A trailer for a film I'm looking forward to.

Below is the trailer for the new film from Charlie Kaufman who has written some of the most delightfully twisted movies in recent memory, maybe ever. He wrote Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich. This is his first time directing. In any case it should be an interesting film.

The film is called Synecdoche, New York, a title I'm not looking forward to making sure is spelled correctly when I do advertising the week Western Film plays it.

President Bush Vs. The Joker.

Thought this was a neat little clip. Don't watch it if you haven't seen Dark Knight. It may give away plot points and probably won't make sense. Come back and watch it after you have come to see Dark Knight this week at Western Film, hint.hint...

Next Week's Films change.. Dark Knight finally!

Yesterday I booked for next week as I normally would on Monday. I booked Step Brothers and a second week of Pineapple Express.

This morning I received a phone call at home at 9:30 in the morning from the booker. I was still asleep so a little groggy. When she said she wanted to talk to me I think my heart skipped a beat. These kind of calls usually mean a film has been pulled or something similar. However in this case she told me that Dark Knight was available for Friday. She suggested I call her back and let her know whether I wanted to book it.

I thought about it for a few minutes. The basic problem was I had already started advertising the other films. Most films I would have just waited the week unless the already scheduled film was one I had booked just to fill the slot. That wasn't the case here.

However Dark Knight is the second biggest hit ever and pretty much everyone who walks by the theatre says they want to see it. We are also coming up on midterms and the week of Thanksgiving and I wanted to play it before we get into that.

So anyway, I booked Dark Knight in and changed all the advertising. It was only 'wrong' for one day so hopefully there's a minimum of problems.

I decided to play Dark Knight for both shows which leads to a 10pm late show since it's so long. The late show won't end until about 12:40. I'll probably regret that on the nights I'm projectionist.

Step Brothers will probably play the following week. Dark Knight will almost certainly do well enough to play for another week. Pineapple Express may or may not come back for another week. It probably will since the crowd for tonight's show was the biggest we've had for quite a while. The theatre was about half full, and it's a big theatre.

I've been saying to my staff that if we are going to sell out this year it will be one of the Tuesday showings of Dark Knight.

Next Week's Films

There were two films to choose from:

Step Brothers: I've been waiting for this one so I booked it in for the early show.

Traitor: This film looked good and got fairly good reviews but didn't do a lot of business. In general Western Film doesn't do well with these kinds of films. I'll keep it in reserve if I have an open spot but probably won't play it.

I decided to keep Pineapple Express for the late show again. It wasn't a hard decision, as of Sunday it had already done as much as most movies do all week. Friday night was the largest non-Tuesday crowd I've seen in quite a while. Even Sunday night it did really well, the late show on Sunday is usually dead. I'm curious to see how it does the rest of the week. Tuesday is probably going to be crazy.

To my mild surprise the booker said today I might get Dark Knight before I get Mamma Mia. Tropic Thunder is also getting close to coming off. So is House Bunny which I'm really undecided about whether to play.

And some people don't believe in coincidence...

Western Film has some old movie posters we sell at the theatre. Some of them date back to when I was involved as a student?! A few years ago I decided to pare back my personal collection and donated the ones I didn't want to Western Film. One of them was a poster for the The Punisher, the 1988 version starring Dolph Lundgren, not the more recent one.

So this poster had been sitting in the displays for years and it finally sold one night about a week ago. I saw my staff person sell it but later noticed he hadn't crossed it off the list. When I asked him he said it wasn't the last one. I checked the display and to my surprise found there was a smaller video release version of the same poster hiding behind the other one.

In case you are wondering what the heck I'm talking about, that's not the coincidence the title refers to.

About an hour later the video version sold too...

The real reason Harry Potter moved to next summer?

As most people know the Harry Potter film that was supposed to come out at Christmas was moved to next summer by Warner Bros.

The official reason is that the Writer's Strike prevented production of any major films for Warner to play next summer. This is a bit of a crock as the writer's strike affected mostly TV and other elements that work on a shorter timeline. Most movie stuff was already done.

There is word in the industry about the real reason. It has to with investors and their short sighted vision. Warner has had an extraordinary, unrepeatable, year with Dark Knight making over $500 million and several other films such as Get Smart doing well. If you added the Harry Potter film to the mix there would be at least another $200 - $300 million.
All this would add up to an enormous amount of revenue for 2008. There's no way 2009 could come any way close and Warner stock would get hammered. Investors seem to only look at the numbers and don't take into account real world variables like having the second biggest hit of all time in one year.

Moving the Harry Potter film moves a couple hundred million from 2008 into 2009 hence leveling things off a bit.

I find it funny and weird how business people and investors think.

Next Week's Films

There were several films available next week but only two I wanted to play.

Bangkok Dangerous: looked horrible and did horrible.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2: I consider this aimed at a female audience younger than the students. However the way I hear the gaggles of girls around speaking I may be off the mark. When did Valley Girl come out again? If I had a spare spot next week I might try this one.

Disaster Movie: wasn't the worst of these types of parody movies but wouldn't do any business at Western Film.

Hamlet 2: I booked this in for the early show. I'm curious to see how it does. It looks funny and got generally good reviews but may have an awareness problem. One of my staff had never heard of it.

Pineapple Express: I booked it in for the late show. I expect it to do well. It's quite funny and stars some popular actors. I'm curious how many customers show up exuding the characteristic smell of weed.

