-18-2010, 09:22 PM:

quote: Mike Frese
you do not have to pay for shipping to and from

How do you get the DVDs then? Or does the distributor pay for shipping?

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 02-18-2010, 09:34 PM:

You go to your local DVD store or online and buy it.

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 02-18-2010, 09:44 PM:

quote: Mike Frese
Yes, the same terms.

quote: Martin McCaffery
You go to your local DVD store or online and buy it.

It would seem that that they would have better terms since there is practically no cost(if any) on their end. [Confused]

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 02-18-2010, 10:06 PM:

You're paying for the right to show it, not the cost of production

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-19-2010, 12:26 AM:

They are also forcing you to BUY the product this way...or can you rent from Netflix or borrow a friend's copy?

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 02-19-2010, 01:04 AM:

That's what I don't get. If I BUY it then why charge me a film rental fee? I can certainly understand still doing the ticket split, but the film rental doesn't make much sense.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-19-2010, 01:36 AM:

The least they could do is MAIL you a DVD that doesn't have any of that FBI warnings, commercials and asinine menus to deal with.

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 02-19-2010, 07:11 AM:

If I am stuck with a DVD I usually insist on a screening copy with no extra garbage to hopefully get something without compression artifacts. Last evening I did a local premiere of a feature using a Canon HDV camera as the HD source....not bad at 25 foot width.....

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 02-19-2010, 08:27 AM:

The few times I've done this they do not care where you get a DVD from, so you can rent it, or borrow it. Of course, you never know what shape it is in. At least one distrib said explicitly not to show the FBI warning and we were not allowed to show any of the extras. I'm assuming the rights to there are no exhibition rights on the extras.

It has been awhile since I did a DVD from Swank, but they used to send you the DVD and you had to send it back. The DVD's were just crappy, used commercial copies. And the shipping was more than the cost of a DVD.

Posted by Manny Montes (Member # 5639) on 02-19-2010, 11:56 AM:

This isn't good for smaller theaters, as in the ones who are still using slide projectors for preshow

Posted by Tony Ratcliff (Member # 1196) on 02-19-2010, 04:59 PM:

I've shown DVDs many times.

I always buy a new copy to use just for the showing, not use a personal copy. I don't want to take chances on condition.
If I plan on showing it again some day (like the Christmas movies), I secure that DVD away so I know it will be good for the next time.

FYI. Lionsgate sent me the DVD when I showed Dirty Dancing.
Funny thing is - they sent me the exact same DVD version as I had bought at Wal-Mart. It was even in the shrink wrap still.

The rental contract always state that the FBI warning, previews, etc. are NOT to be shown. They don't want the show to indicate that it is from a DVD. I don't want to show that either.
It's not hard to not show it - most of the time the counter on the player does not start until the feature does.
So you can know pretty easy when to un-mute the projector and sound.

Posted by Alex Shultz (Member # 5027) on 02-19-2010, 07:28 PM:

I talked with Sony Pictures Classics about getting Coco Before Chanel. I'll be switching to digital projection in the middle of the month that it is playing. They'll give me a 35mm print to begin but I have to find a DVD/Blu-Ray to finish up since they "don't have any digital capabilities at this time." They tell me that all of their screeners are watermarked/lower quality.

I'm planning to get the Blu-Ray from Amazon to finish the showings.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 02-19-2010, 09:44 PM:

Yes, SPC does not do DCI digital. On the other hand, most of their films are available through Emerging Pictures and their proprietary D Cinema. If this is something that's going to happen alot with you, you may want to check them out.

Posted by Thomas Pitt (Member # 4322) on 02-20-2010, 01:58 AM:

If other distributors around the world follow this lead, theaters would either have to upgrade all screens to digital, only show in digital screens, or even close down.

In the case of my local theater, only 3 of their 13 screens are equipped for digital (two of them having Real D installations). If this happened and they didn't upgrade to digital, they would be transformed from a 13-plex into a mere 'triple' theater [Frown]

Incidentally, how much does it cost (per screen) to replace the 35mm projector with a D-cinema projector and server?

