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Trouble-shooting
 Do
you remember the last time you went to the theatre to see a movie? Most people
do not bother about new releases and mega hits these days because they simply
go to the nearest video store to rent the latest movie CDs/DVDs. With the
price of theatre tickets climbing steeply, many people say that they are
morally right in watching ‘thiruttu’ CDs.
Argues a man who works in a
private firm, “See, I live in a joint family. I have to take out my wife,
two daughters, my brother-in-law, his wife and children and some other
relatives every time I go for a movie. Can you imagine how much that would
cost me with tickets being priced at Rs 30 and above? All of us can see the
latest movie at home for the price of one ticket. And I can see the movie
whenever I please and how many ever times I want. So, why should I go to a
theatre?” That is an argument hard to beat. You cannot talk morals to
someone who explains the economics of a problem to you.
For many slum-dwellers in
Chennai, pooling their resources to hire a CD player and watch the latest
movies has become a part of life.
Is it a surprise then that a
study found that in Tamil Nadu at least 1,000 cinema halls were closed in the
last 12 months?
Directors, producers, super
stars, actors, actresses and anybody connected with the movie world has been
chanting only one mantra these days: Please go to the theatre to see a movie,
don’t watch pirated CDs.
But this has not worked and
never will even if the police put in all their best efforts. Because
technology has grown so fast and is so omnipotent that the man with the baton
is no longer enough to check pirated CDs.
So Chennai-based software
company Lambent Softsytems Pvt Ltd said it would tackle technology with
technology.
Lambent reasoned that since
piracy was largely due to easy copying methods, both because of technological
advancements and vulnerability of cinema exhibition, it needed to be curbed
only through technology. Any technology solution is at the source level and
can be relied upon.
Lambent researched the
problem for over a year and found a technology solution - VidA-Pd - to
completely prevent film piracy of Telecine and open camera shoot methods.
The solution protects the
movie from being pirated right from editing the negative till it reaches the
cinema hall. The solution requires only minor changes to the theatre set-up
and some additional expenditure from the producer for every movie. But the
pay-offs would be tremendous to the producer and the film industry as a whole.
VidA-Pd protects a film from
being pirated by splitting the movie content into two at the editing stage of
a film’s negative.
Selected scenes or shots or a
pre-determined number of frames at a pre-determined ratio would be pulled out
of the main celluloid film roll and replaced by black frames. The frames that
are taken out would be converted into digital frames and encoded and kept as
“high-resolution colour-balanced and graded images” to match the film
quality.
This means that the final
print would have film images and blacked out images, with a frame code for
each frame printed near the perforation where the encoded version would be
synchronised at the time of screening the film.
Every theatre would be
required to house a one-time structure and equipment to reconstruct the movie
that can be viewed only in the theatre. Any attempt to copy the film with the
Telecine process will only show scenes and shots missing.
 If
anyone should try to shoot the movie through a video camera, the video will
have only distorted content as the film would have powerful invisible infrared
lights from the back of the screen. While the camera image would be distorted,
the viewer can see the movie without any disturbance. If some smart-alec
thinks he can switch off the infrared rays, he will be switching off the
digital projection, disturbing the film show.
According to South Indian
Film Chamber of Commerce president Mohan Sharma, a committee was constituted
to study the feasibility of using this technique to check the uncontrollable
menace of video piracy of feature films.
Director-cinematographer Balu
Mahendra, director-producer, Dr M Jayakumar, editor B Lenin, producer
Kandaswamy and Prasad Lab’s chief technician Sivaraman reported that the
technology was suitable and SIFCC has asked the film trade bodies of India to
study the viability factor.
Can the monster let loose by
technology be reined in by the same technology?
For more technical details check out
www.lambent.co.in
S Chitra
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