Mamma Mia is down to 2 theatres, the Westmount and the Hyland picked it up so it may be available next week.
Dark Knight is still playing at 3 theatres so it isn't coming off soon.
Unless Sony puts 2 weeks between first and second run as they sometimes do Step Brothers should play soon.

Good thing I'm not Superstitious

When I was a kid living in the country north of London our telephone number prefix was 666-????.

On the paperwork we do at the end of the night the cost of two advance tickets after GST is taken off is $6.66.

And the most ominous one:
my office extension is 82666.

I usually call my office the devil office.

Funny little Darth Vader Star Wars reedit

Saw this on Cinematical today.

Next Week's Films

Again I'm behind as these films start later today. I have to admit I was a little dismayed by next week. It can be one of the busiest weeks of the year with good movies. The students don't have too much work to do yet and haven't spent all their money yet.

However the only new film available was College which sucked and bombed so I never considered playing it. It was kind of odd nothing else came off because there are three new movies opening. None of them is exactly a blockbuster so they didn't push anything off. The first run theatres just start splitting films rather than dropping them at this time of year. If you look at the listings you'll see some playing only one show a night hence sharing the screen. The Silver City is currently playing 14 films on only 12 screens.

I tried to get creative and bring in some films we wouldn't normally play because of low awareness or other reasons. You never know, I might have been surprised. Weeks like this are at least good for experimenting. So I asked about the following.

Mongol - a somewhat high profile well-reviewed film, but no prints available

Gonzo: Hunter S Thompson- a documentary about the writer, a couple people had asked about it. I figured with the students back maybe enough would be interested but again no prints available.

Brideshead Revisited. - no prints available.

I couldn't think of anything else that had any chance of pulling people.

I ended up playing these two films:

You Don't Mess With The Zohan: I could have played this film about 2 months ago but didn't think it would do well. I choose to play it next week because we hadn't played it yet and I figured it had a better chance of doing well with the students here.

Hancock: We already played it and did okay with it, however it played the week before school started which is generally a quiet week. The whole city kinda seems to be holding it's breath waiting for the students to come back. I think everyone is out of town. Also, again, I think Hancock has a chance of doing better with the students back.

The prospects for the following week aren't much better so I asked the booker to check on prints for the non-Hollywood films listed above. I may also bring Wall.E back.

Next (this ) week's films.

I got behind a bit so this should have been posted last week. There were no new movies available for the current week but I did have a couple I hadn't played from previous weeks.

I didn't play Wall.E last week because it was the first part of Frosh week and it didn't fit right. Also I didn't want to run matinees on the long weekend because of the general chaos at the University.

I decided to bring in Wall.E for the 7pm show and matinees on the weekend.

I decided to play Swing Vote for the late show. Normally it would have been the early show as it appeals to adults as well as students. However Wall.E was better for the 7pm show because it was a bigger hit and for kids to be able to come.

I didn't expect Swing Vote to do great but part of the reason I wanted to play it was to show the new students we didn't just play Hollywood hits and popcorn movies.

I'm still waiting on Dark Knight and Mamma Mia among others.

The kind of Circus that isn't fun.

This is my latest excuse for not posting. Last week was Orientation / Frosh week here. The busiest week of the year for many of the full timers around here. Downstairs in a place called Centerspot the students pick up their bus passes. Some of the full time staff call it the 'circus' because of the general chaos involved. It gets really hot and the line gets really long.
As a promotional effort we set up a table and give away free popcorn. It's mostly aimed at the first years so they realize Western Film is on campus.
We also do a draw for free movies for a year. The students enter with their e-mail address and can check off a box for us to add them to our mass-e-mail list. So the draw serves two functions as a way to get more addresses for the list and promotion.

This may not sound like much but it adds up to a lot of work and hours. For the four days we did it I had to be here at 9am and since it's usually busy at night I was here until about 11pm each night.

I had a staff member stay at the booth and bag the popcorn. We have a small older machine that we use as a warmer but we have to pop the popcorn upstairs at the theatre to be even close to keeping up with the number of people taking popcorn. We would pre-pop a lot the night before and then I would start making some as soon as that was gone. On the busiest afternoon I was literally making a batch, taking it downstairs, going up and getting another one and the first one would be almost gone by the time I got back. I was popping popcorn for 4 hours one afternoon. I may never eat popcorn again.

Everything seemed to work out, we gave out over 3000 little bags of popcorn and got several hundred e-mail addresses. So hopefully lots of students come to the movies.

Freaky Matrix - 9/11 coincidence or conspiracy?

I think the conspiracy nuts are having a field day with this one. If ones watches closely it turns out the expiration date on the passport Neo (Keanu Reeves) shows in The Matrix (1999) is Sep 11 2001.

It is kinda freaky.

While looking for the image of the passport I found this interesting article about other 9/11 references in various media. I think the Simpson's one is pushing it though.

RIP Huron Marketplace

A co-worker informed me today that the weekly Cineplex e-mail included mention that the Huron Marketplace theatres would be closed as of Sep 2. I don't think anyone will be surprised. That theatre has been in decline for a while. When it was first built it was state of the art and even had two concession stands, one of which is all walled in now. Now it's one of those outdated mall theatres that are closing all over North America. They tried running as a third run theatre for $3.00 admission for a while but I guess it didn't work. Part of the problem may have been the concession prices were that same as at the more expensive theatres. I would imagine people expected lower food prices along with the lower ticket price.

The area it's in is getting pretty scary which I imagine was keeping people away.

