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TPM movie reel stolen
A whole slew of people pointed out the news that
an entire reel of The Phantom Menace was stolen off of the projector over the weekend. Hmm...I wonder how long before it shows up on eBay?
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However, with this reel, the theif (or whoever it
"reel" is rather a confusing term, what people
appear to mean is an entire print. In which case
then it's more likely to be thieves rather than
a thief. A single person would have difficulty
carrying the entire print.
Don't hold your breath. Usually they try to select local actors with at least vaguely similar voices for the dub. So the chances are JarJar will sound fairly similar in German, too!
Here in Europe, there are very different cultural preferences with how the movies (and television programming) are presented within each country. Some countries prefer dubbing all movies in the local language, while others only dub animated children's features and let everything else be sub-titled with the original soundtrack.
Living in a country that almost exclusively sub-titles, it is really a painful experience to visit countries that do not. Star Wars or 3rd Rock from the Sun with German or Polish voice actors is truly a perverse experience! IMHO, almost half of the potential impact of the original movie (or television series, for that matter) is wasted, dumbed down and lobotomized when dubbed. Dubbing does not give you a chance to practice your language skills nor does it ever preserve the language-related jokes and other subleties of the original dialogue (which are often one of the most enjoyable side-aspects of any given movie).
If I were a director, I would never ever allow my features to be dubbed. It is really an artistic decision, just like letterboxing vs. pan&scan is (And don't even try get me started on the lip-sync issue!)
If the thief really had a brain, he'd secure those bad boys in a case and hop the next flight to Taiwan or somewhere, where someone would master that thing onto DVD. Now _that_ bootlegger could make a fortune.
Your average darkroom hack could make a hell of
a good poster from a 35MM frame.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
I saw Phantom in Colorado on Thursday. On Sunday (7am) I landed in Malaysia. By noon, I had a copy of The Phantom Menace on Video CD. Cost about US$2.50, with a professionally pressed and designed CD and sleeve. Talk about a fast pirate! Of course, it was shot on camcorder, you hear the audience throughout the movie. I went out on the street on Tuesday in Malaysia to find out there is already a 2nd generation version that is supposed to be "clean" (no audience). Hell, they have movies on Video CD out here that aren't even in theatres yet in the US!
---gralem
Direct video broadcast? Just what sort of quality is this, and what sort of bandwidth does it require. And an even more relevant question is the data link encrypted? ;]
That's right, you can get your own copy of TPM in New York City for only $5. I saw one guy last Thursdaywho was actually playing a copy of the movie on a little portable tv/vcr combo machine and selling the tapes for 5 clams. The picture was good and the sound was ok. Might have to get me a copy.
Launching a satellite is pretty far fetched -- he'd need to buy a piece of the radio spectrum he could use, and it'd have to be a fairly high power transmission, all things that are very unlikely to be allowed. Low power (DSS-like) transmissions are too prone to signal fade during rain and things like that -- and no theater owner in their right mind would risk being unable to show a film during a rainy day (when it seems to me to be the best time to see them!)
Actually, current transmisson methods would work quite well for movie theaters. How do you think HDTV gets into your house now?
He really wouldn't need to launch his own satellite (That is hard to do since nearly all of the parking spots in orbit are bought, taken, or useless). He could buy transponder space from a C, Ku, or DBS sat currently in orbit. There are many free channels to spare. And satellites basically just relay whatever is fed to them.
DBS (DSS, EchoStar...) would be perfect for it. It has HDTV capability, MPEG-1 Transmisson and can handle Dolby 5.1. All is needed is a upgrade to Mpeg-2 (In the works), and massive encryption, and you would have a pretty reliable system for delivery.
Rain Fade can be nearly eliminated with the use of large (10'-20') dishes instead of the puny 18" ones.
As I see it, he could do it right now if he wanted to by just implementing some high level bit encryption and one [random, unknown to public] broadcast. The theatres can store it on a large computer and hit play any time they wanted to.
RB
Er, where would they sell it? It's stolen property -- unless they can find a rich collector who is willing to pay for a rare prize that he can't even brag about, it can't be liquidated as is. It would be much less risky to cut it up for black-market cels or (if they got the whole movie and have the necessary equipment) copy it to black-market video.
I'm reminded of the Knights of the Dinner Table story where one of the characters steals the local king's pawn and scepter and attempts to pawn them intact in a nearby village.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
For convenience, you might want to just set up a macro that automatically appends the word "lame" when you type "Jar Jar Binks". ;-)
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
The actual laws vary by state, but the statute of limitations for robbery is usually 10 years.
-- Minds are like parachutes... they work best when open.
I saw it the night before it was released at 9:00 EST. My sister works for a movie theater chain in the area. They had an employee screening. I called all my best frends and we hauled up there. There must have been 50 seats out of 500 filled in this huge theater with a huge screen and a HUGE sound system. We had Starbucks and Blimpie cater us and we invited some of their employees as well. Unlimited subs and unlimited frappucinos + Star Wars = GOOD. Saw it the next day too. :)
This is true. When I was working in the theater as an assistant manager, I was 19 and in total charge of the theater at least two nights a week. Everyone else there, except for the general manager, was closer to 16. Theft of all kinds, including the re-selling of tickets and the nefarious practice of "cupping" (if you don't know what that is, you don't want to), were almost impossible to eradicate. I knew of a couple of other theater managers in the city who not only tolerated but actually organized some of these things to their immense personal profit. So it hardly follows that individual theater managers are scrupulously honest.
Private, illegal showings of films were pretty common. Whenever we spliced a new film together, we were obligated to run it through the projector at least once to make sure it worked, i.e., no weak splices, all of the film oriented properly, and so on. It was customary for the theater employees to invite all of their friends to post-midnight previews of new films on these occasions. In an 8-plex with a fair number of employees, this sometimes ran to over a hundred people. No outsider ever offered me money for a private showing, but I don't necessarily know that I would have refused it. It would have been pointless to do so, though, as most theaters will gladly rent a private showing -- in such a case, the distributor does get royalties.
The original poster on this thread does have a good point, though. When we were shipping films out, we left the cans right by the door, or just inside the box office. Under those circumstances, they'd be quite easy to steal for someone who knew what they were after.
It never did occur to me to steal a film, though. I can't imagine what I'd have done with it.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
there are a couple locations that will be 'demo-ing' the new digital format, but it won't be wide spread (at least for star wars movies) until episode II, which will be completely digital, from 'filming' to the audience. and as for the second bit, why call it a movie when its a 'talkie'? it's just more convient/ingrained in us.
In 20 years, that reel will be worth less than a pile of dog poopoo.
Lucas has used special degrading film for his trailer, and has done it as well for those reels.
He plans on making some changes during the year to the movie, like correcting some shots (the sand shots where Jar Jar Binks doesn't leave any trace is lame). So using long-lived film doesn't make any sense at this point.
Besides, they have the entire movie digitized on disks, so why botter with the life span of film?
