8mm Forum: How prevalent was movie piracy during film era?

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Topic: How prevalent was movie piracy during film era?

Robert Lee
Film Handler

Posts: 70
From: San Francsico, CA, USA
Registered: Jan 2017

posted August 07, 2017 06:08 AM

I just bought a super 8 film title "There's no business like show business." Turns out it's a bootleg copy, someone filmed it with a camera in a theatre. Picture is very washed out and I can see shadows of people's heads at the bottom of the screen.

The bootleg copy must still be expensive, considering its on film.

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Winbert Hutahaean
Film God

Posts: 5468
From: Nouméa, New Caledonia
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 07, 2017 06:58 AM

Does it come with sound or silent?

It suprises me someone was doing it a long time ago. I was wondering what ASA or film stock he used....considering the darkness and not to mention 50' cartrdiges only.

cheers,

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Winbert

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Joe Taffis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1592
From: United States
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 07, 2017 07:59 AM

Although I wasn't "pirating", I did shoot a roll or two of test film clips in a theater on a couple of occasions with good results both in picture and sound. I used Kodak Ektachrome 160 super 8 sound 50' cartridges at 24fps.
Winbert, there were also 200' cartridges available back then [Smile]

Some of the super 8 dealers also had "bootlegs". Any films that were in a "gray" area concerning copyrights were fair game [Wink]

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Joe Taffis

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Robert Lee
Film Handler

Posts: 70
From: San Francsico, CA, USA
Registered: Jan 2017

posted August 07, 2017 11:01 AM

It has sound and run at 18fps. Sound is decent. Film is Kodak I think.

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Adrian Winchester
Film God

Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004

posted August 08, 2017 10:31 AM

Robert - piracy of the specific sort you're referring to is immensely rare. I've never heard of such a print before and I've been collecting Super 8 since the early 1980s. Although we can just about imagine someone tolerating a film shot in a cinema, if it gives them an early home viewing chance to see a new film, paying the very high cost of such a film on Super 8 seems incredible. Actually shooting it on S8 (if that was the case) without being caught makes it even more astonishing, in view of the sound the camera would make.

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Adrian Winchester

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Andrew Woodcock
Film God

Posts: 7477
From: Manchester Uk
Registered: Aug 2012

posted August 08, 2017 10:39 AM

Surely there must be many sections of the actual film missing for each time a cartridge needed to be changed?

50ft or 200ft, that's a lot of film cartridges!

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"C'mon Baggy..Get with the beat"

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted August 08, 2017 12:25 PM

You also occasionally find films copied from TV!

I'm sure I'm not the only person who saw a certain "digest" version of "The Wizard of Oz" that someone recorded off of a TV image! [Eek!]

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Robert Lee
Film Handler

Posts: 70
From: San Francsico, CA, USA
Registered: Jan 2017

posted August 08, 2017 12:48 PM

Yes a lot of cuts in the movie. I'm returning it for a refund even if it's only $20 for 800ft of film.

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Andrew Woodcock
Film God

Posts: 7477
From: Manchester Uk
Registered: Aug 2012

posted August 08, 2017 01:29 PM

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"C'mon Baggy..Get with the beat"

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Brad Kimball
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1171
From: Highland Mills, NY USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 11, 2017 11:37 AM

I have a 600' digest of "Curse of Frankenstein" that combined the 2 Americom cutdowns (color and striped) with footage that was shot off of tv. The Americom scenes are beet red and sub-titled. The home made footage has nicer color, but is very shaky and darker - sound is nice, though. It makes a nice 30-minute digest. I just wish the home made footage was done with a tripod. A lot of effort went into this being that the scene selection is in proper order. A one-of-a-kind treasure that is definitely a curiosity piece.

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