I was there last week to see a film and it was pretty nasty. I could smell urine about half the way down the lobby, I'm not sure if it was the bathrooms or if some yahoo had pissed in a corner.

I've never been sure what effect it was having on Western Film. When Rainbow went first run the Marketplace was the only other second run theatre left in town. With it closing that leaves Western Film as the only one.

Basically Huron Marketplace closing may not help Western Film but it can't hurt.

New Offerings at Western Film - Ice Cream.

I got an Ice Cream freezer in early in the summer. It's another experiment, so far it seems to be working. We've been selling a fair amount, mostly Hageen-Daaz and Dibs. I figure Dibs are popular since they are individual pieces and easier to eat while watching a film. I'm curious to see how things go later. It won't be hot outside any more but there will be more customers around. I figure the two will balance each other out.

Really the biggest problem has been with Nestle itself. They have a $200 minimum order. The last order I got didn't all fit in the ice cream freezer, we had to put about half of it in the freezer we make ice in. Even then we had to tape the door shut to keep it all in. I ended up throwing out some product that had gotten crushed.

We'll see if it sticks around.

How Stuff Works: movie projection

I found this interesting page on a website called howstuffworks.com. It gives a pretty good explanation of how movie projectors work for those who are interested.

I should get my projectionists to read it. It's best to know how everything works in order to troubleshoot. I think I have trained them well but every so often there's a 'shouldn't you know that' moment.

One part of the job I hate.

One of my least favorite parts of the job is changing the xenon lamp in the projector. It's under extremely high pressure and can explode. I've never seen it happen in person but I've heard about it. The manufacturer says to use protective gear when installing it. I can wear a face shield but it's pretty much impossible to wear any kind of gloves, the spaces involved are too small.

Below is a video of what can happen.

Lucky me, I get to change the bulb in the next few days. The current one is starting to have trouble igniting which means it's time to replace it. Too bad they are $800 each.

Next Week's Films

Next week is an important week for Western Film as it comprises most of Orientation (Frosh) week. We try to get the new students to check out the theatre and let them know we are here. We give away popcorn where all the students pick up their bus passes as a promotion.

Therefore it good to have good movies that week. I was hoping for Mamma Mia and Dark Knight but that wasn't likely to happen, especially Knight. I thought Step Brothers would come off but it didn't.

There were three movies available.

Journey to the Center of The Earth: too child oriented and really meant to be shown in 3D only.

Swing State: this film might do okay but not during Frosh Week, too serious and not well known enough. I might play it later.

Wall:E : I plan to play this but not next week. It's not a good fit for Frosh Week and this is a bad weekend to run matinees. Anyone who doesn't have to go near the campus generally doesn't due to the semi-controlled chaos up here.

Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: I booked this in as the 7:00 show. It got some bad buzz but was a fun movie, it's a good fun diversion for the new students. The only problem is losing some customers that would have come to see it but will avoid the campus. Other weekends I probably would have played matinees for it.

The question was what to play with it since there were no other new films I wanted to play. I considered keeping Hancock, bringing back Wanted or Indy 4 and even, briefly, bringing back Sex and The City. I decided to bring back Get Smart. It did surprisingly well the first time we played it. It's also a fun movie that appeals to both guys and girls for Frosh Week. Also, since it wasn't a monster hit I figure the odds are better more students won't have seen it already than something like Hancock.

Frosh week is generally really busy so I added extra time between shows.

So Wall:E will be playing the week after for the early show and matinees. What will play with it I won't know until Next Tuesday since Monday is a holiday.

Mini - Movie Review - Death Race.

I was looking forward to this film because I tend to like mindless action films and Jason Statham. I was somewhat disappointed. Jason was Jason as usual. However, I was sitting there trying to keep myself from looking at my watch. I couldn't figure out how a movie with so much action could be almost boring. It's basically one big race with lots of explosions and car wrecks and the occasional dialogue scene. Joan Allen is pretty good but does seem a bit out of place, she also needs to see a better plastic surgeon, it's becoming obvious. I liked the movie okay but was hoping for more. I thought it might be just me but Roger Ebert gave it a half star. I can't remember the last time I saw him do that.

Death Race wouldn't have played at Western Film anyway, it's a kind of film we don't do well with, even if it was better.

Death Race

The movie Death Race opens this weekend. I want to see it as it looks fun and stars Jason Statham. However I'm not impressed with it being called a remake of the cult film from 1975. It has little to do with it except for it's a race. The fun of the 1975 one was aspects such as getting points for hitting pedestrians. The drivers were basically nasty Nascar drivers rather than prisoners trying to win their freedom as in the new one. The orig is also a cross country race. The new one looks like it may all take place in the prison.

The new film has more in common with The Running Man than the original Death race.

Below is a clip of the part of the original that made the most impression on me. It cuts off a little too quick. If I remember correctly he gets fewer points for his little surprise than he would have if done what was expected.

Next Week's Films

There was only one film available this week, Hancock. That was fine with me since I wanted to play it. I decided to run a 7pm and late show as I think enough people will come see it to justify both. I might have run matinees but we have the Bollywood film Singh is Kinng on Sunday. I considered Saturday only matinees of Hancock but normally the Sunday matinees are busiest and I didn't want to confuse people who might assume the mats are both days. If it had been Wall-E or something really matinee friendly I would have done just the Sat matinee.

The only other film the Booker was checking on was Mummy 3 which wasn't available. She also said Stepbrothers might come off.