This sounds not really likely to me since it would at best double the number of reels necessary, since non-English countries would still need their own copies, be it because subtitles are added or because theyre redoing the whole vocal part in their own language.
:)
Would it be a great enhancement to give JarJar a new voice by the way ? This would be the only case where Id actually think about watching a Germanized movie
I suppose there is an economic reason. If movies were to premiere all over the world at the same time, how many reels would you then have to make? And with each print costing what, $60.000?
I think the US reels are being shipped to other countries, so the system is like a band on a tour. The release dates are like concert dates (of sorts). Any Cinema-pro's out there that know for sure? It makes sense to me.
Digital movie transfers could change this of course, wonder if that will finish off the silly DVD region system? Ah well..., $0.02.
//Very discrete overly careful person
"Enjoy Yourself, It's later than you think"
--Chinese proverb
> If this isn't a publicity stunt, and the reels were really stolen, it would almost have to be an inside job.
...which is why, had you bothered to read the article, you would have noticed that it reads: "The size and weight of the film have police thinking more than one person stole the movie. There were no signs of forced entry, police said.".
> And my memory may be failing me, but a seven-reel film loaded into cans weighs closer to sixty or seventy pounds.
Ta-da! Inside job, with enough people to distribute the weight.
--
- Sean
It's a fine line between trolling and karma-whoring... and I think I just crossed it.
- Sean
Because duplicating films is very expensive. At present once the film has started dying down in the U.S, the reels of film are cleaned up and then sent to other the other countries and so on.
I don't know exactly how expensive, but I'm guessing tens of thousands of dollars.
from my front stoop. Hey, with any luck, whoever
swiped the film will edit out the Jar Jar scenes
before he cuts it to VHS.
By the by, don't movies like this usually consist
of two or more reels? Meaning that this guy could
have only 1/2 or 1/3 of the movie...
----
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I bet you they put a new label on it
"20min documentry on making of violins" or something, shipped all three canisters seperately with different fake titles on it via DHL straight to HONG KONG ready to be digitaly recorded to a 20gig harddriver ready to be re-encoded to mpeg2 DVD and mpeg1 VideoCD. We should see copies in local downtown hongkong in hmm say.. by Friday afternoon! for $100 HK.
Anyone willing to buy a copy and upload it to a T3 server?
Ppl have been commenting on the digital projection methodology and how it relates to piracy. I was wondering, would the digital copy be encrypted, signed and then broadcast. If the projectors were designed right, and contained a chip with the key to decrypt the copy on the fly, then the digital format would be more secure. Of course, I am stating that each projector had a unique key such that the "film" could only be shown on that projector. Any comments?
Or, you can break an image into scanlines and modulate the frequency of the carrier to represent the brightness of the line as an analog wave. Throw in colorburst signal on a different carrier during the sync period, and you have NTSC. (for all you non-video geeks, that's the American standard for Television.) PAL and SECAM follow subtly different rules, but the basic idea has been the same ever since Philo T. Farnsworth's Image Orthicon Eye.
I suppose it depends on what you mean by data. If you mean computer data, it's pretty impractical to use analog signals to represent digital data. Which isn't to say it can't be done. For example, you could use a DAC to convert bits to a voltage level, then use an ADC to convert back. Analog data is much more succeptible to interference, though. If I send a digital signal, the reciever knows for certain that its either going to be 1 or 0. But if I'm transmitting analog data and my roommate turns on the vaccuum cleaner, there's no way for the recipient to know whether that 60 Hz hum is me or a stray EMI field.
EViLiSO and VCDEurope both have releases out, 2 cds each... apparently Fairlight have a trird one out, but I haven't seen that around yet.
Wow. I had not even considered doing that. I'll bet that is worth a fortune.
10:1 lucas is moderately annoyed by this.
Four-digit slashdot ID. Recognize.
That's what I figured...since something like, what, 80% of the entire imagery is rendered, it makes sense to digitize the whole shooting match and edit electronically. I was alluding to an earlier Slashdot thread where many people expressed concern that movies captured digitally would have much lower picture quality than film. I just don't see how that would be the case. IFF a very high data-rate transmission method is found (a VERY thorny problem to begin with), digital recording, editing, and distribution seems like it would be orders of magnitude cheaper.
Wonder if he could do the transmission with lasers....
Your point about film students is an excellent one. I think we're on the cusp of a whole new bunch of imaginative, high-quality Indie movies. That'd be a Good Thing.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Huh? As if satellite feeds (pay-TV programming) would not already be pirated...
what makes anyone to think this would not be the case with movies, too?
As I said in my previous post, if they used an analog rather then digital signal, it would be very easy to guard against piracy. Videocipher scrambling was not broken until an engineer at General Instruments leaked information on how to descramble it. Analog, having an infinite range, is much harder to break then digital, where you have a fixed size. It's equivilent to the time difference between knowing a password is exactly 8 characters and a password is as few as 3 or as many as 8 characters.
When I was able to do my own spam-armoring, you got a chance to email me. Now you can only hope I see your reply.
I found three of the frames at the swedish star-wars fan site. (www.starwars.nu)
Here it is:
http://www.starwars.nu/images/episo de1/film.jpg
Say what?? Any copy of the film found any place other than 1)Lucas' vault or 2)the projection room of a theater which rented a copy is obviously stolen.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
Yeah, you could just dub Jar-Jar's dialogue. Maybe paste in a new actor for Anakin, cut out the extra stuff...
Of course, even better would be the editing room at ILM...
These people are quite familiar with the operation, splicing, and showing of the films, but are frequently more concerned with the profit margins of their snack bar. They are in the projection booths just long enough to start the movie and walk to the next booth to start the next movie. These people are not necessarily paid very well -- seniority counts, don'tcha know.
Several people have made some very good points before me, such as:
The difficulty of handling the film correctly
The weight of the film
Knowing where to de-splice the film (If this isn't done right, it destroys the value of the print!!)
Getting a very bulky and obvious package out of a movie theater -- past surveillance cameras, yet!
These Projectionist/Managers are expected to make a reasonably automated theater work through a lot of their own sweat. There aren't the infamous "no-alone-zones" of military circles here, so it's very probable that a manager could have walked into the booth after the last showing of the evening, boxed up the film, and walked out with it later (perhaps in a mis-labeled set of film canisters), knowing all the time that he (or she) would run a very low risk of being discovered in the act!
I'd also point out that these would be the same persons who would know exactly where the cameras do and don't cover! They could also easily explain their fingerprints being in the projection booth, and on the film canisters, should they be recovered.
A final thought -- (In line with the earlier thread) this isn't something that can be stored for 20 years and then sold. Remember what happened to the original prints of Star Wars? They were in awful condition just due to age! The effort required to restore them after just 20 years was phenomenal. I suspect that whoever swiped this print either has a "business plan" or a buyer lined up already. Just having a print won't even be good for bragging rights...
"Hey, I have a print of Episode One!"
