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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: digital nightmare
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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!
Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 01-28-2012 09:08 AM
Mike,
I think others have hit it...you are comparing US practices to other countries/localities. The other think you miss is the traditional 1st run release versus a screening or another 1-off. Even on screenings of movies in release I often get a KDM that is timed just long enough for a screening. I had a studio screening where I got a red flashing warning about expired KDM while the show was running! Fortunately, if the show had failed, it would have been the offending studio with egg on their face for their own security preventing the show from continuing.
I've seen KDMs with about a month on them so not all are 1-week things but the reason, Brad is control and that is a BIG part of the DCinema thing (not as big as the money aspect but it is still big). If you don't send the studio its money, they can shut the spigot off on you.
As for KDM delivery...with theatres with VPF programs, then there is a NOC and definitely the ability for an entity to send KDMs in electronically. In fact, Film-Tech's DCS service will do just that...THEY will ensure you have KDMs loaded in before you need them. Depending on your system, you need not unzip them either. The VPF systems like Cinedigm, KDM distribution can be greatly automated. Even non VPF systems like Dolby's DSL100, one can make KDM distribution automatic to the point you can put an FTP folder on the manager's computer, drop the zip file in and it will ingest/distribute to the various players without the need of a thumb drive.
This is all nice and all but if the KDM doesn't work or the DCP has a problem...it won't save a show. I agree with most about this paranoia. It is over the top and I don't believe the studio's bottom line is being affected by piracy in a measurable way. Mind you, I don't condone theft of any type...including movies and music and have no problem with the prosecution of those that practice it and knowingly obtain it. I just don't see them as a loss that would otherwise be turned into a gain...I think the majority of those that steal in this manner would not buy it by legitimate means. The real losses are those that unknowingly get a fake.
-Steve
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Dominic Espinosa
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1172
From: California, U.S.A.
Registered: Jan 2004
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posted 01-28-2012 09:01 PM
"I can have it downloaded, unzipped and ingested in about 60 seconds."...that's what she said.
I couldn't resist. Sorry, Mike.
I've had keys that don't go active until an hour before showtime or less and the exciting part being that they were incorrect.
Last DCI upgrade (thanks, guys. Pick a standard, will ya?) forced a change of serial number for the Sony media blocks when they swapped out boards. Even after numerous calls and e-mail we received incorrectly serial'd keys for weeks from both Deluxe and Tech...
To be fair, a lot of the pirated copies of movies I see out on torrent and such call them selves "telesync" or "tele" or some dumbass word they don't fully understand the meaning of that just means "video camera'd" and is shot in a theater.
Whether these are from advance screenings, public screenings, or employee screenings is really irrelevant.
If the studios have the ability to track CAP code and digital watermarks WHY is this even a problem?
Why can't the SOP simply be this:
I'm an exhibitor -- I know if my print is found online as a source of a pirated copy I will face x% penalty for the first time, y% for the second time, z% the third, and may lose good standing with the studio for future first run blockbuster films.
Oh but then, I guess the studios would have to admit when they screw up and it gets pirated via other means.
And I suppose it would be bad for business because they would have a harder time justifying the film rental %'s creeping up...
And while we're on the subject, riddle me this: why isn't anyone making dupes from DCP's yet?
I mean with tools like FFMPEG and imagemagick one can rip an unencrypted DCP and convert it to any consumer-friendly format already.
Aside from the fact that it would be very blatantly wrong in a moral sense and thus hard to justify in their own minds and the fact that MPAA would castrate you with a broken coke bottle, I'm kind of surprised someone hasn't written a pseudo media block that creates a fake serial, fake certificates, and fake keys to decode encrypted content.
The DCP itself doesn't carry much info and the meta data can be stripped once it's decoded. It's the KDM's that control all that jazz.
Just wondering.
/end rant.
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Jock Blakley
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 218
From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Oct 2011
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posted 02-06-2012 09:41 AM
As a projectionist at the theatre in question here, I’d like to take a moment to explain the situation in a little more detail for the more technically-minded readership here.
The blog post, I should point out, was written by a fantastically competent and very passionate staff member. However she has no day-to-day involvement in projection and very little technical knowledge on the subject, and that has lead to parts of the post containing inaccuracies or incomplete explanations. I offer my apologies and the following explanation.
As Bobby, Ian, and Steve have noted, we’re not a multiplex. Nor do we belong to any chain. We’re a 1160-seat repertory house in Melbourne that’s been under the same independent management for thirty years. With the exception of special seasons we show one or two different features each night and one or two matinees on Sundays, and we installed D-Cinema to complement our existing 35mm and 70mm installation.