The following week includes most of Frosh Week which is a very important week in terms of getting the new students into the theatre. I was hoping for a big movie like Mamma Mia but it looks like might end up being a combination of Hancock and/or Stepbrothers and Mummy 3.

Next Week's Films

Next week was easy to book. There were only two films available, Wanted and Hellboy 2 and I had planned to play both. I only had two decisions to make, one easy and one harder. I had to decide which order to put them in which was pretty easy. Wanted has broader appeal and was a bigger hit, I think. Hellboy has a more niche market and is the kind of film that can do well on a late show.

I also had to decide whether to play matinees. I decided not to as neither film seemed very matinee friendly. I was basing this both on my own instinct and on how Hulk did for last week's matinees (i.e: not good).

I'm pretty sure Wanted will do well. I'm a little nervous about Hellboy, it might be one of those films that only some want to see and they have already seen it. On the other hand it's such a active and visually rich film I can see some people watching it more than once.

The only other title the booker was checking on was Hancock so that may be available the following week.

Bad Marketing for new Dane Cook film?

There's an interesting post over at Cinematical about the disparity between the poster for the upcoming Dane Cook / Kate Hudson film My Best Friend's Girl and the trailer. The poster makes it look like a fairly generic romantic comedy while the trailer makes it look like a funny but very adult film. Even Dane Cook doesn't like the poster. Some people really dislike Dane Cook but I like him, I guess I find him funny, most of the time. He can get a bit over the top.



So watch the trailer and let me know if you think you would be surprised if you went to see the film based on the poster.


Note: The trailer is a red-band trailer which means it contains naughty words and is NSFW.

Questions / Comments/ Complaints?

Every so often I put up a generic post for readers to use the comments function for feedback. Please post anything and I'll respond either in the comments in this post or do a seperate post.

The Volume of the movie.

This post is also in response to a previous comment placed about the volume level at Western Film being too high recently. I also received an e-mail about it today. I figure the odds are good it was the same person.

The volume level is one of those things that can never be quite right, there will always be some people who think it's too loud or too quiet. My boss is always telling me to keep the volume high.

We set the volume the first show through on Friday. Each movie is different so the volume setting varies. We also adjust it depending on how many people are in the theatre. People absorb sound so if it's busy we turn the volume up some. It also depends on the type of film. A big action film is supposed to be loud, it's how loud that's the question.

A complaint once in a while is often just a personal preference of that person which I can't do much about. However I have had a few complaints over the last few weeks about it so cumulatively that suggests we aren't doing something right.

The hard part is often the sound mix of the movies themselves. It often seems if you turn it up to a level where the dialogue can be heard then the fights, explosions or whatnot are too loud.

I know there was one night recently we did screw up on the volume. It was the late show of a film that had already played at 7pm. We had set the volume level by the first showing which was way busier than the late showing. As a result the volume was really loud for the late showing. No one said anything until the movie was over so we weren't aware of the problem.

I'll be keeping a close eye (ear?) on the situation and in general keep the volume lower. If anyone has any feedback feel free to e-mail me or let us know at the theatre.

Bollywood Films

This post is in response to a comment asking about Western Film playing a Bollywood (Indian) film called Singh is Kiing. There is someone interested in renting Western Film to play that film. I'm not sure of the details yet.

Pretty much all of the Bollywood movies that have ever played at Western Film were other groups or people renting the theatre, we basically just showed the film and sold some concessions.

I tried running a few Bollywood movies myself a couple years ago but it didn't work. I wasn't able to promote it properly, largely because I wasn't sure how to reach them.

When I first started running Western Film there was a student who used to rent Western Film about once a month. She was able to pretty much fill the theatre every time. However that was a while ago and the piracy issue was nowhere near as bad as it is now.

If Hollywood think it has piracy problems they should be happy they aren't Bollywood. Once I was dropping tickets off at one of the Indian food stores for a showing in a couple weeks. The guy running the store rented out a VHS pirated copy of the film for $1.00 while I was there.

The main issue for playing Bollywood at Western Film is timing. It's best to be able to promote a specific date that's as close to the Toronto opening as possible. However there are only a few prints of each movie and they play Toronto first. Much as with the Hollywood product we have to wait until the prints finish in TO before we can play them. The Indian theatres in TO decide each Monday what they will keep so it's hard to set a date for a London showing.

I'm hoping this is one of the situations that will be fixed by a digital projector in a few years. They should be able to make as many copies as they want so we could probably open the same time as TO.

New Offerings at Western Film - Nachos

I brought in Nachos a couple months ago, they have been selling pretty good. There's three parts, the trays, the chips and the cheese. I like our chips, they aren't too salty. The cheese comes in small packets like big ketchup packets. One packet fills the cheese portion of the tray. I kinda wish the packets of Cheese were bigger, they are 3 Oz's and to me doesn't look like enough. Maybe I just tend to put a lot of cheese on each chip when I have them myself. We prepare several trays of chips in advance as it takes some time to fill a tray properly. The trays are then put into the warmer pictured. I've told my staff to fill each tray as full as possible using complete chips, pieces are only to be used to fill in any empty spaces.

People who buy Nachos have a choice of cheese or salsa. Most take cheese, the salsa is cheaper so I tell the staff to give them a lot. A second portion of cheese can be bought for $.75 or extra Salsa for $.50. Some people think the cost of the extra cheese is too high but it's actually about what Western Film pays for each packet.

