When did CAP-Codes and Fake Leader Titles Start & End

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

I was recently discussing failed attempts to stop film piracy back when 35mm film roamed the earth. I was just curious:

When did the distributors start/end using CAP-Codes and the related soundtrack interruptions? Did they ever actually catch someone as a result, or was this just an exercise in annoying anyone inside or outside the industry that cared about quality presentation?

When did the distributors start/end printing fake movie names on their prints leaders? Again, did this ever stop any piracy, or was this just an exercise in annoying the people working in the exchanges and theatres?

[Brad Miller]

I believe the first widely used CAP code was on 1989 Batman from Warner Bros.

Somewhere early to mid 00s Deluxe made their version of the CAP code which had obnoxiously huge orange dots burned into the image. The worst example I remember seeing was Master and Commander.

The first audio cap code was on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Ahh, the dreaded CRAP codes. As someone who used to be able to see individual frames during projection, I found those VERY distracting. I also remember the audio crapcodes which made me think the processor was having a stroke.

Some of the fake leader titles were pretty clever and often funny, others were so stupidly lame as to serve zero purpose.

But lest we forget the real elephant in the room: The locked film cans. Especially at my university screenings, if the studio neglected to forward the combination, I either pulled the hinge pins or brought out the bolt cutters. I THINK (too many years ago to be sure) Deluxe finally just started sending my prints with the plastic seals on the cans, enclosing replacement seals for me to put on after the screening. A much better and more practical solution.

Ironically (but not surprisingly) all of the above did little or nothing to even slow down film piracy, and I don't recall hearing of any big cases being prosecuted because of any of those measures. (Of course we all know of a certain person who was caught selling films from a certain location....obviously never hearing of the saying "Don't s**t where you eat.")

Since the big digital conversion, piracy has EXPLODED since it is a LOT easier to get digital files and upload those than to camcord or scan a 35mm print.

[Brad Miller]

What was absurd about the fake titles on the leaders was half of the time the shipping cans would have the real name of the movie printed on the labels. What's the point? Now for all time anyone receiving one of those movies has to know about the fake leader names or think they got the wrong print. For example someone who didn't run Lord of the Rings (Fellowship) might not realize that the print of "Changing Seasons" was actually their Fellowship print. And besides, any real pirate who was trying to intercept shipment of a new movie to a theater would be smart enough to know the big 3-can "NEW LINE" shipments were exactly what they were looking for regardless of how it was labeled. I have a hard time believing the "fake titles" actually stopped anything.

Piracy for direct-to-streaming exploded the first hour Mulan was released, and it will continue and get worse and worse. The studios are knowingly LETTING theaters die by not giving them product, but when they want to get theaters running again they may find it's not recover-able at that point if they don't start releasing good product NOW. There is no excuse not to at least give theaters a 2-week head start before streaming. As it stands, despite all of the babbling and fear tactics from Jack Valenti back in the day, streaming piracy for one TRULY WILL kill the studio's profits.

[Martin McCaffery]

As far as how back fake leaders go, I once got an archival print of Marlon Brando's The Wild One with a different name (over 35 years ago, so don't remember the fake name).
The Last Temptation of Christ also had a fake leader name, but it is my understanding that was to throw of anyone trying to disrupt the exhibition of the film.

[Frank Cox]

I don't know if it was true or not, but quite a few years ago I was complaining about the pain-in-the-ass factor of having film cans with fake names on them and I was told that there had been issues at some bus depots where a print that was to be transferred from bus A to bus B would disappear for a while and get duplicated. Then the original shipment was put onto bus B and delivered as usual and nobody ever knew that anything had happened while it was in transit. The fake names were supposed to make that more difficult to accomplish.

[Leo Enticknap]

What was even worse about the fake titles was that, in my experience at least, theaters were not forewarned to expect them. The first time I encountered one was pre-emigration, in England in 1999. The movie was the first of the new batch of Star Bores flicks (The Phantom Menace, if memory serves me correctly). It was hugely anticipated and expected to draw lines around the block. The day before it opened, a print arrived with the title Perfect Timing on the shipping cases. I was actually there in the lobby when the Securicor guy showed up and unloaded the following week's films. I told him that we weren't playing any movie with that name, reversed the label, and had him take it away again. The following morning, still no sign of Star Wars. We called the distributor in a panic, who insisted that the print had been delivered. No it bloody well hadn't, I replied. It was only when an emergency delivery, done at huge expense, arrived a few hours later, also with a print labeled Perfect Timing on the box, did I realize what had happened. I opened the box, opened one of the cans inside, and saw the actual title on the leader.

This became standard practice, and thereafter, if a print arrived with a title I didn't recognize, I would always open it up, look at it, and discover that it was a movie shipped under a false name. I can understand the logic of shipping a print with a false name on the packaging. If it's a major blockbuster, I can see how a minimum wage employee at a shipping depot might be tempted to steal the package. But not forewarning theaters in advance was spectacularly stupid, IMHO.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

What was even worse about the fake titles was that, in my experience at least, theaters were not forewarned to expect them.

Yep, the first time that happened to me at the University (I would arrive only about an hour or so before the show, enough time to inspect the print and set up the room) I about had a heart attack. Even the reel bands had the fake title, but luckily the print leaders had the "reel" title on them. Pissed me off.

[Brad Miller]

It would have been so easy for the labs to have printed an extra 5 feet of leader with the fake title, then the real leader with the real title afterwards. Once the film arrived at the first playdate, the initial wrap of extra leader could have been cut off and tossed.

The labs did finally start to get smart towards the very end. For example later prints did adopt my idea of having multiple little yellow burned dots on the edge of the film in the first and last few feet of a reel to designate what reel number it was (just "count the dots" to get the reel number). Sadly they never did anything for this scenario of fake titles, nor did they ever listen to my plea for putting half a dozen duplicate frames with an "X" printed over them of the first 6 frames on a reel at the end of the leader to aid people in matching leaders to reels instead of chopping off actual frames of the finished product when assembling to large rolls.

[Harold Hallikainen]

Having never worked in a theater, I find this pretty strange. Why not just print an order number on the shipping label? Back when I had my own company (many years ago), we had a purchase order number for every order going out. We then referenced the PO to check what was received. Do theaters issue order numbers for film rentals (whether delivered as a film print or a hard drive)? Putting this on the label seems to avoid issues.

[Frank Cox]

I don't know how the big dogs do it, but I've never booked a movie by anything other than the title. "Can I play Night of the Living Whatzit from date x to date y?" "We'll put you on the list."

That's about all there is to it as far as I've ever seen.