Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Going from second run to first run...

This is topic Going from second run to first run... in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 05-12-2003, 10:37 AM:

I've been asked to find out about this. It's not something we could do any time soon for financial reasons.

How possible would it be for a 2nd run student cinema to become first run. Besides having to have a council cinema license etc, would film companies consider renting us first run films for just one or two showings?

Posted by Michael Harlow (Member # 1353) on 05-12-2003, 11:07 AM:

Nice idea but no chance. If you want to go on a distributors first run list, you need to show good trading figures, and basically how much you could make them. Normal rentals on release prints are 50 to 60% of your box office + trading bonds, these can be upto £5000. As for one or two shows, no way. They may let you do it after 2 months. On release normally all shows (2 to 3 a day) for atleast 14 days. When i did Harry Potter 1 + 2 on release i had to offer 30 days, 2 shows a day + a high percentage of my Box Office.

Posted by Mike Rendall (Member # 1499) on 05-13-2003, 03:31 AM:

Michael,

We have shown first run films before when we have had BFFS conferences etc. To become a regular first-run house is going to be a virtual impossibility - but - if you can make some arrangements with your booking agency you may be able to get more previews, one-day-only shows etc.

Our booker is Maggie Atlas, from FilmQuest in Surbiton and if you speak to her nicely she can sometimes have words with distributors to help you out on special events. Normally the distributors are quite happy (in the UK anyway) when we have spoke to them directly for previews as they can target a captive student population (the biggest cinemagoing agegroup).

Would be interesting to see how you get on, I haven't done the booking for quite a while - The last first-run film we had that I can actually remember (that I was the projectionist for) was Speed 2 (I know it was a while back!) and we got it on flat rate because it wasn't doing too well at the box-office.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 05-13-2003, 09:28 AM:

here at our local collage they periodically do first run one time showings of certain films prior to the regular release dates. Usually of collage crowd type films.

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 05-13-2003, 10:00 AM:

Michael,

There may be a way for you to start a program with a film critic who could invite a director or producer to show his film to the students signed up for the class. After showing the film, the guests would be permitted to make a short speech and then have a discussion on film making as well as film presentation. I was involved with this type of program at both the University of Connecticut and at New York University back in the 60's. It worked very well in both cases.

Professor Richard Brown now does this in New York City at the New School for Social Research.

Posted by Tom Doyle (Member # 1474) on 05-14-2003, 07:03 PM:

Sadly, there is currently no such program at UConn (that I know of). All we have are Friday screenings of independent films, but they are certainly not first-run:

http://www.sfa.uconn.edu/whatson_films.htm

The new addition to the student union will contain a movie theater which can double as a lecture hall, so maybe there is hope for the future:

http://www.advance.uconn.edu/02041501.htm

Come back, Bob! Come back!

Posted by William Phillips (Member # 1162) on 05-18-2003, 11:39 AM:

Michael

"Besides having to have a council cinema license etc"

Dont you have a cinema license at the moment?
I thought that every cinema in the UK had to have a cinema license, regardless of first run, student, seasonal etc.

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 05-18-2003, 04:00 PM:

No, because we are a members only cinema.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 05-18-2003, 08:24 PM:

The University of Chicago's DOC FILMS (one of the most prolific student cinema operations anywhere, and probably one of the best equipped) often runs previews of upcoming films when it fits into a studio's promotional plans. No admission is charged for these. They ran the remake of "The Italian Job" last month.

http://docfilms.uchicago.edu/

Posted by Mike Rendall (Member # 1499) on 05-19-2003, 03:54 AM:

I think we might be quite close to being one of the better equipped student theatres. All equipment paid for by member ticket sales.

Cinemeccanica Vic 8 (35 & 70), Dolby CP-65, DA-20, Dts-6D, Fumeo HL1000 Xenon 16mm, DVD & Video. Union Films Southampton

Warwick University are one better, they do 70mm Changeovers. (and now have SDDS! - ah well, more saving required ..
Warwick Student cinema

Posted by Gunnar Johansson (Member # 1661) on 05-19-2003, 08:29 AM:

Hi there.
We´re also a student cinema, and not to shabby if we say so ourselves, and we do...
We´ve got a Ernemann 15/35, Dolby CP650 with EX, but we also stive to get better... (been in operation with the current setup for 6 months...)
On another note, Mike: how are you doing at the end of June? My sister is graduating from Univeristy of Southhampton in June, so I´ll be coming over, and wonder if you have an opportunity to meet, and show me the goods? Contact me or reply if you have the possibility. It´d be nice to meet more student union cinema operators.
//Gunnar

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 05-20-2003, 08:07 AM:

quote:
I think we might be quite close to being one of the better equipped student theatres. All equipment paid for by member ticket sales.

It would be nice is we could break even on a film for once, never mind having and money left over after paying the print rental.

Posted by Mike Rendall (Member # 1499) on 05-21-2003, 03:48 AM:

Hi Gunnar,

You are more than welcome to come and see our kit, likewise anybody else that wants to pop down and visit. Drop me an email to let me know when you are about. (m.rendall@soton.ac.uk)

P.s. I may be at the Graduation too (Should be getting my PhD!)

Mike

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-21-2003, 07:20 AM:

[apologies for going off-topic]

...so will you be wearing the full-scale dead ferret outfit? The Exeter PhD costume was so hideous that this was a big part of the reason why I gave the ceremony a miss!

In fact, I've never been able to take degree ceremonies seriousy since the photograph they took for my undergrad one. The 'scroll' I appear to be holding is in fact a length of plastic drainpipe, complete with a B & Q price tag on one end! At the MA one we were made to stand around for half an hour in the pouring rain due to a security alert, and when the thing did start we all went up to get our degrees looking like drowned rats. This combined with one look at what Exeter proposed to make me wear was enough to make me decide to stay away.

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 05-21-2003, 08:25 AM:

I can't say I'm bothering with my graduation. I'll go home and joing my family in having a big chinese take away. Still have money left over.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-22-2003, 01:52 AM:

Good plan. Graduations are when a university's corporate/marketing people get pound signs in their eyes. They all do it to some extent, though Exeter was by far the most blatant I've come across. Parents were sent glossy propaganda for all sorts of merchandising crap (university coffee mugs - a bargain at only only £3.99 - [fu]

) and charged an arm and a leg for even such basic things as parking on campus on the day itself.

Posted by Mike Rendall (Member # 1499) on 05-22-2003, 10:52 AM:

Graduation days are meant to be a fun day for all the family to celebrate your 3 years hard graft - What it actually turns into is a farce of Carry-on proportions.

At my MChem degree award, my parents arrived 30 mins late, spent 25 mins looking for a parking space, made a large hoohaa getting to their seats, just as I was walking on to the podium.