Posted by Cameron Glendinning (Member # 3516) on 02-20-2010, 02:51 AM:

Hi Thomas, I can see that the title is a bit of a teaser but this thread is more about repertory cinema. Distributors will still be making first release prints but will no longer be keeping the 35mm prints in their archives in the quantities that they once did. Repertory Cinema was still a money earner 20 years ago but VHS and DVD has pretty much killed that market for cinemas. I doubt that in the 21st century the old prints which must take up enormous space could pay for the storage.

Also one does not need an expensive d cinema grade projector to run a dvd or a blu ray disc which seems to be the only way for cinemas to now run classic titles, even the ones released last year.

Posted by Michael Marini (Member # 3490) on 02-20-2010, 09:57 PM:

guys they are not getting rid of prints they just do not want to give

them to theatres that will F them up. hear at the AFI we never have problems getting film

Posted by Alex Shultz (Member # 5027) on 02-20-2010, 10:46 PM:

Thanks, Martin.

I'm trying to find the best way to show older titles using the digital equipment. I'm not thrilled with using Blu-Ray if a "real" digital print is available somewhere.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 02-21-2010, 10:02 AM:

quote: Michael Marini
guys they are not getting rid of prints they just do not want to give

them to theatres that will F them up. hear at the AFI we never have problems getting film

Mike, I don't think they were really worried about the prints of Space Chimps;> And for the most part, they don't care about the shape of the prints, period.

I'm sure there are archive prints of most of the classics AFI shows, and those are not available to general theatres. The prints they are getting rid of are fairly new releases that would normally go rep houses or, in our case, kiddie shows. If this is a widespread policy, rep houses will be down to showing DVD/BluRay for anything that has come out in the last few years. Not good.

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 02-21-2010, 12:51 PM:

Don't shoot me please, but Blu-Ray IMHO looks pretty damn good on a theater screen and I never worry about it skipping or anything.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 02-21-2010, 12:58 PM:

BANG!!!! [evil]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-21-2010, 01:47 PM:

quote: Mike Frese
and I never worry about it skipping or anything.

Oh just give it time. Optical media is a terrible way to run an important show, as it is prone to getting 3/4 through the show and then lock up at a mark on the disc.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-21-2010, 02:28 PM:

What Brad said...DVDs and BluRays are all but guaranteed to glitch.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 02-21-2010, 03:49 PM:

Which is why I give the discs a close visual inspection before playing them. If they look at all dodgy I give them a thorough cleaning. I also preview them on the machine that will be playing them for the money show.

Just as most of us would avoid running a print without at least a quick edge and splice inspection, I wouldn't expect to be able to drop a disc into a player and run it without problems.

Fortunately I've never had a disc skip or crash during any of the public screenings I've done. I have had skips and crashes during test runs though, occasionally even with new discs.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 02-21-2010, 04:25 PM:

I've had plenty of skips and freezes, even cleaned and right out of the box -- and even after clean test runs. The worst are various independent touring indie things (filmmakers or short collections) that are not factory copied. Sometimes, they'll freeze in one place sometimes another. Sometimes you have backup copies and they freeze in the same place, or different places. I've had at least a couple of total freezeups with an audience.
DVD/BluRay is a semi-acceptable emergency backup, but it is no substitute for a print.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-21-2010, 05:06 PM:

Unlike with a film print or even a broadcast grade tape, a preview run on a DVD or BluRay is not guarantee that the same result will occur on the show (same for DCinema).

Steve

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 02-22-2010, 08:10 AM:

A funny thing we have a dennon Blu-Ray in one house and a dennon DVD in the other. They are identical looking units except one has a Blu-Ray logo and one doesn't. Anyways Some burned DVD's will not play in the Blu-Ray player but will play in the DVD only player. Kind of odd huh?

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-22-2010, 08:35 AM:

No, not really...they are likely completely different drives. Denon, like many companies...try for uniform looks to their equipment on any given year. On the DVD players...I've noted that the DN-V310 will play discs that the DN-V300 would not...and they are identical appearing units.

