Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How many trailers would you put on?

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Operations » Ground Level » How many trailers would you put on? (Page 3)

This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Author

Topic: How many trailers would you put on?

Blaine Young
Master Film Handler

Posts: 477
From: Kirkland, WA, USA
Registered: Sep 2006

posted 08-28-2007 11:54 PM

As a general rule, we usually play between 4 and 6 trailers to fill out 12 minutes. Our theater does not use any rolling stock and no ads. Just a Dolby Digital snipe between the trailers and the feature.

We pad the film running times by 12 minutes on our web site to allow patrons to properly calcuate their exit times.

| IP: Logged

Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 08-29-2007 12:33 AM

quote: David Zylstra
You are probably correct on the 10-15 mins, at that time I was only loosely involved in the booth so I don't remember specifics - Loews kept me on only in the MIS capacity (same pay/benefits, much lower responsibility, talk about boring!)

You wouldn't have to be in the booth, though, to see the lobby signs that said 10-15 minutes. [Razz]

quote: Blaine Young
As a general rule, we usually play between 4 and 6 trailers to fill out 12 minutes. Our theater does not use any rolling stock and no ads. Just a Dolby Digital snipe between the trailers and the feature.

Since you're in Kirkland and the only place I hear of not doing ads, I'm assuming you're at the Kirkland Park Place.

| IP: Logged

Scott Norwood
Film God

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

posted 08-29-2007 06:34 AM

Landmark's policy is usually about four trailers, maybe five if one is short. There is also a Landmark logo (recently redone) and 1-3 :30 or :60 spots (usually for cars or cable TV programming). Total runtime is about 10-11 minutes.

At one independent where I work from time to time, they usually run about 9 minutes' worth of trailers (usually 2-3) and policies (including Let's Go to the Lobby).

Whenever I have a chance to put together my own trailer reel, I usually run 2-3 trailers, plus a "coming soon" tag (first thing to hit the screen) and a "feature presentation" tag (after the last trailer). If possible, I like to show sound-format tags after the FP trailer.

Personally, I think that four or more trailers get to be annoying and are ineffective (as customers are less likely to remember what they saw). I think that the local AMC is up to 5-6 trailers now.

| IP: Logged

Jonathan M. Crist
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 531
From: Hershey, PA, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 08-29-2007 10:01 AM

Like the number of show times and lobby displays, the number of trailers being shown is now often more often controlled by the studios and not the exhibitors. Many contracts require certain of that studios trailers to be exhibited with their picture. In addition certain companies will agree to cross plug one another for various reasons (I can remember when both "Sum of All Fears" and "The Bourne Identity" were both initially scheduled to be released on the same weekend back in 2002. Universal agreed to postpone the release of Bourne Indentity for a couple of weeks in return for which Paramount agreed that the trailer for Bourne would be a 'must play' in front of Sum of All Fears.)

There are also deals where enitre circuits agree to play trailers for a given company. AMC at one time had a deal with Universal that required one Universal trailer be played on each and every show circuitwide.

THE BOTTOM LINE: We are going to be inundated with trailers. The bigger the release the more other studios want to "pile on" and get their release viewed by the biggest audience. It has come to a point where it is now nearly over the top. The most trailers that I can remember seeing timewise was 25 minutes worth before "Men In Black 2" at the AMC on 42nd Street in NYC.

| IP: Logged

Blaine Young
Master Film Handler

Posts: 477
From: Kirkland, WA, USA
Registered: Sep 2006

posted 08-29-2007 12:01 PM

quote:
quote: Blaine Young
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As a general rule, we usually play between 4 and 6 trailers to fill out 12 minutes. Our theater does not use any rolling stock and no ads. Just a Dolby Digital snipe between the trailers and the feature.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since you're in Kirkland and the only place I hear of not doing ads, I'm assuming you're at the Kirkland Park Place.

I've not been to Park Place since Cinplex Odeon sold it. I work at Lincoln Square Cinemas in downtown Bellevue.

| IP: Logged

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 08-29-2007 06:08 PM

quote: Frank Angel
And how come someone can't come up with a way to give real telephone numbers so every telephone number that is ever mentioned on film has to start with 555?

The answer: lawyers.

If a film maker used a realistic looking phone number in a movie there would be no shortage of jerks dialing it just to see who answers and perhaps to screw with the call recipient. After awhile the person who has that number in real life would have to get his number changed. Somewhere along the line an attorney might see an opportunity to make a lot of money over the issue. After all we do live in a country where one woman successfully sued McDonalds for over $1 million because the coffee she spilled on her pants (while she was driving) was too hot. We have a judge in Washington, DC suing a dry cleaners for $60 million over some lost pants. The dry cleaners is getting wiped out just from the costs of defending themselves in court.

Yeah. We're going to keep seeing a lot of those "555" prefixes on phone numbers for a long time to come.

| IP: Logged

David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 08-29-2007 06:28 PM

The "official" pool of fake 555 numbers is presently limited to the range 0100 to 0199. But lots of other 555 numbers have been used in movies etc.

| IP: Logged

Jeremy Weigel
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1062
From: Edmond, OK, USA
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 08-29-2007 08:28 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
If a film maker used a realistic looking phone number in a movie there would be no shortage of jerks dialing it just to see who answers and perhaps to screw with the call recipient.

