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Is there a way for non-theatre specific people to get ahold of trailers in a quality format?

Michael

Are you looking for vcr or 35 mm? If you want VCR tape exhibitor relations of all the film co's have the trailers on tape. The Iinternet is loaded with downloadable trailers but play it on what. Trailers are available.... late or difficult to get if you're not a chain plex.. you have to stay on them to get the stuff. What do you want them for?

35mm trailers are VERY easy to find. There's quite a few people that collect them. Ebay has umpteen at a given time. A lot of theaters let employees snake away with em (when I was working for the local demon (Mann...cough) we used to just chuck em in a box, and whoever wanted em took em. I prolly have somewhere around 700-800 at the moment, tho I've traded/sold some here and there.

You can find 35mm prints as well. It bears to mind tho that this isn't exactly favored by the "studios", and has been banned on Ebay (Ebay is pretty rough fisted on a lot of things). I can understand (part of me anyways) why they feel that way, but I think a lot of it get's blown WAY out of proportion. We could BS about film preservation/conservation, how collectors have bailed SOOOOOOO many companies out of the fire (BBC anyone?), but that is another story (books have been written heh heh).

One thing I would like to see is better care of older exhibition prints currently used in runs. I've seen disgraceful conditioned prints of very big time movies, and there is no excuse (a good one anyways) that they should be in that condition. I recently traded a print of "The Princess Bride" for a nice, relatively unused looking print of "Twister" (it has a few small flaws, but other than that). I was pretty amazed that it had survived. There's also a print of "Aliens" that I am looking at right now that is probably better than whatever they have floating in circulation (that is one amazing movie on the big screen).

If you have any specific questions, I'd be more than happy to answer em.

BM

Trailers are easy to find when you don't need one. It's like the cop! Man I beg, wheddle, steal, harangue to get them! Technicolor rots! It's bizzare! I don't know who if anyone ever returns trailers since it's a dead issue by the time you do. Almost no one needs them then and we often play stuff a second time so you never know what to send back anyway. I knew that ebay had knocked off on the sale of prints but trailers too!
Drats! I would think that someone would make a neat little 35mm home trailer projector/viewer? Beyond me!

What area do you work in Mssr Bluewater?

And don't forget Big Rell magazine which has huge amounts of trailers for sale.

[This message has been edited by Mike (edited May 03, 2000).]

Hey Mike. If trailers are now "banned" from Ebay, it must have happened in the last couple days, because I got a few three days ago. AFAIK 35mm features are the only "banned" material thusfar (tho I know they have been discussing canning trailers).

I usually splice trailers together based on subject (ie horror movies, ww2 movies, scifi movies, star trek movies etc etc etc. I even have 35mm trailers for tv show advertisements, ie X-Files, Millenium, Space: Above and Beyond etc. I have yet to actually see a tv ad at any theaters I have been to, but they are apparently out there (I have seen stuff like car commericals tho).

Right now I am in the Twin Cities area (Minneapolis/St Paul, MN, USA), but I am looking at a building in Chicago burbs as well as a building in Burbank, CA for theater conversion.

BM

I'm glad to hear that about Ebay as I was doing all my retirement planning around my trailer collection.

and I was planning my retirement around my poster collection....now I can add the trailers too. Gee...I might get to live like a king.