Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Inventory

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Posted by Jennifer Osborne (Member # 1220) on 09-10-2002, 12:19 PM:

Hello Everyone,

I'm a shift manager at a 12 screen, and I am in charge of all the advertising/marketing materials that come through the theater. I was wondering if anyone out there has found a good way to keep an inventory of posters and trailers. If you have a spreadsheet of some sort, i would appreciate it if you would e-mail it to me. Any and all suggestions are welcome. This is my first time posting a brand new topic, so i hope i'm doing it right, and i hope to hear from all of you soon. Thank you.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 09-11-2002, 11:48 AM:

I used to also be in charge of promotional materials in addition to projection at a smaller theater. We tried a system of logging the items as they came in, classified as "Posters, Banners, Standees and Other" to keep track of exactly what we had. This lasted for about three weeks because it just didn't seem to work. Managers would regularly "dip" into the poster storage, or after being displayed, a poster or standee might get damaged or destroyed, so keeping an inventory of promotional items became quite a hassle.

We just stuck to logging everything that came in so we can keep track of what we have "current." This way, if a poster for an upcoming movie came up missing that we were supposed to have, it would be noticed. Once the release date passed, we crossed the item off the list and it stayed in the storage room until someone wanted it or it was thrown out. That way, you can keep track of the materials that are still "active" and can be displayed while getting all the old "clutter" out of the way.

We also kept a small log of everything we had on display. (i.e. Outside Poster Cases: "X-men, Austin Powers, Pokemon, etc." then Lobby: Banners: "Chicken Run, X-men" -- Posters: "etc. etc....")

When the box of posters in the storage room started to get full, I would often make a call to the sub-run down the street and they were more than happy to take some of the stuff.

=TMP=

Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 09-11-2002, 07:51 PM:

At my theater, they have a "wish-list" which the staff can put their name in for the posters they want. After the poster's release date the manager takes it down and pulls any copies out of our storage room and hands them out to the staff on a first come-first serve basis. Of course, managers get first pick and take whatever they want (since they have the key to the "poster-room"). Banners and standees go in the room as well, but are less popular due to their size. If something is unwanted, it gets left in the room until a cleaning day comes along, and they throw everything old out.

Trailers I always organized in the projection booth, we had two cabinets (flat and scope). We are a 20-plex though so we had a LOT of promotional materials all the time. We didn't keep track of what we had on hand, just ordered more trailers as needed (almost never necessary) and put used trailers/past due date trailers in those bins that Airborne Express always left us according to studio. When the bucket was full, shipped them back to the distributor with the prepaid labels they send. Now, a LOT of people do not send trailers back and consider it a waste of time, but I just figured it was better than throwing them away. Just my $0.02

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"The greatest thing you will ever learn, is just love and be loved in return."

Barry C. Martin
IATSE Local 182

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 09-12-2002, 12:32 PM:

We put our old posters in the lobby on the first saturday of the month. Anyone who wants them can take them.

Another thing that i have seen before is to take one of the posters from each film, and put it up on a wall in the booth, storage area, break room, wherever, with a little sticky attached indicating the revenue generated for the theatre by the movie.

Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 09-12-2002, 09:23 PM:

I am actually VERY in favor of hanging posters in the booth. We started this a bit over two years ago and our 20 screen (one continuous booth) is now just about wallpapered (or at least was the last time I was in the booth). We also put up banners (my favorite being a 20 foot tall Gladiator banner) and other promo materials around the booth. Considering the booth was painted all whites and greys and fairly well lit, it could be a bit drab to look at. The posters have added a great deal of life to the booth.

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"The greatest thing you will ever learn, is just love and be loved in return."

Barry C. Martin
IATSE Local 182

Posted by Wes Hughes (Member # 981) on 09-29-2002, 11:34 PM:

I think there is some fire ordinace here that prevents us from covering more than a certain percent of the wall area with paper.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 09-30-2002, 09:50 AM:

What about that business of the posters being property of the studios?

