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AVENGERS
BY KYLE WAGNER APR 30, 2012 2:00 PM 88,812 218 Share

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Avengers Screening Delayed Because Some Dunce DELETED THE FREAKING MOVIE
And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes and heroines found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were... deleted? Yes. The copy of the film being used for a screening last week was accidentally wiped from the server, and delayed a room full of angry nerds (and film critics) from seeing the Avengers assembled. But how does something like that even happen?
As it turns out, it's surprisingly easy to delete a digital film:

Slate asked Steve Kraus, whom Roger Ebert has called one of "the best projectionists in the nation." Kraus told us that it's as easy as deleting any important file from your computer. "It's click to delete from the server and an ‘Are you sure?' confirmation," he explained over email.

Thankfully, the issue was eventually resolved. But it set off a debate over the digital cinema packages that are replacing old fashioned film reels. Without the move to digital, the reasoning goes, you wouldn't be able to delete the movie you are supposed to be showing. That's a lot of headache for a process that's supposed to be as "easy as creating a playlist and pressing play," and that costs up to $150,000 per screen to install.

And all that is true. But traditional film has its drawbacks, too; it's easy enough to say, drop the reel and ruin the film, play the wrong reel, light the reel on fire with a flamethrower, or ruin the film in any number of other idiotic ways that are analogous to deleting it. Idiocy works just as well in analog as it does in digital.

Just keep reminding yourself of that the next time some slack-jawed teen wipes your local theater's only copy of Prometheus this summer. [Slate]

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http://gizmodo.com/5906353/the-avengers-screening-delayed-because-some-dunce-deleted-the-freaking-movie
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-01-2012, 10:43 AM:
 
[Yawn] Yet another example of the media overblowing a little problem.

It takes what, 25 minutes or less to re-ingest the movie?
 

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Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 05-01-2012, 11:33 AM:
 
That depends on the length of movie and compression. So ingest times may be longer. One may also "live-play" on many severs (play right off the CRU drive) so one should have been able to be back up pretty fast.

Where the film analogy fails is that...there is a finite space on a server to hold movies so in a festival situation, on may be a bit too quick to free up space for the next gang of features that have to be loaded. While it is true the same may be said of film prints being broken down too soon...the storage space on film is a physical one and will likely be done based on not needing that print anymore within the festival, rather than what is needed on a particular screen. One should be running reel-to-reel anyway
 

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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 05-01-2012, 11:59 AM:
 
My experience suggests that the limiting factor for film festivals in platter houses is the number of available platter rings. Once these are exhausted, prints need to be broken down to 6000' reels (which, for some reason, are usually in abundant supply) if they will be shown again.

The Goldberg platter reels pretty much eliminate this issue if enough can be rented to accommodate all prints to be shown.

One feature that the servers should have is an easy way to list all encrypted content for which license keys have expired, and then optionally allow the operator to pick and choose which of these titles can be deleted. I would think that most theatres would not want to delete content with active keys (or keys that will be active in the future), so perhaps there should be a second "are you sure" question when one attempts to do that.

To the extent that I have dealt with DCI content (in festivals and in my own testing), nearly all has been unencrypted, so this would not help even then, but it would be a win for commercial theatres showing mainstream commercial content (which is presumably encrypted).
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 05-01-2012, 12:44 PM:
 
Keys for "Hunger Games" were issued out weekly for renewal and renewed the morning the beginning of the new week (this feature was the most protected film I've seen released), whereas some feature's keys can have a much longer duration -including months - from activation to expiring.

Usually, depending on the servers and their functions,there is a flag that appears next to the feature content of three conditions: playable, expires soon, and expired content.

I've played a feature that wasn't encrypted, thus no keys were needed...like trailer content.

But, have done the same: accidently deleted feature content, but managed to reingest the content within the two hour timeframe since ingest time really slows down while the server is being used during playback.

(If it's a SONY, you simply wait until it not being in use - thing freezes up if an ingest is performed while the IMB is being used)...
 

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Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 05-01-2012, 02:20 PM:
 
Good ole RM* bash command - the Linux version of FORMAT C:
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-01-2012, 03:32 PM:
 
Kind of reminds me of Pixar's bullshit story about how they almost deleted Toy Story 2 with RM*. It's just way too easy. Why does such a command exist? Supposedly they were able to get the movie back because an employee happened to be taking home nightly builds because she had a kid and was required to work from home. Whoever came up with RM* should be RM*'d.
 

