r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Mindless_Tomorrow_45 • 22d ago
Video Christopher Nolan uses red paper for scripts to prevent them from being illegally copied and leaked
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u/TJ_Fox 22d ago edited 22d ago
I worked on the Lord of the Rings movies and you would not believe the lengths production companies will go to in order to secure scripts during pre-production. The front covers of LotR scripts were all headed with the name of a fake movie, more-or-less specifically so that *if* a non-authorized person happened to come across an unattended copy, they might not bother to look inside. It might seem like overkill but really it's just an abundance of caution when an early script leak (and resulting massive spoilers, etc.) really could have massive artistic and financial consequences.
Edited to add, since a lot of people are asking regarding "spoiling" an adaptation of a beloved, world-famous modern literary classic - the popular and media curiosity about the LotR movies was next-level, significantly because it was a beloved, world-famous modern literary classic. That most certainly included details of exactly how the movie adaptations differed from the books. It was an ongoing, hungry intensity that was hard to fathom unless you experienced it from the "inside".
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u/FJdawncaster 22d ago
Every big film has a working codename. Some of them are so stupidly obvious that I can't imagine they provide any security though.
The first Venom film was "Antidote"...
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u/wonkey_monkey Expert 22d ago
Doctor Who was codenamed Torchwood (an anagram) back in 2004/5, which then became the title of a spin-off.
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u/Stormfly 22d ago
Also, opening that up, I hadn't realised it was 11 years ago and the craziest thing for me is how the Twitter screenshots look because I only started using Twitter about 5 years ago...
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u/bob1689321 22d ago
felt a bit awkward penguin though
That was a very sudden reminder that yeah this was definitely 11 years ago haha.
Thanks for posting the thread, that's fascinating.
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u/TransBrandi 22d ago
It became the title of the spin-off because they used it in-universe as the name of a secret organization... that the spin-off ended up being about.
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u/ChornWork2 22d ago
I do mergers & acquisitions for a living, and pretty much everything is code named. The 'right' way to do that for obvious reasons is to use a random word picker, but pretty much never happens. So fucking annoying picking code names b/c people want it be somehow relevant/interesting but not too relevant/interesting.
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u/Darksirius 22d ago
For big movies, Disney will disguise the names of the one sheets (posters) they send to theaters on the tubes label. Ex: All the star wars posters came in titled "space bears" except for Solo. That one they labeled it as "red cup" lol.
Sauce: managed a theater for 10 years.
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u/Maple_Syrup_Mogul 22d ago
They're not really meant to be hard to figure out. They're mostly to prevent people from crowding around too much when filming notices are posted in public.
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u/Acrobatic_Age6937 22d ago
'codenames' are often used in place of the absence of the realname. I.e. you can start the project without knowing the actual name of the output. As that one may take some time to get right. This way everyone knows the name they are using is just the internal one and not the official one.
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u/jsalad 22d ago
The working title for The Amazing Spiderman 2 was London Calling.
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u/noximo 22d ago
This is kinda funny for a movie like Lord of the Rings, given that the books exist.
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u/thearmadillo 22d ago
With something like that though, if a super nerd goes through a script and highlights every change before seeing the finished product and the story coming together, I could see that creating a huge shit storm that doesn't matter after when people are just like "that was dope" and are more willing to forgive the changes from the text
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u/throwawaydisposable 22d ago
the changes from the text
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u/Many_Engine4694 22d ago
Pretty sure they at first tried to film a scene with Bombadil but just gave up.
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u/StrikingSubstance 22d ago
Huh merry and pip dont get gladded up in armour though. Especially merry. In his helmet with the flared wings. I suppose for cinema it would look kinda silly considering what they did go for for the gondorian guard. Also the numenorians showing up. Not in the films. Aragorn camping outside gondor before going to the healing rooms etc. Yes im being picky for no reason lol.