Burned discs are always a crapshoot though. Oddly enough...WalMart special, el-cheapo, DVD players tend to play the burned discs better than the better DVD players.

Steve

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 02-22-2010, 09:48 AM:

We've played hundreds of DVDs without a glitch, even on burned discs and maybe 50 BluRays. Steve's correct on the player too, we started with a high end "commerical" DVD player and always had freezes etc. We replaced it with a couple of middle priced players from Best Buy and have never had a problem. The BluRay will sometimes refuse to play a DVD that the DVD only players play OK. On especially presentations we start 2 discs about 30 seconds apart so that if there is a problem we can switch to the other machine with the push af a button. The $70. Insignia DVD machines also play PAL and any region.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 02-22-2010, 01:01 PM:

We bought a cheapo DVD player for backup. Tested fine, but the first time we tried to use it it wouldn't even start. Sigh.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-22-2010, 01:41 PM:

quote: Bill Enos
we started with a high end "commerical" DVD player and always had freezes etc. We replaced it with a couple of middle priced players from Best Buy and have never had a problem.

Sometimes cheap equipment lasts. I have a really low-end Hitachi cassette deck at home which has outlasted several higher-priced name brand machines. At the theatre we have a Panasonic component-type amplifier (with 8-track deck built in!) that has been our non-sync amp for at least 27 years...the speaker outputs on it don't work anymore but it just keeps playin' that non-sync.

Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 02-22-2010, 01:56 PM:

quote: Jonathan Smith
BTW, there is a print local in my area, Rick, the Local #160. There's one in almost every industrialized city. Everyone ought support their union. They really are in everyone's best interst; they're in the interest of better projection.

I know a few guys in that local and from everything that I have heard, it is barely scraping by and is only a hollow shell of what it once was.

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 02-22-2010, 04:05 PM:

Local 224 in DC is no more. The remaining members now carry stagehand cards with Local 22.

Posted by Tony Ratcliff (Member # 1196) on 02-22-2010, 04:34 PM:

I haven't had a DVD crap out yet, but I did have the UPS is was plugged into crap out.
I started getting a terrible buzz in the sound, and couldn't figure it out for the longest time.
I finally stopped the show, plugged the DVD player into a normal surge power strip and it worked fine the rest of the show.

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 02-22-2010, 09:36 PM:

I use PS3's and they work great.

Posted by Brian Guckian (Member # 1678) on 02-24-2010, 05:31 AM:

There are troubling legal aspects to this development.

A cinema patron is entitled to expect a certain level of quality when they purchase a ticket to a show, and it would be easy to argue in court that domestic SD-DVDs do not provide that.

Even if a DVD screening is advertised clearly as such, and even if the admission price is reduced, that may not cut it in a court of law.

It could also be argued that Blu-Ray is not an acceptable theatrical presentation format - again in a purely legal context, and where expert industry testimony is called upon.

Cinemas showing DVDs may be unwittingly leaving themselves open to legal actions, either by customers or by consumer rights groups.

Conversely from the legal standpoint, there is also the issue of precedent: it could now be argued that, from evidence in the field, SD-DVD or Blu-Ray are becoming "accepted" theatrical presentation formats.

Thus, why continue general theatrical distribution and exhibition of 35mm prints and 2K or 4K digital files?

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 02-24-2010, 11:12 AM:

quote: Brian Guckian
Thus, why continue general theatrical distribution and exhibition of 35mm prints and 2K or 4K digital files?

'Cos they are slightly more difficul to pirate compared to blu-ray or DVD's.

And the studios don't mind spending hundreds of millions (of your money, btw) to (try to) deter piracy.

Stoping it is impossible nowadays where a watch can have a motion picture camera in it.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-24-2010, 11:53 AM:

I had a DVD freeze and wouldn't go past the freeze point no matter what I did. It was a full house of kids and parents watching HAUNTED MANSION. Swank sticks a little note in their DVD case saying to play the disc thru before the show because, hey, you are still paying $250 for it, but no guarantee this thing we sent you will actually work. I did that; it played perfectly in preview -- froze anyway at the show. Inspection showed not a speck or scratch on the surface.

