This is topic trailer changes in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 05-16-2004, 05:09 PM:
 
This is mostly a mangement topic, so I'm posting it here.

How many trailers does your theatre show and how often do they change over the course of a film's run?

At a certain multi-screen art house where I usually work on Thursdays, we normally show about four trailers and 2-3 promotional spots for contests, etc. The theatre policy is that a) only trailers for films scheduled to play at that theatre will be shown and b) trailers must be shown in release date order. As bookings and release dates change, about half of these trailers/promos end up needing to be replaced or their order changed each week.

Is this a common practice elsewhere?
 
Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 05-16-2004, 05:42 PM:
 
We run one Coca-Cola trailer before the trailers, except on Buena Vista, Dreamworks or Warner Bros. films, then we show a moviefone spot instead. Four trailers after that (including attached), then the sound snipe. No policy trailers.

Trailers are for movies being released between two weeks and two months away, no further out than that. Trailers are placed in chronological order of release dates (upcoming to further out). On Wednesday I change trailers for the films coming out that particular week, and adjust the programming for the replacement trailers so everything's still in chronological order. This way, the coming attractions feel more recent to patrons, and they don't forget about where they heard about the big releases.

We do have the DVD "slide projector" that local advertisers use before the show, which often tricks people into thinking that we have fifteen minutes of ads before the trailers. [Roll Eyes]
 
Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 05-16-2004, 06:10 PM:
 
Art Theatre

We run 4-trailers on every print.

I think 3-trailers is a better number but Ky needs to place 4.

We run no slides, ads, rolling stock or PSAs.
 
Posted by James Pope (Member # 1189) on 05-16-2004, 08:07 PM:
 
WE one coke, 2 trailers one of an upcoming movie, and one of a movie we are playing to cross advertise, a dolby and the attached thats it, we used to only run one but now its two short ones. All about 5-8 min. no policy sometimes we dont play coke or a dolby at all if the trailers are long.
 
Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 05-16-2004, 08:15 PM:
 
Screenvision ads (no more then 4 min)
Movietickets.com ad
5 trailers
Policy Trailer
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-16-2004, 09:39 PM:
 
We normally run 5 trailers and a DTS tag, nothing else. Less if it's a kiddie movie, maybe one more on a blockbuster so people have time to get to the concession stand.

I try to arrange the trailers so that the best/most exciting/most anticipated trailer plays last. Release dates don't matter to us because we don't always know what order the films will be playing.
 
Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 05-16-2004, 09:46 PM:
 
We Run:
Public Service Announcments
Rolling stock Adds
Coke
Movietickets.com
anywhere from 5-6 trailers....rarely we get 7

This is why we have to start the movies a tad early
 
Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 05-16-2004, 09:52 PM:
 
We run in all of our theatres (except Marin County):

3 min (max, it usually averages around 1:30) rolling stock ads
approx 7-10 min of trailers (averages to three, to include the attachment, if any)

In Marin we do the same sans rolling stock.

-Aaron
 
Posted by Jeremy Fuentes (Member # 2135) on 05-17-2004, 06:15 AM:
 
4 or 5 trailers, no ads, no policy, no dolby or anything like that. I basically run them the same way that Mike B. does. The better ones closer to the feature. That way if anyone shows up late, they wont miss the new Spiderman, or other blockbuster, that they were most likely hoping to see.
 
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-17-2004, 10:40 AM:
 
At my college theater...

Pre-show video slide show ads: Only internal college events or "Sponsorship Acknowledgements" for people/companies that give us $$. (e.g.: "We would like to thank ABC Co. for their generous support...")

Three trailers: Only trailers for upcoming movies. We don't always get trailers for every movie so sometimes it's less than three but never more than three.

Generic policy snipe from Filmack.

On with the show...

I put the trailers on in REVERSE order that the movies will play in. It makes adding and pulling trailers a lot easier. When the movie is broken down, it's a simple matter to wind the last trailer off and put it away. Then, next week, when the new movie is built, you do the following:

1) Build the movie as normal onto the existing trailer pack.
2) Build the new trailer(s) onto a spare piece of leader and wind it onto the takeup platter.
3) Take the leader out of the print on the payout platter and thread through to the take up.
4) Make your splice and run. By the time your preview screening is done you should be all set to run your "Go-Show" as normal.
 
Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 05-17-2004, 12:39 PM:
 
Dean: That sounds like an AMC (hence Movietickets.com)
Usually the lineup at the big Disney AMC 24 here is:

Title (with approx time)
NCN "Preshow Countdown" (:10)
Respect Copyrights (1:30)
Hershey's something... (:45)
Coke (2:00 if it's that black chick singing)
Movietickets.com (1:00)
AMC Gift Card (:30)
AMC Coming Soon (:20)
6-7 trailers (about half the time it's 7. 15-18 minutes)
AMC Silence is Golden (:45 if it's the submarine one)
AMC Feature Presentation (:20)

*WHEW* That's 18-22 minutes of stuff before the movie! And this starts at the advertized time. [Razz]

=TMP=
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-17-2004, 01:50 PM:
 
Geez, what a lot of stuff that is. No wonder people are complaining about too much pre-show crap nowadays.

I hate people who intentionally come to the show late to avoid seeeing the trailers. If you don't want to see the trailers, stand in the lobby or something! And it doesn't seem to matter how many trailers there are, either....people seem to think that we run a half hour of trailers, even though we've been running (on average) about 10-12 minutes worth for 25 years. I've had people come in at 40 minutes past showtime and say, "well we've probably only missed about five minutes of the movie, right?"
(/rant mode)
 
Posted by Jeremy Fuentes (Member # 2135) on 05-17-2004, 02:06 PM:
 
We have the same problem Mike. The Cinemark and Century here run alot of [bs] before their shows, so people think we do the same. They show up 25-30 minutes late, and I hear them telling each other, "It's ok, we havent missed any of the movie yet, just the commercials."
 
Posted by Pete Apruzzese (Member # 1446) on 05-17-2004, 02:36 PM:
 
Most of our locations run the following:

"No Smoking" snipe
"Let's Go Out to the Lobby"
One trailer (maybe two if it's a short teaser)

We'll change a trailer when we get a confirmed booking and can put a "Starts Friday" or "Next Attraction" tag on it.
 
Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 05-17-2004, 03:50 PM:
 
I've never heard of putting them on in chronological (release date) order- if the home office sent a list of what trailers they wanted I'd put them on in the order listed though. I was very obsessive about pulling trailers with out-of-date info, like no trailers saying "Coming Soon" for movies that were already out, etc.
 
Posted by Kyle McEachern (Member # 2250) on 05-17-2004, 04:02 PM:
 
At the last Century I worked at, we put the trailers on chronologically. We normally ran 4 or 5 trailer on each, plus Fandango and policy trailers. The exception to the chronological rule was the attached trailer - it stayed last. This is a helpful system because if the movie coming out soonest is first, then when it comes out, pulling it is just a matter of removing the leader, taking out the trailer, and putting the leader back on.

Generally, any time a trailer got pulled, another one would replace it, keeping the # of trailers fairly consistent throughout the film's run. As it got older, one or two trailers might stay off, leaving it at 2-3.

At the Century I worked at before that, we would pull the trailers but not bother replacing them with the ones the home office told us to, so if a movie ran for long enough, it'd be down to 1 or 2 trailers, and sometimes the only trailer it played came out on a Friday when we lost the movie on that same Thursday. Not sure what we would have done if it had stayed another week...

I wonder what percentage of those "Oh, it's okay, we've probably only missed 5 minutes" people are the same who come out 5 minutes later asking for the film to be rewound.
 
Posted by Daniel Alt (Member # 2303) on 05-18-2004, 06:02 AM:
 
At the college film society I project for, we generally show two or three at most. The trick is that our trailer supply is very erratic, mostly the result of diving the the "discard" bin at our depot. For more recent films, we have trailers more often than not. For older films.... well, sometimes we get lucky.

This year, out noticable success at "trailer diving" in the jungle that is our trailer closet, was locating an original trailer for "Scarface (1983)".
 
Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 05-18-2004, 01:38 PM:
 
We put In ORder
 
Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 05-19-2004, 12:29 PM:
 
Our policy is simple.

Just a trailer for our next attraction, occasionally a second coming soon, then a snipe with "Our Feature Presentation."

In December we run a 1 minute ad for our gift certificates.

No ads or policy trailers at all. Maximum five minutes of pre-show fluff.

Do any of you folks pull daters from trailers, especially if you are second-run? We do. Sometimes they'll sneak in some audio like "Coming to theaters on May 1st" and I'll edit that out too.
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-19-2004, 02:24 PM:
 
Gary, I pull those dates too. Always wondered if anyone else did. In the analog days, it would result in some pretty choppy sound sometimes, but with DTS now it is usually not even noticable.
 
Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 05-19-2004, 03:39 PM:
 
quote: Mike Blakesley
I hate people who intentionally come to the show late to avoid seeeing the trailers
Mike, when I am in no danger of losing a good seat, I do intentionally come late, especially at the AMCs. I hate their policy swipes with a passion. I feel like strangling that little movie reel guy mascot.

