I've never done one of these and I have a question that hasn't yet been clarified by the MSC. The assignment is to watch the trailer for the first showing of a particular film on each screen. I pulled up the theatre showtimes - the first showing is at 11 a.m. However, there is another showing at 1 p.m., and the movie is over two hours. I have to assume that the film is on another screen (but maybe not). I won't know until I get there. If it's on another screen, that's a two hour wait. The assignment fee is really not worth the drive and and two hours. (And who knows if it's on a different third screen!) Has anyone waited around? Watched a free movie?

All depends on the manager and the theater. Our theater is in a mall so I put jobs in between the show times. I had one theater that they always would say "oh just stay and watch the movie". The one time I finally took them up on it - the show sold out and I gave up my seat. To this day I still have yet to see the end of "Inception".

You can always find out what the showings are for the movie by googgling the theatre and showtimes.

If the movie is showing on more than one screen then just time yourself so that you watch the trailers as assigned. You are also required to watch the trailer in different auditorium. "to watch the trailer for the first showing of a particular film on each screen."

If the first showing is at 11 am and the next showing is at 1:00pm in the same audirotium, you don't have to watch that one. Generally, trailer checks take no more than 30 mintues for at least three different auditoriums or less.

If You are attempting to watch a movie then do it after your trailer checks are over.

the theater knows how many screens are showing them... its online as well...

usually it is not 2 hours after the first showtime however it is usually less than an hour... i would talk to the theater manager... it is a revealed check so you can talk with them... they know what goes on and what is required..

as to watching the movie that is up to the manager...

I used to do these shops a lot in college after classes on Friday in the afternoon so it wasn't so busy. It was a pain to try and track down the managers if I showed up at 8PM to check trailers. I almost always stayed and watched movies, although I never really asked the managers. They did probably see me two hours later but never confronted me about it. They didn't give me any grief when I saw them next week so I assume it didn't really bother them. You can pretty much do the math to figure out how many screens there are before hand. If a movie is 2 hrs and there are 3 showtimes within 2.5 hours there are probably 3 screens. I don't think I ever came across a showing that had different trailers before the same movie on different screens,

I do trailer checks every week, but I only accept them for movies that are only playing on one screen. I just check and see which theater isn't going to sacrifice a second screen to the same film. After sitting at a theater all day to check Transformers on 6 different prints for $20, I vowed never again!
If you take checks that are for movies playing on one screen, it's a breezy in-and-out in 20 minutes process. Much more worth it!

I did Harry Potter Part One in January. So glad I turned down Part Two in July.

After 3 hours of going up and down stairs/escalotar, my feet had it.

The theatre had 18 screens and HP was on 10 of them, including IMAX and 3D. That I would never again. But I enjoyed TC on atleast three screens.

I had a strange situation last night trying to self assign on the purple portal for a 1st show trailer check. I hit "accept assignment" and was sent to a login screen. Obviously I was already logged in. When I searched again the assignment had disappeared. I sent them a message asking what I did wrong, and all I heard in response was that if it didn't appear on the search list, it wasn't available. Wierd.

Any suggestions on who to contact to get started doing trailer checks?

Thanks
Bryan in Halifax

Purple portal of Market Force, known as Certified Field Associates, is the one I do them for.

Can someone clarify for me? Not too bright.

After receiving the assignment . . .

1. Go to the theater then I (a) pay to enter then perform shop (b) request to see the manager in order to perform shop (c) or something else?

You go introduce yourself to the manager, tell him/her what you are doing, ask their permission to do so and they will either walk you in or give a heads up to the usher. When you leave have them sign your paperwork. There is no out of pocket to enter the auditoriums.

If it is not an open check, you do pay to get in.

you get a form for both you and the manager to fill out with your paperwork... they get these every week... so its a breeze for them

it will state before you sign up whether or not it is an open check.. if its not an open check you will get reimbursed for the tickets...

its all in the shop guidelines that you read before accepting the shop

this is all for marketforce... other sites i dont know...

I've been doing trailer checks for over 2yrs...mostly with a company in Burbank, CA, VeriTes.They are hard to get into. You register on line and wait for them to call you for assignments. No online access to assignments.It took almost 3mos to get an assignment out of them and some aggressive pushing on my part. Having said that... they have been giving me assignments every wk for the past year. Your paperwork includes a letter you give to the Manager requesting that they allow you access to do the trailer checks...it also states that you are not to watch the movie...unless it's for an Open Check...
You are usually required to check all screens that the feature is playing on...the checks usually start on Friday and you have until 5pm on Sat to enter your report on line.

I usually have 2 locations to check...most of the time a feature is playing on 2 or 3 screens...the start times are usually staggered so you can do the 1st showings on each screen if you start early...It's rare that I have to do the 1st showing on every screen, normally the check all screens that a feature is showing on once. If I start out a 10am, I'm usually one done by 1pm at one location...the only time I spend all day is when I'm doing Open or Blind Checks,where basically you are doing body counts for each showtime per screen.
I always call the theater the nite before and tell them I will be there tomorrow to do checks and ask How many screens the feature/s are playing on, because the online listings are not always reliable and you can't always figure out how many screens a fearture is playing on. Sometime they will add a screen due to increased demand/attendance.When I arrive at the theater i ask for a Plan-O-gram that shows all features,the showtime and what screens they are playing on. This way I can plan my day, I will either stay and complete all the checks or I'll do a couple and come back later to complete them.

I hope this made some sense to someone and not confused the matter. To me it's not worth it to accept assignments for features playing on 1 screen only...You make the money when a feature is showing on multiple screens...

BTW...I know longer do checks with CFA...because they usually cancel the assignment at the last minute, after you have already planned your weekend around the checks. A scheduler at another MSC told me that CFA is scheduling anticipating that they will get the assignments and when they don't they have to cancel.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2011 04:39AM by blaqwumin.

Some first show showtimes during the day are tricky.

I turned one down because a 2D first show was early afternoon and the first show 3D was much later in the afternoon. Did not want to stay all afternoon for this shop.

And when the staff gets to know you, they will allow you to watch any movie for free, as it is their theater, not the movie studio's.

I too, hate when Certified posts trailer checks in anticipation of an actual assignment only to cancel them out later on..

yeah they are a bit unreliable... it happens from time to time with their other merchandising assignments...

I've been trying to get these TC and poster installs, but no luck yet. Now I know that they're hard to get I won't be so upset. Would love to stay and watch the latest movies though and I'd buy my own popcorn.

I have done a number of Trailer checks in various theaters. They only take about 15 minutes because that is the typical running time. They, of course, are shown before the actual movie, so if there is a suitable time between the various showings, even of the same movie. Accordingly, plan time between the showings to run from one theatre to another one. You can usually call the theatre and ask anonymously what all screens are showing the particular movie and how far apart the screens are. As to the question of watching the whole movie, I have been advised by the schedulers that I should ask the manager if that is permissible. Generally they are okay with that. There is one exception to this. Sometimes the client itself decrees that you are not to do that. If so (and it happens every so often) you need to obey or risk not getting paid or worse yet, deactivated. One other thing is to print out 2 copies of your letter of authorization. The reason is because the manager on duty will usually want to have one as a courtesy, and then the individual at the check in line or area will want to see one, You generally don't need to give one to the person athe check-in. You simply need to show it to the person. Hope this helps, but feel free to check back with any additional questions.