We've actually tried selling Nachos at Western Film before. We had a dispenser with a large bag of cheese inside instead of the small packets. I liked the system better. It was faster and extra cheese could be added easy. However the we didn't sell enough nachos to go through the cheese fast enough and it would go bad. (Hint: if your nacho cheese ever tastes like butterscotch it's too old). Since the cheese is the most expensive part we had to stop selling them.

When I heard about the packets I decided to try them again. Also with the permanent concession stand I had more space for them.

So far we've had good sales so I don't see them going away again.

Next Week's Films.

I'm glad I had a couple movies left over from previous weeks as this was all that was available.

Meet Dave: Fox Studios so it had to be all shows, not bloody likely.

Space Chimps: Fox Studios so it also had to be all shows, c'mon Fox you have to be bleepin' kidding!

I booked in Get Smart for the early show and Hulk for the late show.

I'm trying one new variation. We've had good luck with the matinees, Kung Fu Panda did really well. Neither Get Smart or Hulk justified 2 matinees or even really one on it's own. However I figured if I run Get Smart at 2:00 and Hulk at 4:15 the I can sorta split the difference and between the two of them should do well. Get Smart appeals to a younger crowd that tend to come to matinees. I think people will come to see Hulk for the matinee that wouldn't come to the late night show far various reasons.

The booker was checking on Wanted and Hellboy 2 but neither was available. The odds are good one or both will be available the following week.

New offerings at Western Film- Slush Puppie

And by offerings I'm not speaking of the sacrificial kind but more of new products. Until Oct 2007 Western Film's snack bar was on carts and rolled out and put away each night. It was a major pain. However when the USC renovated The Wave restaurant beside Western Film they built us a shiny new concession stand.
Being permanent has allowed me to add new products for a couple reasons. We have more space and the equipment is stable. Something as top-heavy and delicate as a Slush machine would never have survived being rolled around on the carts.

We installed the Slush machine in May and it has been very popular. As usual Western Film always seem to run different from everyone else. The guy who installed it said Blue was the most popular flavour but we seem to sell mostly Red and Green.

Until I asked about getting one I never knew how a slush machine worked. It's a neat idea. We buy the base from Slush Puppie. It's basically flavoured liquid sugar. We mix a certain amount of base with water and put it into the machine. The machine has a refrigeration unit that drops the temperature of the tubs below the freezing level of water. However the freezing temp of the base is lower because of the sugar so it doesn't freeze. As the water freezes the rotors stir the mixture to keep the frozen water crystals from forming a solid chunk of ice.

I'm curious to see how it sells during the school year, it won't be as warm outside but there will be more students around.

Funny Canadian Film Fest posters.

I discovered these posters through one of my favorite movie blogs Cinematical. Never heard of the festival but they make funny posters. My favorite one is thumb nailed here.

Marriage Proposals at Western Film.

A guy rented Western Film today for a private showing of Sex and The City just for him and his girlfriend. I'm not sure why but it reminded me of a couple previous rentals. Twice Western Film has been the site of a marriage proposal. The first time, I don't remember the movie, they watched the movie and then he asked her after it was over. I was still in the projection booth, I had just stopped the movie and didn't want to disturb them. He had told me in advance what he planned to do. She looked very happy, crying and the whole bit. I thought it was a neat idea to propose in a theatre, it'll be more memorable and make a better story than the usual restaurant or whatever.

The next guy used the theatre but didn't actually watch the movie. As far as she knew they were there to watch a regular matinee. I had loaned him a copy of our PowerPoint slide show. He amended it by adding his own stuff at the end. Pictures of them together culminating with a 'will you marry me' slide. It was quite touching. I'm pretty sure she said yes.

Next Week's Movies

There was only one new movie available this week.

Get Smart: I decided to put this off a week.

Kung Fu Panda and Indiana Jones were available for the current week. I booked Indiana Jones in with the intention of playing Kung Fu Panda the following week which is now Next week. (does that make sense?)

Anyway, I booked Panda in for 7:00 and matinees. Indiana Jones has been really busy so I decided to keep it for the late show next week. The late show this week has been surprisingly quiet compared to the early show but I think keeping it for a late show will work. It's the only showing and it's at 9:00 as opposed to the relatively late 9:40 it's playing at currently.

I decided to run Panda matinees on Monday as well as Saturday and Sunday since it's a holiday. We've never done this before so we'll see if it works. I'm only trying it since it's a civic holiday not a Stat holiday. If it was a Stat holiday the staff would get time and a half and it would be too expensive to risk it.

The current plan is for Get Smart to play the following week with Hulk as the late show. There won't be any matinees that weekend unless Panda happens to be busy enough to keep for another week for matinees. Not likely but possible.

In case anyone asks, I'll be surprised if we get Dark Knight before September. It would make a great Frosh week movie so hopefully it will be available then.

New Poster: Righteous Kill

I thought it might be interesting to post about new movie posters as they come into Western Film. If not let me know, it was surprisingly time consuming to photograph all the recent posters that had come in.

The poster for Righteous Kill is really interesting. It's on heavy, kind of rough paper, similar to the paper in many hardcover books. It's just the names of the actors and the title. No release date or anything. The really surprising thing is the lack of any credits. There's not even a studio listed. I've never seen that before.

Unpredictable Matinees

I've been experimenting with matinees a little this summer. I normally only run matinees for kid's films but I noticed at the first two we did this summer there were a lot of adults coming. That's why I decided to try running matinees of Sex and The City last week. It worked pretty well, attendance was good. I did just one show at 2pm.
So based on this and the earlier matinees I didn't hesitate to book Indiana Jones in for matinees.

