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Author Topic: Another digital disaster Edward Havens Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 614 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Mar 2008 posted 10-02-2012 04:46 AM                     It's a matter of trust. Disney always sends out titles and KDMs of their new movies days before opening, and rewards the dedicated projectionist who QCs those titles in advance. Sony regularly issues KDMs for sixteen weeks, when 90% of films are out of theatres after just six weeks. Other studios have their KDMs unlock only a few hours before the start of the first show, or have their KDMs lock up at 11:59pm on the final day of the playdate. (Thankfully, KDMs that lock in the middle of a show do not interrupt that show.) It does sound like the KDM for the DePalma movie locked up before the screening began. Maybe the show started half an hour late, and the KDM issued locked up 10-15mins after the show was supposed to start. I don't know. I doubt the writer of this article understood what they were writing about. Or at least that was I can tell from his insipid response to my comment. If it was the KDM locking up before the show started, and the show was delayed for any number of reasons, there will be some good that comes out of this. If this was the case, KDM issuers will make sure in the future to issue keys that don't lock up so dang quickly.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-02-2012 10:27 AM                        I don't think "trust" has much to do with it. It's probably just the bean counting suits who have nothing better to do and are paranoid about "piracy" but have never been inside of a projection booth who make these decisions about the KDM's.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 10-02-2012 12:17 PM                     Some of this comes down to old fashioned customer service. An average film fan in the audience doesn't really have any obligation to know the various specific technical reasons of why a high profile film festival screening got canceled. He has a right to be pissed off about it. You can refund the customer's ticket, but you can't refund his time and planning spent to watch the movie that evening. In the end the customer is still liable to be pretty annoyed. Likewise, an irritated customer will have many ways to sound off about a bad experience (forums, blogs, social media, etc.). Inaccurate statements posted online or spread via word of mouth about the experience are one of the very real consequences any business, not just movie theaters, can expect from delivering bad customer service. Others will embellish the story further if they feel like spreading it around to even more people. This fact of life is all the more reason for various movie studios to do more to make "digital" more reliable. If anything, the explanation of a prematurely expired KDM as the cause of a show failure would likely make me even more angry than getting no explanation at all. The KDM thing is a very simple problem, one that was caused by some particular person who either doesn't know or doesn't care about the "what if" possibilities that could ruin a show. The KDM thing is a pretty simple problem to solve, if certain decision makers will allow it to be solved. I think I could be slightly more understanding with a film-based show failure. Things like brain wraps and other malfunctions can happen (although they're less likely to happen in a well maintained and operated booth). It may be something that's out of the projectionist's control. Even still, a film-based show can recover from a failure like that even though it can cause some considerable delay. A badly scheduled KDM? That's just simple human ignorance coming from up on high. There's no excuse for that. It's just too bad the person at the projectionist level is the one getting his ass chewed by audience members and the movie's director. The executive deciding how the KDMs are getting written is the one who really needs the ass chewing.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-02-2012 02:13 PM                        Yeah, that's what I just said.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 10-02-2012 02:19 PM                     Bobby, let me chime in here for a minute. Not all server interfaces are created equal. Some of them aren't quite as easy to look through to check KDMs as they should be. Dolby is the one server that really got this right. You can look at the build page, content page or license page to get the info you need and it is a no-bs display. For example from the content page "properties": Sep 20, 2012 12:01AM - Oct 19, 2012 3:59AM From the build page: MOVIE-TITLE-HERE "ok" From the licenses page: MOVIE-TITLE-HERE / valid from 9/20/12 12:01AM / valid until 10/19/12 3:59AM / status "ok" As if that wasn't enough, assuming you are using a schedule just look at the schedule page. If it is grey and has an unlocked padlock, you're set. If it is gold with a locked padlock, it won't run. Even the playlist itself will show in red with a padlock if the key isn't valid. They also have the little blinking yellow warning icon in the upper corner of their GUI when you are on the last 24 hours of a key. My only beef with this is to this day they still have not fixed the tremendously retarded fact that it blinks even if there is already a key loaded to pick up the kdm one minute after the current one expires. Anyway, some of the server GUIs are not very "friendly" for things like checking KDMs, although all do offer a means to find out if you are willing to click the mouse enough times and navigate cramped screen resolutions.  |  IP: Logged Edward Havens Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 614 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Mar 2008 posted 10-03-2012 12:07 PM                     One can also look at the key, which is an XML file, in a browser and see for oneself when said key opens and closes.