Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 35mm theatre "vanity tag" sourcing

This is topic 35mm theatre "vanity tag" sourcing in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 08-12-2009, 10:05 AM:

Who here deals with creating vanity tags for their theatre? You know the type, "Blah Blah Theatre now presents our feature presentation"-type tag.

We'll be producing the tags in-house, including 6-track audio, with a stereo mixdown for the optical track. Production is digital at 2k resolution, which will then be written to 35mm negative, for later print production.

Fotokem seems to have a pretty good setup for us, as they can handle the laydown of DTS timecode. DTS will issue the serial number and handle the encoding of the 6-track. Fotokem then uses the serial number to generate the timecode for printing.

Fotokem will also store the original negative for a year, and can arrange long-term storage if needed.

Has anyone else done something similar? Any pointers?

Note that I do NOT want to run a digital tag (MPEG2, H.264, etc.) prior to a film presentation. I'll do that for digital product (indie DVD, etc.), but not for film.

-David

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-12-2009, 10:24 AM:

Tim Reed's company (Screen Attractions) has done this for a number of drive-ins. I've seen his work and can recommend it highly.

If you are doing the production work yourself, you will need someone to shoot the picture and soundtrack negatives, as well as a lab to produce the prints. You will probably run into lab minimum charges unless you have at least a few minutes' worth of material.

You might try calling Jack Rizzo at Metropolis Film Lab in NYC. I've spoken with him about doing a 16mm->35mm blowup of a short film that I'm working on myself, but he can also do tape and digital files to film. His blowups and filmouts show up pretty regularly on the art-house circuit and I have been impressed by the quality of his work.

Also, try Trackwise in NYC for the soundtrack negative. I don't know if they do SRD or DTS, but they seemed to be helpful and knowledgeable and didn't have a minimum footage charge when I last checked with them.

Another option would be Alpha Cine in Seattle, but they seem to be on the expensive side.

I don't know about Foto-Kem, but the larger labs generally seem to be less cost-effective for these small jobs.

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 08-12-2009, 10:46 AM:

Cool, thanks for the info.

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 08-12-2009, 02:42 PM:

David,

Derek Maxwell of Drive-InFilm.com might be able to give you some clues on that, also. He's out in Newark.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 08-12-2009, 05:22 PM:

David,

If you get this off the ground I'd be interested in getting some tags made. You can email me off-site if you like.

John.

Posted by Ron Curran (Member # 3631) on 08-12-2009, 06:32 PM:

I'd like a simple silent piece of film to attach to the end of those films that have a scene after the credits. Unfortunately, the producers think no one has curtains an I hate closing on a blank screen.

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 08-12-2009, 06:54 PM:

You might also try www.filmack.com. They have been doing that since 1919 and just recently purchased the Pike Productions stock of really great policy trailers, etc.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-12-2009, 09:17 PM:

Filmack needs to make some NEW stuff. They're still selling the same cheesy daters they were in the '70s. Or maybe the market for that kind of thing is severely limited....I know we haven't used any of those in a long time.

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 08-14-2009, 03:42 AM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
Filmack needs to make some NEW stuff. They're still selling the same cheesy daters they were in the '70s. Or maybe the market for that kind of thing is severely limited....I know we haven't used any of those in a long time.

Filmack now has the Pike Productions library Mike. While Pike did not make daters what they did make (policy trailers, coming attractions, Our Feature Presentation, etc.) is really classy stuff.

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 08-15-2009, 03:38 PM:

I've got the basic info, as well as some specifics from Datasat/DTS.

Here are the basics:

For DD you will need to have Dolby, or your mixing house, produce the MOD which is then handed off to the lab for creation of the soundtrack negative.

For DTS, once the mix is complete you send your mixed tracks to DTS. They will assign a unique serial number, encode the audio, and return a CD of the encoded material. You can actually have the soundtrack negative created as soon as you have a serial number. You send this to the lab and they will create the time-code track and burn it to the soundtrack negative.

I will definitely be doing a vanity tag with DTS, so I'll post more as I get into the process.

Posted by Mike Croaro (Member # 3123) on 08-15-2009, 05:05 PM:

Hi Folks:

Back in the early 90's the theatre I worked at used the Pike "Now Playing", "Coming Soon" etc trailers. They were silent with red films bands framing in the wording. I was quite happy with them.

We also used the "Ultra Daters" with the blue stars and trumpet fanfare. I liked these the best.

I also purchased some from Filmack. I never used them. They were so cheesy and crappy looking/sounding that they were more of a joke than anything.

Mike

Posted by Keith Peticolas (Member # 971) on 08-16-2009, 08:02 PM:

Howdy, all. We too use the Pike trailers and they have worked out decently. Nice generic tags for use small guys.
My only complaint is that Filmack now uses scotchguard on them. Some of the trailers I receieved from them last spring were treated with this stuff. I do give them credit for labeling the ones treated as such and blacking out the ones that didn't. Nice.
I ran the treated ones through a dry kelmar a few times and then hit them with the Filmguard treated pads and they run fine. Pike/Filmack make a nice product and are fairly easy on the budget.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 08-17-2009, 09:04 PM:

quote: Keith Peticolas
I ran the treated ones through a dry kelmar a few times and then hit them with the Filmguard treated pads and they run fine.

Why run them through dry kelmar pads? Why not just go straight to the Filmguarded pads?

Posted by Keith Peticolas (Member # 971) on 08-18-2009, 04:29 AM:

The first time I ran the new set of Pikes with the scotchguard on them, I did run it with a new pad wet with Filmguard. The Filmguard beaded up and never quite set right. Compared with rest of trailers and movies attached to this set they never cleared up. After I ran this one and the rest of the treated Pikes through dry webs, they took to the Filmguard and to this day look brand new.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 08-18-2009, 04:18 PM:

Sorry Keith, I misread. I didn't see the 'treated' in your original post.