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Topic: New Line / Fine Line - destroy prints?

Rich Ferrando
Film Handler

Posts: 64
From: Royal Oak, MI
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 01-08-2005 08:01 PM

One of my non-trustworthy superiors keeps insisting to me that New Line / Fine Line destroys their prints after they are run. This just doesn't make sense to me.

Do they, or is this just hogwash?

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Chris Hipp
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1462
From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas)
Registered: Jul 2003

posted 01-08-2005 08:03 PM

Where would you store all of the prints if they aren't destroyed?

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Chris Trainor
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 161
From: Greenville, RI, USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-08-2005 08:06 PM

Just about everyone destroys/recycles their prints when they are done... why keep a thousand copies of something around sucking up warehouse space. They generally keep a few dozen and that's about it.

--Chris

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Rich Ferrando
Film Handler

Posts: 64
From: Royal Oak, MI
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 01-08-2005 08:07 PM

Point taken- perhaps I should be more specific....

This argument came up because each year we do Midnight movies, and I had suggested a few titles (I forget which) to which she said "We can't get those. They're New Line, and New Line destroys their prints."

So, more specifically, do they only save a very few prints exclusively for their vaults, or do they still allow screenings of the prints that they do keep?

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 01-08-2005 08:14 PM

Yes, there are always at least a handful of prints saved for repertory use. Exceptions to this rule are Lucas stuff (god forbid someone screen an "original" non-digitally enhanced version of Star Wars) and Disney's animated stuff. Even the Lucas/Disney stuff have prints saved, but they are not available for rental. Basically everything else is available.

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Rich Ferrando
Film Handler

Posts: 64
From: Royal Oak, MI
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 01-08-2005 08:21 PM

Thanks, Brad!

This wasn't the first time I got into a New Line/Fine Line argument with this superior "woman." Last time it happened, I was looking through some old boxes in our booth in an effort to clean the place up, and found, stashed among spare reels, a replacement Reel 4 of "The Sweet Hereafter." I said "Shouldn't this go back?" and she said "It's Fine Line, and they destroy their prints, so just throw it away." I didn't listen to her. I stashed the reel with another one I found - Reel 5 of "The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys" - so that I could later call the original distributors and try to spirit the reels back without her knowing.

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Thomas Procyk
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1842
From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 01-08-2005 09:32 PM

We tried to book the extended versions of Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship and Two Towers when we were going to get Return of the King at the sub run. New Line's response was that all "extended version" prints were destroyed after those few special engagements. To me that seemed pretty dumb.

So we tried for the regular, theatrical cuts. But, "As a matter of fact, those have all been destroyed as well."

So either New Line is dumb, or they lied to keep a second run from booking those prints. Either way, they did something bad.

=TMP=

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John Carpenter
Film Handler

Posts: 96
From: Fort Walton Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2002

posted 01-08-2005 09:43 PM

Thomas-

We tried the same thing this past December with both the Extended or Regular versions of Lord of the Rings... we are a first run theater and New Line said the same thing - "there are no prints." I thought it seemed odd too.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-09-2005 12:32 AM

Hmm...the Brattle theatre in Cambridge, MA. and the AMC Fenway 13 in Boston, MA. both showed all three LOTR films recently. Any booker who told you that "there are no prints" probably just didn't want to go to the trouble of booking the films. Prints are definitely available.

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Kurt Zupin
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 989
From: Maricopa, Arizona
Registered: Oct 2004

posted 01-09-2005 12:34 AM

We had several managers and staff travel down to Grand Rapids and watch the extended versions of the first two...and then the mid night of ROTK. I however had the good fortune of working the midnight showing and missing out on the fun.

Kurt

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Peter Mork
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 181
From: Newton, MA, USA
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 01-09-2005 01:57 AM

quote: Rich Ferrando
I was looking through some old boxes in our booth in an effort to clean the place up, and found, stashed among spare reels, a replacement Reel 4 of "The Sweet Hereafter." I said "Shouldn't this go back?" and she said "It's Fine Line, and they destroy their prints, so just throw it away." I didn't listen to her. I stashed the reel with another one I found - Reel 5 of "The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys" - so that I could later call the original distributors and try to spirit the reels back without her knowing.

Big-hearted of you, but I doubt if you do return the reels they'll do anything with them but throw out or recycle them.

At my joint we have several orphan reels and even a few complete prints nobody ever claimed. And no, I'm not going to tell you what they are.

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 01-09-2005 03:20 AM

quote: Rich Ferrando
destroys their prints after they are run

Yep, film depots would be massively overstocked if they kept all of the prints, and polyester film stock is recycable.

Why you don't see any IB, dye transfer prints. It's easier,cheaper and faster to use the Eastman contact printing process.

Once again, the "supply and demand" syndrome is upon us.

Yet, I've heard that "Hollyrock" is planning on going back to the old ways of lesser print runs. This allows the hot releases to opening up in huge marketed venues. This gets the money back to the film companies much quicker. Then, these films are then released in the smaller venues to continue and finish out the release run.

-Monte

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Tao Yue
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 209
From: Princeton, NJ
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 01-09-2005 04:08 AM

Monte L. Fullmer wrote:

quote: Monte L Fullmer
Why you don't see any IB, dye transfer prints. It's easier,cheaper and faster to use the Eastman contact printing process.

It's been asserted on this board back around the 2000-2001 IBTech mini-revival that the current IBTech process no. 6 is cheaper than Eastmancolor for today's large print runs. I don't remember seeing any actual numbers then. There were other problems: the shedding on the early Gone with the Wind prints; three times as many dust speckles, primary colors often more visible than white negative or black positive dust from Eastmancolor; can never be as sharp as Eastmancolor due to registration tolerances; the lead time required to make matrices then strike the prints, hard to swallow in today's frenzied release schedule. As John Pytlak is fond of pointing out every once in a while, VISION Premier gets darn close to Technicolor without all of those headaches.

On a different subject, FTR the Brattle showed the regular versions of the LotR films.

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Darryl Spicer
Film God

Posts: 3250
From: Lexington, KY, USA
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 01-09-2005 11:48 AM

I am not totaly sure about this but is it possable that any prints that are saved that are New Line go through the Warner Bros. Vault. Are they still owned by Time/Warner.

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Barry Martin
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 203
From: Newington, CT USA
Registered: Jul 2002

posted 01-09-2005 07:28 PM

When I contacted all the distributors about repertory titles I got 2 no answers. First was Buena Vista which told me they don't keep ANYTHING anymore as it became too much of a hassle for them and people wanting things all the time (strange, I would think with the prints already paid for by the first run it would be nice to get that 99% profit sub-run rental on as many prints as possible) and the second was New Line. New Line was a little more specific, telling that Criterion handles their repertory but that it would only be available on disc, not film. This turned out to be untrue when I spoke to Criterion, they have both DVD and film versions of many New Line titles available. After I go to the office tomorrow I will try and get the contact information I had for them.

My favorites to deal with for repertory are Paramount and Sony, they are willing to really work with you and have extensive lists some of which goes back really far (30s and 40s even). [thumbsup]

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