Bootleg movies?

Question

How do people go about making bootleg copies of movies? A friend of mine just saw a suprisingly good copy of Spiderman 3 someone sold him on DVD. Although the sound was a little low, it was a very good copy. How is this made possible?

Answer 1

For a film still in theaters and not yet released on DVD these are the 3 main ways bootlegs are made:

1. Taping the film in the theater with a camcorder
2. Taping from the projectionist booth (better quality as the camera is centered to the screen and does not have to be hidden)
3. Ripping a leaked press review DVD (best quality)

For the first two methods sound is either recorded via the camera's mic, by connecting it to the theater's sound system, or combining separately recorded sound and video with an editing program.

Some bootlegs are also obtained from places such as Russia or China, where cheap but lower quality DVDs are released by studios days after the film comes out in theaters in order to combat lost business due to piracy.

Very rarely a workprint bootleg will show up. These are pretty much unfinished films that are leaked, and may contain unfinished sound, music and special effects, time code on the video and scenes that may be later cut out of the film.

Answer 2

Like indicated above; people tape them in the movie theater with good equipment; downside not a good investment as it is "piracy", a felony and punishable by a $500,000 fine, which includes people who purchase bootleg DVDs.

Better solution; pay the less than $10 to see in a movie theater, or buy the DVD once it comes out...with a movie like Spiderman 3 wait about a month after it is released on DVD and you can get if for less the $8 legally on a gently used DVD.

Answer 3

Asian bootleg movies.

Answer 4

they tape the film in a theatre...and about the sound, they probably had a good microphone

Answer 5

hes going to go to jail