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Topic: Transformers prints delivery info ??

Paul Konen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 981
From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-02-2007 08:53 AM

So, I checked the website transformerslockcode.bydeluxe.com and it was up and running by 8 am. All it showed was the Deluxe logo and the 4 digit code.

Figured I would try it since they have to push the address to all the DNS servers in the world and that would take some time. I know that the addy could have been populated before, but then why have the website active with the correct information before the mandated 9 am local time. (Uggh!)

Also, the date/time stamp in the Digital key is actually GMT. Just offset by your timezone to know when it activates.

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Chris Mosel
Film Handler

Posts: 74
From: New Braunfels, TX, USA
Registered: Sep 2002

posted 07-02-2007 09:46 AM

First print...lock opens on first try. Second Print...no luck, call Deluxe, try other combinations, still no luck!!! I am then given permission from Deluxe to cut lock(after giving print # and other info), go to Lowes and buy bolt cutters, lock open!!!

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Mark J. Marshall
Film God

Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 07-02-2007 09:59 AM

Chris,

Will someone be reimbursing the theater for the cost of the bolt cutters? They should be.

[ 07-02-2007, 08:50 PM: Message edited by: Mark J. Marshall ]

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Chris Mosel
Film Handler

Posts: 74
From: New Braunfels, TX, USA
Registered: Sep 2002

posted 07-02-2007 10:43 AM

Bolt cutters worked great. Plan is to be reimbursed but thats up to corporate folks.

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John Wilson
Film God

Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 07-02-2007 03:26 PM

Seriously, how fucked is this industry now? [thumbsdown]

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Mike Olpin
Chop Chop!

Posts: 1852
From: Dallas, TX
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 07-02-2007 04:35 PM

Anyone know how to reprogram the code on the locks? Nothing would make me happier than to return the prints "secured" with a combination only I know. I'll then release the code to Deluxe 5 days later on a website. [evil]

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Jon P. Inghram
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 124
From: Wichita, KS USA
Registered: Jan 2007

posted 07-02-2007 07:06 PM

http://www.travelsentry.org/faqs.asp , at the bottom of the page.

I wonder what a "piracy investigation" involves? When I first saw that I thought it'd be cool if every theater "tampered" with their locks. I wonder how much it'd cost them to investigate every theater in the country? [evil]

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Mark J. Marshall
Film God

Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 07-02-2007 08:52 PM

I will be returning my padlocks on the cans exactly the way I found them. One with the correct combination, and one with the incorrect combination. I figured it out. Maybe they can too. If not, I guess they can buy some bolt cutters to get it off.

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Chad M Calpito
Master Film Handler

Posts: 435
From: San Diego, CA
Registered: Apr 2006

posted 07-02-2007 10:11 PM

I'll returing the Padlocks as they came, but, in the Film Cans. I got my codes this morning when I reported in for work and started building up the prints. A strange thing though, a manager from the Town Square Stadium 14 called and said the codes they got didn't even work. What kind of BS is that?

It's funny that DFS would make things inconvenient for all of us projectionists by pulling a Padlock Stunt like this. That makes me upset.

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Dustin Mitchell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1865
From: Mondovi, WI, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 07-03-2007 02:27 AM

DFS has nothing to do with the padlocks themselves and it is uncertain how much responsibility they have for the incorrect combinations. The entire padlock scheme was a Paramount brainchild. If DFS doesn't do what Paramount tells them too then there is always Tecchnicolor.

I find the whole thing imensely stupid. Off the shelf re-programable locks aren't going to stop any theif.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

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

posted 07-03-2007 03:18 AM

quote: Dustin Mitchell
I find the whole thing imensely stupid. Off the shelf re-programable locks aren't going to stop any theif.

Precisely! How much do those things cost? $10, 15? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to come to the realization that he can cut the locks off, pre-build and test screen the print, then replace it with one from the store that he sets to the same combination.

Why would anyone go to the trouble? Simple. It's because $10 or 15 is CHEAPER THAN CANCELLING SHOWS ON MONDAY AFTERNOON TO CHECK SCREEN THE PRINT!!!

I certainly do hope everyone was smart enough to cancel Shrek the Turd all day long to enable the check screenings. Anyone who had to cancel other movies were unfairly taking money from their pockets for Paramount/Dreamwork's bonehead idea. (But hey, we have to do what we have to do.)

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Jake Lafree
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 136
From: Valparaiso, IN USA
Registered: Feb 2006

posted 07-03-2007 04:19 AM

Why cancel Shrek showings when you have expert code-guessing fellow projectionists at your side? We cracked the code in under an hour when our prints came in and screened it Thursday night. Can anyone else in the US beat that? [Big Grin]

Also, did anyone else notice the code is in the movie at least twice? The first time is in Reel 1. Also ironic that the code is my birthday!

Seriously, Paramount, cheap locks on ancient cans with the same combo on all 4,000+ prints? And when you get the prints so early like we did, suddenly 10,000 possible combinations sounds VERY realistic (especially when you work CONSTANT doubles like myself and have hundreds of little 5 min breaks between starts). If Paramount is stuck on the 'lock' idea for security, why not have a 9 digit code and get the most heavy duty locks out there? Of course this would only work 'better' if the cans that the locks were on were made this century.