Another thing that pisses me off this last season was that every theater seemed to play the trailers in the same damn order on several screens. I think I saw the Hellboy, Van Helsing, Troy, Man on Fire trailers a million times, while I had to watch the Kill BIll 2 teaser on line because I never saw it in the theater despite watching a movie every week. Even the wretched Angelina Jolie and Ashley Judd spring movie trailers seemed to be played late in the order at almost every R Rated movie this year. It would be nice if they mixed up the order more.
 
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-19-2004, 04:41 PM:
 
When I was in college, I was a D.J. at the college radio station. Back then we actually played RECORDS! We used TURNTABLES and we had to know how to use a FADER! Not this automated network feed crap they do now!

We had to know how to program our music. If you were on in the evening, for instance you'd play a couple of snappy tunes that weren't too fast, then a couple of tunes that were faster until you build up to a peak with a couple songs that really rocked. You'd "bring it down" with a mellow tune and then go to a commercial. (Actually, we played P.S.A.s)

I liked to do the same thing when building up trailer packs:
Let's say the feature is an Action Flick.
Play a trailer for a suspense movie to start. (Moody, suspensful opening.)
Follow with a drama then, maybe, a comedy.
Toss in the obligatory "Chick Flick" to get the cross over audience. (Guys who drag their girlfriends to the movies.)
Finish with another action movie before the policy snipe then into the feature.

You have to think about who's going to be in the audience:
Don't play scarry trailers on kid's movies.
Maybe you WOULD want to play a kid's movie trailer on a movie for adults because they might have kids who would want to see that movie.
Put a "chick flick" on with an action movie or vice versa to catch the boyfriends/girlfriends who get dragged in.

Nowadays, there's no such thing. You have to play the trailers that are on the list that comes from the home office and you have to play them in the order they tell you. Often times, they are so Non Sequitur it's not even funny!

It's the same thing for those stinking automated radio stations where the D.J. only makes a couple of anouncements at the top and bottom of every hour! It's boring. It doesn't flow. Cripes! I could do a better job with my MP3 player set on "shuffle"!

There's no showmanship anymore!
 
Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 05-19-2004, 05:43 PM:
 
Are those fire trailers required in some cities? I know Crown does one before the feature in Minneapolis, but it's not city policy or anything.
Carmike's been noting "All showtimes include prefeature content" in their newspaper ads now too. I've always noticed people groaning when the trailers add up to more than four or five around these parts. I understand the idea of giving people time to spend at the concession stand, too bad you can't reinforce punctuality... there's always new patrons who are unfamilliar with your format.
 
Posted by Daniel Alt (Member # 2303) on 05-20-2004, 05:59 AM:
 
I'm STILL a DJ at the college radio station, despite having graduated a while back. And I do still play vinyl from time to time. (But it's classical, so there's no sets, just back on the mike after every track)

However, since our film society is really struggling to bring in people, we really don't have any choice but to show trailers for the movies we're actually playing. At least until the distributor pulls their usual *%*(! and yanks the movie at the last minute.

Sometimes we just don't get any trailers for said movies for a while, so the ones we do have get flogged to death. The worst was when we showed the "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" trailer for almost a YEAR after it got pulled on us twice.
 
Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 05-20-2004, 09:08 AM:
 
We were told to remove the Alamo trailers from all prints and destroy them, all right around christmas. We never got any new ones, so we opened the film completely on external marketing. Not that it did great with the hockey crowd up here... not that it would've done much better with the trailers most likely.
 
Posted by Ky Boyd (Member # 23) on 05-21-2004, 10:09 PM:
 
I usually specify the order I want the trailers put on for flat films, usually 4 but occasionally I'll agree with Ian and only put on 3. For scope movies we put the scope trailers that are masked to flat on first and then the scope trailers. It makes me crazy to go to a theatre and see a full scope trailer, then one masked to flat, then a full scope, then back to masked to flat. If the feature is in scope and there is anything not in full scope on the program it should be presented first and once a full scope image is presented the image shouldn't get smaller (ie. masked to flat trailers).

Being an arthouse, occasionally there are films where we only get one or two trailers for five screens...grrrrr! So, I move those trailers around so they get exposure on different films each week.

Scott, with regard to the multi-screen arthouse you work at, it wouldn't be a Landmark would it? At a visit to a Landmark location earlier this year, I saw the I'm Not Scared trailer and then another trailer followed by the commercial for the I'm Not Scared contest which included the exact same scenes as in the trailer. If it had been my call, I'd have pulled the trailer figuring that the contest promo also served to promote the movie.
 
Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 05-22-2004, 05:31 AM:
 
good call, ky. once is pushing it with those damn promos. last time i saw a contest promo following the trailer for the same film, it was rightly and roundly booed by the audience.

carl
 




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