With the exception of Star Wars: Episode I there has never been a request to have promo material returned. However, to leave them out in the lobby for any-and-everybody to take seems an invitation for trouble.

I bet your customers like that a lot, though.

BUT TO ANSWER THE QUESTION:

I used to have the job of organizing trailers, one sheets and standees at one point and I never kept a written log of what I had. Instead, I was always nursing a "wish list" and I'd cross off the items that I wanted as they arrived. Quite often, they'd go right into service so there really wasn't much point in keeping a log of what was sitting idle. I guess "we just knew" what was on-hand after a while. But, then, we were handling promo items for a mere six screens at the time.

Even further back in time...When I was working at the AMC in Pasadena, we had bins (tall Rubbermaid trash bins) and we'd stand the posters up (rolled) in the appropriate bins which were marked CURRENT, SOON and DISTANT (or something like that). We would write the name of the movie, the studio and the release date on a "stickie" and tuck it under the rubber band on the "up" end for easy reference.

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 09-30-2002, 03:59 PM:

Manny,

20th Century Fox has added a 'for promotional use only.. blah blah blah property of Fox films....' on most of their materials. I've noticed it on a few items recently from Fox (namely banners). Yes, they are still in my 'poster room'.

For the question originally posed, we write the film title on the tube and put it the "coming soon" cubby hole. When we are playing the films, it goes in a "now showing" cubby hole and when it's gone, I dole them out to employees (if they have requested specific items) or they simply go into the "GONE" cubby hole for disposal at a later date.

I've had the urge to place them out for the public to pick up for a donation when we have our annual CMN drive, but that seems to be a murky area as far as legalities go, so I just dont' do it. Give them away grattis, yes... if anyone asks for anything inparticular.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-30-2002, 05:03 PM:

We've never kept a log either. Just make sure the posters are somewhere that the majority of the staff doesn't have access to (like the booth), otherwise they like to disappear before playdates (stupid staff... wait till after, most of the time nobody'll notice).

quote:
20th Century Fox has added a 'for promotional use only.. blah blah blah property of Fox films....' on most of their materials. I've noticed it on a few items recently from Fox (namely banners).

MGM does the same thing, along with many others.

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 09-30-2002, 07:16 PM:

Someone, somewhere has aa auction each year of posters & standees.

We just give them away, unless I grab it first for my son's room.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 10-01-2002, 07:38 AM:

I've been thinking about having a child. This clinches it!

What's his favorite poster/standee?

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 10-03-2002, 02:12 AM:

The big Spiderman (10ft tall) banner, followed by the new Two Towers poster.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 10-03-2002, 12:08 PM:

Sony has the "For promotional use only..." notice on their stuff as well, IIRC. The first time I saw that was on the Charlies Angels banner.

As for FOX, I noticed that little snipe on absolutely everything. Look on the back of the promo pinback buttons, it's there. Look at the bottom of the mini-sheets, it's there. Seems like even stuff that is designed to be "transferred" or given away to customers has the warning.

If they want their property (posters, trailers, etc) returned, they should send along a prepaid shipping label like they did with Episode 1. Nobody is going to bend over backwards to return materials because of a little line of 5pt text at the bottom.

=TMP=

Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 10-03-2002, 02:55 PM:

I would think they have the "promotional use only" disclaimer to keep stuff from being profited on. i.e. taking a mini-poster, scanning it, and using it to promote your website or something or selling them on ebay. For the most part Fox and Dreamworks were the ones being really strict about banner returns and of course Fox's little note with all trailers shipped. I could see why they would want banners returned, they are very costly and could be used at some special function I guess. But why do they want trailers back? Are they going to reissue the movie in 10 or so years and not have updated trailers?

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"The greatest thing you will ever learn, is just love and be loved in return."

Barry C. Martin
IATSE Local 182