my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » Secured Sneak Previews

Author Topic: Secured Sneak Previews Michael Rourke Expert Film Handler Posts: 159 From: San Luis Obispo, Central Coast of CA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 11-25-2004 02:28 AM                     I just had a lousy Tues night/Wed morning building Xmas with the Kranks, Finding Neverland and Alexander all of which arrived at 3:30am. Alexander took long enough because it was too long to put on a platter reel, but then I had to build two more prints that I already built and previewed just 5 days earlier. I just don't know why the studios think the cost of shipping prints twice outweighs the outside chance that a projectionist is going to make a crappy bootleg of their film....5 days before it's release!!! It is usually not a problem but it was just a coincidence that all three new releases were ETS. Is there anyway to convince studios into leaving prints in house if there were some secure storage? The funny thing is I have had sneaks open a month before the release and they will leave the print for a week or two and then pick it up, what is the point of that?  |  IP: Logged Jason Gazaille Film Handler Posts: 46 From: San Diego, CA, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 11-25-2004 02:39 AM                     I hear you on that. The courier dropped off our Christmas w/ the Kranks print on Saturday at 12:30PM and asked when to come back and get it. He didn't stay with the print or anything. I see no security in this. He came and picked it up after midnight. Only for the regular delivery guy to bring 2 more new prints Tuesday night. Lucky for me, though, he was early, arriving at 11:15PM. Finding Neverland should have already been on-location, though, if you had any sneaks. Most theatres in our area kept them except stupid me of course because I called and asked. We didn't get the film, anyhow, even though the print delivery guy's sheet said we were and that we already had the print. Go figure.  |  IP: Logged Chase Hanson Expert Film Handler Posts: 172 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Oct 2004 posted 11-25-2004 04:17 AM                     quote: Michael Rourke will leave the print for a week or two and then pick it up, what is the point of that? My guess would be so that they could drop shit it to another theater so that they could run a sneak. Now to answer your question...why? Its fun with accounting, the cost to hold over that print in a storage depot is fixed, say $200 against the cost of letting you hold it (and subsequently a bootleg showing up) which X*Y. Where X=the highest possible gross take per ticket they can reasonably claim and Y=the highest possible gross ticket sales they can reasonably claim, for the MOVIE. Its really rather amusing.  |  IP: Logged William Valdes Film Handler Posts: 37 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Sep 2004 posted 12-02-2004 02:55 PM                     The MPAA estimate that over a billion some-odd dollars a year are lost through counterfeit bootleg DVDs sold at flea markets and films downloaded off of the internet. My question is: Where do they come up with their figures? Even as an estimation, I think there are so many variables to consider, that it would be impossible to make an accurate educated guess as to how much the industry has lost as a result of piracy. Perhaps many that have seen pirated copies of films were never willing to pay to see that film to begin with. Maybe, theres a promotional benefit that is gained from piracy that would actually boost home video and ticket sales. Who knows? Call me naive, but I just don't see the need to pour tons and tons of money into preventing piracy. It isn't going to be fully prevented anyway and will only hinder a very small percentage of the population who actually prefer those crappy bootlegs to seeing a quality presentation. Besides, many times after a screening, they call us asking that we tear the print down so it can be picked up, nobody shows up to pick it up, and we end up keeping it for the opening day! Way to go assholes!  |  IP: Logged Robert John Jeromson Master Film Handler Posts: 264 From: Auckland, New Zealand Registered: Jul 2004 posted 12-02-2004 03:38 PM                     I symaphise with the comments made here. We recently had a screening of 'Day After Tomorrow' about three weeks before it opened. On the evening of the screening we were asked to break the film down so that the security gaurd employed by the distributor to look after the print could get it on a plane by 9:00pm. The security guard obviously had no idea what a platter system was and was mortified to find it not on reels but all wound together. The session finished at 7:30pm and along with all of his evening sessions the projectionist set about breaking the film down. Instead of staying away and letting the projectionist get on with his job, this shmo stood over him with his arms folded like he thought he was somebody whilst this poor guy (relativley new) went like the clappers to get it done. To add insult to injury all the guy did was bitch all the way through the process about how close it was getting to his flight time. What difference would it have made to let us ship it back to the vault, this gross generalisation that cinema complexes pirate films is having a detremental effect on the way we operate. Split-deliveries, false names (another forum I know) and prints arrving so late that it is impossible to test screen them before they show, will eventually lead to someone making a mistake and then it'll be our fault. I understand that piracy is a serious problem but what happened to trust, don't distributors realise that we take this issue just as seriously as they do?  |  IP: Logged William Valdes Film Handler Posts: 37 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Sep 2004 posted 12-02-2004 04:59 PM                     I agree, I have no problem if the studio big wigs decide they want to implement new ideas for piracy protection but I do have a problem when these procedures interfere and make it more difficult for us, the exhibitors. I've always felt that most people in the industry take projectionists and the quality work they do for granted. We deserve more consideration and appreciation as we are a vital part of what makes this whole industry work.  |  IP: Logged Ian Joseph Parfrey Film Handler Posts: 56 From: Bollier Queensland Australia Registered: Sep 2004 posted 12-05-2004 04:50 AM                     This bootleg thing has been going on for years and will continue to do so as long as the huge multi-nationals own more than one part of the production chain . eg. One very large multi-national produces the original product - the film -, also owns theatres which screen these films, also manufactures video cameras, and tapes, and blank DVD's, and DVD burners.... and on and on. Me thinks they win either way. I wonder how they can possibly cry bootleg when they produce the gear to bootleg with in the first place? Just a thought.  |  IP: Logged Thomas King Expert Film Handler Posts: 119 From: Sheffield, Yorkshire, England Registered: Oct 2004 posted 12-05-2004 07:05 AM                        Our previews are a mixed bag. For Girl Next Door, there were two security staff who stayed with the print for the entire night, watching the projectionist and audience all the time. For The Incredibles, it sat in the corner for three days before I got fed up of it and sent it back to BVI. I do always wonder about movie piracy. I can understand people being too cheap to buy the DVD, but for films not yet on theatrical release I can't understand the sort of person that would rather watch a poor pirate copy rather than shelling out a bit and seeing it properly. Would they come to the cinema to see it if they couldn't download it? I guess most of it is people over here getting impatient about the rather large stagger in release dates.  |  IP: Logged David Yauch Expert Film Handler Posts: 206 From: Mesa, AZ, USA Registered: Oct 2004 posted 12-05-2004 05:37 PM                     We also fall in the mixed bag category. Security guards wanding people on their way in and searching the booth for cameras for some screenings, while other times we get a print and it will play a couple showtimes like normal for a couple weekends before it opens. The only way you'd know it was a sneak is if someone told you.  |  IP: Logged Ian Joseph Parfrey Film Handler Posts: 56 From: Bollier Queensland Australia Registered: Sep 2004 posted 12-06-2004 01:38 AM                     So now it's security guards in the booth, eh? Isn't THAT an indication of the theatre's trust in it's own personel? Great, what next.... dye bombs on film cans? How about barcodes that need to be scanned before a screening can take place and the results immediately sent to Bullshit Studio H.Q? Any unauthorised and it's off with the projectionist's hands! This gets a big It's the patrons that do the ripping off, not projectionists. Why, because by the end of the run, the projectionist will be sick to death of the film, will be too busy running the other 200 screens in the complex and knows more about the piracy aspect of the industry anyway! If the studios are so shit scared of piracy, then ditch the damn sneaks or just give reviewers DVD timecoded and locked copies. Most sneaks are timewasters anyway. Here's another because this kind of dictatorial crap deserves it!  |  IP: Logged Mike Spaeth Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1129 From: Marietta, GA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 12-06-2004 01:48 AM                        That's not true, Ian ... here in Atlanta at the Regal Hollywood 24, a projectionist was arrested for videotaping a movie ...  |  IP: Logged Ever Gonzalez Film Handler Posts: 29 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Oct 2004 posted 12-06-2004 03:33 AM                     During the screening of Closer about 2 weeks ago, a guy was caught with Binoculars that had a recording device installed. What was done? The security guards would not let him in, so the theatre held the binoculars for him till the movie was over. I would not have let him in at all and kept the device if possible.  |  IP: Logged Chris Trainor Expert Film Handler Posts: 161 From: Greenville, RI, USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-06-2004 02:39 PM                        Most of the people who want the pirated 'videotaped' copies of the movies are in foreign countries that will not get the movie, or will not get it for weeks/months. Of course, that funny thing is that even tho that movie will never be shown in some markets, the film companies are crying 'loss' on each one downloaded to those areas. The bigger (much bigger actually) problem for the movie industry is the piracy of pre-release DVD's which come to market for academy review, etc months before the regular DVD release to the general public. The only reason they spend so much time going after people with camcorders in theaters is because there is hope of catching them.... there is much less hope of catching someone who's a member of the academy loaning out a DVD inwhich gets copied and posted to the internet. (yes someone did get caught, but of the hundreds of DVD's leaked out any given year that way this dude was responsible for 4 or 5). --chris  |  IP: Logged Ian Joseph Parfrey Film Handler Posts: 56 From: Bollier Queensland Australia Registered: Sep 2004 posted 12-06-2004 10:55 PM                     Well Mike, it's because of dickheads like that moron that make everyone else pay with the abovementioned stories as proof. That stupid git deserves to be arrested because, frankly, if he is that moronic to try an idiotic trick like videotaping a film, then the only safe place for him/her is a rubber room.... keeps 'em away from the public, y'know! Let's get real, it is because of clowns like him that give the studios ammunition to justify their behaviour. And now they have even more justification.  |  IP: Logged David Yauch Expert Film Handler Posts: 206 From: Mesa, AZ, USA Registered: Oct 2004 posted 12-07-2004 12:09 AM                     I would've let him in and then gotten him arrested and fined once he started his recording. That way you stop the pirating and make an example... Oh and I'd love to say projectionists aren't responsible for any of this, but while I won't give any info lets just say I've learned better. You can trust the information has landed itself in the proper place, however. And for your information, no I am not talking about any people i work with.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.