posted 12-24-2003 09:01 AM                       

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I ran it a couple of weeks ago, it was part of the 'Pearl & Dean' (adverts). I think it's just an advert, like any other, and I very much doubt that you could just remove any advert because you didn't feel like showing it.

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You can if it clashes with the feature certificate. When I worked for City Screen it was company policy to extract all the adverts from a given reel which had a higher certificate than the feature it was being shown before. On the P & D or Carlton chitty we would place an asterisk by the appropriate entries and write at the bottom 'Not shown - higher certificate than feature.' However I'd guess that, annoyingly, this FACT propaganda is probably U-cert and therefore this isn't an option.

As for the NFT newsletter, I suspect and hope that this was a covering of asses exercise rather than a signalling of any serious intent to search members as they enter an auditorium. Even allowing for the fact that (IMHO) its programming has gone more mainstream and downhill in the last decade or so (the rot started when I left ), 90% of what they show would be of no interest whatsoever to any self-respecting pirate. After all, who would want to furtively video The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp in the MOMI cinema when you can buy it on DVD for £5.99?

posted 12-24-2003 10:02 AM                    

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You can if it clashes with the feature certificate. ...
...On the P & D or Carlton chitty we would place an asterisk by the appropriate entries and write at the bottom 'Not shown - higher certificate than feature.

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I think the only circumstances where you can remove an advert is if the reel as supplied contains material not allowed for the age rating of the film. There used to be a warning notice from P+D to remove tobacco adverts for example, when these were still show in cinemas, if younger rated films were being shown.

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As to the NFT thing, I have no intention of pirating any film, and if I did I would find a better way of doing it than pointing a camera at a cinema screen. Des anybody really do this? The couple of pirate copies I've seen were of rather good quality, and obviously not done this way. They were also proper pressed DVDs, which suggests a large scale operaton. These things are openly on sale at computer fairs, car boot sales etc., yet they seem to do nothing about this; do they really want to stop piracy, if so, why don't they do something about this?

I'm getting rather fed up with places which won't let you take various things in. Now if it was something large that would be understandable; if I turned up at the NFT carrying a roll of carpet, I would expect them to turn me away, but a small still camera in a coat pocket or bag, are they serious? I recently had to go to a certain large computer shop; they wouldn't let me in because I was carrying a bag of shopping from another shop. They told me to leave the bag in my car - I don't have one. The store security person declined to look after my bag for me whie I was in the store, so I took my custom elsewhere. Am I really expected to take each bag of shopping home before going to the next shop? Maybe we should be expected to remove all our clothing before entering a shop, in case we slip something into a pocket.

I was running a film once at a modern place, with the entrance to the projection box indoors, just outside the auditorium. Before the show there was a knock on the projection room door, and a young woman was standing there. She reached into her bag, produced a VHS tape, and asked if I would mind running off a copy of the film during the show for her friend, who wasn't able to come. Right, I thought, I'll just go and find a Cintel Mk.3 telecine from somewhere, and loop the film out through that before it reaches the take-up spool! She was actually being serious, she really thought it was technically possible, and here would be nothing wrong with doing it.

Any more 70mm shows cming up at York, I still haven't managed to get to one.

posted 12-24-2003 05:29 PM                       

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Des anybody really do this? The couple of pirate copies I've seen were of rather good quality, and obviously not done this way. They were also proper pressed DVDs, which suggests a large scale operaton. These things are openly on sale at computer fairs, car boot sales etc., yet they seem to do nothing about this; do they really want to stop piracy, if so, why don't they do something about this?

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posted 12-24-2003 06:54 PM                    

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Do you know if Orange freely supply 'scope versions of the trailers?

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