Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Technicolor Promotional Material Distribution: Opinions?

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Posted by Michael McGovern (Member # 4807) on 05-30-2008, 12:31 AM:

Just an informal question here, has anyone attempted to order one sheets or trailers from Technicolor lately and noticed that they have become much stricter and stingy with their allocation? I remember for the longest time, they would be the easiest company to deal with, I could just call them up and they would send me whatever I needed in whatever quantity I needed it. Lately however it seems like they've tightened up immensely. God forbid you damaged or misplaced the two or three posters for a particular film that they sent you five months prior to it's release, now their operators look up in their computer exactly when items were sent, and will give you an argument if you need anything additional. Technicolor's website is also terrible, very rarely do any orders I attempt to place through there get processed successfully. FOX is really bad too regarding one sheets, they always want to give me a song and a dance if I need to order one sheets.

It's really unfortunate that the handful of disreputable managers that order excessively in order to sell privately have made it much more difficult for those of us that legitimately want these items to promote their movies. Things happen, some theatres have outdoor cases where posters get easily damaged, others have cases that are poorly protected and allow for them to be stolen. Sometime UPS or DHL delivers items to the wrong location, or loses them, some theaters have employees or managers with grabby hands, etc. etc. etc. Does anyone else have these problems lately with dealing with exhibitors?

Also, on a similar note, does anyone know why is seems that distributors have curtailed on Standee production over the last few years? I remember when I first started out almost six years ago, we would get multiple standees every week, more then we could keep up building, really nice ones too. Now it seems that most of the distributors have stopped producing them altogether, or are sticking strictly to the big board standees which aren't very exciting at all. I assume it's probably a cost issue where it was decided that it was cheaper to produce the large standees in limited quantities and only distribute them to the busiest theaters in the country like FOX did last year with the Simpsons / Fantastic 4 standee or Sony this year with the Zohan Barber Chair, but it's really a shame.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 05-30-2008, 01:04 AM:

I agree with you about it being unfair that the bigger theatres get all the goodies and those of us in smaller markets are stuck with the scraps. I've given up on standees because most of them are too tall for my theatre - the wind up taking space in our lobby which wasn't really designed for displaying standees. The thing that I got very frustrated with was the lack of availability of banners.

About 6 months ago I started order bus shelters and I just put them up in the hallway. They are actually the perfect size and I haven't had any trouble getting them - in fact, Paramount and Sony have me on an auto ship list.

One thing you really should be doing is keeping in touch with your exhibitor relations people. If there is something specific you're looking for - a standee for Hellboy or buttons for Wall-E - it will be easier to get the stuff if they hear from you on a regular basis.

As far as Technicolor's web site goes, I haven't rally had any problems getting what I need. I just think the site sucks - although it's marginally better than what they had a year ago.

One of my biggest gripes is rated one-sheets. It's all but impossible to get them from some of the studios. When I can't get one, I always send an email to my exhibitor relations person and if they tell me they aren't available, my company forwards that on to the MPAA.

Speaking of rated one-sheets, we received the rated one-sheets for The Happening today and I was interested to see the R is a big red letter while the rest of the rating block is just the normal white.

Posted by Jaime Tuzzio (Member # 4760) on 05-30-2008, 06:06 AM:

quote: Justin Hamaker
Speaking of rated one-sheets, we received the rated one-sheets for The Happening today and I was interested to see the R is a big red letter while the rest of the rating block is just the normal white.

I have to admit I just became a lot more interested in that movie.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-30-2008, 09:41 AM:

I've not had any particular problem getting one-sheets, but trailers are another story. TES almost never has the trailers I order. Luckily we play enough on-the-break movies that we get most of the trailers we need that way.

I agree that Standees are harder to get. I haven't had a Disney standee in who-knows how long. Banners are slightly less of a problem, but not much less.

I blame the high gas prices. (I blame that for everything.)