Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Movie Information for the Customers

This is topic Movie Information for the Customers in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Jarred Olsen (Member # 1833) on 09-29-2003, 08:21 PM:

Whenever I'm in the box office I get around 15 people asking the same question: "Do you have a movie summary?" "Who's in _______?" "What is _______ about?"

Seriously, I get annoyed when people ask me that. It just takes too long recalling who's in what film, not to mention what its about. Call me a fan of Clerks (I am indeed). I've been tempted to print out some summaries from IMDb, but I'm pretty damn sure my boss would get on my case for posting copyrighted material without written permission of the author.

Does anyone know of a website that releases movie information (actors, plot summary) without that copyright mumbo jumbo?

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-29-2003, 09:18 PM:

Try to get a copy of the press kit for the film. These usually include a complete (or nearly so) credit listing, plot summary, some 8x10 production stills (or 35mm slides), and usually some editorial material like an interview with the director. These can usually be obtained from the film distributor. This sort of thing is considered to be publicity material for the film (like posters, trailers, standees, etc.), so there's no copyright issue if it's used to promote the product.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 09-29-2003, 10:09 PM:

We use the Theater Service Network's Movie Buddie Cards. There about 3" X 3" square and pretty much give all the pertinent information about the film (actors, synopsis, ratings, runtime, etc). You can keep them at the boxoffice for the employees to use as a reference. I say employee reference because it is much more customer friendly for the boxoffice person to describe a movie to a customer than for them to shove a card or a piece of paper in the customers face.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 09-29-2003, 10:16 PM:

We just hop on Fandango and copy the movie summaries, then print them into a little packet.

However, If a customer asks me about a film i've seen, I always try to do my best to answer the customer in a more personal manor.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 09-29-2003, 10:25 PM:

What about collecting reviews from rec.arts.movies.reviews (from USENET)?

Just form a Google query like this (this example is for the movie "Lost in Translation"). I put spaces in between letters at the beginning so it wouldn't trick the "auto URLer", since it's an example of how to form a URL rather than a link:

h t t p : / /groups.google.com/groups?as_epq=Lost%20in%20Translation%20&as_ugroup=rec.arts.movies.reviews&hl=en

The first thing in the resulting list will be a thread containing reviews (in this case, 14 of them!). It's pretty easy to set up an automated system to issue queries for movies you are interested in and it should be pretty easy to automate the collection of the reviews using a Perl script for the whole thing.

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 09-29-2003, 10:27 PM:

We print up flyers for each film comming soon to our theatre. Every week we make a blurb sheet for all the films we are playing. We hand these out at the box office.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-29-2003, 10:49 PM:

Go to imeonline.com

Click on "Newsletter," then fill in your name and email address and "Sign in." You will see a list of movies dating back over a year. Click on the intended movie.

These links used to lead to just a pdf of ad slicks, but for a while now it's been a fullsized sheet with synopsis, running time, marketing tips, rating, etc. along with the ads. Just print'em out and hang'em (we put them in a plastic holder in the front window.)

This is part of the IME newsletter but is free to all.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 09-29-2003, 10:56 PM:

I don't know where they get them, but Cinemark here always has a neatly-printed up sheet in each box office window with a synopsis of every movie they're showing.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 09-30-2003, 12:33 AM:

http://www.movieweb.com
http://www.imdb.com
http://www.nowshowing.com
http://www.apple.com/trailers
http://movies.yahoo.com
http://www.movies.com

Many boxoffice systems, including RTS and Sensible Cinema allow you to include film synopsis' in the picture setup. This lets you hit a button and bring up answers to a lot of those questions. If nothing else, print up a synopsis from one of the above sites & post it around the ticket counter somewhere.

We include stuff like this, as well as links to online trailers on both of our web sites.

Posted by Zach Zagar (Member # 379) on 09-30-2003, 12:59 AM:

Box Office Buddy system:

Susan Panel:(815) 786-6577

They can set you up with the displays, the plastic sheets and then they send out the cards each week.

If your company doesn't want to pay for that (I'm not sure on the cost), hollywood.com and a binder are a very viable alternative.

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 10-01-2003, 11:04 AM:

Hmmm, I could do something like what you're looking for.

What information would you like to see? Here's my initial idea of what to include:

Movie Name
Poster Art (when available)
MPAA Rating and Reason
Cast List
Running Time
Plot Summary
Genre
Release Date

Basically, everything at the top of our movie pages:

http://www.bigscreen.com/NowShowing.php?movie=41482

Is that too much information, or am I missing anything?

I could create a report that would have these items listed one after the other for easy printing. Would that be useful?

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 10-01-2003, 12:08 PM:

http://www.movies.go.com

This is a very usefull link. At the theater I last worked at every week I would make up a flyer with each movies running times, ratings, showtimes, a synopsis, a picture from the movie, and reviews. Most of the information I got was from this link.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 10-01-2003, 10:29 PM:

Movie Facts brochures work well.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 10-02-2003, 09:22 AM:

quote:
I don't know where they get them, but Cinemark here always has a neatly-printed up sheet in each box office window with a synopsis of every movie they're showing.

We get those from our intranet site. They are provided by independent marketing edge a very good tool. THe publications do come at a price for a smaller independent. Last I read it was something like $250 a year but you got bi-weekly updated movie release schedules, a monthly newsletter, the film framse that you mentioned being posted in the box office and a fall/winter and spring/summer movie information book.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 10-02-2003, 11:25 AM:

The Loews New Brunswick does this at two lecterns inside the main entrance (facing Route 1). One lectern has the show schedule, listing which picture plays in each auditorium. The other lectern lists plot summaries for each picture. The poster frames inside are used to promote upcoming releases.

That setup was one thing I liked about the Loews New Brunswick. If you go there on a regular basis (as I used to) you'll know whether you'll see your movie in a small, medium, large, or supersize hall.

At the UA Union Square in Manhattan, plot summaries and stills for each picture are in the poster frames in the ground-floor lobby. You'll find them as you enter the theater from Broadway.

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 10-02-2003, 04:44 PM:

I just read IMDB's copyright page.

They seem to be taking the piss a little.

How do they figure they own everything on their site, when a bulk of the content is movie posters etc that belong to the movie companies?