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Topic: Video-camera monitoring of screens/equipment?

Chris Erwin
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 195
From: Olive Hill,KY
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 04-16-2000 08:53 AM

KY doesn't have such laws. As for bootlegging, this would require a tele-cine conventer that was common in tv stations when they used film. Some places had 35mm that could do the job,most with 16mm. Now it's all video. So are they still that afraid of a bootlegger? Deliver our prints earier please!

Wait just a minute......didn't Kodak come up with an embedded "cap code" that could be embedded into a print to allow you to track pirates? (or which print the copy came from) John, could you field this one for Kodak?

--Chris

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John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 04-16-2000 09:20 AM

Techincolor's bootlegging policy is a joke. Most of the bootlegs I've seen are nothing more that a guy with a video camera sitting in a front row; you see people walking by, talking, eating, etc. A real pro will just either 'borrow' the print and telecine it, or run the film at 2:00 am when no one's in the theater.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

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

posted 04-16-2000 05:10 PM

That "cap code" is a joke! Notice how they refuse to demonstrate it's awesome detective power? And besides, once they use it to fight a case, the secret is out!

To whoever is responsible for this ludicrous "cap code" threat, allow me to randomly pick one reel from a movie, point a camera at the screen (flicker and all) and have 10 other Film-Techers across the country to do the same thing to their copy of that selected reel. We will then send you our videotapes and YOU tell us which tape came from which print. Uh, huh...yeah I didn't think you could.

Anyway, I'm not a bootlegger so the whole threat is a non-issue, but I am annoyed at these sort of lame security threats...especially when it delays my prints from arriving until Thursday night when I find a defective reel!!!

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Rob Brooks
Film Handler

Posts: 57
From: NY, U.S.A.
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 04-16-2000 08:42 PM

Hey John,
No New York law. But in the late 80's my UA Theater had them aimed at the platter with the projector image on the port glass in view too. Like I really spent every free moment watching the most boring show on earth on my monitors of platters spinning. Finally after a few years they all kind of broke and no on cared anymore. The status boards brought in 1986 to be installed are still sitting there uninstalled though.

------------------
Rob

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John Pytlak
Film God

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

posted 04-17-2000 07:35 AM

Brad:
I worked on the Coded Anti-Piracy (CAP) project. The first picture coded was Disney's "Night Crossing" in 1982. Hundreds have been coded since. I can assure you the CAP code has been very useful in identifying theatres that had lax security measures, such that pirated copies (even those shot off the screen using camcorders) could be decoded by the FBI, pinpointing the source of the copy.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com

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Brad Miller
Administrator

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

posted 04-17-2000 12:43 PM

Sorry John, but I still ain't bitin'. I still maintain it is nothing but a scare tactic. Perhaps someone will take me up on my offer to prove this? If this is for real, it will clearly prove it works. If no one is willing to take me up on my test, then I think that's proof enough against it.

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Bryan Redemske
Film Handler

Posts: 70
From: Cedar Falls, IA, USA
Registered: Feb 2000

posted 04-17-2000 01:11 PM

what exactly would the 'cap code' or whatever look like? how would you be able to tell?

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Brad Miller
Administrator

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

posted 04-17-2000 01:24 PM

If memory serves (with the very vague details that have been released) it looks like positive dirt on the film. Of course, if this were really the case, then I would be screaming at the depot for another print constantly.

Also, anything the video camera is going to pick up I guarantee you I will be able to see on screen.

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Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays

Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 04-17-2000 07:22 PM

Brad-

I think I remember some earlier code useage:

(1) "This newsstand is being watched." and
(2) "The speakers in this drive-in are high-voltage type and cannot be used at home."

Re: video camera useage:
Seems like I recall someone getting in hot water some time back, over having a video camera in their theatre. I don't think the film company cared though, since there weren't too many movies being shown in the ladies room!

------------------
Better Projection Pays!

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