"Really, That's cool!!" [How much can I get for turning this yutz in...?]
"...America's great minds of today, teaching America's great minds of tomorrow. Poor bastards." -- A Beautiful Min
I arrived at the theater 8:45AM friday and was quickly seated for the 9:00 AM show which was only $5.50. And I even got front-row-center at a theater where that's a good seat.
I've been twice, the first at 4:25 on Wednesday, and both times the theater wasn't full. The only one's that sold out were the 12:00 AM ones, and the 7:30 show. And we only have 5 screens showing it, so it's been REALLY easy to get a ticket. And then when I went again on Friday night, the theater was only about 3/4 full. I just figure with the biggest theater's showing it in their biggest rooms, and with their 5 screens, the demand just isn't reaching the supply.
Can anyone give any good reason, why for example in the UK, films show up 2 months later????
I had the same question about movies in Japan. They traditionally show up 2 to 6 months after opening in the US. There are some counter examples as well. Titanic actually opened on the same day in Japan as it did in the US. Actually, if you want to nitpic, because of time differences, it opened a day earlier in Japan than it did in the US.
From the Titanic example, it is obviously not a technical problem or limited media problem. So, I asked a couple of friends, and I got the following answer via a friend of a friend.
It is a Marketing answer. Some movies flop, some do increadably well. Despite the hype, a movie is never a sure thing. Because of this, those importing movies and deciding to show them on which screens or not like to see how they do in the US first.
On a movie like TPM, it will obviously be a big hit, so if the above is the actual reason (which I don't know from first hand experience) then why not import it right away? Maybe they wanted to see how much of they hype was real to decide on just how many screens to show it on or not. I don't know.
>Any bets as to whether some employees decided to >"acquire" it?
No doubt. Proj rooms usually have a door locked
to a stairwell and another locked door to the proj. room. Sorry, I didn't really read the article. I must learn whether the print had
already been spooled on the platter.
All kinds of things can happen from the moment
the film is delivered until the (stoned, horribly
underpaid) projectionist puts it together (usually
at 3:00 AM on thursday nite)... Not all of them
are malicious.
Where I wroked, somebody put "Raising Arizona"
with a reel out of order.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
there are *seven* reels for the phantom menace, in two cans. just a little film terminology education.
The film was valued at over 60000. The theatre lost around 4000 for not being able to play it for the one day.
Just wondering, what kind of person would do this...... Why can't people steal something useful now adays, like bread...
"Windows 98 Second Edition works and players better than ever." -Microsoft's Home page on Win98SE.
I ate my tag line.
-=Ellis (D)25=-
If the movie is to be changed, then the original version would be that much more of a collector's item, wouldn't it? Sure, they have digital copies, but nobody else does, until whoever did this digitizes it. Even if the film degrades (which I heard from you first), if these guys are smart they will have a pretty high-quality digital copy of the movie in its original form. Later, when the movie starts playing on TV and/or becomes available on DVD or whatever, people will go nuts over being able to play them side by side and spot the discrepancies. Even if Lucas also releases the original in a "Collector's Edition", the bootlegged version will have a certain "vintage" appeal to it, I suspect.
Also, you said:
So using long-lived film doesn't make any sense at this point.
This seems to imply that the degrading film is simply more practical, like if it were cheaper, but how much difference could there be? Besides, you called it "special" degrading film, which sounds more expensive. I would have assumed that it was specifically intended to make the original version harder to obtain. You probably meant this, but it was not explicitly clear. Is that right?
By the way, someone else has discussed the legalities of possession of stolen property, statutes of limitations, etc. What about possession of digital copies of stolen property after the statute of limitations for the original theft has run out, and the original stolen property has been destroyed? Might they be able to squeeze through a loop-hole here?
David Gould
David Gould
main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
stop crying aboout prices...
here in france, we pay about 10 USD (15 CND) for a seat...
Hopefully they have the expensive machinery to dub that onto a video tape. I guess if it was an inside job where a few people are involved, they could pull it off. Although if they get caught the FBI is going to nail them.
I actually use to help deliver the movie printings... they are 2 heavy octal metal cases per movie. A bitch to lug around.
Can anyone give any good reason, why for example in the UK, films show up 2 months later????
There is no technical reason for that, I see no marketing reasons as well (only that people get extra anxious and book trans-atlantic tour -- airlines conspiracy?).
Granted lack of the film, people will be more tempted to use MPGs floating all over the net. Effectively, they are pushed to pirate.
AtW,
http://www.investigatio.com
alexc
Join Majestic-12 Distributed Search Engine
at least in out local (twin cities) paper, that is. then again, so is some wrestler dying in some pay-per-view wrestling stunt, so take it for what you will. anyway, the article in our local paper is a lot longer than the abc one. here's the url it basically confirms what everyone else says: that 40 lbs. isn't even close to the actual weight (more like 60 lbs.), plus it was spliced together on a 3 ft. reel at the time. it also suggests an interesting use of the film: selling frames at $20 a pop (x 190,000 frames)
I can get the whole film in mpg format on cdrom?
A very sneaky preview for us people in Europe who still have to wait months for the film to be released (september 30th in Holland).
Personally, I'd rather see the film on the big screen first (wouldn't want to spoil the event of the year)...
I live in Menomonie and felt the need to add a little to the rumor pool.. ignore as much of this as possible, but this is what's floating around if anyone cares.
It's been told to a few people that ask directly at the theater (including me, but this could just be made up by the staff here) that the thief, or at least one of them has already turned himself in to avoid more serious charges. The reel didn't get stolen "properly" and unraveled, so much of it was found in the trash in the theater. The thief is currently negotiating with authorities, so that is why there havn't been any information released since the film was first found missing.
Personally I thought the story sounded a bit odd, but there's probably somebody out there that is wondering about what's being talked about.
BTW, the other postings from Menomonie are right.. the theater has really poor audio, only one almost decent screen (the others are like big screen TVs), and poor security. Oh well, I went to another city to see it.
I got to see it wendsday 12:10 and I arived at 11:45 the movie was not sold out, they were runing it in 8 of there 12 theaters.
I only paid $3.00 canadian or (3*0.67)~$2.01 american.
5 years ago there was only one mom and pop theater with 2 screens in mine area mow there are 3 multiplexes with 12 screens.
I'm curious how many Slashdot readers have worked as theater projectionists or theater management, either professionally or as part of a university club. Seems like we have quite a few.
I used to be a projectionist during my college days, and this story doesn't make much sense to me.
Movie theatre projectors are not like the little 16mm projectors they use in schools. They are man-sized machines that hold the film on a set of three platters that are about four feet in diameter. The film arrives in hexagonal metal cans, each containing three or four reels. The film is removed from the reels and wound onto the platters, pausing to splice each reel to the next. The film is actually shown from the platters; the reels are just used for transport.
