Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Borat goes for the pirated look

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Posted by Edwin Sheldon (Member # 4001) on 03-02-2007, 01:28 AM:

The Borat DVD packaging is designed to make it look like it was pirated in a former Soviet republic, complete with Cyrillic lettering, blurry text and images, faux anti-piracy logo, washed-out colors, and handwritten title on a faux DVD-R. I think the joke is brilliant. The look is done beautifully (as anyone who has been to a foreign country where piracy is rampant can testify).

Borat DVD looks Pirated

quote:
Fear not, that Borat DVD you bought at Best Buy is not pirated, although appearances are somewhat deceiving.

As it turns out the DVD release of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan was made to look low-budget. Apparently there is not a word of english on the packaging. The DVD cover also appears to look color-copied (complete with off color tones, slightly blurred company logos, blurry text and moire pattern/lithographic scans. Now that’s funny.

Here's the packaging (image from the article):

And here's a shot of the disc, being held by an unnamed but obviously good-looking former theatre manager:

The logo of the disc says:

DEMOREZ
Is life? No. Demorez.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 03-02-2007, 02:01 AM:

They did this with one of the 3 billion different 'Army of Darkness' releases too.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 03-02-2007, 11:03 AM:

Borat comes in one of those slip cover over the regular DVD case. I got mine last week and it's was a cute idea. The slip cover is in english and the dvd case that's under it is the fake looking one.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-02-2007, 10:07 PM:

quote: Edwin Sheldon
The Borat DVD packaging is designed to make it look like it was pirated in a former Soviet republic, complete with Cyrillic lettering

Not really. Apparently those pirates from a former Soviet republic can't spell properly. It says "VOYADT" on the title (V-O-YA-D-T). "Borat" looks like this in capital Cyrillic letters:

БОРАТ

With the picture of the now very well known character on the cover, that would have been much more "realistic" and still very recognizeable. And of course, he had to have his name in clearly legible Roman letters on the front to satisfy his vanity. At least the cover should have a completely "authentic" post-Soviet pirate look, for a really genuine WTF?!? moment when you have the DVD in your hand. But like everything Borat, just a mildly funny idea half-assedly realized.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 03-02-2007, 10:37 PM:

[sleep]

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 03-02-2007, 11:39 PM:

Hmm, so it won't make much difference if I just make a copy of this instead of buy it? (It's coming out on Blew-Ray too.)

Posted by Edwin Sheldon (Member # 4001) on 03-03-2007, 12:33 AM:

I don't know how anyone could call Cohen's attempts at humor 'half-assed' considering the lengths he goes to just for a joke. Sure, you can say he's not funny, but lack of effort? [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 03-03-2007, 02:18 AM:

quote: Michael Schaffer
Not really. Apparently those pirates from a former Soviet republic can't spell properly. It says "VOYADT" on the title (V-O-YA-D-T).

Michael, I thought exactly the same thing when I first saw it on a poster. This use of Cyrillic characters that look a bit like Roman ones, but aren't, was quite common a few years ago. I would much rather see the name in either Russian or English, but not in some meaningless non-language, which I always found rather annoying. I think the most stupid example I ever saw was a Tee-shirt which said LONDON. I can't easily get Cyrillic characters on my keyboard, though I do have the fonts installed so at least they display correctly. I actually get quite a lot of junk e-mail in Russian for some reason. Anyway, the shirt used a Cyrillic 'I' for 'N', a Cyrillic 'G' for an 'L' and they couldn't think what to do for a 'D', so they just used the Roman one! Even if they had spelt it corrctly, why on Earth would a London shirt be in Russian?

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 03-03-2007, 02:44 AM:

Well shit, now I feel like an ass.

I was at a theater Thursday night wiring up some new video projectors when a manager brought a DVD into the booth and was all excited because he just bought a copy of Borat. I looked at it for all of 5 seconds and started giving him all sorts of shit about how it was a bootleg copy (not knowing it was released on video and they they were intentionally going for the bootleg look) and how he shouldn't do that no matter how badly he wanted to watch or own a copy. He kept insisting that he bought it from Blockbuster video, but I refused to believe him and ended up coming down on him harder and harder until he left the booth quite angry at me.

I guess I need to go back by that theater now and apologize. Stupid marketing!

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-03-2007, 10:16 AM:

Ha! [Smile]

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 03-03-2007, 10:47 AM:

Edwin

quote:
I don't know how anyone could call Cohen's attempts at humor 'half-assed' considering the lengths he goes to just for a joke. Sure, you can say he's not funny, but lack of effort? [Roll Eyes]

I am sure Mahir Cagri thinks Borat/Cohen is "hilarious".

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-03-2007, 11:02 AM:

quote:
Despite Mahir's accusations [that Cohen stole the character Borat from Mahir], in Borat's 1997 Guide to Britain (Two years before Mahir's website existed), the Kazakh reporter speaks with broken English, wears his famous grey suit, has his trademark mustache, invites his audience to stay with him in Kazakhstan and proudly announces his catchphrase, "I like sex." The Borat character has been in development since 1994 and has evolved from an Albanian reporter named Kristo.

Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 03-03-2007, 02:01 PM:

quote: Stephen Furley
I would much rather see the name in either Russian or English, but not in some meaningless non-language

Night Watch did the same thing to "spell" Nochnoi Dozor in a way that looked like Latin characters.

quote: Stephen Furley
why on Earth would a London shirt be in Russian

...bunch of Russians living in London now-a-days, right? The two times I've been in London I've seen some of this faux-Cyrillic going on ... back in June there was something on the BBC news about the influx of "Russian Money" into the UK (and they did the Rs and Ns like the Cyrillic "Ya" and "I"), and in December on the bottles of some Russian vodka they had a contest to "win the life of a czar" ... but czar was spelled in Cyrillic as "s-z-d-ya".

Posted by Christopher Seo (Member # 7) on 03-03-2007, 06:11 PM:

Michael,

Obviously you have not lived in a free, democratic society like ours for long enough to realize what democracy is all about. In America, everyone has a voice; everyone is allowed to speak: and the people have clearly and resoundingly spoken as to their preference for spelling "BORAT" in Cyrillic. You can sit on your high horse in your ivory tower for as long as you like, but we Americans are good, simple folk with no need for your fascist-elitist 'knowledge' and 'facts'.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-03-2007, 10:01 PM:

Mr Seo, I tried, but I couldn't figure out if you are being serious or if you are kidding in "Borat" mode. I hope you are. Knowledge of Cyrillic letters does not automatically indicate someone is from the former Eastern Block. I have lived in "free, democratic" societies all my life. One of the priviledges you enjoy in these is unlimited access to information and education. There is nothing "fascist" or "elitist" about being informed about what's going on. Knowledge is freedom.
Unless you were kidding, I fail to understand what gives you the idea you can appoint yourself the spokesman for an entire people to lend more weight to your personal opinion. So much for "freedom of speech". BTW, I happen to know a lot of "good, simple Americans" who are totally into "fascist-elitist knowledge and facts". Waaaaaaaay smarter people than what you come across as here. And not at all "fascist-elitist". I am sure they wouldn't like to see themselves represented by - you.
But I am pretty sure you were just "borating" me.

quote: Jeremy Jorgenson
...bunch of Russians living in London now-a-days, right? The two times I've been in London I've seen some of this faux-Cyrillic going on ... back in June there was something on the BBC news about the influx of "Russian Money" into the UK (and they did the Rs and Ns like the Cyrillic "Ya" and "I"), and in December on the bottles of some Russian vodka they had a contest to "win the life of a czar" ... but czar was spelled in Cyrillic as "s-z-d-ya".

Maybe you shouldn't reveal on the internet that you have knowledge of the weird letters that some people in the former Eastern Block use and that you have actually travelled to some faraway foreign places such as London. That could be dangerous.
Mr Seo will assume you are a spy and report you to Homeland Security, being the upstanding citizen and spokesperson for his people that he is.
BTW, when did you go to Лондон? I lived there for a while many moons ago and would really love to visit again some time, but it's been 15 years and somehow the opportunity never came up.

Posted by Christopher Seo (Member # 7) on 03-04-2007, 05:24 AM:

Mr Schaffer, if you really weren't sure I was joking, then indeed I am not as smart as I thought I was at satire. Oh well, I suppose it could be worse.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-04-2007, 05:48 AM:

Well, I am glad it turned out you were just joking. The problem is that there are actually people who do come across with nonsense like that. I have run into such people a few times. But only here. I have never met, say, somebody from France, England or Spain, who texted like that when he/she disagreed with me, but I have met a few here (only really a few though). It seems now that you were paradozing (if such a word exists) those people. But it is sometimes hard to tell. The one element which places this hard on the verge between parody and open insult is the "f" word. You may not be aware of that, but you have to be extremely careful with people from Germany to use that (just like the "n" word). Because it is sometimes abused for cheap attacks. I am not at all for pseudo-PCness, but there are some things I also understand are beyond funny for some people. Just like it may be not funny anymore for you if somebody uses the "c" word on you, no matter how satirically it was meant or not. Thanks for clarifying this context.

Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 03-04-2007, 06:48 AM:

quote:
BTW, when did you go to Лондон?

I was just there in June 2006 for a bit less than a week & then again on Boxing Day just to get from Heathrow to Gatwick on my way to (gasp) the former Soviet state of Lithuania. While I was there I

for

and then went to

TWICE!

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-04-2007, 10:18 AM:

Lithuania! What made you go there? I have never been in that region, but I hear it's very nice (in summer, I think in winter you freeze your ass off). I once had a girlfriend who was from Latvia, but I never got to go there.

Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 03-05-2007, 03:41 AM:

It's where my girlfriend lives. The two weeks I was there in December & January were unusually mild for that time of year, above freezing most of the time, no snow.

I was in Latvia over the summer too, just for one day though. I've only been to Europe twice, I talk about it in this thread.