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Author Topic: Bollywood question Fred Tucker Film Handler Posts: 90 From: Sugar Land, TX Registered: Sep 2007 posted 03-22-2008 01:01 AM                     My theater has recently started playing bollywood films. I've been placed under the impression instead of wasting time tearing it down, that I should just trash them when finished playing because it will never be picked up. Ofcourse, I realize I should ask the booker but I cant get a straight answer from him. I just hate spending the time to tear down a movie back onto cores if I dont have too.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 03-22-2008 01:11 AM                     Did you not notice the condition of that Bollywood print? Prints don't get to that sort of pathetic condition without many, many plays and much handling by different people. (Either that or it played once at the Princess II.) Trust me, someone will be back to pick that print up so they can circuit it to another theater. Bollywood doesn't care about quality. Sometimes I think they only make 3 prints of each movie. I have yet to see one in half-assed acceptable condition.  |  IP: Logged Fred Tucker Film Handler Posts: 90 From: Sugar Land, TX Registered: Sep 2007 posted 03-22-2008 01:43 AM                     man-o-man, guess you should see the prints I have then. I have a total of 5 films right now all were brand spanking new. I was actually ivery impressed with how clean the films were compared to Technicolor & Deluxe.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 03-22-2008 02:30 AM                     Fred, Yes when you get lucky and get a brand-new one you get something better than the labs over here. On the other hand, if you get one that has been played elsewhere you're screwed; especially with the cores getting wound too loose (presumably by a place that doesn't have the right equipment for running onto cores).  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 03-22-2008 07:07 AM                     An average print run is 100 - 150 copies and they get run to death through a series of cinemas rated A/B/C/D....from first class to last class. The lab work is generally very good to excellent.  |  IP: Logged Justin Gorka Expert Film Handler Posts: 174 From: High Wycombe, England Registered: Apr 2006 posted 03-22-2008 07:16 AM                     All our bolly's come in excellent condition. We do have problems getting them to pick them up though. We threaten to charge them storage fees. That usually works. Just out of curiosity what do they make their prints from? Why are they so spongy?  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-22-2008 09:03 AM                        quote: Brad Miller Did you not notice the condition of that Bollywood print? Prints don't get to that sort of pathetic condition without many, many plays and much handling by different people. It's been about 25 years since I worked a Bollywood house (Takoma Theatre in DC). Sad to know nothing has changed.  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 03-22-2008 10:15 AM                     I guess I've been lucky. The occasional Bollywood films I've had to deal with have usually been new prints, fresh from the lab. I'm always amused by the variety of shipping cases they come in. Here's a couple of exmaples: Many of them come in these burlap covered cardboard boxes. The first time I saw one of these I thought we were getting giant shipments of hash or something: The last one I got came in this metal can-coffin: All 7 reels were in here case. Technically, back when I was in the union I wouldn't have been allowed to lift this case. Now I'm too old to lift it! hahahhahaha I have yet to receive a Bollywood film on any type of reel. They've always been on cores. All of my Bollywood films have been picked up. Sometimes they sat around for months before we got instructions on where to ship them, but they all eventually went somewhere. I think it's sort of a cheap way for the distributer to avoid paying for vault storage fees. Just keep the print at the theater where it was last run and then have them ship it to the next venue when it gets booked again. Clever!  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-22-2008 10:41 AM                        I've never seen a Bollywood film in any condition even remotely resembling "new." I envy those who have. The best ones come on cores, but without the cores, and the film slides around and cinches badly inside beat-up lab cans.  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 03-22-2008 11:45 AM                     The burlap works well since the inside wrapping has a water resistant layer. I can quickly spot Indian products in our storehouse by the Burlap We have a Bollywood feature being made in Miami over the next few weeks; using Miami Beach and downtown Miami.....small world  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 03-22-2008 02:02 PM                     All the Bollywood films we get are with the exception of frequently missing heads and or tails in very good condition. The Indian merchant who presents the films does so primarily as a service and a payback to the Indian community for their loyalty to his business. He doesn't play anything that is more than 2 weeks out from initial release date. None are ever on reels as would be expected on films from outside the States and Canada. The ones that arrive without cores are what really pisses me off since when they run the last time we take up on cores in split reels and if the print arrived without cores we have to push our cores out, if we didn't we'd need 200 cores a year and we are not going to be the distributors core resupplier  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-22-2008 02:53 PM                     Buy 200 cores a year and bill the guy renting your theatre. They're not that expensive new, and they even show up ebay with some frequency. Knocking out cores is Film Done Wrong. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Peter Das Film Handler Posts: 50 From: India Registered: Feb 2008 posted 03-22-2008 08:43 PM                     Hi If anybody wants to get ridoff Bollywood movies, let me know. I will pay all the shipping and handling charges to ship to me. if it is in USA, ship to USA location and if it is in Canada, ship to Canada location. email me at PAY ATTENTION TO THE RULES PETER [ 03-22-2008, 09:44 PM: Message edited by: Brad Miller ]  |  IP: Logged Jon Miller Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 973 From: San Diego, CA, USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 03-22-2008 09:38 PM                     quote: Jim Cassedy The last one I got came in this metal can-coffin: I recognize that shipping box...was it Vanaja, by chance? We received two of those boxes for the San Diego Asian Film Festival last fall...at first I thought Vanaja was a very long film but, as it turns out, there were two prints: one for the festival, and one to go to a local art house for a longer run. I don't recall having problems with the print; the boxes, although heavy as heck, were pretty bombproof compared to the battered, mummified-in-shipping-tape cardboard boxes prints from abroad typically come in.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 03-22-2008 11:05 PM                     We asked the guy who rents the theatre about replacing the missing cores, he said he doesn't give a shit, that for what he pays the distributor (around $2500 to $3000) he's not going to give them anything.  |  IP: Logged

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