The process is fairly time-consuming, and removing the film from the platter to put it back on the reels is no less prolonged. Unless the thief grabbed the reels while they were still in the cans, he would have had to gain access to the building after hours and be familiar with the equipment. If this isn't a publicity stunt, and the reels were really stolen, it would almost have to be an inside job.
And my memory may be failing me, but a seven-reel film loaded into cans weighs closer to sixty or seventy pounds. I remember having to lug those damn things up and down the stairs...
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Don't forget, this theft was most likely an inside job. I don't know exactly how the projectors work, but most likely they have some sort of translucent LCD screen in them. There will be some sort of video cable running to this screen. That just has to be tapped into somehow and the encryption is bypassed completely. I can't see how they can stop this from being done with the many thousands of projectors in the many thousands of theatres out there. Maybe they'll provide the theatres with completely sealed projectors in the future, so that this can't be done. On the other hand, do you think the theatres are going to go for a plan that requires that they send the unit in for maintenance every time they need to change a bulb?
Then there's still the possibility of re-recording what comes out of the projector. If neccessary, the film could be copied and simultaneously re-projected for an audience with a seperate projector recieving a feed from the copying device. What would they do? insist on armed guards in every theatre? Not likely.
The point is, if the video/audio/senso-tape/whatever eventually has to be unencryted to be useful, all the encryption in the world isn't going to do you much good. The only way to prevent it is to impose draconian restrictions on all technology that could possibly used for such things. Everyones video recorders and computers and what have you would need to have all the "anti-piracy" tech built into them. They'd need to report back to central authorities so that random checks could be made on peoples files to look for pirated stuff. The problem is that the "solution", if implemented in any effective way, is far, far worse than the "problem" which is usually greatly exaggerated (I can't imagine Lucasfilm will lose much in actual sales due to poor quality copies of his film on the 'net, regardless of his paranoia). As it is, there are groups pushing for the sort of nightmare I'm talking about, and they've won lots of victories. For example, the RIAA, and the tax imposed on recording media. They get money when you buy a blank cassette or what have you because, by doing so, you are implicitly commiting a partial act of theft against their members. Sickening.
In fact, the movie has already been released. Its been floating around in asia for a couple days and hit the US last night.
check www.isonews.com
Jar Jar: Someone must love Jar Jar much to think he stole one reel of Phantom Menace just to see my pretty face.
Yoda: Consume him, it did. {razzes Jar Jar}
David Gonterman of FoxFire Studios http://foxfire.twu.net
Edmonton Alberta
$3.00 is only before 6:00 pm otherwisw its $6.00
We had equipment like this at my high school. Of course, it wasn't ultra-high quality or anything, but the video was very watchable. Equipment consisted of a film projector, a Digital Video Camera [*drool* I wants one (-;] and the "mounting bracket". The mounting bracket was quite simple. You had the projector at 90 degrees to the Camera, and there was a mirror that reflected the output into the input. I can't remember if there was a scrim to diffuse the light before it went into the camera or not, bit I do rember that it worked. Like I said, not ultra-high quality, but very watchable.
Remember that /. story on the piracy of movies?
I was just thinking about it as I read this... George Lucas was so worried about people digitizing and pirating this movie over the Internet... He was even enlisting the FBI to help him bust the pirates.
Why bother with 1-gig downloads and possibly poor quality pirate copies? Why not just steal a copy of the film from a theatre?
Man, I'm not surprised. Not surprised at all!
In 20 years, that reel will be worth less than a pile of dog poopoo.
Lucas has used special degrading film for his trailer, and has done it as well for those reels.
Unless freezing causes the film structure to crack or crystalize in an undesired way, chemical reactions can be negligible for decades. Nothing quite like a fresh film out of a hibernation time capsule. Figure your costs of freezing, about an average of 60 watts to keep the freezer going, 8 cents per kilowatt hour, per month, per 20 years. That would be about $829.44. Would it be worth it?
(considering if you not defrost it as to let water condense all over it!)
Hey man, i don't think that sneaking into movies is such a great thing to do. Look at all the time and effort that went into the creation of this movie. Given, it's already made a crapload of money... but that doesn't mean it's not deserved. Mr. Anonymous Coward, it's time for you to face up to responsibilities.
-----
"Be kind to your local milkman... you have his eyes." -Mother
See Above
Blar.
offered as ISO image. i don't know the quality, i'll have to see it myself.
Typically there are private cam versions out
before the main release.
Any New Yorkers see it on the street yet?
Of course it's much easier to get a copy of the film recorded to other media this way and you'd be able to build yourself a nice DVD copy months before anyone else has one. Of course you have to be crazy enough to by DVDR, but if you're gonna pull this off you might as well pull it off nicely.
Yeah, it does make you wonder just how bad someone had to have their Jar-Jar fix. From the story it looks like it was an inside job, and I imagine the perpetrators will likely be caught, especially if they try to sell it.
Personally, if I were the one who stole it, I'd just set it up in my living room (not that I have THX sound or anything) and just run it continuously. ;-) (I saw the film for the third time last night in case you can't tell. And it was better the third time than the second time.)
Boba Fett is in Episode I
So are E.T. and even better, Wookies!
The theatres that I worked at (seven years as a projectionist putting myself thru college) all used Xenon bulbs. It has been too long for me to remember all the specifics, but I used to have to wear a protective (think X-ray) vest and a blast-mask when I was replacing bad or rotating old bulbs. I had the opportunity to watch several bulbs blow up too. Not dynamite but impressive nonetheless. As far as being able to walk off with a print - I don't think it would be a problem. Sure, the cans are heavy when full, but I lugged them around all the time. I moved prints from one platter to another all the time as well, lots of time by myself. And I'm no Jesse Ventura. The security at the theatres where I worked was a joke. Anything that wasn't bolted down could be(and often was) stolen. Could a person screen a movie at home? Sure. I knew a technician who built himself a home-theatre system (35mm projector and sound) from old and spare parts, a bit at a time (like Radar sending a Jeep home one part at a time in M*A*S*H). I knew another technician who machined a rig to convert 24 frames/second movie prints to 30 fps for dumping to video. As a teenager! Now there's a hack for the record boks.
Our local theatre has been intentionally causing lines.. refusing to sell tickets in advance, and closing the box office until about an hour before the next showing.. But despite the build-up not all the shows have been selling out.. however in some of the larger theatres in adjoining cities things have been a bit worse. I went Sunday to see Trekkies at one such theatre and every showing that day had sold out. 3 screens, and another in the same town had already sold out all the prime time showings (and this was around 1pm).
So the fanatacism I guess is relative to location.
As for me? I got my midnight screening ticket on the 18th.. and they were available till about 7 or so despite a week of being on-sale. A bit disappointing.
Why does the film have to be broken down? I've helped move a full platter of film before. You clamp down the film so it doesn't sprawl all over the place while you're moving it, and then you pick up the film. Simple, easy.
It is a multi-person job, but it's not very hard to do. Then you just walk the film out of the building. (It would get a little hairy through the doorways, but ...)
