Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Locks on the film cans

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Posted by Robert Harrison (Member # 3202) on 05-06-2006, 12:59 PM:

Last evening, I received a print of the film "Goal: The Dream Begins." We are scheduled for a special screening of this flick on Monday night. There were combination locks on the damn cans! I asked the delivery guy if he had the key. He, of course, knew nothing about it.

Today we received a fax from the good ol' boys at Technicolor. This is what it said:

"Pre-Release Print Security for Screening of GOAL! THE DREAM BEGINS

The biggest Threat to our industry today is piracy. Buena Vista and your theatre share a vested interest in doing everything possible to prevent it.

You are scheduled to screen GOAL! THE DREAM BEGINS in the next few days. Technicolor will deliver this print in a locked can. The purpose of the lock is to add another layer of security to protect the print from piracy. PLEASE DO NOT CUT THE LOCK.

Technicolor will call your theatre with the combination to unlock the cans. If your screening is before noon, we have instructed them to call after 5:00 PM the day before. If your screening is after noon, they will call on the morning of the screening. If you have not heard from Technicolor, or have problems opening the can, DO NOT CUT THE LOCK. Call Technicolor at 1-800-99-FILMS for instructions.

When you return the print, please be sure to relock the can. Technicolor will report any prints that are not returned in locked cans. Thank you for your help.

Buena Vista Pictures Distribution"

In the words of C-3PO, "Will this never end?"

I don't know about all of you, but I have been breathlessly anticipating this particular film! [sleep]

Anyone else ever receive locked cans?

Posted by Alan Plester (Member # 852) on 05-06-2006, 01:32 PM:

SURE HAVE, WHEN we had Superman we had a reel delivered every day, and had to tell the distributor what reel it was, and what colour the band was around tha case, as it changed colour when touched, we never received the last reel until showing day.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 05-06-2006, 02:05 PM:

Yup. The first time I saw this was for a screening of--of all things--"America's Heart and Soul". The combinations that TES gave us didn't work. Fortunately, a flat-blade screwdriver proved quite effective at popping the rivets on the latch.

I've also seen those "tamper-proof seals" (of the type used for electric meters) used on some (ETS, I think) prints. The can latches can usually be opened without removing the seals, so I usually return those cans with the seals intact (to hopefully make a point).

I would be able to better understand these "security" measures if a) they were actually effective and b) they used them on films which someone might actually want to pirate. Otherwise, it's just a waste of time and money for everyone concerned.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-06-2006, 02:17 PM:

Our print of "Star Wars Ep. III" last year arrived from ETS with a "tamper proof seal" on the Fox-box. It was just white paper containing text like "Notify ETS if this seal is broken etc." The "seal" was just printed on white copier paper, in fact it LOOKED like a photocopy, and it was "sealed" with regular plastic packaging tape which I was able to easily pull off without damaging the "seal."

quote: Robert Harrison
The purpose of the lock is to add another layer of security to protect the print from piracy. PLEASE DO NOT CUT THE LOCK.

I didn't realize that NO film theives possessed bolt cutters! I'm amazed at how the security forces are able to keep this kind of technology from the pirates.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 05-06-2006, 04:14 PM:

The last time I got padlocked prints ('A Bug's Life' and 'Jane Austen's Mafia!') I needed to get them built and QC screened ASAFP as they screened within 24 hrs of their arrival and I had no keys or combo, and nobody was available to give me themn either.

What did I do?

I CUT OFF THE MOTHERFUCKING LOCKS!

NOBODY said a word about it, either.

If I ever get a padlocked print without keys or a combo in my hands within 24 hrs of the QC screening, I'm gonna cut the fucking locks off AGAIN.

BV knows what they can do with their fucking locks! [fu]

/rant off

-Aaron

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 05-06-2006, 07:19 PM:

What the dumb shits don't want to acknowledge is that before the cans ever hit the street, the high quality pirated DVDshave been on the street for a week.

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 05-06-2006, 07:38 PM:

Occasionally, they'll throw what looks like a thin little lock on the cans, actually it's just a wire joined at the base with a plastic fitting that does the job of a cable tie. Have a sharp set of cutters in the booth, always!

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 05-06-2006, 10:43 PM:

Aaron:

Stop beating around the bush and tell us how you really feel.

