Night Vision Lenses?
To hear it from loyal HE reader "Lipranzer," a Manhattan screening tonight of Capitalism: A Love Story was projected slightly out of focus because the projector was using special night vision lenses to prevent people in the theater from recording the movie and then selling pirate copies. Unless, you know, the security guy who allegedly said this was full of shit. Here's the story:
"Tonight I attended a screening of Capitalism: A Love Story at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square at West 68th Street and Broadway," he begins. "Right away the trouble started. After the initial credits over a black screen, we saw out-of-focus images. I headed to the exit to complain. In the lobby I saw two men who'd been guarding the entrance and asked them to get somebody to fix the focus. I was happy to see another moviegoer who was also complaining. I went back to my seat expecting the problem to be fixed.
"A minute or two went by and the projection was still out of focus. I went back to the exit, and this time discovered one of the guards there, and he assured me someone had gone up to fix the problem. As I started back to my seat, I noticed the other guard standing near the back of the theater, as if to check when the film would be coming back on. There was no other theater worker with a walkie-talkie, which is usually what happens when there's a projector problem.
"And when I got back to my seat, despite all the yelling from the audience, and despite my yelling a general obscenity (I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was something along the lines of 'fix the motherfucking projector!'), the film was STILL out of focus. Finally, after maybe 3 or 4 minutes, the film finally snapped into focus, to the cheers of the crowd. But near the end the film went slightly out of focus again -- not completely, but enough so that people on screen were slightly hazy looking.
"After it was over I saw another moviegoer, a middle-aged man, complaining to those same two guards. He wasn't raising his voice or anything, so I was surprised when I heard the one of the guards say that he was tired of this discussion and was ending it. The man turned to go in disgust, and I caught up to him and asked if they'd explained what the problem was. According to him, the guards had explained the projector was using special night vision lenses to prevent people in the theater from recording the movie and then selling pirate copies.
"I'm sorry, but this is one of the biggest pieces of bullshit I've ever heard. There seems to be two options here. If you're a conspiracy theorist, the guard was telling a lie -- on his own or on orders from his boss or bosses -- so that people would leave the movie disgruntled and spread bad word-of-mouth about the film. If that was the aim, it probably won't work -- the audience seemed to be laughing at all the right places and quiet at all the right places, emotional when the moment called for it, and they clapped at the end. And as I was heading to the bathroom, I heard some of the other moviegoers talking and basically agreeing with Moore's message.
The other option, of course, is the guard was telling the truth, and this was an attempt to curtail piracy.
"Whatever their intentions were, the people who ordered this and carried it out have committed a colossal act of stupidity. Do studios and movie theater owners really believe the way to get people to come see their movies, whether by spending their hard-earned money on it or going to screenings like this that are designed to build positive word-of-mouth, is to completely alienate their customers by purposely making the movie hard to watch?"
"I say no. I'm currently sending an abbreviated form of this message to Michael Moore himself, asking him, or his representatives, to contact other theaters showing his film to make sure this doesn't happen again. And it might not be a good idea to stop going to movies at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square until they agree never to pull a stunt like this again. I agree in the total scheme of things, this bit of corporate malfeasance ranks pretty low, and this type of action I'm proposing ranks pretty low as well, but it's a start. Don't we as moviegoers deserve better?"
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on September 22, 2009 at 8:40 PM
comment #1
Atticus Grinch
says ...
I wanted to read this post about Michael Moore's scathing critique on capitalism, but I was having epileptic seizures from all the BLINKING ADVERTISEMENTS for the movie surrounding my web browser.
Seizures aside, it's fun to watch everyone scrabble to capitalize on Capitalsm: A love story, trying to earn a buck.
Posted by Atticus Grinch
at September 22, 2009 9:49 PM
comment #2
DeeZee
says ...
You should try catching Capitalism @ the Wanklight. Apparently, the Pacific monopoly, er, chain, has decided to stop selling advanced tixx, so I have to get mine the same day or week the movie premieres. And, it takes them until friggin' Wednesday to come up with a schedule, even though part of it is on their official site. I'm so glad I almost never go there most of the time, because I'd really be pissed if I was a regular.
Posted by DeeZee
at September 22, 2009 10:13 PM
comment #3
moviesquad
says ...
I saw Capitalism at a pre-screening tonight, and the focus of the movie on the screen was fine. The focus of the movie narrative, on the other hand, wasn't. It was one of the most unfocused and scattered documentaries I've ever seen.
Given all the prime economic source material available over the past year, Moore barely focuses on the bailout and the crony capitalism involved. Instead, he uses much of the time to extol the virtues of unions, complain that people get foreclosed on their houses when they don't pay the mortgage, and remind us of what a great president FDR was.
The movie rises to laughability as he correctly points out that both parties were complicit in the bailout and that the US Treasury is a revolving door to Goldman Sachs, yet he still launches into a "Yes We Can" cheerleading session about Obama even though Obama hired the same guys mentioned as evil in this movie (Geithner and Larry Summers) and maintains the same policies the Bush administration began with the bailout extending it to yet more companies and industries. And still, Chris Dodd, is head of the Senate banking committee to this day.
One of the parting shots that somehow ties this whole mess back to Hurricane Katrina and points out that if we only enacted FDR's second bill of rights, Katrina wouldn't have happened is amazing even by Michael Moore standards.
