Okay, on Wednesday we're doing an advance screening of The Beach. It didn't come with any trailers, so I went ahead and made it up onto the platter, with nothing but mylar before reel 1. The district supervisor called and said there's 3 trailers that have to run on the print for the screening. So the trailers have been ordered, but here's my dilemma:

How can I add the trailers to the print without running the whole thing through? Normally I'd just put them on the takeup platter and then run the movie for myself, but a group of moronic employees smoking pot in a staff screening ensured that nobody's allowed to do after hours screenings anymore.

I've done this with smaller corporates by just unwinding them by hand into the middle of the reel, but how can I do it with 3 full length movie trailers?

If there's no way, the manager is going to have to go in early Wednesday afternoon and do it herself (run the movie through, etc), but frankly it scares me to have anyone but me mess with the prints -- too many mishaps...

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Secondly I have had this same problem before. Build the previews up on the other empty platter. Run them through then shut off the projector and quickly run through the movie itself without the mylar of course, then do a quick splice and you are on your way.

I was able to do this rather easily and there was only a 45 second drop. the customers barely noticed that the feature had not yet started and then there it was.

You have to be able to thread up in about 20 seconds and splice in ten or it wont work.

I think Dave's idea is much better: Make up the desired trailers and run them to check. Then, pull some extra slack and splice the end of the trailers onto the beginning of the feature. No one will see the trailers on the first show, but this method is fairly easy. Don't rush though: That's how mistakes happen.

I made a platter takeup ring that is about 1/2" smaller then the ones that came with the platter. I can make up a trailer "core" on that, and fit it inthe center. It just clears the swinging feed arm.

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Get a trailer, drop ring from Goldberg Bros in Denver for about $75.00 and you will be farting through silk. All the mega-plexes use them as they usualy have to change all the trailers on the films Thursday night. We used to do it in one show rotation.

Johanna, you didn't say what kind of platter you have. I'm going to assume it's not a Christie (meaning it will be more difficult), so here's the deal:

Remove the center ring and your mylar leader from the center of the film roll. Take that mylar leader and use it to make up your leader, trailer 1, trailer 2 and trailer 3 on a reel. Load that reel of leader and three trailers onto a center ring like you normally would to run a feature. Now remove that center ring and take that loop of film and set it temporarily on the outer edge of the print. Put your splicer on the edge of the platter and make your splice (don't punch down on the platter when you do this). Now simply rotate that loop of film counterclockwise as needed to remove the slack from where you made your splice and set it into the center of the roll. It will be too big, so you will end up with a bulge of film inward toward the brain. Not to worry, it will run perfectly and it will not scratch.

If you can tell me what kind of platters you have, I can give you a more detailed explanation.

1. You could make up your trailors and throw them on the floor, spicing the end of the to the beginning of the show and just play them off the floor. (if you are really concerned about the dirt lay down some paper or plastic bags or something).

We've got two kinds of platters, and I could do it on either one -- They're both Strong, but one has the removable brains, and the other doesn't -- it's the older one with the interchangeable (to use the term loosely) 70MM attachments and the switches on the side (off, make up, rewind, payout).

Frankly, the idea of running trailers off the floor or shutting down to do a splice scares me. I'm thinking speedwinding will have to be the way to go. But I'm sooooo going to look into making myself a little tiny ring. There's even an old one in the booth we aren't using because it doesn't have a spring. Too perfect.

I have to admit I'm kind of intrigued by the idea of making up the trailers onto a ring, taking it out, then setting them on top of the print to run it. But would the film feeding out of the brain clear two levels of film?

You know, I guess I could just break the damn thing down onto 2 reels, make up the trailers, then put the movie back on. I was hoping not to, though. And the trailers absolutely MUST be seen, we're only doing one promo screening, and there's a fox rep coming...

Do not actually sit the new roll of trailers "on top" of the print. A Strong platter cannot handle that height. They MUST be forced down flush with the rest of the print, hence the bulge you will have inward toward the brain.

Speco's can also do the job.

I have 5 or 6 different sections of junk film (old ads etc.) about 5 or 6 mins in duration. When putting a print on the plate, this film always goes first and is attached with masking tape to the leader of the feature and then on goes the feature just in case there's something that needs to go on the head.

This happens pretty much every week here as prints come in and are built up Monday or Tuesday for a Thursday start and ads are changed Thursday morning so you need that junk in there to have some space to throw in the ads and trailers.

For those films already screening, the small ring helps enormously. Just don't forget to be there at the start up to assist the plate (especially with a speco) to save unnecessary rubbing / scratching on the print.

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