Posted by Elizabeth Betty Gross (Member # 2532) on 05-07-2006, 01:22 AM:

Try 7770

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-07-2006, 05:31 AM:

I can't remember ever having had a padlocked transit case, but the 'security' trick British distributors would sometimes play is shipping the print with a fictitious name on the shipping case and cans. I guess the thinking was that if a Securicor van gets hijacked and the robbers find a pile of cans with 'The Suicide of Edna Muggeridge' rather than 'Star Wars' on the labels, they will be less likely to nick them.

What makes it worse was that distributors deliberately would not forewarn cinemas that they were doing this, with the result that we had to heave each print up several flights of stairs and check it on the bench, to establish whether it was a film we were showing that had been shipped with a false name, or one which had been delivered by mistake (something which happened quite frequently). In the end I got so fed up with this that I took a similar line to Aaron's, and would simply send any film straight back that didn't have a name on the case I was expecting. I think that lots of other projectionists must have done this as well, because eventually the worst offending distributor seemed to stop the practice. We lost two or three Friday afternoon shows (and the distributor incurred an extra shipping bill) as a result of my refusing to put up with this BS and sending prints back unopened if they had a false title on, about which I hadn't been forewarned in advance.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 05-07-2006, 05:41 AM:

I've seen a cable tie around the buckle of the strap on the blue transit cases from MPD a few times, but not recently.

Posted by Alexander Smith (Member # 1769) on 05-07-2006, 06:29 AM:

Re: MPD and zip ties on the blue boxes:

I had a email discussion with the head guy at MPD about this.
They started doing that just so that when it was time to open
the box you had an extra task to do, just to make a potential
thief think about it. Sounds lame if you ask me but I don't
make the rules. MPD were considering using serially numbered
plastic seals, but they've (apparently) decided not to.

I had assumed, the first time I'd received a box from MPD,
that they had had problems with the black fastener popping
open unexpectedly.

Back on subject now:

AFAICR I've never received a film with locked cans (jigsaw and
a couple of metal cutting blades on stand-by!), but the
"security" for Mi3 was a bit of a joke:

Print delivered in two shipments, first even numbered reels
then the odd numbered reels. One of the reels had the reel
end taped down with what looked like red sellotape. If you
peeled the tape up it revealed it had two layers, with the
inner layer printed with 'VOID' on it. I had already cut the
tape to make-up the film but was examining it during an idle
moment. Another one of the reels was in a plastic bag with
"deluxe labs" printed on the side. The bag was sealed with blue
coloured tape, otherwise identical to the red tape. I had two
prints to make up, so I picked up the sharpie and cut open the
bottom of the bag.

With reference to the red and blue tape, a classic "man in the
middle" attack could have removed both the blue-tape-plus-bag,
and the red tape (trim the leader a little) and I would have
had no way of finding out about it.

Alex.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 05-07-2006, 11:29 PM:

Leo, this happens in the US all the time. For a while Sony was doing it on all their titles, blockbuster or not.

Whats worse is that sometimes the film leaders are even mislabeled. One of the Lord of the Rings movies had this, I forget what was on the leaders but it wasn't LotR.

Posted by Robert Harrison (Member # 3202) on 05-10-2006, 08:35 PM:

Well, wouldn't you know it?

Our print of "Goal" was picked up earlier tonight. Apparently it was shipped directly to another theatre in our area. A manager just called and said, "Uh, we received your print of 'Goal.' It has some locks on it. Do you have the combination for them?"

Remember, our "orders" were to lock the damn cans because they would check on this and report on it. So much for that. They just trucked it over to another poor guy who wasn't expecting locked cans. Technicolor was probably planning on waiting until tomorrow to tell them about those goofy locks, if they even remember to.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 05-10-2006, 10:33 PM:

I'm bringing bolt cutters to work tomorrow.

Just in case.

-Aaron

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 05-10-2006, 10:41 PM:

Bolt cutters, a.k.a. master keys. [Big Grin]

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 05-11-2006, 02:01 AM:

here here [evil]

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 05-11-2006, 05:04 AM:

6" angle grinder.

Much more satisfying [evil]

Or better still, a petrol driven Stihl saw [sex]

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 05-11-2006, 02:31 PM:

Goal! arrived today, sans locks. Just the usual TES plastic wire tie.

-Aaron