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Posted by Terrence Meiczinger (Member # 5059) on 05-01-2012, 08:20 PM:
 
rm * isn't so bad. It's rm -rf * that will get ya. A lot of administrators alias rm to rm -i, to prevent users from accidentally doing too much damage.

rm is a tool... it does what it is told. You only misuse it a few times before you learn...
 

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 05-01-2012, 08:49 PM:
 
Since the Keys can command that a movie NOT be allowed to run until its scheduled time frame, wouldn't it be just as easy for a Key to place metadata on the server which will lock the file and not allow it to be erased inside the "scheduled to play" time frame? It should be just as easy as not allowing it to be played outside the scheduled time frame.

It would be to the studios' best interest to want that kind of protection to prevent left-over booth monkeys from having at their on-screen time and mucking it up; after all they are getting most of the ticket income that first weekend so it behoves them to put a few extra safeguards in there, especially when it's that easy.

(Oh my, did I just advocate giving the distributor even MORE control over the workings of my booth? Slap me, momma!)
 

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Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 05-01-2012, 09:03 PM:
 
Or they can just come up with nuclear launch codes that require two keys before deleting a film. Sooner or later some disgruntled employee is going to delete a multiplex just to see the looks on their faces.
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-01-2012, 09:27 PM:
 

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And all that is true. But traditional film has its drawbacks, too; it's easy enough to say, drop the reel and ruin the film, play the wrong reel, light the reel on fire with a flamethrower, or ruin the film in any number of other idiotic ways that are analogous to deleting it. Idiocy works just as well in analog as it does in digital.

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quote: Mike Blakesley

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It takes what, 25 minutes or less to re-ingest the movie?

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quote: Antti Nayha

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Just curious: do you guys always get to keep the shipping hard drive in the house for as long as you’re playing the film?

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quote: Dustin Mitchell

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at least with Cinedign's software package, you can't delete a file that is part of a playlist, the playlist must be deleted first. It doesn't make this sort of thing impossible, but much harder at least.

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quote: Antti Nayha
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Just curious: do you guys always get to keep the shipping hard drive in the house for as long as you’re playing the film?
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Absolutely. You are booked to play the film from X to Y date and you have the right to keep that hard drive as a safety backup during that entire period. You just can't keep it any longer than that.

Another way of looking at it, you didn't return your film prints the day after you got them did you?

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quote: Randy Stankey

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P.S. The RM command is not a command for digital media servers. It is a command for the Linux/Unix operating systems on which those servers are based. As such, I hypothesize that would be possible to set file permissions in a *nix system such that only an administrator of a certain level can delete files. That would not totally eliminate the risk but it would help keep the mutton heads from screwing things up as easily.

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This is already the case. Every server has access levels, and some of these levels only allow to start a show, but not add or delete any content. But as we all know, it is often not just the mutton heads causing trouble. It is sometimes just ourselves.

- Carsten
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-02-2012, 04:34 PM:
 
In that case, it might have been a case of lack of password security. (e.g. Letting everybody log in under the superuser password.)

I faced that problem at work, once. One person would give the master password to everybody else who would then log in as superuser to do daily work. I warned them not to do that and even made sure that everybody who needed a password had one that let them do the jobs they needed to do. People just wanted to feel powerful regardless of the consequences.

I warned them about it and the problems it could cause but they paid no heed until somebody royally fucked the system while I was on vacation. There was no way it was going to get fixed until I returned.

I imagine that somebody in that theater did the same thing.

Serves them right.
 

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Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 05-02-2012, 09:58 PM:
 
In my earlier post I made reference to another version I read about this incident. Here it Is:
"Avengers Screening Delayed After Projectionist Deletes Entire Film"

From our experiences in movie theaters, moviegoers don't typically notice the hard work of the projectionist. They remain secluded in a room where they facilitate the steady stream of light and sound which the rest of us enjoy. Of course, if the enigmatic figure behind scenes mistakenly erases an entire digital film while dozens of critics wait for their chance to glimpse it, he or she becomes much more noticeable. That's exactly what happened during a recent press screening of the hotly-anticipated Avenengers flick, and while the emergency was averted within a couple of hours, the incident serves to highlight just how flimsy our digital data really is.

In the gradual migration from traditional film reels to digital projection technology, viewers benefit from sharper images, less distortion, and — usually — better reliability.

Unfortunately for the as-of-yet unnamed projectionist who was poised to give a number of critics and other entertainment press their first glimpse at one of the year's most anticipated films, the Avengers film file went out with the digital trash.