I
Posted by moviesquad
at September 22, 2009 10:44 PM
comment #4
moviesquad
says ...
Regarding this article, I have to say it's ironic the extent to which the "capitalist" distributers are protecting the copyright of this movie so as not to lose out on any of their "profits".
Posted by moviesquad
at September 22, 2009 10:47 PM
comment #5
Gnome de Guerre
says ...
Check it out:
http://gizmodo.com/5364926/movie-theaters-will-fry-us-all-with-infrared-to-stop-pirates
Not quite magic outta-focus night vision lenses, but IR-related and bullshit nonetheless.
Posted by Gnome de Guerre
at September 23, 2009 12:20 AM
comment #6
lipranzer
says ...
Thanks for posting this, Jeff. I still can't believe this crap happened.
Posted by lipranzer
at September 23, 2009 5:38 AM
comment #7
jesse
says ...
Liprazner, you leave out a viable third option: that the guards or the theater staff didn't know or care to fix the focus problem (at least once it was 80% fixed) and just said it was some kind of piracy-prevention thing to shut people up. A lot of theater staffers love to pretend that there's nothing they can do, or that there's not actually anything with wrong. I've watched many movies that were slightly out of focus, or framed wrong, or with sound problems, complained about it, and have no one do anything (or not understand that there was anything wrong, since it all looked basically OKwith a quick glance).
Posted by jesse
at September 23, 2009 6:33 AM
comment #8
anonymous2
says ...
Liprazner, I'm sorry you had such a miserable experience but wasn't this a free screening? Aren't you kind of subject to bullshit when you don't have to pay for a ticket and see the film early?
Jesse- theater staffers are mostly idiots who don't know what is going on.
Once I woke up early to go to a 10:30am imax screening at this particular AMC. I waited 20 minutes then left because by 10:50am the movie hadn't started and the lights in the projection booth were still out. The projectionist didn't make it to work and no one else could work the projector.
Posted by anonymous2
at September 23, 2009 6:39 AM
comment #9
lipranzer
says ...
Jesse - it could very well have been a way to shut people up, and I should have mentioned that as an option. But that in itself is also a form of arrogance - "yeah, our staff sucks, but you paid for this, so there's nothing you can do about it." And it very well may be the staff isn't trained for something like this - I've known projectionists who have told me theaters no longer train people thoroughly in using it simply because it costs too much money.
Anonymous - yes it was a free screening, but what if it wasn't? I've been in other theaters where similar problems occurred - once, when I saw the film RAT RACE, they skipped an entire part of the film - and the staff didn't give anybody a refund or a pass to a free movie unless I and others complained loudly and long enough.
Posted by lipranzer
at September 23, 2009 9:23 AM
comment #10
Matthew Starr
says ...
Interesting story. I have been to Lincoln Square 68th street many times and have never had a problem. Anytime I see a movie in Imax I see it there. I also go to a lot of screenings and never had such a problem either.
Usually when I go to screenings they have guards in the theatre on each side with night vision goggles scouting the crowd. This practically occurs at every single screening I attend. However I have never heard of a projectionist doing that and it would clearly impede on his ability to properly display the film.
Posted by Matthew Starr
at September 23, 2009 10:12 AM
comment #11
Floyd Thursby
says ...
Have seen 30-40 films at Lincoln Square 68th with no problems, but when I saw IBast at an AMC in East Hanover, NJ, the right third of the image was out of focus. Complaints accomplished nothing.
Posted by Floyd Thursby
at September 23, 2009 10:38 AM
comment #12
The Winchester
says ...
Terrible experience, but I think it's mere incompetence on the staff's part versus a grander conspiracy, and covering it up with a lie that sounds complicated enough to not be questioned.
Anonymous: If it was true Imax, they can't just train the popcorn kids to work that projector. If you're in NY, I believe they have to be union projectionists. I worked an 18 plex with an IMAX, and they had one guy just for the IMAX and me for the other 18 screens.
DZ- Got my tickets just fine at Snarklight, but I'm still pissed at them for putting Reel 2 of Jennifer's Body on starting at the tail so that the image was upside down and the sound was backwards. Regardless of the film's content, (to be honest, that was the most entertaining part of the film) the fact that the theater tries to hold itself to higher standards and pulls this is more than irritating.
Posted by The Winchester
at September 23, 2009 10:41 AM
comment #13
jesse
says ...
Sadly, there's hardly a theater in Manhattan that I can say I've been to more than a dozen times without a problem. Some are more problematic than others, surely (for all of its awful Times Square crowds, I'd say the presentation at the AMC Empire is pretty consistent), but hardly anyone has a clean record. At 68th St., I've had sound problems in a number of their auditoriums, even their biggest/fanciest screen (apart from the IMAX where I've admittedly never had a problem). Some of you complain about the Arclight, but at least LA has a theater that at least tries to care about presentation on some level (or pretends to, such that ushers might not look at you funny if you make a complaint)... here, only the arthouses would be responsive to those types of complaints, and they still might not actually be able to fix them. Actually, speaking of arthouses, the Landmark Sunshine in Manhattan has a pretty consistent record, too. Once there was a weird sound-sync problem, but that might've been my only bad experience.
Posted by jesse
at September 23, 2009 10:48 AM
comment #14
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