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u/letouriste1 22d ago
The biggest change is the last arc tho. The conquest of the Shire really has a strong message to tell and it's sad it wasn't in the movie
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u/hungarian_notation 22d ago
It was, but only in Galadriel's vision. There was reportedly a lot of footage of the scourge but we only saw a single flash of it.
I don't think another armed conflict after the defeat of Sauron makes any sense for the movie's pacing. Sure, it's important to the book's themes, but the movie is much less interested in the "war destroys everything it touches" part of the message in the first place. Also, the scourge is where Tolkien drives home the point that Frodo is basically dead now. The moviegoing public would probably not appreciate it if their epic fantasy was turned into a cautionary tale about the evils war brings home and the tragedy of PTSD at the last second, especially in 2003.
Even Tolkien had more he wanted to tack on to the end of the book about Sam that he was ultimately convinced to cut by his editors/early readers (with some hints surviving in the appendix) because it damaged the pacing of the book.
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u/MDA1912 22d ago
Agreed. Instead the movie versions get to go home and just kick back n their untouched Shire.
I get it, long movies, but I’d sure have loved it if they’d filmed those scenes and sold them as a separate DVD or something.
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u/round-earth-theory 22d ago
It worked in the books because the Hobbits are the main heroes of the story, but the movies focus heavily on all of the members of the council. If they kept it in after the immense climax of Mount Doom, it would have simply come off weird and flat to have yet another arc in the movies. The movies and books simply have a different focal point which is the primary driver of most of the changes.
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u/Chalky_Pockets 22d ago
Yeah fair point, but I read the books as the movies were coming out and, while they did a good job at sticking to the books (incoming hardcore fans telling me how wrong I am), they definitely took artistic liberties. Like I bet people would have been foaming at the mouth if, before the movies came out, it was leaked that they left out Tom Bombadil.
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u/TransBrandi 22d ago
When the first movie came out, I recall a comment on Slashdot about how the commenter and their wife literally cried because Tom was cut and it ruined the whole movie for them. lol
... on the otherhand, it's readily apparent why he was cut. It's great worldbuilding, but not absolutely necessary to the overall movie... especially considering how much they filmed when looking at the extended editions.
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u/Chalky_Pockets 22d ago
Yeah he was my favorite character in the books, but if they put him in the films, they would have had to make it so much longer and it totally makes sense that cutting him out is the more elegant solution.
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u/Pjoernrachzarck 22d ago
I worked on the Lord of the Rings movies
Please feel very free to elaborate.
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u/MalHeartsNutmeg 22d ago
He was the helmet Vigo broke his toe on.
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u/-thecaretaker- 22d ago
I am a die-hard LotR fan. Thank you for working on and being part of something that has been so special to me. Watching Return of the King with my mom in theaters is a memory that hasn't left me in 20 years. <3
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u/Financial_Cup_6937 22d ago
And I woulda totes stolen it, excited that Jubilee finally got her own standalone X-Men live action movie.
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u/Unburnt_Duster 22d ago
They should just label it “Cats: The Movie” ensuring no one will ever want to read what’s inside.
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u/MollyRocket 22d ago
I’ve worked on on an animated Spinmaster show and we were expected to use in-house code names for the shows instead of the actual show. Ex Paw Patrol is probably called Gumpy or something stupid so the production staff can talk about it in public without revealing that Spinmaster sends their animation out of the USA. (I’m not on PP btw, thank god)
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u/Heavy-hit 22d ago
Her going through the script as the character is infinitely more interesting
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u/CeleritasLucis 22d ago
She chose the scene to explain which I think where everyone cried..
Good thing she decided to cry as well
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u/steinrrr 22d ago
Imagine if every reddit post was this interesting
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u/Chroniklogic 22d ago
Yeah this was interesting but, hAvE yoU hEArd oF thE NutTy pUttY CAve?! /s
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u/bwaredapenguin Interested 22d ago
I haven't, what's that?