Naturally this business had to prove it's unpredictability again. The Friday and Saturday night shows were the busiest we've been since school let out. It's already done more in two days than some movies do all week. However the matinees were shockingly quiet in comparison. I went in to drop off some supplies after the first matinee started Saturday and when my staff said there were only a few people in the theatre I thought they were joking.

I wonder if the start times might be an issue, the 1:15 was too early and the 4:00 too close to dinner.
Thankfully attendance picked up some, Sunday is usually busier than Saturday. Overall the matinees for Indiana broke even staff costs wise but only because I worked Sunday.

The matinees for Kung-Fu Panda should do well and it's shorter so the start times may be more convenient.

The next issue will be what to do when I play a mid-range film like Get Smart, do I run matinees or not?

Next (This ) weeks movie.

I missed a few days of posting. I was away for part of the week at a place that had Internet access so slow it could barely check e-mail let alone run a web-based application like blogger.

So let's set the way back machine to last Tuesday or so when I would normally have posted this.

There were two movies available for next week.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull: I booked this in for both evening shows and matinees. I decided to play it for both shows each night since I think it's the last big movie for a while that I'll be able to do that with. I could have played The Hulk or something but I decided to keep that to play as a late show with Get Smart or something.

Kung-Fu Panda: I couldn't play both this and Indiana at the same time as both needed the early shows and matinees so I decided to delay Panda for a week.

Depending on what's available Monday the following week will be Kung-Fu Panda for 7 pm and matinees and Hulk for late shows. That still leaves Happening and Zohan as backups to put in at some point.

I imagine Wanted and Get Smart should come off soon.

Teaser trailer for Terminator Salvation!

This is one of my most anticipated films of 2009. The Terminator series has been great except maybe for the third one. It was good but nothing special. The first two are what I would call classics. I was a little nervous when I heard they were making a Fourth film until I heard Christian Bale had signed on to play John Connor. I figure he has enough pull and prestige to make sure it gets done right, I hope. There's a new teaser out that flashes images at you fast enough to induce seizures but still looks cool. I wonder if Arnie will make a cameo?

Neil Patrick Harris Sings!?

Joss Whedon (creator of TV's Buffy and Angel ) put together an Internet only film called Dr. Horribles Sing-Along Blog. It's showing in 3 parts for free over the next few days. After Jul 20th it will be available on itunes and eventually on DVD.

I just watched the first episode. It's really funny.

Joss Whedon reminds me of Glen A. Larson who created the original Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers and Knightrider among others. Both worked in the same genres and both have written music for their shows.

Next Week's Movie

There were 2 new movies available this week.

Sex and the City: I've been waiting for this one so I booked it in. We've had a lot of people ask about it so I expect it to do quite well.

The Incredible Hulk: I decided to hold off on this one for now. I think it will make a good late show with Get Smart or a similar movie at some point.

I decided to run Sex and the City as a late show as well as an early show. It's a surprisingly long film so it puts the late show at 9:45. Iron Man did okay for the late shows and this strikes me as the kind of film that should do well as a late show.

I did one thing that's pretty experimental. I'm running matinees for a non-kid's film. I noticed over the last couple matinees (Iron Man, Narnia 2) that there were a lot of adults coming and really not that many kids.

Matinees give people who can't come in the evening another option. Hopefully we aren't just cannibalizing the evening shows. It's just one show at 2 pm so I'm just scheduling a projectionist and I'll come in to help set up and run the Box Office. The projectionist will run the concession stand then start the trailers. Once the actual movie starts I won't be needed any more so I can leave. I'll only need to be there about 45 minutes. This way we only need about 30 people total for it to at least pay for itself. If any of those 30 buy snacks then we make a profit. I figure the odds of that are pretty good.

Indiana Jones, Get Smart and Kung Fu Panda should be available soon.

This is why we watch the films first time through.

The first time a film plays at Western Film the projectionist or I always sit and watch it or at least stay in the booth and keep an eye on it. Last night was the first showing of Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. It was fairly busy. As is the subset of Murphy's Law that applies to movie theatres we had problems tonight, not a quiet night like Street Kings.

First in reel 4 it went out of frame twice. In one case the top half of the screen was suddenly on the bottom! That's easy to fix while the movie is running by turning a knob. It happened in the middle of the reel so it had come in that way from another theatre. There was a reel change just after the second bad splice. I'd seen the film before so when people were suddenly returning injured and dead from a battle they had not yet fought I knew something was up. Reels 5 and 6 and been put in the wrong order so the battle occurred later in the film. A reel is about 15 minutes long.

I stopped the film and went up to the front and let the audience know what had happened. I said they could get their money back if they wished to leave now or watch the rest of the film and we would give them a free pass. Only a few left.

It was interesting that when I finished telling them they sort of clapped. I think it's because someone told them was had happened instead of just shutting the film off and sending them away as most theatres would have done. In most theatres no one watches the film so who knows how long it would have been before someone realized something was wrong. The rest of the film was fine after the two reels that played out of order.

I had planned to go home after the early show started but I had to wait around until the end of the night to fix Narnia. Unfortunately the late show, Iron Man, is long so it wasn't over until midnight.

