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Author Topic: Here we go: Technicolor hiking 35mm film pickup/delivery rates Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-21-2012 06:44 PM                        The notion that it's going to get more and more expensive for film operators to keep using film is beginning to happen. Technicolor just sent out a notice saying they're raising their film delivery rates by $1.89 per shipment, but not changing the digital delivery rates. Granted it's not a huge increase especially given the price of gas and diesel. But I'll bet it's just the beginning.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 05-21-2012 07:29 PM                        I wonder what makes it cost more to deliver film but cost remain stagnant for digital. Shipping prices are shipping prices. I get the whole "bulk" thing, but even that doesn't make sense because prices are remaining the same for digital and it doesn't matter to the shipping company what's inside those cases. How does it cost them more to ship or receive a film now than it did a few months ago? Maybe it is a shipping insurance thing? Not that I'm complaining or care about the price increase, I'm just wondering.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 05-21-2012 08:01 PM                        Many freight companies have a minimum charge plus an overweight charge. For example, the first ten pounds (or less) costs $x, plus $y per pound over that. Using that system, a single hard drive in a case costs the minimum charge; film cans will cost more. If, for the sake of argument, the minimum charge is raised by $1 and the overage is raised by fifty cents per pound, then a hard drive now costs $1 more to ship since it's still below the minimum; an 80 pound film will cost $36 more.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-21-2012 10:36 PM                        Film is heavier and takes up more space, and they don't have the volume of film anymore that they once had, so that's probably why the increase for film and not digital. Currently TES charges something like $40.25 for a digital print. Deluxe is around $39.95. When we were using film, the incoming freight was billed to the theatre and the outgoing freight was paid directly by the theatre....is film shipping still handled that way or do they use pickup tags like they do with digital prints?  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 05-21-2012 11:03 PM                        Duh, I know film is heavier. That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking why film costs more to ship now then film cost to ship before. Why does 50 pounds suddenly cost more than it cost to ship 50 pounds a week ago? As for "the volume of film" what does it matter what they are shipping? Technicolor still ships shitloads of stuff, right? So they should get the bulk discount. Maybe they moved to the world's worst shipping service; UPS.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-22-2012 12:04 PM                        I have no idea HOW they figure out this shit, but I'm sure there is some sort of "threshold" of volume that they no longer meet for the film boxes, so the rate for them went up. Also, UPS and FedEx raise their rates every year like clockwork across the board, but TES hasn't raised theirs that often. It's probably because they have contracts that are just now being renewed, or something like that. UPS and FedEx base their rates on a lot more than just weight. Which is a good thing, because if they went strictly by their book rates we'd all be paying about triple for incoming film AND digital shipments. I'm not sure how film is shipped anymore, but all of our digital prints from TES come on Fed Ex, and Deluxe comes on UPS. All of our outgoing prints go by UPS.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-22-2012 01:37 PM                        quote: Mike Blakesley Currently TES charges something like $40.25 for a digital print. Deluxe is around $39.95. You're paying almost twice for a digital print as we pay for 35mm. What were you paying for 35mm?  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 05-22-2012 01:56 PM                     8 lbs ground via UPS doesn't cost that much. Oh wait, these are air deliveries for the digital cases, there ya go. Interesting that FedEX delivers TECH cases, which are shipped via air to the locations, but you send the cases back via UPS ground. DeLuxe is UPS both ways.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-22-2012 02:33 PM                        The Technicolor price list that I saw in April had the same price listed for pickup/delivery of a hard disk as for a print; it was something like $25 each way, if I remember correctly. If anything, the DLP theatres are the ones who are getting screwed over here. The latest stupidity that I have seen with TES is shipping Blu-rays in huge orange Pelican cases. Wouldn't it make more sense to send them by regular mail in little Netflix-like envelopes and just tell the theatre to throw them away after the screening than to ship them via UPS in giant plastic cases that need to be returned? Why should a theatre have to pay nearly $50 round-trip for a Blu-ray? (We will not even go into the question of whether theatres should be showing movies on Blu-ray.)  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-22-2012 06:03 PM                        quote: Martin McCaffery You're paying almost twice for a digital print as we pay for 35mm. What were you paying for 35mm? The $40-ish price I quoted covers the freight both ways. When we were using film, it would be around $40 in and $30-plus out for us. Are film shipments now being handled by prepaid labels, the way digitals are? As to the rates -- we're actually getting a good deal on the incoming prints which are shipped overnight. For us to ship an orange Technicolor case via Next Day Air, it would cost $102.41. The same case would ship for $11.31 via ground. I can see why they want to go overnight with the incoming prints.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-22-2012 08:49 PM                        Must be a proximity to airport thing. We pay the same coming and going with Tech, which after the price increase will be about $25 each way for 35mm. I haven't checked if they are overnighting them, we usually get them Weds for the Friday show. We don't do first run, either, which may have something to do with it.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 05-22-2012 08:52 PM                        "Lift" is the term for the weight of all items shipped. "Frequency" is the number of individual items. The negotiated contract that very large shippers use is an interesting concoction of both of those. This even gets into which model of airplane is used and how often. Lift is clearly down, but frequency remains (same number of new openings, unless you use multiple screens.) Do not be surprised to see the cost of the digital prints rise with the reduction in lift as 35mm disappears. Louis  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-22-2012 09:31 PM                        quote: Martin McCaffery We pay the same coming and going with Tech, which after the price increase will be about $25 each way for 35mm. OK, so you are paying about $50 for a film print to be shipped to and from you. The digital cost is about $40 total and includes shipping both ways.  |  IP: Logged

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