I read somewhere that this movie was going to be the first distributed in digital format, and that the theatres would need digital projectors...
Anybody know whether that's true? And if it's digital, why are they calling it a film?
It's only about 14,000 people. Nice little town with some great trout fishing and the Twin Cites nearby...
An entire first-run reel of the Phantom Menace? If those thieves have an ounce of brains, they'll store the film in a very safe place and take good care of it. It'll be worth a fortune someday, I'll bet.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
According to this St Paul paper article, the did get the whole film, and are now feeling guilty. They contacted investigators via an attorney to return it for misdemeanor charges.
I can't cite the article, but I read somewhere that Lucas actually did use some digital photography for some parts of Episode 1, and he defies anybody to figure out which shots. The context implied that he is not talking about one of the many fully-rendered scenes, but some photography of meatspace actor types.
As far as the digital filmmaking question goes, I must be missing something. Obviously, several scenes in Episode 1 were rendered at sufficient resolution to be almost indistinguishable from film, so I'd argue there's no reason why the entire movie couldn't be captured digitally. I guess the question would be what resolution would be sufficient for high quality digital projection of the movie...that'd have to be a MONSTER datastream.
Lucas launching his own satellite and using that for delivery of the next films does not seem awfully far fetched.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Huh?
Do you have a reference for this?
The bandwidth would be incredible. And
it would have to be used over and over
again unless they stored it. If they
stored it the *storage* costs would be
incredible.
But I guess according to the articles about
the technology at ILM the movies seem to
exist in a digital form before they are
rendered out to celluloid.
Anyone know more?
-- cary
I see copies of the Matrix floating around on the net already. It won't be long until TPM is also available for download. I'm surprised that Lucas wants to make digital films in the future. Wouldn't that make it easier to bootleg the movies?
If Lucas was smart he would station a guard at each movie theater to watch over the film. When I saw the TPM press junket in NYC two weeks before it was released he had guards watching over the film 24/7. His list of stipulations for movie theaters showing the film it surprises me that he never added "armed guard" to the list.
Finally, a brief comment about the film:
If you are going to build a star destroyer, why put the main reactor in the space port? I mean, some kind of malfunctioning robot or messiah force utilizing kid could blow it up.
mmmm, blimpies
heh. it took 3 years to get N64 emulation up to good speed playing commercial games. Someone would've figured it out by now.
Sorry, I didn't really read the article.
The article is only five sentences. Very short and concise.
I must learn whether the print had already been spooled on the platter.
The article was not that specific.
The films come in these big metal cases. Each case holds 4 reels of film.. Average reel length=20 minutes. Average movie length=120 minutes. These 6 reels are "Built up" on a platter (great big flat sruface that spins the movie out and in). So when a movie is in the theater and may be shown anytime in the near future, it is on this platter, all six reels in one really long piece. To take this movie out of the theater you must 1) know how to break down the movie and put it back on reels 2) Get out the door with two big heavy film cans that are probably painted neon pink 3) be able to do this in the 30 minutes between the showings. Impossible. Inside job, it HAD to be a projectionist, or someone who knows a projection booth who has the trust of theater management and janitorial staff to be allowed inside after hours.
if you're even more adventurous, you don't even need to clamp down the film. Just unscrew the platter, and carry that.
(the reason one would need to move a full platter's worth of film is to move it from one projector to another in a multiplex... On Thursday nights it is quite common to have to move an older film out of the largest theater to a smaller one, to allow a new blockbuster to get the larger theater. Also, one might show a movie in different theaters during a single showing day. (Kids' movie in large theater for the afternoon while R film in smaller theater, evening have kids' movie n small theater with R (adult) film in large theater.)
Another need to move films whole is to send it from your major first-run theater to the second-run across town...
Not necessarily a one person job, but it is a heck of a lot easier to do. If you're a weakling like me, then you'd need at least one or two people to also hold on (make sure the film doesn't fall out of the middle somewhere). Doorways just require the film to be held horizontal (doesn't fall out as easy as diagonal). *Stairs* are the worst. (as the stolen print was in a first floor booth, this wouldn't have been a problem.)
another BTW: here are pictures of a platter system and shipping reel cans (with two sets of DTS disks in their shipping cases)
-mrv
Don't worry about witnesses... just wear a Darth Vader mask.
-- Don't Tase me, bro!
Not enough supply? What are you talking about??
With most multiplexes showing this movie on multiple screens there is a show around every half-hour during the day. The merchandising industry is in full swing and you would be hard pressed to walk into any major store in a mall and not be inundated with Star Wars crap. And if that isn't enough..just run on down to your local KFC or Taco Bell and pick yourself up one of their promo tie-ins. Have a Pepsi while you're at it. No..actuall I think there is too much supply of this. Having half empty theaters at every show since opening night is not doing wonders for the marketing department...they have to fend off critisisms from the media that the film *only* made $100mil in the first 5 days.
"Yeah..but the theater was half-empty...aren't you disappointed George?"
Or did you mean that there isn't enough illegal bootleg copies of the movie so all the warez kiddies can feel 3l33t on irc?....In that case, you're right..there isn't enough of that sort of supply. But who cares about warez kiddies on irc?
yeah, my friends and I had no problems getting tickets for a 4:15 afternoon show on friday. We got there 10 minutes before the movie started, got our tickets and even decent seats. Of course the theater was showing it on six screens, which meant there was a show every half hour. Much better than the last time when I saw Return of the Jedi on its opening weekend in 1983(waited 3.5 hours in line for a early matinee showing). I think the rise of the megaplexes has something to do with that. They destroyed the mom and pop theaters and drive ins, but you can't deny they are more efficient at handling mega crowds.
>Security is generally lax because there aren't >people who'd steal film solely to keep as a >trophy.
Yes, but now with vcd's emerging, this will happen more frequently. There's incentive to steal one, rip it to mpg, and distribute it all over china at 2 bucks a cd. Since the rules there are lax, you could probably make 2 bucks a copy (2 cds).
I'd make it more like a 1E6:1. My interpretation of "10:1 Lucas is annoyed" is "I'll bet my $10 against your $1 that Lucas is annoyed - winner gets $11". You only make bets like that when you're certain you're right (or at least, wrong less than one time in eleven). My bet would be my $1E6 against your $1. You'd stand to win a lot if you won, but you wouldn't win.
There are in fact several theaters showing it. It had been talked about for the last year or so leading up to the release, and in my understanding (which is just from industry rags I've read), its only two or three theaters showing it, and its very limited showings (ie, not around the clock)
The resolution used isn't terribly high, less than HDTV resolution, but higher than DVD. (1280x768 sticks out in my head, but that might not be right..., but its not even 1080i HDTV resolution)
The explanation was that with the sharper focus, brighter image (no shutter used), and lack of garbage on the film, viewers wouldn't know the difference. I'm not sure they're projecting it onto a very big screen though -- that resolution seems low for 500 person megatheaters and the like.
