Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Building a cardboard standee

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Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 01-29-2004, 02:36 PM:

We just received a monstrous cardboard standee for "Big Fish" and somehow I got talked into helping build it.

A disaster at best, nothing lined up, quality control non-existent. It was not made to go together! Even the "screen" sign part didn't line up, the words not matching form one side to the other. It says "Tim BurBurton" across the top LOL.

How did you other folks deal with it, and others like it? If it was up to me it would've ended up in my fireplace. It still might.

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 01-29-2004, 02:37 PM:

Be creative. [Big Grin]

We had to take a whole middle section out of one because there was no ceiling in our lobby high enough for the standee! [Roll Eyes]

It actually came out looking - normal!

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 01-29-2004, 02:53 PM:

We were creative all right! If we weren't it would be in the dumpster. We punched most of the screw holes ourselves just so it would look like something when done. All in all it looks okay but the instructions were pretty much useless, except for helping us to ID the parts. The dark corner we have it in helps too...

Posted by William Leland III (Member # 1400) on 01-29-2004, 04:38 PM:

funny this topic was posted. today we got a display for "Coral Reef", it came in a monster 2 crates. one was about 8' wide and 4' high the other was not quite as big. they came huge wood crates screwed and stapled and glue together. we had to break down the crate since we will be shipping it to other theatre. the display we got came from and OMNIMAX in orgeon national muesuem.

the display has a DVD player, stero unit and a tv screen also 2 towers with water in them and bubbles bubbling and a fan blowing some orange things out of the top. very nice equiment, but the directions didn't help and one section the bottom board wouldn't line up the screws. it took us from 10am until about 3pm to finally have it working and including breaking down the crates, they wouldn't fit in the doors.

i give it a few weeks before some kid ruins it or somehow knocks it down and crushes him,

Posted by Andy Muirhead (Member # 712) on 01-29-2004, 06:49 PM:

Having built many standees over the years, I came to the conclusion many years ago that the guys that design these are high on crack. Seriously. They are so bizarrely designed. I have an image of a bunch of guys sitting around a computer getting wasted and giggling while they plot just how difficult to make the fucker up.

I'm semi retired from the standee making business now. Burnt out!

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 01-30-2004, 06:22 PM:

I built the standee for "Cheaper By The Dozen" outside in the breezeway of our concessions stand one last last fall. Took me several hours... and I still had a bag of screws and wingnuts leftover.

Worse part was.... we ended up closing for the season before we were able to show the film. Ended up throwing the thing away.

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 01-30-2004, 08:58 PM:

My favorite standee was the Red Dragon standee with hannibal in it [Smile]

Yeah baby..

Now the worst standee...Daredevil...I helped an usher put it togehter for 3 hours. He started 3 hours before that. It was hillarious because he'd assembled one of the two d's half backwards...funny thing is the instructions said that it went that way...

Posted by Jesse August (Member # 1798) on 01-30-2004, 09:13 PM:

William
We had that Coral Reef display last year. It took me and 3 other staff members about 3 hours to set it up, and it still never went up right (could never remove the wooden support just under the fake coral in the middle) what a pain in the ass. After a week the interactive part of the display stopped working and the music started driving the floor staff mad. It was set up for two months and I was happy to see it leave.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 01-30-2004, 11:11 PM:

You think you've been through the wringer... wait'll you do "I-ROBOT"! (hint from my daughter, the Manager)> follow the directions BACKWARDS, and you'll have a better chance of getting it right!

We recently took our (42 foot) Peter Pan standee down. The cutout of Peter is attached to a long piece of plexiglass, making it stand out about a foot from the rest of the standee. When we took it apart, I thought about sticking Peter out one of the projection ports. Never did it, but still considering it! [Big Grin]

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 01-30-2004, 11:20 PM:

I saw the Big Fish standee today in Oak Harbor. My first thought was "Who is gonna haul that thing to the dump??"

Posted by Gracia L. Babbidge (Member # 582) on 01-31-2004, 01:10 AM:

Dominic - the 'destructions' that came with the DareDevil standee were total crap! [Mad]

I fought with that sucker for longer than I should have, but got it together. Whereas no-one else that took a crack at it made any kind of headway.

