New Technology Cleans Up Movies for Kids

S A N D Y, Utah, Aug. 12 -- A new technology is letting people screen sex, violence and cursing out of movies, making dreams come true for some parents — but it's creating a nightmare for directors.

It starts in a new suburban Salt Lake City office complex, where, huddled behind soundproof office partitions, a team of software editors carefully screens and then diligently edits the latest celluloid offerings from Hollywood.

They are making themselves, in essence, "co-directors" of some of the biggest movies currently playing. What are they taking out? "Mostly the f-word," said one of the editors. "I've deleted it as many as 200 times in a single movie."

The editors work for Trilogy Studios, a tiny startup company that designs "movie masks" which allow viewers the option to delete offensive language, violence, or adult situations from movies that are played back on home digital equipment.

But what sets Trilogy apart from other companies that offer similar services is the level of expertise they've brought to their craft. Backed by a team of software designers and engineers from the video game industry, Trilogy not only seamlessly deletes language, it can change the look of a movie.

Movie Mask works by using digital software specially designed for each film that makes changes automatically as the movie is played back. It can be customized for four different age groups.

"A consumer can actually choose to tone down the violence in a movie but leave the language intact or vice versa," said Breck Rice, one of the co-founders. In other words, parents can become movie directors.

"Remember Kate Winslett posing nude in Titanic?" Rice asked, while demonstrating what the Movie Mask software can do on a wide-screen television set. Winslett appears in a corset and it looks as real as if she was outfitted in the real thing. But here's where it gets interesting. As the camera pans down from her body, the picture she is posing for now shows her in the corset.

Rice is also proud of how seamlessly he has re-edited the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan. "There are 32 edits in that scene," he said. If you had never seen the original, you wouldn't know the difference — gone are the severed limbs and gushing blood.