Yep. Remember the Tommy Tutone song "Jenny" or otherwise known as "867-5309" song? You can probably find that number in just about every area. Feel sorry for those that ended up getting or having that as their phone#.

| IP: Logged

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-29-2007 10:19 PM

If the studios were smart, they would each get a phone number that connects to a recorded blurb about their latest movies. Then use that phone number whenever a number is needed in a film. (Or each studio could get ten numbers, so the number isn't repeated very often).

Then when the people who have no life call the number, they'll get a sales pitch, and will probably be thrilled that they got through to a real live movie company.

I don't know why it takes some goofball like me to think up this kind of thing...I should be a highly paid studio executive.

But Bobby is probably right, even my solution probably wouldn't work because lawyers would find a way to screw it up.

| IP: Logged

Lyle Romer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1400
From: Davie, FL, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 08-29-2007 10:33 PM

I've always thought the same thing as Mike. I have no idea why they wouldn't do that. They don't even have to spend much money on it. They could just do a simple one line even if it'll be busy all the time. If the marketing aspect works they can set it up with rollovers so people can actually get through.

| IP: Logged

Wyatt Copeland
Film Handler

Posts: 74
From: Gettysburg, PA, USA
Registered: Aug 2007

posted 08-29-2007 10:43 PM

I don't know a whole lot about how land line phone services work(actually I know next to nothing), but I would imagine that since there would only be one number used in the movie, then the one number would be called a lot. Now there are a lot of fools in the world, and wouldn't all those people calling really jam up the service for that particular #? Unless there was a way to redirect the calls to a non-busy line with a recording. Idunno. Just a thought that theres probably some technical reason instead of logical reason why they wouldn't create a special line.

| IP: Logged

Scott Norwood
Film God

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

posted 08-29-2007 11:13 PM

A single number can be routed to a "hunt group," such that, if the first line is busy, the second line rings (and so forth). This is how popular telephone numbers (e.g. customer service lines, time, weather, etc.) work.

Interestingly, "The Departed" used at least one valid number (617-869-1469) in the film. It is a real Boston number registered to Sprint Spectrum LP. If you call it, you get a generic voicemail box (which is full). There's another number used in the film as well, but it isn't valid.

The quintessential 555 number is 311-555-2368, which was used for years in telephone-company publications. Every photograph of a telephone showed a number card bearing this number.

| IP: Logged

Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-30-2007 07:32 PM

quote: Mike Blakesley
If the studios were smart, they would each get a phone number that connects to a recorded blurb about their latest movies. Then use that phone number whenever a number is needed in a film. (Or each studio could get ten numbers, so the number isn't repeated very often).

Then when the people who have no life call the number, they'll get a sales pitch, and will probably be thrilled that they got through to a real live movie company.

I don't know why it takes some goofball like me to think up this kind of thing...I should be a highly paid studio executive.

Because Mike, another goofball already closed the deal....hehe

quote:
Can't every studio maintain a bunch of numbers that just forward to some advertising recording (they could sell "fake movie number" ads to advertisers!)

I get the office with the windows because I would sell that telephone ad time to advertisers!

OR, they could just give out numbers to those telephone porno sites in the Bahamas that charge $24.99 as soon as it's connects and then $5.99 a minute thereafter. Betcha after mom and dad get that bill, little Johnny will think twice about calling phone numbers he hears in movies (hard to dial with those broken fingers). The studio could cut a deal with the porn operators for a percentage of the gross. [thumbsup]

| IP: Logged

Jeremy Jorgenson
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1002
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: Feb 2005

posted 09-01-2007 07:36 PM

Hmmm... I don't remember the 555 thing being in all that many recent films. Of course I can't say that I'd care too much, generally I'm not watching a film to judge its verisimilitude, but rather to be entertained by something I know to be fiction... would it pull me out of the story if I heard/saw '555'? Yeah, but only briefly, and no more so than most of the other "non-realistic" things which abound in most modern features. When a phone number is obscured so as not to see the prefix, or if a non-555 number is used, that will also bring me out of the story, because my mind is noticing how these particular filmmakers got around using a 555 number.

==

As to the question of number of trailers... For patrons, I agree with the general consensus that anything over 5 probably isn't effective.

On the couple of occasions that I've screened a private film (built solely for one screening that consisted of me and a few random others - then torn down after that), I'll load it up with a whole bunch of trailers from my collection, say 45 minutes worth. [thumbsup]

| IP: Logged

Thomas Pitt
Master Film Handler

Posts: 266
From: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
Registered: May 2007

posted 09-02-2007 03:31 PM

Not to hijack this thread, but what exactly is 'rolling stock'? I've seen the term used several times during discussions about pre-movie trailers and commercials, but I still don't know what it is!

Many years ago (early 1990s I think) I remember going to a single-screen cinema. They ran a reel of about 15 minutes of commercials and trailers. This was followed by an 'intermission' snipe, and they stopped projecting for about 10 minutes. After that, the movie came on - straight into the BBFC card with no ads beforehand. There were no intermissions in the middle of the movie itself though.
I wonder what the reason for that was? I don't even know if this cinema was a changeover booth or a platter/tower system!

| IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Printer-friendly view of this topic

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.