Anyone who tried to follow the instructions to the letter to put that one together, would not be able to. Most aggravating.

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 01-31-2004, 11:25 AM:

WORD!

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 01-31-2004, 12:40 PM:

What you all fail to realize it that the instructions are simply a test of your nerve(s). ANyone who has built standees long enough can look at the components of a standee and pretty much determine what goes where and how it fits together.

I think Jack mentioned the 'I-Robot" standee. I found that it was interesting to sya the least. I think the 'dimentionalized' look upon completion was way cool. I think that we have close to 15 standees in our lobby/hallways right now.

I will agree that the designers are often VERY creative...

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-31-2004, 01:39 PM:

Anyone remember the old Steve Martin movie "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid?"

We had a standee for that, and it featured a lifesize cutout of Martin pointing a pistol. After we played the movie, I thought the cutout was cool, so I took it upstairs and set it next to the projector facing the booth door.

Fast forward a few weeks....when I went home one night, I accidentally left the front door of the theatre unlocked. A few hours later I got a call from the police station asking me to come down and lock up.

I was met by an irate cop who told me he had gone into the building to check things out, and when he walked into the booth (in which a night light was on) and saw Steve Martin pointing a gun at him, he had almost shot a hole in the side of the lamphouse!

So I moved Steve to the storage room.

Posted by Travis Hubrig (Member # 1745) on 01-31-2004, 05:26 PM:

That's funny Mike,

Our mall security staff is made up of off duty officers.
They sometimes take old cardboard standees and posters with people on them. They use them at their target range for a fun change from the standard silouette.

Posted by Robert D. LaValley (Member # 1867) on 01-31-2004, 05:33 PM:

I had a team of ushers building the X2 standee awhile back. It was quite humorous becuase they were all underneath the base of it putting screws wherever they go and it looked like a scene from the wizard of oz.
The other thing some ushers of the past used to do with standees is have WWF matches on them when they were trying to break them down to get them in the dumpster.. I was told one usher drove his car through the treasure planet one.
Gotta love the war stories!
*laughs*

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 01-31-2004, 07:29 PM:

Heyyy... great idea...

Cardboard figurines as .40cal 9mm and paintball targets...

I think I'll have to slavage a few for strategic placement in our woods course.... [Smile]

And the Master & Commander would have been a doozey to drive thru... so would Cat in the Hat...

Posted by Tim Turner (Member # 1109) on 01-31-2004, 11:22 PM:

The hardest standee I ever built was The Perfect Storm. I couldnt figure that out for nothing! It was huge and the instructions didn't make any sense nor did the pictures look like any of the parts I had.

But the Coolest and most fun to build was The Familiy Man. It was very fancy looking. Everyone thought I must of had a hard time building it, but not really it just took a long time.

As for Big Fish I think the top cap portion of that was the most difficult. If the Standee did say Tim BurBurton. it sounds like you didn't fold in the edge before you screwed the two side panels together (?)

I've gotten about 100 paper cuts building these things! And I got scars to prove it.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 01-31-2004, 11:52 PM:

I will admit that the I-Robot standee was the most diffcult that I have ever seen. The instruction was something like 12 pages and there is something like 34 steps. [Mad]

Posted by Dino Panagiotopoulos (Member # 1579) on 02-01-2004, 02:10 AM:

I've seen ushers build some standees but theres two that stick out in my mind. The X2 standee was quite a job from what the guys told me. They built the X and needed about 4-5 guys to attach it to the base which wasnt a walk in the park. The second standee was the "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron", which was about 2-3 standees attached together. From what I was told, not an easy task either. The most recent pain in the #(*$# of a standee is the Shrek 2 which is inflatable (kudos to the genius that came up with that idea). Within the day that we put it up, there was a hole put in it and had to be taken out of commission. We received a new one and within a few days, another hole but not as bad. Now the ushers have to inflate it every morning as it keeps losing air because of the wonderful angel kids that have to play with it as they are walking by.

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 02-01-2004, 11:00 AM:

Dino,

You must have some bad apples up your way. Shrek 2 has been blwon up in my lobby for nearly 3 months and aside from the occasional 'touchy feely' kid wanting to punch on it, no problems.