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 10-03-2012 01:50 PM                     Here's something that's even easier: The folks making the KDM for the high profile show could double check the calendar and then author a KDM that's actually going to work during the scheduled show time, and for safety sake maybe put at least a few hours on the front and back end of the thing so it's guaranteed to work in case the screening is delayed or something. Obviously various people at different parts of the distribution and exhibition level took it for granted the show was just going to work and were then caught by surprise when it didn't. Pretty bad chance to take when the risk was getting burned with none other than the movie's director present in the audience. With film, projectionists needed to check for things like frame splices made in the wrong place. With digital, thing like the KDM are going to have to be checked in advance if possible.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-03-2012 02:12 PM                        Just curious. Is everywhere along the DCP production chain as heavily secured as the theatre? Is there some security operation that prevents the lab from running off unkeyed versions of the DCP for their own profit and amusement? Or is Hollywood still convinced that all of their bootlegging troubles start at the theatre?  |  IP: Logged Michael Goucher Film Handler Posts: 34 From: New York, NY USA Registered: Oct 1999 posted 02-06-2013 11:03 AM                        As I understand it the key had a 10 to 15 minute window to start the show, insufficient in the film festival environment. An introducer stepped into the spotlight, made his comments and introduced Brian DePalma who nodded and accepted applause and then the lights dimmed, the floor microphone was removed and the stage manager gave the cue to start and nothing happened. The time for the key to activate had passed. Typically, to accommodate most if not all festival eventualities, a 1/2-hour window to start the program would be necessarily normal. However the folks who make and deliver the keys are so thoroughly brainwashed about their role in protecting the content they minimize the start time window, especially at film festivals, although there is little reason to believe that festivals provide greater opportunity for content theft. In truth, screenings presented as part of a film's marketing run-up DO provide such opportunities, but who is going to stop the marketing departments? No One!  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-06-2013 03:27 PM                     Maybe I misread/misunderstood this last post but... I've never heard of a "start time window" in connection with KDM's. Starting 15 minutes after the key unlocked would not be an issue. You don't have to start as soon as the key unlocks. I've received KDM's that unlocked days ahead of the scheduled run. As I understand the rules: You cannot start before the key unlocks. You cannot start after the key expires. But -- or, "Butt!!!" as Phil Hill would say -- I do have a question: Does anyone know what happens if you start while the key is active, but then it expires DURING playback? Do any of the players take the running time into consideration? Would they allow you to start a show if there is insufficient time to play it all the way through? (Hmm. Must remember to try this...)  |  IP: Logged David Zylstra Master Film Handler Posts: 432 From: Novi, MI, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 02-06-2013 03:44 PM                     A KDM is only required to start the content, once started the show is supposed to continue through to the end regardless of KDM expiry time. DCI says that "To avoid end of engagement issues, a show time's playout may extend beyond the end of the KDM's playout time window, if started within the KDM playout time window, by a maximum of six(6) hours."  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-06-2013 03:48 PM                        It's still kind of risky, though, to have a key that is only valid for the show's scheduled start time and not through the expected running time of the show. What if there is a power outage? What if the show is delayed due to seating issues and/or an overly long introduction (as apparently happened here)?  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-06-2013 03:57 PM                     David beat me to it -- The text he quotes can be found in DCI Spec (1.2) under Section 9.4.3.5 "Functions of the Security Manager" Paragraph 2.c. And, to that I will add, Paragraph 2.b. states: "For any given composition, playout shall be enabled for any start time that is within the KDM's time window." Emphasis is mine. WAIT A SEC -- are y'all saying that the entire window was only 15 minutes?? I have to question whether this is actually the case because the sneak previews I have done (with or without filmmaker present) typically unlock the morning of the show or, at the latest, about an hour before show time and they've all lock up some time after the scheduled end time. The most paranoid KDM's lock up about 30 minutes after the scheduled end, other expire later that night at 11:59pm.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 02-06-2013 04:02 PM                        A former customer of mine, who has converted to digital said today. "With film we had problems that we could deal with ourselves. With digital we still have problems. Only difference is that most of the digital problems we are powerless to solve ourselves."  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-06-2013 04:03 PM                     There's some truth in that. And it reminds me of an old joke: "To err is human, but to REALLY fuck it up, you need a computer!"  |  IP: Logged

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