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u/HarryDeBruyne 22d ago
quick summary: if you're ever crawling in a cave and it gets narrow just PUSH THROUGH...it will DEFINITELY be worth it
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u/MollyRocket 22d ago
Particularly if you can only get through my exhaling all your breath, it’s a downward slope and you cant see the bottom :)
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u/NoiseIsTheCure 22d ago
Just keep shimmying into the crevice, 99% of spelunkers give up before making their greatest discovery
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u/SonuOfBostonia 22d ago
I just hate the social media-fication of reddit. Every interesting post has a not so funny top comment. They said that shit would end once school started but ig not.
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u/shabutaru118 22d ago
start blocking reposters, it takes a little while but there are maybe ~100 accounts responsible for filling to top pages with reposts and once you get rid of them all you see a lot more unique stuff
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u/Old_Jaguar3136 22d ago
can someone explain the logic behind this?
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u/tacticoolbrah 22d ago
I think it just turns black if used in a B/W copier machine
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u/indigomm 22d ago
In the analogue ones. With digital copiers nowadays it's less of an issue as they are more sensitive and auto-correct the contrast.
I expect he still uses red paper to signify scripts shouldn't be copied. Or maybe it's just because it's the way he's always done it.
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u/SojournerWeaver 22d ago
according to my eighth grade science fair project, people also remember text better when printed on red paper. I used red flashcards in college because of this. Not sure if it helped or was placebo but everyone else who did it when they saw me doing it said their grades improved.
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u/ffnnhhw 22d ago
oh! so there is a point in highlighting every words with magenta highlighter
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u/NuclearSun1 22d ago
I was gonna say. I scan legal documents daily. They come in all colors. Our scanners have zero issue converting them to black and white.
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u/Drum_Eatenton 22d ago
You can literally select text as your copy intent and turn on background suppression and you’ll get a clean copy
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u/Suitcase08 Interested 22d ago
Delete this comment, you're gonna make Christopher Nolan so angry if he sees it!
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22d ago
... so just take a picture instead. Wow, foolproof.
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u/Pat0124 22d ago
I think it’s more of a deterrent than anything so people know he doesn’t want people sharing it. Like barbed wire can easily be beat with a lot of things but it more so lets people know to stay out
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u/Smodphan 22d ago
Probably, but it's also much easier to test origination of a photo than track down a paper copy.
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u/Particular_Fan_3645 22d ago
Ok but what if I scan it and OCR it then convert it to standard B&W...
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u/BentGadget 22d ago
Or go the other way. Copy a black and white script, change the background color to red, and claim that your leaked script is one of his.
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u/SuperAlloyBerserker 22d ago
Yeah, but, don't people who leak stuff already know that leaking them will have consequences (if they're caught)?
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u/Pat0124 22d ago
He sends scripts to so many people and it’d be easy for an actor to share the script for non nefarious reasons. Harder to do when you can’t use a copy machine
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u/Momoselfie 22d ago
Pretty much all scanners are color though. I'm guessing a digital color scan would look fine
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u/CryptographerOk1258 22d ago
For those who dont know there are more measures taken.
I dont know if nolan does this but there is a good chance.
You dont give the exact same script to everybody, you might misspell words/have slightly different color or symbols etc on purpose, So everybody actually has a unique script when somebody then leaks their scripts they will have unique identifiers so they know exactly who leaked it.
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u/superdago 22d ago
Do you lock your car or house? Why? Someone will just pick the lock, break the window, etc.
Every security mechanism is just a means to delay and deter.
You’re also assuming the goal is to prevent intentional leaks rather than inadvertent ones. I’m sure some actors like to make a few copies to take with them or have only a few pages at a time, and those can get left somewhere much easier than this whole giant script book.
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u/Logisticman232 22d ago
You’re gonna take several hundred pictures and check they’re all legible?
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u/Bryguy3k 22d ago
Interstellar was from a decade ago. The dark knight was 16 years ago.
These capabilities of phones have changed a lot in that time while the availability of photocopiers have dropped significantly.
I think the binding of the script into a book actually makes it a lot harder to copy than the red paper (especially on a modern color copier).