As for your daily leak, have you not heard of a patch? A waterbed patch would work just fine, as would a piece of duct tape painted/colored green. [Big Grin]

Posted by Dino Panagiotopoulos (Member # 1579) on 02-01-2004, 11:26 AM:

Jason,

A patch would work great and help the problem alot. The only problem would be finding where the hole is. Most likely they are little pin prick sized holes because the standee doesnt lose THAT much air. Just a little bit to make it start tilting over.

As for having bad apples, we are a 12 screen in a mall with an inside and outside entrance. Our mall is the biggest mall in the area and very nice and clean but on Fridays and Saturdays is a haven for young litle gangster punks that hang out there all day. As soon as the mall closes, they all start converging on our theater as we are open later. Makes for one heck of a night trying to get all these kids out of the theater and away from causing trouble. Im sure Rick Long or others who have been there can back that up. So to sum it all up, Im surprised we havent gone through 10 of them so far.

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 02-01-2004, 11:43 AM:

Dino,

Gotcha. As for your kids problem, the quickest method to eliminate these miscreants from hanging out on your property is to hire a security detail. I have off duty County Police officers here every Fri/Sat night & I'm not even in a mall but close to it.. I'm here

Last night we had an OVER ABUNDANCE of kids in here for the 9xx show of 'You Got Served'. Prior to the show starting, the Officer and two of my shift leaders fanned thru the lobby asking for tickets. Those with tickets to shows already started were asked to go in their respective shows or leave. Those with no ticket or a ticket from the 7pm shows were simply told to leave the building.

Of course, this comes at an extra cost to the company, but what has to be done has to be done. Let kids get over on you and teh word gets out and the situation will only escalate. Let them see that you take control and the word also gets out. I've had my Officers arrest 3 people since we've been using them. They have escorted many more than that out the doors.

You will have, as others have pointed out in prior threads, adults who may feel uneasy about the fact that Police officers are at the theatre on the weekend. What they don't realize is that they are often able to view their films in peace and quiet due, in part, to these very officers. Visibilty alone serves as a deterrent, or at least in my experiences.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 02-01-2004, 12:12 PM:

Worst one I built was "Gone in 60 Seconds"... actually, that's the last standee I remember building. It took me three hours to get half of it done. None of the pieces were labled except on the instructions, and they were all the same but had the artwork in different orientations. Oops! I built the wrong side...

By the end of the night, it was done. Perfect. I don't know how I did it! Looked awesome... Weekend passes... Cardboard cutouts were gone and someone put their foot through it! [Mad]

Just not worth it...

Did anyone ever have people deliver AND assemble the standees? One place I worked at had this done with all Sony stuff. They'd come in, bring it and set it up in less than 45 minutes!

=TMP=

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 02-01-2004, 12:58 PM:

Building them is not really the problem. Getting rid of the damn things are. They take up too much room in the trash. Nothing like trying to dump 10 pounds of trash in a 5 pound bag.

Posted by Liam Utley (Member # 1931) on 02-01-2004, 04:19 PM:

The most time consuming standee i remember building was "MIB 2" I made 2 of these, and each one took a couple of hours each.

Posted by Linda Welch (Member # 2088) on 02-09-2004, 10:53 PM:

For some reason, one of the standees that sticks out in my mind the most, was the 3 hours I spent building the standee for Armageddon. As if setting the countdown timer months in advance wasn't bad enough, there were other lights and all in all, I remember it being a most traumatic experience. Of course, maybe that was just because my managers at the time had me assembling it in the middle of the lobby, during operating hours, and we all know that "HELPFUL" customers are always there when we're already dealing with troublesome issues (be it unintelligible standee instructions or something worse)

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 02-10-2004, 02:26 PM:

Back to the last page and Mike's "Steve Martin With A Gun" standee...

In the big Paramount Theater in Asbury Park there are a series of tunnels under the place. Dressing rooms, utilities, access to the old ice "room" under the auditorium. Someone took a standee of Jack Lemmon from the "Odd Couple" movie and placed it down there so you wouldn't see it as you entered the tunnels (we used to explore that old place after the show). But when you came back out, and rounded that corner, and shined your flashlight on ol' Jack standing there...

We left it there, naturally. Still down there as far as I know, scaring the victims who find it.