Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: trailers for old films on video?

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Posted by James Waite (Member # 4536) on 09-07-2010, 08:00 PM:

We are going to be running a midnight film series here. I'm going to play the films from DVD/Blu-ray since most of the films people want us to play are no longer available on 35mm film in Canada.I'm playing movies like Monty Python and The Shining.

I'd like to play trailers for some of the upcoming midnight movies, does anyone know of a place to get trailers for older movies that I could burn to a DVD or something?
I know most of them would be on youtube but that could be awkward trying to show them and keeping a professional atmosphere.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 09-07-2010, 08:09 PM:

I suspect your best source would be the DVD's/Blu Rays themselves. Many come with the original trailers.

If you're not overly concerned about image quality, IMDB has many trailers for old movies.

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 09-08-2010, 04:46 AM:

what? you can't run the shining in 35mm in canada? what the hell?

Posted by James Waite (Member # 4536) on 09-08-2010, 09:24 AM:

The last time I played the only remaining 35mm print of The Shining in Canada it was nothing but shades of red and pink. A Clockwork Orange is so splicy as to be unplayable in my opinion.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 09-09-2010, 12:13 AM:

YouTube.

Posted by Todd McCracken (Member # 4718) on 09-09-2010, 01:18 PM:

Yup, youtube is a great source. There is free DCP conversion software out there (if your playing it off a dci compliant player)

Posted by Jack Theakston (Member # 4484) on 09-09-2010, 05:55 PM:

Come on... don't tell this guy to run stuff off of YouTube. That will look like CRAP.

If you're going to do it right, rip the trailers off of the DVDs and put together a playlist from there. And if you want to compensate for not having film, class it up by sticking some custom snipes and daters in, too.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 09-09-2010, 06:59 PM:

Jack

You Tube has much better res videos on it nowadays. You just have to look for them.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-09-2010, 10:11 PM:

I did this once, before YT started doing high-res video. I downloaded the FLV file and burned it to a DVD, which I then projected on a 25' (roughly) wide cinema screen. To my surprise, it was not hideously bad, and was actually watchable, even at that size. This was for a B&W trailer; I don't know if color would hold up as well.

Posted by Jack Theakston (Member # 4484) on 09-09-2010, 10:56 PM:

I know with a number of horror/sci-fi titles from the '50s and '60s that I considered doing the same thing with, I've found that they always look pretty dismal to my eye. My concern is always compression artifacts in the shadow areas (even at their 480 or HD settings). Going from the DVD will reduce any quality issues.

Posted by Todd McCracken (Member # 4718) on 09-10-2010, 01:32 PM:

Lots of 420p/720p/1080p trailers available on Youtube now.

Played a couple in our lab and had respectable results.

I use them on my 120in screen at home all the time and it looks great right up close.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 09-14-2010, 01:33 AM:

Once you have the trailers, don't bother converting back to dvd as a compilation, the quality will be a little worse. Stick them on a flash drive and buy something like the WD Media Player. That thing will play pretty much any video there is.