LucasFilm's intent over the last half-dozen years since I first read about some of the talk about the prequels, was Episode I would be shot on film, with test digital distributions. I *think* I remember reading that those test distributions are on custom hardware, basically on a high-rate DVD -- twenty to thirty minutes worth, much like a film reel -- although that may have changed, because I've seen gossip about the satellite stuff. I've lost the list I had of the theaters that were showing the digital Episode I, unfortunately.
Episodes II and III are supposed to be shot digitally, without using film. Aparently Lucasfilm has been spending a lot of time developing digital film cameras that can push data off the camera and onto a high-speed storage system fast enough to do film quality recording without using film. 24fps is obviously the low end, I'm not sure how much bandwidth they ended up with for running at higher frame rates.
Some of the reasons I'd read for the move was a significant drop in cost over time (a lot of arthouse films are being shot on mini-DV and other digital formats like Digital BetaMax, because $30 for a tape sure beats $100 for three minutes of film...) The most interesting feature I read about was the ability to prerender the effects and do the compositing in realtime at the camera -- so the monitors show the finished shot, and alignment issues and problems with actors not fully interacting with effects can be taken care of immediately. Also read rumors of experiments to do real time digital character rendering, so an actor in a motion-recording outfit can be in front of the camera, and the camera would end up recording the CGI character in real time.
Anyway, I digress. Episodes II and III are supposed to go out for larger digital releases, with more of a push for them to be digital on III than II. That's why there's been talk about big theater chains arranging financing so they can do low-rate financing for their member theaters to be able to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars it will take to put digital systems in megaplexes.
It'll be interesting to see if theaters end up using a direct broadcast method of displaying movies as they shift to digital, or if they go with a multi-disc optical solution like a high bitrate DVD-based format. Personally I'd think DVD would be the way to go. They're cheap to produce, even as one-offs. There's no reason you could build military-grade decryption hardware into the playback units and key the distribution discs to that particular unit and theater. Steal the discs, its not of any use if you don't steal the reader. If the reader has to verify keys against the distributors system, then even stealing the unit won't help.
Satellite seems unlikely because of all the differing times a show can play, and the expense of the satellite time.
It depends on what audio format is used. All reels have a 2-channel analog stereo track on them for backup purposes, but additional digital audio tracks are handled differently for each format:
DTS: A seperate CD is included with the reel that has the DTS 5.1 encoded audio on it
SDDS: 2 highly compressed digital tracks (identical, in case one breaks) are run along the rings of the reel, making this format highly susceptible to being damaged. Allows up to 8 channels (5 front, 2 surround, 1 LFE).
Dolby Digital: I think this uses a seperate reel in addition to the movie reel, but I could be mistaken. Allows 5.1 discrete channels, Dolby Digital EX uses the same 5.1 channels, but EX processors matrix decode (a la Dolby Pro Logic) a rear-center channel.
Having been a (and still am, though no longer practicing) state-licensed projectionist and worked in more than one theater within the last 5 years, I felt I had to comment... Sorry in advance for the long rant.
A standard 35mm print of a movie costs the studio about $3000. If you add in lab time, transportation, and lost revenue for a stolen print (usually the distributor takes 80% of the ticket sale price for the first 2 or more weeks, with reducing percentages as the run gets longer), then maybe a 35mm print would be worth $60k.
And a 70mm print these days no longer costs the $10k+, and isn't much more expensive than a 35mm film to print. The extra $6k was for the magnetic striping for the soundtrack. Most 70mm prints struck these days (minus 1996's Hamlet) are 70mm DTS prints, which has the same optical soundtrack sync to the DTS CD as a 35mm print.
As far as breaking into a projection booth, it's scarily usually quite easy. I've had to shoo away a number of kids who took a wrong turn going out the back-of-theater exit doors after a show, and ended out in the booth... (Usually we'd just forget to lock the door from the outside.) here in MA, it's actually illegal to have the door locked during showtimes (throwback to the days of nitrate (burns VERY easily) film).
If the booth consists of a large multiplex (usually one projectionist/manager for a booth), one could enter the far end of the (noisy with projectors running) booth, and the projectionist on the other end wouldn't hear you. If the booth is for a small theater, chances are that it's a manager/projectionist, who only enters the booth if there is a reported problem, or to thread or start a film, which leaves the booth unattended for quite some time.
Let me point out here that film reels, trailers (previews), and frames (sometimes called cells on eBay) are all the property of the studio (per the legal stuff at the end of the credits), not the theater or any single person, and MANY people have been successfully sued by studios to reclaim ownership.
Oh, and as for the amount of film stolen... A "reel" could be any of a number of things. If it was a shipping reel, then it could either be a 2000 ft. reel (about 17-23 min. of film), or a ELR (Extended Length Reel), which is 6000 ft. of film (approx. 1/2 the movie).
If the theater is using a dual-projection setup (not likely at a commercial chain multiplex), then the reel could be any of a 2K, 4K, or 6K ft. reels.
Chances are that the theater had the film mounted up on a platter (plays sort of like an 8-track), in one BIG reel for the entire movie. (all of the shipping reels taped together) with clamps or some form of binding wire/rope/string, the whole movie can be easily transported by 2 people, 1 if strong enough (and slung over the shoulder like a tire).
of course, knowing how journalists tend to keep things minimalized so that they don't confuse the public, they just used "reel," which could mean a lot of things.
unfortunately, I do not remember just how much film weighs, only that it is heavy... (when in shipping canisters, even heavier...)
BTW: a good site for techincal information regarding film projection is the rec.arts.movies.tech FAQ.
-mrv
I'd be more interested in what the theatres for episodes 7, 8, and 9 are going to be like. Digital FED screens with true 3D sound systems? Or perhaps retina projection?
I've been waiting for this to happen. I expect to be streaming the movie in a day or two :)
----------------- ------------ ---- --- - - - -
----------------- ------------ ---- --- - - - -
Your honor is perfectly understandishable.
Just curious... What type of bulb is in that type of projector?
I had a digital setup at my univerity where the projector had a xeon bulb that shined through a color LCD onto a three story wall. When the bulb 'went,' it sometimes took out half the power supply. Very hot stuff.
The THX decoder was cool. I should of kept the 25 page manual on how to calibrate the thing.
"...who has the trust of theater management..."
Or perhaps someone who is IN theater management. Think about it...the owner of the theater will be the one making all the money off the theater. The management will simply be salaried (high salary, but still just salary). Then along comes the most hyped film ever, and the theater manager sees a chance to cash in and retire to the Cayman Islands.
You had a 70mm projector in your high school?
Why does this seem unlikely?
peter
I spend my summers between college years back home in Los Alamos, a small town with one movie theater that has three screens. Except for a few adults, the place is basically run by teenagers--people I graduated from high school with, and some who still are in high school. Many of these people would not be averse to taking an incentive payment for grabbing a film--and believe me, in this theater (which is playing TPM right now), it would not be at all hard to break into the projection booth. You wouldn't even have to, since everybody knows everyone else and if you slipped the projectionist a hundred or so, you'd probably have quite an easy time. I'd imagine that many small theaters are like this.