According to multiple tweets by various members of the film press, the problem was corrected after about two hours, thanks to a relatively quick download from a distribution source. Of course, had the film been a more traditional 35mm tape version, there would have been little chance of such an issue occurring. I guess that's the price we pay for living in the future.
< end >

NO! This is the price you pay for having a bozo projectionist.
This is one of the things that makes me scream whenever I hear people whining about the preceived "problems" with 35mm film. Most of them can be traced directly to two sources: 1) PLATTERS; and 2) Poor projectionists. The first problem is apparantly about to go away; the 2nd one will persist into the digital age, and IMO will only get worse since one of the marketing "advantages" pushed by digital equipment manufacturers is that even a mentally challanged chimpanzee can run a digital show. Since laws in most states prohibit chimps from working projectionist's hours, this means that they'll hire minimum wage inexperienced operators who will push a few "show start" buttons inbetween tweeting their friends, and sit back & hope everything runs OK. Oh, sure, all this digital stuff may look & work pretty good now, but a few years down the road, as even more experienced operators are forced out of the business, and the equipment ages, digital cinema presentation will start looking just as bad as 35mm is preceived to be now. IMO, in the long run, the 'digital revoloution" will only result in the closing of even more theaters, as the DCI Nazis push small theater owners into bankruptcy by forcing them to buy even more equipment they
can't afford, and don't need, thus putting even more people out of work. We could have stopped this nonsense when we had the chance, but, it's too late now. We've opened Pandora's box, and the genie is out of the bottle. (Sorry for the mixed metaphors!) So, enjoy your job, while you still have one.
 

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 05-03-2012, 12:30 AM:
 
"...had the film been a more traditional 35mm tape version, there would have been little chance of such an issue occurring. I guess that's the price we pay for living in the future."

Freakin idiot!

Thing is, when something catastrophic happens at a CRITICS screening and they get shut out, it always gets more press than it should.

There's the famous story about the press screening of Paramount's first and highly anticipated STAR TREK - THE MOVIE movie; I believe it was at the Loews Astor Plaza where the projectionist the night before made up the print for the 10am critics screening. He spliced reel three and four in reverse. Of course when it became apparent that they were watching the film out of sequence, the show had to be cancelled. Paramount execs went bizzerk, demanding Astor Plaza people be drawn and quartered. They in turn demanded the union fire the projectionist, who, you will recall DIDN'T MAKE UP THE PRINT.

I suppose IF they had an open-ended day, they could have recovered (rewind and rebuild), but they were actually playing another engagement that opened for the day at 1pm so they couldn't just hold the audience and run the STAR TREK film late. They had to clear the room to play the contracted engagement on time.

There are two myths about this story; 1) the union actually canned guy who RAN the show or moved him out of that theatre at the theatre management's demand or 2) the guy who made up the print was either fired or moved at the theatre management's insistence. Scenario 1 would be totally unjust, IMHO if that is indeed what happened. In either scenario, Paramount, the cheap bastards that they were, had no reason to complain because if they REALLY wanted a perfect show, they should have PAID for a TEST screening. Local 306, from what I heard, didn't fight for the guy but pretty much thru him under the....platter. Yuch yuck.

Mistakes will ALWAYS happen unless you can take humans out of the equation altogether. OK...let's start with the studio executives.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-03-2012, 01:16 AM:
 

quote: Jim Cassedy

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as even more experienced operators are forced out of the business, and the equipment ages, digital cinema presentation will start looking just as bad as 35mm is preceived to be now.

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quote: Jim Cassedy

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From our experiences in movie theaters, moviegoers don't typically notice the hard work of the projectionist. They remain secluded in a room where they facilitate the steady stream of light and sound which the rest of us enjoy.

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quote: Jim Cassedy

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According to multiple tweets by various members of the film press, the problem was corrected after about two hours, thanks to a relatively quick download from a distribution source.

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quote: Mike Blakesley

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I don't really think this will happen, at least not to the extent film purists think it will. Look at all of the things that can "go wrong" with 35mm film and equipment when handled by an inexperienced/sloppy projectionist. We all know the long list of things that can happen.

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Idiot reporters!

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Brad Miller:
Absolutely. You are booked to play the film from X to Y date and you have the right to keep that hard drive as a safety backup during that entire period. You just can't keep it any longer than that.

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quote: Martin McCaffery

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Or they can just come up with nuclear launch codes that require two keys before deleting a film. Sooner or later some disgruntled employee is going to delete a multiplex just to see the looks on their faces.

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