Posted on 06/01/2004 6:38:01 PM PDT by doug from upland
LONDON (AP) - No, they are not Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters - but they sure could give you a scare.
Ushers at British cinemas showing the new Harry Potter film have been issued military-style night vision goggles to thwart cinema pirates. Vue Cinemas said Monday its staff will spend all two hours and 22 minutes of the film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban scanning the theatres in an effort to uncover anyone trying to secretly record the film.
Warner Brothers distributed the goggles to Vue cinemas around Britain along with copies of the film. The company is determined to fight back after a deluge of poor quality copies of the first two Harry Potter movies hit the black market.
"It is an incredible response and makes you realize why the distributors are so keen to protect the film from pirates," said Jamie Graham, who manages a Vue complex in Ellesmere, central England. "I have been working in the cinema industry for 10 years and I have never heard of anything like this before."
Graham said his theatre had sold 6,500 tickets before 9 a.m. for screenings of the movie, which opened Monday in Britain.
"Our ushers are using the goggles in every screening to check nobody is making any illegal recordings," he said. "If anybody is caught, then they will be reported to the police."
The popularity of the Harry Potter movie franchise shows little sign of dwindling, with hundreds of fans turning out for the premiere of the new film Sunday night in London's Leicester Square.
The movie opens in North America later this week.
Usher, wearing NODs, accidentally looks up into the projection lightstream. Usher's head explodes.
I'd expect that the current technology has a cut-off for excess light coming into the Image Intensifier Tube. back in the old days though, some nitwit shining a flashlight at you was a Really Bad Thing.
Brody: Hey Kramer. And you must be Jerry. Thanks for the ticket.
Jerry: That's quite a feed bag you're workin' on there.
Brody: It's for all of us. Is there a problem?
Kramer: Brody, c'mon. He's just kidding. He's a joke maker. Tell him, Jerry.
Jerry: I'm a joke maker.
Kramer: All right, here we go, Death Blow. (Brody takes out video camera)
Jerry: (To Kramer) Hey, hey, what the hell is he doing?
Kramer: Relax, he does that all the time.
Jerry: Does what?
Kramer: He's making a copy of the movie for sale on the street, huh?
Jerry: May I see you outside for a moment please?
Kramer: But I want to--
Jerry: Outside!
For those among you who haven't played with Night Observation Devices or NODs, the'd amplify whatever the available light was x about 10,000, and pass that along to your eyeballs. If the lightsource is an anglehead flashlight, amplified ten thousand times and fed into your brain through your eyeballs, then the victim, when he recovers, is allowed one free combat-boot clad field-goal kick in the 'nads, with my full blessings.
As the film started one idiot sitting behind me stood up and started snapping pictures of the show. His flash bulbs were as intense as the morning sunrise, (I'm sure he washed out the screen!) The managers ushered him to the door and we went back to that Galaxy Far Far Away!
What was he planning to do, film the movie one click at a time?
I Saw Star Wars with my wife and unfant son. I Spent most of the time in the lobby with my son. A few weeks late I was traveling for work and sat through two showings in one evening. The effects look clunky now, but I don't think any movie has ever equaled it for pure showmanship. All action movies are either pre-SW or post-SW.
Amazing.
I lived in the middle of nowhere then, too. Gasquet, California. We had to wait for months for it to come around. People in the real world had already stopped talking about it when it got there. I almost never got to the movies- it was only for something that was a really big deal.
When I did see it, I was about fifteen. Talk about capturing the imagination! It looks cheesy now, but back then it was mind-blowing.
LOL.
My first thought was about Brody and Seinfeld.
Can't you people see an obvious marketing ploy when it hits you right in the face?
LOL!! Maybe he was going to staple the prints together and make one of those flip-show movies that we used to make as kids, and memorize the script to read out while doing it.
ROGER THAT. Imagine looking up into a movie-house projector with those on. Theater projectors put out some serious candlepower. I can't imagine that WB is springing for third-generation for movie ushers. You'd probably be agonisingly permanently blinded with old NODs.
You know with today's DVD cam corders a show quality copy can be made. I can appreciate the concern. Heck, the VHS and DVD copies will be released this Christmas! On to "The Goblet of Fire"! Book six is slated for June of '05.
What is that???
It won't be people in the audience making the pirated copies, it will be prople in the projection room.
Here, here! I agree 1000% percent. And it's not nostalgia for me.I wasn't a kid when I saw the OT SW films.
There was HEART, and that indefinable 'something'- especially in the first two-ANH and ESB.
You can't copy that. SPFX don't make up for it.
It's what makes a phenomenon un-copyable.
Your son couldn't help it, after he was an unfant. ;o)
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