# LOOK, you snunk-felching, santorum-sniffing movie studio heads!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 25, 2003, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150 "2003-11-25T07:47:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/1 "2003-11-25T07:47:38Z")
I see over 100 movies a year in the theater as a paying customer. The only free tickets I get are the ones that sometimes come from my membership with the Chicago Film Festival. HOW DARE YOU RUIN PRINTS WITH THOSE FUCKING RED DOTS! I walked out of **Master and Commander** and demanded my money back. Those dots ruined a key sequence in the film by showing up over and over again during an important section. During a storm! Red dots on a grey background. That’s just great. It took me right out of the film and I missed who the hell fell overboard. I won’t go see it again at the theater, because I’ll know in advance that the print is marred. Sure, I realize I’m only hurting myself, because it was a good movie, what I saw, but I know I’ll get upset and taken out of the movie again. When one print is bad, I can see it elsewhere. When EVERY print is bad, I have no incentive to see it ANYWHERE! First you try to elbow all the indies out of the awards season, now you’re messing up the major releases on purpose! What the HELL is your problem?? Why punish millions of movie-lovers for the actions of a few? I do have a [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=225252) in Cafe Society, but I can’t come out and say FUCK YOU!! there. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/2 "2003-11-25T07:49:07Z")
Snunk, offspring of a Snake and a Skunk. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/3 "2003-11-25T07:49:53Z")
Don’t worry if they keep up this ‘copy protection’ soon you won’t be able to see/watch anything with any sort of ease and we’ll pine for the days of just red dots. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/4 "2003-11-25T08:39:32Z")
Your courtesy with the spoiler tag is indeed admirable, but it’s hard to imagine a big-time naval adventure epic that DOESN’T feature a scene where someone falls overboard. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/5 "2003-11-25T12:45:19Z")
Thanks for ruining it, man. Now I guess I’ll just stay home since I already know someone falls overboard. 😉 Anyway… yeah. Fuck you, studios pulling this stunt; and fuck you, people who see the dots but ignore them, because you think they’re a necessary step to prevent piracy or whatever. If you just lay back and accept this, then it will become the status quo - and when it fails to stop piracy, they’ll try something even more annoying. How could these dots possibly help prevent piracy? Anyone who has the interest, access, and knowledge to make a high-quality copy from the actual film will be able to remove the marks–since they know the dots are there and they identify the print–either by photoshopping them out or simply dropping the offending frames. Anyone making a copy with a video camera from the theater won’t be affected by this system at all, since it only identifies the print. It doesn’t degrade the copy (any more than it degrades the theater experience) or identify the person holding the camera. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/6 "2003-11-25T14:32:34Z")
What red dots? ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/7 "2003-11-25T14:49:55Z")
What **Homebrew** said. ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/8 "2003-11-25T15:52:07Z")
The ones on the screen in the middle of the big storm scene in Master and Commander. They’re unmistakable, and annoying as hell. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/9 "2003-11-25T16:39:14Z")
The fucks think they can put [any goddamn thing on the screen](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/DrSeussTheCatintheHat-1127311/) and people will come see it if you just put enough maketing money behind it–and they’ve been proved right way too often! They treat people like fucking ATMs–just like the fucking record companies. What happens when the bloody bean counters take over? Entertainment that is NOT ENTERTAINING! ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/10 "2003-11-25T16:49:47Z")
So these are different from the “Yo, time to change the reel!” dots? ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/11 "2003-11-25T18:11:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mehitabel \* > \*\*So these are different from the “Yo, time to change the reel!” dots? \*\* Very different. They’re colored, for one thing, thus much more easy to see. They’re in the body of the film, as opposed to the reel change markers which are always at the top right. Reel change markers were an absolute necessity but they’re falling by the wayside. When theaters go all-digital they’ll disappear altogether. When theaters go all-digital there shouldn’t be any need for these red dots, because it’ll be much easier to embed ID information that the human eye won’t see, but that a camcorder will pick up easily. My husband believes that this is a ploy to get theaters to go digital. Studios aren’t going to help theaters with the costs involved, so they have little incentive. Maybe hearing people bitch about these dots, and refunding money all the time will make them (the theaters) think twice about going digital asap. I don’t know what to think about that. I call out for people to complain, while I could be helping the studios. Argh! If you haven’t seen the dots, count yourself lucky. I take it you haven’t seen Master and Commander, because they can NOT be missed, unless you go out to the bathroom during the storm. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/12 "2003-11-25T18:21:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mehitabel \* > \*\*So these are different from the “Yo, time to change the reel!” dots? \*\* I believe those are called “cigarette burns”. [sub]I remember that from FightClub[/sub] 😃 As for the other stuff let me get this straight, they are flashing huge red dots on the screen? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/13 "2003-11-25T20:55:39Z")
I saw _Master and Commander_ this past weekend, and the red dots drove me fuckin’ _batty._ > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Equipoise \* > **My husband believes that this is a ploy to get theaters to go digital.** I don’t know if it’s a ploy, exactly. However, while I’m not a major fan of digital projection (the examples I’ve seen suggest the technology is not ready for prime time, as it were), I’m looking forward to it if only because the security encryption schemes will be embedded in the signal such that they’re invisible to the eye. Won’t do anything about the camcorder types, but you can’t control those with the red-dot method anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/14 "2003-11-25T23:08:21Z")
What, is this a big red dot that obscures the scene? Granted, I don’t see a whole lot of movies in the theater, but I’ve never noticed anything like this. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/15 "2003-11-25T23:20:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cervaise \* > \*\*I saw _Master and Commander_ this past weekend, and the red dots drove me fuckin’ \*batty.\*I don’t know if it’s a ploy, exactly. However, while I’m not a major fan of digital projection (the examples I’ve seen suggest the technology is not ready for prime time, as it were), I’m looking forward to it if only because the security encryption schemes will be embedded in the signal such that they’re invisible to the eye. Won’t do anything about the camcorder types, but you can’t control those with the red-dot method anyway. \*\* Is there technology that screws something up if filmed by a camcorder, yet the naked eye sees a perfect image? Something like when you see the lines of a tv when it’s on tv? ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/16 "2003-11-25T23:46:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Anyone who has the interest, access, and knowledge to make a high-quality copy from the actual film will be able to remove the marks–since they know the dots are there and they identify the print–either by photoshopping them out or simply dropping the offending frames. My first reaction whenI heard of this was that of total surprise. how could they possibly think it’ll work?! _I_ know how to remove the dots for Christ’s sake, and if I know how to get around something when it comes to technology, then you know it’s far, far, far, from fool proof. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-you-snunk-felching-santorum-sniffing-movie-studio-heads/215150/17 "2003-11-26T01:22:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by World Eater \* > **Is there technology that screws something up if filmed by a camcorder, yet the naked eye sees a perfect image?** You could project a big infrared square over the entire screen. Many (most? all?) camcorders will pick up infrared, so the movie won’t be visible on tape, but no one in the theater will notice. (Until the screen catches on fire.)