- The Shape of water, The Post, Lady Bird, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri... these films with more chances of winning all this year’s prizes, suddenly, mysteriously and unpremiered some in movie theaters, have appeared on the Internet, “free”. In P2P networks we find many screeners and with considerable quality. That this happens is not new, it is something that has been happening again in recent years. But what is that like? Where have these copies come from?
Let's go step by step. Every time we download a movie on the Internet illegally, you will have seen words like CAM, TELESYNC, SCREENER, DVDRIP or DVDScr next to the name of those files. In the world of downloads there are different qualities according to the origin of the file and these names are placed to classify them. In CAM format, for example, these are films recorded live with a camera in cinemas and then they go to digital format. That's right, they're usually very poor quality.
Before the arrival of the Oscar films are made available to about 6,000 people who want to take their vote.
But that makes leakage easier.
The most common, and those directly related to today’s theme, are the DVD-SCREENER (screener) files. These are digital copies that come out of DVD, Blur-ray or (in your day) VHS for promotions. And with this, of course, here is a fatter theme than the pil-pil salsa. How is it possible that the DVD-SCREENER copies of the films I mentioned at the beginning are on the Internet, given that they have not been released? Who's uploaded them to the net?
Screeners of scholars
When the awards season begins in the United States, distributors send copies of all their productions to all members of the academy so they can watch and vote on the particular film. It is something that has been done since the 1980s – at that time, of course, they were sent in VHS format. It is estimated that these screeners reach about 6,000 people. Big studies, as is normal, want your film to reach as many peers as possible. On the one hand, to collect as many nominations as possible in the prizes and, on the other, to get that magical vote that, of course, can make triumphant.
In fact, sending some downloads has become one of the keys to this strategy: some send it earlier than usual, in early fall, is that the reason some downloads come so fast?, because at this time academics usually have fewer films accumulated and can pay more attention to their work, while others do it when the date approaches, thus offering the possibility of seeing these works on large screen and highlighting more technical aspects.
Starting in 2003, a network user has systematically analyzed film leaks before the
Oscar. The results leave no doubt
Leaks
As more than 6,000 copies of a film circulate around the world, it is almost impossible that some of them do not suffer any leakage. The moment academics watch this film, distributors ask them to destroy the copies, yes, but they don't have the ability to check whether they've done it or not. All these works usually have glued messages like “For your consideration only”.
To analyze this phenomenon, since 2003, a guy named Andy Baio created a website. The result can be found in the document which can be consulted in this link. In it you can see the release dates, the shipments of these screeners and the exact days on which these films appear online. Isn't that significant?
It is clear, on the other hand, that while all these copies pass from one hand to another, their occurrence is inevitable, anyone can make a digital copy. On many occasions there has been talk of a family member, perhaps a friend. Excuses just. On the one hand, because I think there are a lot of interests behind everything. And on the other hand, if I had real will, it seemed to me a subject that could be easily cut off. Starting with those big Hollywood executives. With excuses, the fact is that all the arrows against piracy are always thrown in the same direction, but in this case the problem comes from the other side. Don't you think so?