Posted on August 25, 2010 by Fiona Hilliard

A recent flight to Mexico City gave me the chance to sit through five films I would never pay to see…

Date Night

Movie Tag Line: “One Ordinary Couple. One Little White Lie”.

More like: Steve Carrell and Tina Fey turn their hand to lame comedy. Predictable.

Valentines Day

Movie Tag Line:” A Love Story. More or Less”.

More like: Actually, surprisingly funny.

The Informant!

Movie Tag Line: “Based on a Tattle -Tale”

More like: As always, Matt Damon = Zzzzzz.

The Ghostwriter

 Movie Tag Line: None

More like: There’s a reason why this film doesn’t come with a tagline. It’s headache inducing.

Dear John

Movie Tag Line: “Is Duty Enough Reason to Live a Lie?”

More like: Waaay too heavy, you’re supposed to be going on holidays…time for a nap.

Anyway, as I sat with the rest of the captive audience watching Delta’s selection, I couldn’t help wondering who had the job of choosing what we saw and more importantly, why do they think we love chick flicks?

So this week I did some digging…and came across the World Airline Entertainment Association’s website.  Who knew they had one?!

Apparently it’s all down to the IFE manager (that’s in-flight entertainment manager to you and me).  Along with a crack team of square-eyed film buffs, the IFE manager is responsible for choosing the movies we watch in between eating tiny packets of pretzels.  They also look after the in-flight audio and the in-flight magazines.

Sounds like a dream job…who else gets involved?

The IFE manager receives the movies from a programming services firm and they provide a screening service for the airline, taking in the tastes, preferences and policies of each individual airline.

The process doesn’t end there though.  All films must first be edited.  This is done for two reasons – technical and for content.  Basically all movies are created for wide-screen movie-theatres.  Therefore, those destined for airline exhibition must be altered to fit on the smaller overhead video screens or the in-seat LCD monitors.  Secondly, because airlines carry young children as well as a diverse mix of passengers from different cultures require edits for language, sex, violence and political or religious content.  This job is usually carried out by the film distributor.

As you can probably tell, the chick flick genre seems to fall neatly into this mould –  minimal editing required.  But I still have a niggling thought…why oh why then show the Bucket List?! Aer Lingus Dublin – JFK/May 2008, I’m talking to you!