A "Reel" (one of maybe six making up the entire
:-)
film) is one thing.
The article says it weighs about 40 pounds.
The whole film weighs a hella lot more than
that... I remember lugging those things up the
stairs... But the $60K price tag sounds right...
for all those people wondering why they don't do
70MM -- it costs a LOT more than that for a 6 reel
70MM print!!
Anyway the article makes it sound like "they"
got the whole movie.
Makes me wonder if they got just a reel. Also
bewildering that there are apparently theatres
that still use the dual-projector open-reel system
(as opposed to a single-projector platter system,
which *everybody* has nowadays... Any theatre
that would be showing star wars... even in a smallish town.)
Is Menomonie smaller than "smallish" though
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
[Flame suit on]
Because modern religions are boring.
The popular Western religions of today -- Christianity, Islam, Science, Buddhism -- are ascetic in nature. They center largely around self-sacrifice. The ass-kicking stories of "pagan" narratives -- the wars of Ragnarok, or Arjuna killing his demon bretheren -- just aren't there. (Judaism is an exception to this, although the book of Exodus could have included more kickboxing.)
I think the need for Norse-style myths, irrespective of whether they are actually believed to be true, is why we have Star Wars and the X-Men and Frodo. Religion isn't just about a belief system, it's also about entertainment, vicarious adventure.
[Flame suit off]
And, of course(?), by 2005 some sort of HD DVD would be available, though maybe not at a consumer
level just yet. These would hold, what, 1-200GB or more. DROOOL!
There's a couple of versions floating around the net at the moment, both recorded from the projection room on video cameras. You can find out about them on IRC. Me, I'm going to wait until they release the film here in the UK (Gotta wait until July 16th... *whimper*) and experience it in full colour widescreen with top-notch sound. (Though it's gonna kill me knowing it's out there on the net, just waiting for me to download it if I want it...)
*sigh*
The article suggests that someone might create a bootleg video from the print. The equipment that would be necessary to create such a copy ( a QUALITY copy ) is very VERY specialized, very expensive, and difficult to use. However, I suspect we'll be able to purchase copies on 42nd street some time in the next week or two. Maybe now, someone will make a bootleg DVD. TO dream...
-- Minds are like parachutes... they work best when open.
"No signs of forced entry." Of course not, since it was an inside job. The film may be 'worth' $60,000, but they'd more than recoup their losses by bootlegging it.
yes.. there are 2 different versions of the VCD/mpeg out there on the net.
Posted by Rob_Betz:
Anonymous coward, you couldn't be more wrong. Free downloads would make for even more damages; if he was making money off his pirated copy, Lucasfilm would then go after that money. But offering it for free not only leave Lucas no funds to go after, but it costs his money because people who would have gone to the theatre to see the movie again won't because they have it for free.
I saw the midnight showing here in Austin, and there were plenty of seats empty. But then, the movie was probably showing simultaneously on 50+ screens around town, and this wasn't the best theatre to see it in.
As I recall, "The Empire Strikes Back" was stolen when it came out in Columbia, SC.
It's gonna get as bad as PC games - The film gets released in a somehwat 'beta' format and then patches are put up on the LucasFilms website... ;-)
Wonder if this was a marketing stunt to keep TPM in the spotlight.
Seems to me that there's lots of room for a conspiracy theory on this one (I am not a thief, nor do I live in the USA).
Like suppose you had a bunch of very poor quality bootlegs, and wanted to up the price.
Why not arrange for an actual copy of the film to be stolen, destroy it if necessary or store it if you can.
However, the main purpose of the theft would be to be able put it about that your poor stuff is made by copying from the real film (which would be expensive and difficult), not simply from a VCR.
I was actually suprised at how easy it was to get into the movie without purchasing a ticket. After the tickets for the first day's show sold out, I borrowed one from a friend and color copied it at kinkos. It was beautiful :)
Huh? As if satellite feeds (pay-TV programming) would not already be pirated... what makes anyone to think this would not be the case with movies, too?
Of course it is an incredible amount of information, but good ol' Metcalfe's law comes handy here... and on the other hand, you would not necessarily need to store it in film resolution, would you?
that's some serious popcorn in the camouflage kit. obviously it wasn't necessary.
...i bided my time and then...snip snip jar jar. alas i knew thee too well. poetry in motion.
private viewing...the projector's cut...
projecting to selected audiences only.
BLAMMO shaken not stirred
I have a sibling in the theater industry and I've heard the same thing about using direct satellite feeds in the future.
On a side note, I'm not sure if it made the list, but theaters usually get about 30% of ticket sales, with the rest of the revenue coming from the consession stand (which is why they charge $3.50 for a $.10 box of popcorn). Lucas is demanding 90% of ticket revenues, leaving theaters with only 10%.
My guess is this is one of the reasons why the 2-3 screen theaters are going out of business or doing second-run movies while everyone's building 15-20 screen monster buildings.
The final print of the movie was spit out of a computer. Not "several scenes" were rendered by a computer on film. Every frame of the movie was.
:)
That's not that unusual, by the way. Avid systems and the like have been used pleanty of times for all-digital film editing. Once the images are in the computer, the output quality doesn't depend on whether or not any actual effects were layed into the film -- there was probably a bit of color correction done, and stuff like that.
This is all the way movies are going to be made in the future. Its easier, and getting to be cheaper to do shooting, and editing in digital, and will soon be the preferred method of presentation too.
It'll be a godsend for future film students too -- when the camera prices drop enough that digital film cameras are the standard fare at school instead of 16mm Bolex or other type cameras, it'll sure save a lot of $$$.
I probably dropped $500 a semester or more on film when I was in school. And that doesn't by that much film.
Launching a satellite is pretty far fetched -- he'd need to buy a piece of the radio spectrum he could use, and it'd have to be a fairly high power transmission, all things that are very unlikely to be allowed. Low power (DSS-like) transmissions are too prone to signal fade during rain and things like that -- and no theater owner in their right mind would risk being unable to show a film during a rainy day (when it seems to me to be the best time to see them!)
We saw the movie tonight in hq mpeg format on a 3x4meter screen with 20 people. By now some are making various kinds of copies of the source. Is this Europes first starwars premiere this far?
The theft only makes the Lucas idea of distributing the Episode 2 and 3 films via direct satellite broadcast to theaters, and not on film, more likely. No risk of loss and total control. I heard seven theaters are showing Episode 1 via this method.
Is it the real thing or just a blank tape inside. I heard of all sorts of fraud by these street vendors. I wonder if its from the stollen film or just some guy with a video cam in the back of a corwed theatre. :-)
Can somebody explain how the audio works for these things? Record? CD? Some sort of magnetic media?