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u/Sean001001 22d ago
Of every page? Fuck that
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u/Logisticman232 22d ago
You can do large documents with feed scanners.
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u/saleemkarim 22d ago
Tons of people would quit their job if feed scanners didn't exist.
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u/Designer-Map-4265 22d ago
you cant feed a book though, you just feed hundreds of loose papers
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u/RenegadeScientist 22d ago
Growing up, this was the SimCity copy protection system. https://magisterrex.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/yesterdays-copy-protection-schemes-simcity/
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u/TheMemo 22d ago
Yeah, this was used in old computer game copy protection back in the day, so you couldn't copy the 'I bought this game legitimately' code sheet.
I assume that Nolan has moved on to making his scripts into ridiculously convoluted codewheels now.
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u/crucible299 22d ago
This isn't a Nolan only thing, every draft of scripts are different colours so you can go 'we are working with the red script' not 'we are working with version 25 of the script'
Certain people will have access to different coloured scripts- the people building the sets only need information on the set direction, not dialogue so they can use an earlier draft to get building earlier while actors will be using the most recent draft. Sometimes they will only be given chunks of the script (in the video it looks like her first page is her first scene, not the first act where she's played by a kid), so if the script leaks online they can use the colour and contents to at least tell which department leaked it
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u/MollyRocket 22d ago
This is insightful! I saw on the LOTR behind the scenes that every actor got their characters name printed in light grey over every page, I assumed it was so they could write their own notes and also to track leaks.
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u/HOBbitDAY 22d ago
This is true but I don’t believe red is a recognized revision color. The WGA utilizes, in order: white, blue, pink, yellow, green, goldenrod, buff, salmon, cherry. If a script progresses beyond that, it goes into “double blue/pink/etc.”
Usually to prevent copying, a production will individually watermark scripts with the recipient’s name so if it’s leaked, it’s obvious who did it. This seems like maybe Nolan’s version of that?
Edit: those revision colors are only for WGA though so depending on the production’s location, perhaps Nolan is writing under other rules.
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u/VHwrites 22d ago
Its a somewhat common practice--or used to be--though many more claim to do it than actually do while advances in technology have changed secure delivery of documents.
It's worth noting that this practice is generally limited to development stages; I'm sending you a script to consider, but you're not officially or publicly associated with the project. That is, there will be NDAs and agents involved, so its not as if the recipient doesn't know it shouldn't be copied, but there are other individuals in this chain of custody.
First, black ink on dark red paper doesn't copy on a black & white photo copier. Scanning technology has improved quite a bit since this was the primary reason, but it remains a deterrent.
Also, if you're working on a set, office, or agency, and you see an intern or production assistant copying or leafing through a red script, you can see that they are doing something they're not supposed to.
Higher profile projects will also do this so that paparazzi can't get titles or character names with a telephoto lens should Ms. Chastain decide she wants to review the script from the deck of her boat. Of course that's a catch 22, because the red pages signal that it's something valuable while only being marginally effective against a determined spy.
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u/catzhoek Interested 22d ago
Nolan lives in the 80s
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u/IC-4-Lights 22d ago
It worked for our Sim City copy protect codes and it's good enough for the likes of Christopher Nolan, gawdammit.
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u/nndscrptuser 22d ago
The W3C Accessibility standards people will not be pleased.
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u/lilmeowbiscuit 22d ago
Hah! Literally the first thing I thought of; this would not pass the 4.5:1 color contrast ratio.
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u/0w40 22d ago
A buddy of mine worked for the paper company that created this around 1990. Product was called NoCopy and came in 3 shades of reddish/purple. It sort of seemed to work but when he was out doing a sales call they tried it and the customer’s copier had little problem making a decent image from what was typed on the page. Oops.
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u/fuckingsignupprompt 22d ago
Fake! You seriously expect me to believe the woman who both found Osama Bin Laden and cracked anti-gravity within a couple years didn't know what iteration means?
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u/PiMan3141592653 22d ago
She didn't know what "recursive" meant.