From that point on, I refuse to do a show without two DVDs running in sync like Bill does. All you need do is experience a freeze or worse, a crash where you can't finish the show and that will be the last time you run without a backup ever going or trust a digital machine again. At least with a film projector (or two of them like I have in all the places I work) there isn't much that can happen to that strip of celudoid or mechanical machine that you can't fix and finish a show. But that DVD player with a disc spinning inside (that you can't even see) -- you push a button and from there on out till the last bite, are just at it's mercy. If it stutters or freezes, you sit there like a fool pushing that freakin PLAY button on that remote till your fingers bleed.

I was running DVD last summer in the park where we get about 6000 people for a show and I am in a open booth where they can pretty much see me. I told the producers that I wanted THREE DVDs running and a switcher that could select any one of them. They made me settle for only two, but even then I was a nervous wreck, sitting there for two hours with my finger on the switcher button.

Just last night I was at Regal's "Movies at Sheapshead Bay" Brooklyn. There were lots of very angry people in the lobby and one guy was on his cell -- so naturally I was forced to hear the conversation as if he were speaking to me -- seems that the digital show of SHUTTER ISLAND had to be shut down because it turned into STUTTER Island and they had to refund tickets. He wasn't a happy pup. I sighed to myself, "Ah...digital," hoping nothing would go wrong in the LIE-MAX theatre where I was going.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-24-2010, 12:14 PM:

My worst DVD experience was with the Academy Shorts program a year or two ago. The DVD stopped abruptly mid-show and had to be re-started from the beginning. The DVD player did not have a counter and required that I fast forward to approximately where it had failed (fortunately, I had been watching the screen) with the video projector doused and sound muted.

jhawk can confirm this one (he was at the screening).

More commonly, it is difficult with most consumer players to not show the on-screen "play" image at show start without also clipping the opening fade-in of the feature. Some of them will also re-start the menu immediately after the program ends, leaving almost no time to mute the sound and douse the video projector.

The other major issue with video is that picture quality can be all over the place. A Blu-ray played on a D-cinema projector can look and sound amazing. And I really hate to say that, but it is true. On the other hand, a DVD played through a composite video connection to a consumer-grade video projector that is too dim for the screen size can be perfectly miserable. And, even if the screening is advertised as "shown on video," how can prospective patrons know what to expect?

In any case, a decent player (the Denon DN-V210 and -V310 are good choices), scaler, and video projector, along with a backup copy of the disk running a few seconds behind (as mentioned above), will go a long way to making DVDs look watchable on the big screen.

I would be curious to know what the directors of these non-available films would have to say about any of this. I cannot imagine that they would be particuarly happy.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 02-24-2010, 03:25 PM:

Since much of what we play from DVD is independent movies, first time local movie makers the disc that they bring us is the only one. For that reason we encourage them to watch the entire video at home on an ordinary home DVD player, not a computer or studio deck. It is amazing how many discs have been brought to us that have not been closed/finalized. Computers and studio equipment will usually play unclosed discs.

Posted by Cameron Glendinning (Member # 3516) on 02-24-2010, 05:53 PM:

If I have to run a dvd I tend to use the cheap player etc but I do scan the disk in a program like DVD shrink in my laptop. If the 2 minute scan works I have never had an onscreen problem.

Now however if I am asked to play a dvd I would be tempted to rip the file to a hard drive and play it back off a basic western digital media player. I believe you can even copy blu rays this way. I tend to find media players are more reliable than a optical media disk.

At home I have had freezing issues with playback of rented blu ray disks, but never with one from my own personal collection.

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 03-01-2010, 12:33 AM:

I don't get how you can legally run a DVD/BD. DVDs are not intended for commercial use. Do you have a special contract with the distributor and/or studio to do this?

This is also a way to destroy the industry. With catalog DVD product going for around $7-$10 these days, why would anyone pay to see a DVD in a theatre? And don't tell me no one complains. They might not complain, but they simply could have thought (either consciously or subconsciously) that the experience sucked and they won't repeat it.