Just run some line out to your tv....that works well for me......DVD is so much better than video.
i agree with alot of people when i say this, but most theaters leave the projection booths unattended, or manned by some 18 year old high skool kid who only cares about girls, and looking kool. if the projection booth was near an exit, then someone could easily zip in, grab a reel, or a portion of one, and run or drag it out the door. at the local theater by me the exit is behind the plaza, very dark, very few people outside to see you. all you need is a friend to come and pick you up in a car. or you could hide it in a dumpster or the bushes and go get your own car to pick up the film later.
> ERROR: IEXPLORE caused an invalid page fault in module MSCONV97.DLL at 0137:01212d19. Stack dumped:
Any bets as to whether some employees decided to "acquire" it?
They could make a copy and then have the film "appear" somewhere. Then, unless they could be physically linked to the theft, they would be off the hook. Now if they made the film available for free download, Lucas couldn't even thouch them because there are no damages!
After my friend downloads the movie I'll be able to debug Jar Jar. More brains.
/. story on the piracy of movies? Maybe the thief will make a good digital copy for the masses.
Seriously though, that movie will be everywhere soon. Remember that
I have a conflict of interest here, I want to watch the movie 250 times, but I don't want to disrespect it by getting a pirated copy.
This is what happens when there's too much demand and not enough supply. I heard about prequels to Star Wars like 8 years ago, all that hype building up, it's bound to break somewhere. I think it was posted on here that some Star Trek fans got mad after unfavorable attention Star Trek was getting so they decided to start a fight. That is very rediculous to me to fight over which science fiction series is better. Just goes to show too much demand breaks the supply.
It was reported that the film cost the theater $60,000. I suppose that the movie studios will claim that each pirated copy made constitutes another $60,000 of "lost revenue". This should be one to watch.
Ok, ok, to nitpick, to nitpick. Just wanted to point out that Les Miserables was serialized written fiction a long, long time before it became a Broadway musical. Ok, that's got that out of my system.
Sure! i'll send you the copy and you will broadcast it on your computer, and the next day i'll send an attorney to your jail cell.
DUH!
I just bought a copy of The Matrix on DVD from a friend in Malaysia just because I can't buy it here yet. I'll probably buy a real copy on VHS when it comes out also since all my DVD players are in computers.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
after so many years, I think any legalities will be overshadowed by the film's worth, both monetary and sentimental. And proving the film was stolen will be somewhat difficult at best, assuming the thieves can still be charged after so long.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
The biggest problem the thief is going to have is fencing the film. If they don't have the equiptment to view/copy the film it is useless to them do to the high price of projectors...
The cops should just come down hard on a few fences in the area...
"There is no spoon" - Neo, The Matrix
"SPOOOOOOOOON!" - The Tick, The Tick
First of all, as a veteran (victim?) graduate of UW-Stout's Applied Math department, I have to say that I am impressed that there is someone there with enough cluefullness to read slashdot.
Second, I have to agree, the State theater is a hole. It was actually a reasonable theatre when it was just two screens, at least for a small town anyway. They really fscked it up when they butchered the big theater into 2 screens.
I still have fond memories of walking to class in sub-zero temps and 40-below wind chills, classes in the Harvey Hall 2nd floor "computer" lab - mudding or bbsing during class. (There were no computers in the lab, only DEC vt100 dumb terminals, and I don't think that lab even exists any more).
Let's be serious. Security in most movie theaters is a joke. What there is of it is mostly concerned with keeping people from getting into the -seating area- without paying. Projection booths are left unlocked, even with the doors open, all the time. Nobody cares. Nobody's going to steal a theater film, because the equipment is ridiculously bulky... people don't use -those- projectors for home theater. (Well, obviously, someone stole -this- film, but, in general it's a pretty useless thing to steal films).
/will/ recognize you). 'course walking into another theater's projection booth and taking the film requires a lot chutzpah, but I think they had that anyway.
Widen your list of suspects to anyone who's ever been a projectionist... which includes many, many people who worked movie theaters as their summer/after school job through college. If it were me with this scheme, I certainly wouldn't steal it from the same theater I worked at - it's -easier- to get caught that way (because any witnesses
--Parity
--Parity
'Card carrying' member of the EFF.
I'm surprised that Lucas wants to make digital films in the future. Wouldn't that make it easier to bootleg the movies?
Lucas has only said he wants to shoot II and III with digital cameras. This doesn't mean that the distribution media to movie theaters will be digital -- in fact, it'll probably still be the same ordinary film prints of today as upgrading every theatre in the world for this is big $$$.
Note that Lucas said something to the effect that every shot in Phantom Menace went into a computer and back out again. So clearly the media for shooting doesn't have to be the media for editing/compositing, which doesn't have to be the media for distribution, etc.
Posted by kewlmann:
The State theater in Menomonie is such a hole.
There are four screens, two upstairs I think.
The upstairs screen has one speaker (or so it seems) that rattles, yes it rattles. And the projection is never very good.
The security is terrible and the management just stinks. I think there are emergency exits pretty much next to the projection room. Its been a while since I have been there, so I can't be certain.
On my way to class, I watch them deliver the film cans. Sometimes they are just inside the theatre. I read them through the glass to see what movies will be playing. Sometimes, beleive it or not, they are just sitting on the sidewalk!
Menomonie is home to University of Wisconsin - Stout (where I go). I would bet that they have the equipment on campus to make the copy. The FBI would surely be watching it though.
My 2 cents worth....
[My main point is that this isn't necessarily an inside job; I'm not trying to teach people how to steal.]
Most movie theaters figure that the average movie-goer is (1) honest, and (2) clueless about the projection of film. The Average Joe wouldn't steal film, and possibly wouldn't even recognize film or know how much of it to steal.
In every small theater I've visited more than three times, I've seen an employee carrying canisters of film from the booths to a spot near the door for pick-up. Once left by the door (or under the stairs, or whatever), the canisters are totally abandoned and ignored.
In every large theater I've visitied, there seem to be only two or three projectionists on hand in case something goes wrong on one of the dozen screens. Booths are usually abandoned between shows.
And, hey, what can you do with film and not get caught?
In general, for most movies, the stakes are too high for someone in the movie business to try to swipe a copy. A distributor wouldn't want to lose a contract with a production company, so they wouldn't start renting out an illegal copy; nor would they tolerate an illegal exhibition. A theater owner wouldn't want to lose business with a distributor, so he wouldn't run a secret after-hours show; nor would he tolerate a rogue projectionist. And so on.
If you're outside the movie business and you've stolen some film, you won't be able to get any insiders to help you project it. If you have some 35mm projectors in your basement, then you probably have some arrangement with a distributor that you'd rather not sour, and you're probably too rich to bother stealing prints.
Security is generally lax because there aren't people who'd steal film solely to keep as a trophy. When a movie like this comes along, one that makes theater managers quiver in fear, there are too many other details to worry about. A manager won't stop to think: "This is one of the few movies that someone could steal and sell frame-by-frame for cash." Security will stay low, and thefts like these could be pretty easy, either by an employee or by a savvy customer.