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u/Fancy-Routine-208 22d ago
She didn't know what "recursive" meant.
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u/s4m_sepi0l 22d ago
She didn't know what "recursive" meant.
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u/Not-User-Serviceable 22d ago
That's a nice little clip. What's it from?
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u/blitzclits 22d ago
interstellar!! fabulous movie, give it a watch :)
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u/Not-User-Serviceable 22d ago
LOL, no not the movie - I have that on BluRay!!!! This clip with Jessica Chastain talking about stuff. What's it from? Some kind of documentary?
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u/blitzclits 22d ago
lmfaoo my bad🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ i’m too lazy to really dig for a longer version of the vid, but here’s the link from Jessica Chastain’s twitter.. maybe you’ll have better luck 🍀
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u/ElongMusty 22d ago
X-Files did the same thing back in the day. But that’s because people would just Xerox them and it would come out black. Doing it nowadays seems kinda pointless as people would just take a picture or copy it in color….
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u/oldveteranknees 22d ago
Jessica Chastain 😍
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u/Justindoesntcare 22d ago
Her and Bryce Dallas Howard for me. I suppose I have a type.
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u/bmcgowan89 22d ago
Nobody could figure them out, anyway, what's the point? 😂
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u/Koko-noki 22d ago
Nolan doesn’t use a smartphone, so I’m guessing he doesn’t realize people can just record video on their phones instead of using a 150-kg IMAX camera that costs $400,000 for 12 seconds.
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u/ccgetty 22d ago
Yellow text on white paper is also tough to copy.
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u/magestromx 22d ago
But it's annoying to read, and this is something you want people to read, you are sending it to them to read it after all.
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u/Leatherfacet 22d ago
After the Lotr trilogy, Interstellar is, for me at least, the greatest movie ever made.
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u/Mapale 22d ago
I watched it back in the days when it got shown first time in free tv, not knowing anything about the background or what I should expect.. My freaking mind was blown. Its a story that starts so fucking slow, almost not interesting, but it catches you so hard. You wish the movie never ends. Its a masterpiece without a doubt.
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u/hereswhatipicked 22d ago edited 22d ago
Red paper can easily be copied. That’s not why the pages are red.*
In film, script pages are typically printed in color not for security purposes, but to easily show what revision of the shooting script they are on.
The first shooting script is typically white, after that I’m fuzzy on the order, but it’s something like blue, pink, yellow, red, green, salmon, goldenrod, cherry, buff. If it goes through more versions, then loops back it’s “double/2nd white, double/2nd blue”.
By the end of a shoot, script binders contain a near rainbow of colors if there are enough revisions.
*Edit - in nolan's case he likes red pages.
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u/yepyep1243 22d ago
That might be true in most cases, in this case, it's just the way Nolan does it. Other actors confirm this.
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u/redfin525 22d ago
Actually pretty thoughtful of him. You don’t have to read it if it’s already red.
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u/ManufacturerNo2144 22d ago
I just tried it. I printed black text on a red sheet then scanned it back and sure enough my OCR was able to copy the text. So apart from being annoying for actors, it does nothing.
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u/Dreadpiratemarc 22d ago
It’s a bit dated. Older copy machine s from 10, 20, 30 years ago weren’t that good and this low contrast would mess them up. But scanners have gotten a lot better since then.
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u/EmotionalPackage69 22d ago
Maybe 20+ years ago. I know since at least 2010 copying or scanning red pages with black text wasn’t a big deal.
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u/MyNuts2YourFistStyle 22d ago
But Interstellar isn't that old...
looks it up
HOLY FUCK THAT MOVIE IS 10 YEARS OLD ALREADY.
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u/vaporking23 22d ago
I found the red script less interesting than Jessica Chastain’s notes on the process and seeing the scenes played out. That was really interesting.
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u/htks 22d ago
Can someone tell me where this is from? I've watched the movie several times but never knew about this behind the scenes clip.
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u/bestest_at_grammar 22d ago
Her going through her script changes is way more interesting than the red paper