We don’t have an IT department or “content managers” or even a basic TMS. We don’t even have a permanent internet connection at the theatre.
I’m perfectly happy to agree that the buck in this matter stops with us, because the issue was one we could have and should have noticed. I didn’t notice it because I was on vacation a thousand miles away and obviously neither the manager nor the duty projectionist caught it either – though whether that is because they simply didn’t check or didn’t know to check is beyond me. Either way it’s our responsibility in the end.
There are some extenuating circumstances, though.
The most obvious is that we’re not a first-run house and so we don’t open new films in three auditoria on a Friday and play them for a fortnight. One film – one night is the general rule here. 4am on the morning after the last day of the booking is in the vast majority of the time 4am on the morning after the first day of the booking. We rarely get drives a week in advance and we rarely get KDMs with twenty-four-hours pre-validity. In fact, one studio that is of paramount importance to this example has twice issued us KDMs (for the same feature, no less) that were active for only THIRTY MINUTES EITHER SIDE of the scheduled start time.
Further to that, there are times when even having the drive early is of no use to us because of space limitations on the server. In the week leading up to this incident we had DCPs for nine different features, and eight more different digital features in the following five days, in addition to the handful that are kept on the server because the hard drives have to be shipped from the UK at our expense.
We were therefore having at that time to delete features immediately after the screening and then return in the early afternoon to ingest the next set – via USB 2.0, as the Doremi Showvault that was specified for us by our installers lacks both E-SATA and CRU docks.
On that specific Wednesday the evening’s double was TAKE SHELTER followed by MONEYBALL. This would be irrelevant if not for the fact that the booked 35mm print of MONEYBALL didn’t show at its scheduled delivery on Monday. It was replaced with a 4K DCP that then required hasty ingestion at a time when the KDM issue with TAKE SHELTER may otherwise have been detected.
(At this point however Deluxe Media Logistics are to be commended for organising and providing the KDM for MONEYBALL without us needing to ask).
As to the KDM ingest time, I agree completely with Mike’s assessment of the time actually taken to perform this task. I’d suggest thought that the 5 to 10 minute estimate comes from including a few more processes – mostly the fact that the only computer with an internet connection is in the theatre office, four flights of stairs and two foyers away from the bio-box. While this may not take ten minutes even if you include a few small delays in issuing and downloading the KDM, neither is it the work of sixty seconds.
In any case, the night has passed and we’ve learnt some lessons. Three days after the TAKE SHELTER incident we screened HARRY POTTER 7.2 in 2K... and we were sent the wrong KDM. It turns out that two versions of that feature were distributed in Australia – one masted by Technicolor LA and the other by Dolby UK. This is not externally indicated on the drive and seems to be a crapshoot.
This is just one of the frustrations we’ve endured with digital cinema and though we are at fault here we haven’t necessarily been so in other cases. Our very first screening with the new Barco was the Blu-Ray of the 2010 reconstruction of METROPOLIS (the distributor decided not to get a DCP after promising us one). After six seconds on screen the scaler dropped the HDCP link and thus the picture, and needed to be rebooted.
A week later during a screening of OF GODS AND MEN a problem either with the DCP or with our equipment caused subtitles to display sporadically, and often not at all. We were unable to resolve the problem despite calling Deluxe’s 24-hour hotline and speaking to very helpful fellow in Burbank at 3am, and while we didn’t actually lose the show we may as well have. Eventually Deluxe UK and Laboratoires Eclair were also involved.
(and yes, Deluxe made us call a 24-hour help-line IN ANOTHER COUNTRY because the Deluxe D-Cinema Australia office is only open during normal business hours. Technicolor at least have a local dial-in number so that we’re spared the international call cost).
Happily we’re seeing some positive things too. The new 4K DCP of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S is unencrypted, and Park Circus (who supply us with Columbia/Sony rep and soon also UA content) are now issuing us one-year KDMs regardless of the number of booked screenings.
I couldn’t agree more with Brad though – this sort of rigmarole is bad enough for second-run; for rep its pathetic paranoia. Some of these titles have been out on some form of home video for more than TWENTY YEARS! Heck, THE WIZARD OF OZ first hit home-video shelves in 1980.
Part of our intransience here on the whole digital issue is that it’s being used as pretext to destroy film as a viable distribution medium – to the extent that it’s justifying the junking of perfectly useable prints.
Anyway, I hope I’ve been able to shed a little more light on the whole situation. Thank you all for your patience and understanding.
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