It's really a shame (criminal, really) if they're going to trash those prints. At the very least, they should be donated to a University or museum.

As for DVD/BD players, I would recommend the OPPO BDP-83 (or the 83SE if you're going to take analog right out of the player - it has an upgraded analog section.) This thing plays anything - any format and my experience is that it plays discs other players can't play. It also does really nice upscaling on DVDs.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 03-01-2010, 08:24 AM:

quote: Martin Brooks
I don't get how you can legally run a DVD/BD. DVDs are not intended for commercial use. Do you have a special contract with the distributor and/or studio to do this?

It's all about exhibition rights. The studio sells you the right to exhibit the film, they don't care about the format. As I said above though, they tell you not to run the FBI warning and not to run the extras. The real fun starts when one studio has the rights to the original release, but another has the rights to the restored version.

Posted by Jonathan Smith (Member # 5609) on 03-01-2010, 11:49 AM:

quote: Joshua Waaland
I know a few guys in that local and from everything that I have heard, it is barely scraping by and is only a hollow shell of what it once was.

Who do you know? I assure you we are still alive and kicking, despite losing Cleveland Cinemas and the artist currently known as "Atlas" (which is apparantly almost as dead as their late owner).

The Akron Union is dead, absorbed, I believe, by the stagehands union there. They were kicked out of most booths there in the mid-'90s.

Local #160 (Cleveland branch of IATSE) has:

AMC Theatres shared booth
Some Regals shared booth
Some Cinemarks shared booth
All "General Cinemas" (Detroit and Parma theatres) Union only booth

OMNIMAX Theatre Great Lakes Science Center Union Booth

And that new theatre that opened up on the East side is either shared or union only; I know they had to scrap a bunch of digital projectors at several theatres formerly Carmikes helping out the Pittsburgh branch of IATSE.

So there is still plenty of well-paying union work out there. Frankly with the DLP conversion stalling, unions are on the upswing these days because a lot of chains whose names shall remain unmentioned have been neglecting their equipment for 3 years and it is catching up with them.

Unfinished booths, no spare parts, inadequately trained projectionists, and improper projector servicing come back to bite you in the ass sooner or later. . .

Anyway, IDK why my comments about where most prints go was deleted. I don't condone movie piracy or theft myself, but I know plenty of people who have purchased 35mm prints of major motion pictures which were about to be thrown in a dumpster instead.

Does it make sense to throw out thousands of dollars worth of film instead of giving it to a good home? When distributors are now sending DVDs, the standard is lowered so much that it makes sense for SOMEONE to hold onto 35mm, not to make money off of it illegally, but for the poor archivists who are going to talk about what a stupid generation this was, 100 years hence, when all the F-in movies are lost. This current generation is like in the silent film years with improperly archived nitrate (and no forthought to the invention of television), because all the 2K digital intermediate master files and edit decision lists (EDLs) are probably going to get lost eventually, because they won't be properly backed up. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 03-01-2010, 01:05 PM:

quote: Alex Shultz
I'll be switching to digital projection in the middle of the month that it is playing.

Alex, if possible (even if it's awkward booth-space wise) LEAVE your 35mm equipment in place and ready to play!! If not, you WILL be very sorry.

Too many locations are diving head-first into the D-Crapema pool without realizing there IS a very HARD concrete bottom (digital freezes, studios not releasing keys in time, some product not available on digital, etc.) upon which you WILL hit your head. For example:

quote: Frank Angel
Just last night I was at Regal's "Movies at Sheapshead Bay" Brooklyn. There were lots of very angry people in the lobby and one guy was on his cell -- so naturally I was forced to hear the conversation as if he were speaking to me -- seems that the digital show of SHUTTER ISLAND had to be shut down because it turned into STUTTER Island and they had to refund tickets. He wasn't a happy pup.

That fact and all the other problems associated with the [bs]

WILL kill the exhibition industry within the next 5-10 years.