I had put the small plastic cores trailers come on in the rolls of film to mark the places where there were problems. I then had to take the last few reels off to switch reels 5 and 6. This took a while since the film was no longer round with the cores in it. After I had the last few reels off I had to go into reel 4 and fix the bad splices. Whomever had last played it must have only played it once, they had obviously had it break on them a couple times and fixed it without making sure it was in frame. Both splices had been made badly. There really isn't a good excuse to make a bad splice in a CinemaScope film. The image fills the full frame so it's easy to tell where to cut. I fixed them.

After that was all done I put the film back on the platter, in the right order, and was finished. Altogether it took me 2 hours.

I'm writing this from the projection booth while keeping an eye on the Saturday afternoon showing of Narnia to make sure I fixed everything properly. So Far So Good.

This is the first time in since I started here in 2000 we've had reels out of order. The projectionist who last played it had mixed up the reels, my projectionist should have caught it but didn't. In his/her defense the images at the beginning of both reels were very similar so it would haven't have been hard to make the mistake.

Hopefully this doesn't happen again anytime soon.

Next Week's Films.

There were a few choices this week. I was told last week that Narnia: Prince Caspian was available. Today I was told You Don't Mess with the Zohan and The Love Guru were available. Love Guru lasted an amazingly short time so must have done no business at all. It won't be playing at Western Film.

I decided to play Narnia next week including matinees. I didn't think Zohan would do well as a late show only. I decided to bring Iron Man back for late shows. It did pretty good for late shows the first week and I'm pretty sure the holiday weekend messed up attendance.

I'll keep Zohan in reserve. My gut says it won't do well so I won't be upset if I don't get a chance to play it.

One interesting thing happened. Sex and the City was the lowest grosser at the Silver City last weekend but they decided to keep it. This weekend it jumped to #6. I thought about it a minute and I think I know why. The only movie that opened this weekend was Hancock, a guy type movie. So many females who wanted to see a film went to see Sex instead.

The booker was also checking on Kung Fu Panda, and The Hulk so they should come off soon. I just noticed The Happening is not playing any more so Fox will set a date, probably the next Friday. I won't be able to split it so it may have to wait a week or two or maybe not play at all if other choices are available.

Pixar's First Short from 1984!

This was created by animators at Lucasfilm in 1984. It's pretty amazing for 1984. If you contrast this with the cool but cruder animation from TRON only 2 years earlier. I wonder how long this took to make? I think I read around the time Toy Story came out it took the computer 30 hours to draw one frame and there's 24 frames a second. Toy Story was obviously way more visually complicated.

The short was directed by John Lasseter who became one of the main creative forces behind Pixar. Apparently George Lucas sold off a Lucasfilm department which eventually became Pixar. I wonder if he regrets it?

Amusing montage of someone's 100 top films.

Found this interesting clip on youtube. I can identify almost all of the films without cheating by using the pause. Can you?

Trailer for The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Trailer for the remake of the classic 50's film starring Keanu Reeves. I'm curious to see how much they changed it. The original is very interesting but fairly slow. The title event is only a couple minutes of the film. The trailer for the new version shows they have obviously amped up the action a lot. Keanu should be good in this, it's the kind of role he seems to be able to do.

Yet another interesting trailer: Knowing

As anyone who reads this blog can tell, my favorite genre is Sci-fi. There's a new trailer for a movie called Knowing starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Alex Proyas who did Dark City and The Crow. This looks interesting. Hopefully it's better than the similar Nicolas Cage film Next, that sucked.

Interesting promo for Stanley Kubrick retrospective in England.

This interesting little commercial is shot from the point of view of Stanley Kubrick. If you haven't seen his films it won't make sense.
Kubrick is one of the best directors ever. His films covered a wide range of topics and almost all are considered classics. Full Metal Jacket is one of my favorite films. When Western Film ran our midnight series two of the most attended films were from Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange and The Shining. It's too bad his final film was Eyes Wide Shut.

Original Metroplis Found!

A copy of the original cut of Fritz Lang's Masterpiece Metropolis has been found in a museum in Argentina. The original cut from 1927 was about 3 hours long. At some point a shortened version was made and was the only version available since. The extra footage was thought lost but recently turned up. I've seen the short version several times in film class. The longer version apparently answers many of the questions people have had of the first one.

It's amazing what Lang was able to accomplish on screen in 1927, it probably helped that it was the most expensive film made at the time.

Apparently the found print is badly scratched. Presumably someone will digitally fix it up and release it at some point.

I hope no one ever tries to remake it.

A film I saw in England that hasn't come out here.

As soon as I got to London I went to check out Leicester Square as everyone told me it was the place to go for cinemas. It turned out to have 4 big old movie palaces that had been plexed to varying degrees, the Empire, Vue and 2 Odeons, one of them the big one.

The first movie I went to was at the Vue. It looked like a cool theatre from the outside yet turned out to suck a bit on the inside. It had been very plexed up.

There was a film on the program I had never heard of called Flashbacks of a Fool. It turned out to be a British film with Daniel Craig AKA James Bond. He plays a older actor who has led an hedonistic lifestyle and pretty much alienated everyone. Most of the middle section of the film is exploring the character as a teenager then Craig is back for the final section of the film. It was a really interesting film. There's an old Roxy Music song (heard in the trailer and on the official site) that I was not familiar with in the film. The scene it was in I found really mesmerizing. It's now one of my favorite songs.

I haven't seen anything indicating when there might be a North American release. The official site seems to be UK specific. I have a feeling it'll end up going straight to DVD here even though it doesn't deserve it.

A mystery about a movie I saw in England and why they almost didn't let me in.

