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Topic: WB and Fox are watching you!

Nicholas Roznovsky
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 156
From: College Station, TX, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-28-2003 12:01 AM

Something in IMDB's Studio Briefing section today:

quote:
In their latest effort to halt piracy, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox have hired security personnel to monitor media screenings with night-vision binoculars to look for persons trying to use camcorders while the movie is being run, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Thursday). The newspaper said that at a May 18th press screening of Warner's Dreamcatcher, those entering the theater were also scanned with an electronic wand. In January, security personnel using night-vision lenses nabbed a person in the audience using a camcorder to record Fox's Daredevil, the Times said. "We have instituted a variety of measures at screenings, including checking the projection booths," Jeffrey Godsick, Fox's marketing chief, told the newspaper. (Several reports have indicated that many pirated films appear to have been shot with cameras mounted on tripods inside theater projection booths.)

You've gotta have some serious stones to set up a tripod rig in the booth at a company screening. And probably quite an involved sound setup to avoid having a tape with booth noise. I have my doubts about the feasibility of creating a half decent video from the booth. Of course, if there's money to be made, someone will find a way!

Of course, it doesn't hurt for studio execs to see the inside of a booth. For many of them, it's the first time! [Wink]

[ 03-28-2003, 01:17 AM: Message edited by: Nicholas Roznovsky ]

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Scott Norwood
Film God

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

posted 03-28-2003 12:15 AM

If this helps to cut down on piracy and it doesn't inconvenience employees or legitiamte customers or otherwise interfere with normal theatre operations, then shouldn't we be supportive of this effort? If it helps more people to learn about how a booth is run, then that is an added bonus.

I'm as opposed to extreme anti-piracy measures as anyone else when they hurt law-abiding customers, but trying to catch handycam-in-theatre pirates seems completely reasonable to me.

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Nicholas Roznovsky
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 156
From: College Station, TX, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-28-2003 01:20 AM

I fully support reasonable efforts to prevent piracy and the measures above seem perfectly reasonable. I don't remember making any non-supportive statements about them. Just bringing them to everyone's attention.

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Bill Enos
Film God

Posts: 2081
From: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 03-28-2003 07:46 AM

We played around with camcorders a couple years age and found that most analog and especially VHS machines had a pretty crappy looking picture, but a Sony digital camcorder made a very good copy, it could be easily distinguished from a bondfide legal tape or DVD though.

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Thomas Procyk
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1842
From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 03-28-2003 07:56 AM

quote:
And probably quite an involved sound setup to avoid having a tape with booth noise.

Not necissarily. IIRC the "Phonic Ear" hearing impared system's transmitter gets its sound via Left and Right RCA inputs. Just pop those puppies out and plug them into your digital camcorder with variable frame rate, set it at 24fps, and you've got the latest release on home video with stereo sound.

The other method pirates use, especially overseas, is in auditoriums with handicapped seating which has a HEADPHONE JACK in the armrest! [Eek!]

Crystal clear sound at your fingertips.

IMHO, they should really be going after stuff like that. If there was no way to get even "acceptable" sound on a bootleg, many people wouldn't even bother with it.

=TMP=

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 03-28-2003 08:32 AM

I've heard that quite a few "piracy-prone" theatres have been identified by tracking the CAP code on the pirated videos and Internet copies that are decoded by the MPAA.

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Don Bruechert
Mmmmmmmmm, bird!

Posts: 340
From: Manitowoc, WI, USA
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 03-28-2003 08:48 AM

What is the CAP code? I got a notice from Dreamworks last night about some missing paperwork and it listed a CAP code after the film's name....

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 03-28-2003 09:30 AM

CAP Code is "Coded Anti-Piracy", a system Kodak developed for the MPAA that has been in use since 1982 to track the source of pirated videos. It embeds a variety of tracking data into the film image that can be decoded by the MPAA from pirated videos or illicit Internet copies, identifying the specific print that was copied illegally.

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Thomas Procyk
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1842
From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 03-28-2003 11:42 AM

John -- Most of these internet copies are of such horrible quality, could the CAP code even be detected/seen anymore?

=TMP=

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 03-28-2003 01:17 PM

Discussions on the CAP code are here a'plenty.

The CAP Code (Main discussion)

Has anyone seen this man? (What Jack Valenti will do to you if you bootleg a movie.)

CAP Code...enough already! (If you just don't have the time to read the first link, this is a sort-of summary.)

WARNING: Do not click on the thread "CAP code secrets revealed" if you want to be able to continue enjoying movies! It's far worse than noticing changeover cues for the first time.

CAP code secrets revealed

I still have my doubts that the CAP code can be distinguished on a really bad copy, but knowing the basics of how it works I can see how it could withstand generation loss, so you've got to give them the benefit of the doubt here.

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 03-28-2003 03:44 PM

If you really want to foil people who try to use camcorders to pirate movies why don't you put some flickering infra-red LEDs behind the screen in positions strategically designed to be the most annoying?

If the positions of the LEDs could be manipulated in such a way as to make a specific pattern for every screen you can even tell which auditorium the copy was made in.

[evil]

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David Favel
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 764
From: Ashburton, New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 03-28-2003 06:13 PM

Isn't half the problem the screener DVD's that studios send out?
Most of the bootlegs I've seen has the disclaimer along the bottom of the screen.

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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"

Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted 03-28-2003 06:46 PM

quote:
The other method pirates use, especially overseas, is in auditoriums with handicapped seating which has a HEADPHONE JACK in the armrest! Crystal clear sound at your fingertips.

Some cinema processors, like the wonderful DFP-D3000, even have HEADPHONE JACKS! [Eek!]

I don`t doubt that some of the pirates who have access to a booth which does not have such a processor simply bring audio mixing equipment and downmix directly from the processor`s main output.
The hearing impaired system usually is fed a center-weighted mono sum of L+C+R.

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Darryl Spicer
Film God

Posts: 3250
From: Lexington, KY, USA
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 03-28-2003 08:17 PM

Here is something I have never seen before. Warner Bros. has sent a 30 sec or so warning to be attached to the sneaks of what a girl wants. Basically it is telling people not to use camcorders in the theater and if you see someone doing it to tell the theater management.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

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

posted 03-28-2003 08:40 PM

NATO was supposedly working on a trailer like that. Could this be it?

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