If you really are that concerned with the security, then for god's sake just release the prints the night before the first showings or something (granted there will be problems with some prints).

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 07-03-2007 04:27 AM

quote: Mike Olpin
Anyone know how to reprogram the code on the locks? Nothing would make me happier than to return the prints "secured" with a combination only I know. I'll then release the code to Deluxe 5 days later on a website.

Damn, Mike, I really like the way you think!

You know, it's not only the studios who are at fault here, yah, the head of Paramount security came up with halfwit idea so he could get a gold star stuck on his ass and make it look like there is a reason for the company to pay his salary, but it's just as much the corporate hacks who run the chains who are just as much at fault. If THEY were interested in their own theatres and how they are run and ultimately how they look in front of the public, they should give enough of a damn to realize that a fieasco like this lock thing causes them real operational problems to say nothing of making it potentially necessary to cancel shows so that at the local theatre level the late prints can be properly pre-screened (do they even know their theatres pre-screen?).

IF THE CHAIN HACKS HAD ANY BALLS, they wouldn't stand for it this kind of nonsense by the studios. Chains have enough clout that they can tell Paramount, listen, you assholes, next time you send us prints with half-ass combination locks on them we are going to cancel your opening night. It only would take one or two chains to start dictating THEIR rules instead of cowering like wusses and swallowing any wad the studios pump out. What would Paramount do if even one big chain closed out 800-1000 screens on opening weekend? What would THAT do to TRANSFORMERS' opening hype on all the TV and newspapers top ten weekend movie lists?

Trouble is, just like the studio execs who couldn't give a crap about what happens outside of the LA theatres where they go with all their botox-injected sicophant friends, the chain execs are pretty much just as isolated. The fact that they don't yell and scream when studios pull these stunts and the fact that they have no clue that not having enough time to build and pre-screen prints could ruin their own theatre's rep and drive patrons away to say nothing of totally stressing out the poor guys/gals who have to work their booths, only goes to show they really don't care about their end product -- presentation.

How come they can't see that they wield a good deal of power themselves. There is no reason why NATO can't go as a unified force to Paramount and say, "look, this is the way it is going to be; we need a full 72 hours to properly prep and prescreen a print. And we won't play any title that comes in later than that. Period." It's that simple. All it would take would be that one, single shot heard round the world, when NATO steps up and says, Any studio wants to play its pictures in our member theatres has to sign OUR Master Contract. How is it that there is a contract that only one side authored; how is it that those terms were never negotiated. NATO doesn't seem to know the meaning of give and take negotiation.

And certainly pulling this padlock thing without first asking exhibition (NATO) if, gee you guys, will this screw up your operation?

A NATO spokesperson should be holding a press conference today telling the media that many people might not be able to see TRANSFORMERS in it's opening weekend because Paramount unilaterally decided to lock all the prints, implying that theartre personnel are dishonest theives and might steal them. Display outrage, make it clear that much of the piracy comes from studio insiders and it is an insult to all honest theatre workers as well as a serious impediment to the theatre technical staff being able to get the picture on the screen in a timely manner." The NATO spokesperson should have an appropriate mix of contrite and hurt and nobility. In the meantime, Furthian should be banging on Parmount's corporate door snarling like a bulldog warning them that any studio pulls something like that again without prior warning and without inquiring if it will negatively impede booth work-flow, and that turd of a movie doesn't go up on any NATO screen.

Let's see how the studio stockholders like it when it's announced that the big blockbuster which they were pinning their dividends had a $2m opening weekend!

Like I said, NATO just lays back and spreads its collective legs and says, "Oh Baby, Baby, Oh Baby....screw away."

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Anslem Rayburn
Master Film Handler

Posts: 476
From: Yuma, AZ, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 07-03-2007 06:35 AM

quote:
Also, did anyone else notice the code is in the movie at least twice? The first time is in Reel 1. Also ironic that the code is my birthday!

"Are you ladiesman217?"

quote: Frank Angel
Display outrage, make it clear that much of the piracy comes from studio insiders and it is an insult to all honest theatre workers as well as a serious impediment to the theatre technical staff being able to get the picture on the screen in a timely manner.

Piracy comes from everywhere. You prove that much of it comes from studio insiders. It's simply not true, from what I have seen. It might be easier for you to accept that, but everything I have ever seen that was pirated (save for one movie, some 12 years ago) has come from a camcording of a theater screen. This doesn't mean it's employees of the theater's that are doing it, but it's just dishonest to blame dvd screeners or insided jobs based on anything I have ever seen. I disliked the padlocks as much as anyone, and I don't understand the point, nor the expense. But let's not point fingers at another party that doesn't really deserve the blame for piracy, either. Just because it makes more sense to dupe a copy from a DVD screener doesn't mean it is the pirate's method of choice...

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Mark J. Marshall
Film God

Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 07-03-2007 08:33 AM

quote: Jake Lafree
Can anyone else in the US beat that?

The first one took me about ten minutes. The second one had a different combination, but took about fifteen minutes.

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