I was looking through the movie listings one day when I was in London and noticed a place called the Barbican was holding an animation festival. There was an interesting looking film called Dragon Hunters playing. It was CGI but with a very stylized look to the characters. It looked like a kid's film but I don't mind watching kid's film's if they look interesting.

The Barbican turned out to be a cultural center or museum with various galleries, theaters etc.

When I went to buy my ticket the guy said I couldn't go. It turned out the animation festival was for kid's and I could only go if I had a kid with me?! I'm not sure I understand the logic of that. There's plenty of film fans who would like to see an animated film of this quality even if it's for kids. I was a bit pissed as it hadn't said anything about this on the website and it had taken me about an hour to get to the place.

The guy called his boss who said it was okay to let me in. It was assigned seating so I had to choose where I wanted to sit. I told him I'd "hide in the back so no one thought I was a pedophile"

Anyway I saw the film and it was really good, very adventurous and wonderfully animated. It had created an eerily beautiful world where everything was floating and randomly crashing into each other. The quality of the animation was equal to anything Hollywood generates, better in most cases.

The mystery is this: I can find hardly anything about the film on the Internet about a US release. It's a French film but the version I saw was dubbed into English with the main character's being voiced by Forest Whittaker. However if you look on imdb.com under the title it only brings up the French version and it's not listed under Forest Whittaker. I even had a hard time finding an official site. Check out the teaser trailer below or the high quality full trailer at the official site.

If this film ever comes out here I'd recommend seeing it to anyone, even if they aren't a child. I enjoyed it a lot more than most of the Hollywood animated fare I've seen.

Trailer for new Bond film!!

The trailer for Quantum of Solace is finally out. A film version will apparently play before The Dark Knight. This film looks good. I was quite pleased with the reboot they did of the series. I just hope they can stop them for getting too outrageous like the Brosnan films or too silly like the Roger Moore films. Try watching A View to a Kill and not laughing at how bad it is.

The trailer is embedded below or there's a much higher quality version at the BBC.

The Financial Wisdom of Fight Club.

I found this interesting article which involves one of my favorite movies, Fight Club. I've always said it's one of the most subversive 'Hollywood' films I've ever seen. The speech the writer quotes is something that's stuck in my mind. Note: if you haven't seen the movie don't read the comments. The article is fairly spoiler free but the comments aren't.

Next Week's Film - What Happens in Vegas

Next week was pretty much a no-brainer. The only new film available was The Strangers which is a horror film so I wouldn't have played it. I put in What Happens In Vegas since I knew it was already available. There's just one show at 7pm. Iron Man has done well so I would have considered keeping it as a late show but Vegas is from Fox so I can't split it.

Depending on how Iron Man does the rest of the week I may consider playing it as a late show the following week. The matinees for Iron Man did okay as well, I'll be doing more for other kid-friendly movies.

Narnia is available for the following week so I'll put that in unless Sex and the City is available. I'd run matinees of Narnia.

I have seen the future and it is Digital.

I saw about 15 films in England, about a third were projected digitally rather than on film. These were the first real digital presentations I had seen other than demonstrations.

The cinemas in England were much more expensive than here so they maybe could afford top of the line equipment but things are going to go the same way here sooner or later.

Anyone who thinks film is going to be around for more than a few years is wrong.

The best presentation I saw in England was at the Empire in Leicester Square. I saw Speed Racer there. It was a old movie palace that had been plexed but there was still one big theatre. The screen was huge, maybe 60 feet wide. The Digital image was amazing in it's clarity and color and there weren't any of the physical problems that can be associated with film such as scratches.

I will admit movies like Speed Racer were made to show on Digital screens like this, bright colors, high contrast and distinct elements. It's similar to animated CGI films on digital TVs. Ever notice when you go to a place that sells TV the films playing are almost always animated films like Shrek or Toy Story? They look way better than anything with live people on those kind of TVs.

I would be curious to know what a film like No Country for Old Men with it's more subdued colour palate and lower contrast would look like on the Empire's screen.

Some of the films I saw would only have been distributed digitally as film would be too expensive. I saw an Anime film called Vexille at the Institute for Contemporary Art in a Digital theatre. Here the film went straight to DVD. It was one of the most exciting films I've seen in a long time and deserved to be seen on the big screen.

I predict as soon as the Studios and Exhibitors get their acts together and come up with some agreements a complete transition to Digital projectors will be quite rapid. All that will be left on film will be small independents, hopefully Western Film won't be one of them.

Cool trailer for Eagle Eye starring Shia Labeouf

This is the new trailer for what looks like a cool thriller. Interesting idea, kinda takes part of the Matrix and expands it into a full-length film. I like trailers like this. It gives you a good idea what the film is about without saying too much. There's enough unconnected info to get you interested but not tell you the whole film.

For example: There's a intriguing line in this trailer along the lines of 'what if this is a distraction from something 50 times bigger' with no reference to what 'this' is. The opposite is a line in the trailer for 'Death Race ' along the lines of 'he knows we framed him' which gives away way too much info.

Enjoy the trailer, you'll have to wait until September to see the film.

Trailer for RocknRolla, Guy Ritchie's next film.

Just found this trailer for RocknRolla, the next movie from Guy Ritchie. Guy is commonly known as (in no particular order):
-The guy who directed Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
- the guy who's films started Jason Statham's career
-Mr. Madonna.

As I was watching the trailer I thought it looked like one of his films and then his name came up. I guess I was right. This film looks cool. I'll be there.

The trailer is embedded below or better quality at link above.