IndiesHD

Hulk(English, 2003), X-Men Wolverine(English, 2009), Whats your Rashee(Hindi, 2009) & Jaggubhai (Tamil, 2009).

One thing is common in all the above films, were leaked to internet before its prior release and in some cases films not even completed (Unfinished CG & Effects). The reason being lack of security over the content in post production stage.

The practice in motion picture industry so far is to use visible watermark over the image and in above cases almost all the films used visible watermark over the picture. So what is the point in using visible watermark, is just reveal from where the content is stolen.

How to secure your content?

Before this we need to understand how our industry works. Once a film shoot is completed and to be ready for Post production there are various stages in which the data is being travelled.

Current Post Production Workflow practices,

1. Negative Processing (LAB).
2. Telecine – Converting your negatives to digital video either to Analog / Digital Sources like DigitBeta, Betacam SP or Mini DV in Standard Definition (SD) Telecine for Editorial. Nowadays, In Hollywood High Definition (HD) Telecine to HDCAM SR / D5 are being used.
3. Analog / Digital Tapes (without any encryption / security over the content) are then digitized to digital data in a format most non-linear editing systems like Avid Media Composer (MXF) or Final Cut Pro (Quick Time Movies) can understand and work.
4. After Cut is locked, the content travels to Dubbing (ADR), Sound FX, Background Score, Sound Mixing, DTS Encoding (for print release), Digital Intermediate (Color Timing), Reverse Telecine (Digital files back to film negative for print), DCP mastering – Both sound and DI files are used to encoded for Digital Cinema Exhibition and Theatrical print release.
5. On the above stages except DCP master (Encrypted) & Reverse Telecine (done under secured LAB condition) nothing is secured and data can be easily accessible .

HDCP:

High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is a form of digital copy protection developed by Intel Corporation to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across DisplayPort, Digital Visual Interface (DVI), High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), Gigabit Video Interface (GVIF), or Unified Display Interface (UDI) connections.

Solution for Post Production using Encryption are as follows,

1. Once Negative processed, HD Telecine should be done to convert the content as digital data and use file based workflow until the end of Post production pipeline.
2. HD Telecine – Using HD Telecine, picture is stored in file based using solutions like AJA KI PRO / Wafian, which records as Quick Time / AVI movies.
3. Encryption needs to be added to the files and handed over along with public key something like KSV (Key Selection Vector). The main advantage of encryption is to use HDCP secured displays from which the data can only be transmitted and displayed. Non HDCP displays complaint monitors cant display the encrypted data.
4. With the use of HDCP displays the content are then used for Editorial and same encryption method can be used for ADR, Sound FX, Background Score & Mixing. For all the above places HDCP secured displays are needed. This makes current system and practice out of context.

The industry needs to accept the above practice of technological implementation to provide greater control over their content.

Detailed description on how this system works in coming posts.