>> this is my baby. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, and terry moran in washington, this is "nightline," august 5th, 2011. good evening, i'm terry moran. and we begin tonight with breaking news and the developing story about the economy and another dark omen. the credit rating agency stann ard and poor's downgraded the u.s. credit rating for the first time in history, knocking the country down from aaa to aa plus. they said it was the result of the government tafking too little action so far to address the nation's long-term debt problem. the white house quickly objected to this downgrade. but the real effect might not be felt until starting sunday, when the stock markets open in asia. all this, however, could ultimately drive up interest rates and unemployment and drive down gdp. as the national economy teeters and this credit ratingg fiasco has added to it, a parallel black market is running strong in this country. police are struggling to stop merchants from peddling counterfeit luxury goods. ryan owens brings us this report from california. >> reporter: these cops aren't on the hunt for drugs. or a murderer. at this luxury mall in the o.c., orange county, california, police are raiding a shop near nordstrom's and macy's. the contraband these cops are after? counterfeit clothes. >> just relax. we have a search warrant. okay? >> reporter: police officers arrest the store manager. he's accused of selling phony prad day, dolce and a huge stash of true religion jeans. he plead ed not guilty. while police put the suspect in the car outside, the brains behind the bust is counting the merchandise inside. so, there's not a real pair of true religion in this store that you've seen. >> so far not that i've seen. this is a great hit. >> reporter: he's kris buckner. not a cop, but a private unvest gator. the middleman between the police and the brands themselves. >> we're sort of like the counterfeit cops. so anything the cops do to investigate regular crimes we're really doing here at our company for those brand owners that we respect. >> looks like it could be real. i need to take a better look at it. >> reporter: buckner shared some of his kre ssecrets on how to t fake. >> it would say true religion on the inside. there's nothing on this. one of the other things may sound funny, we do the smell test on jeans. quite often you smell them and they kind of have a little mildewing smell to them. >> reporter: row. long before these cases end up at a police station, they are done here, at investigative consultants. acting on tips, his agents go undercover to gather evidence. how many different disguss do you have? >> oh, multiple. i change clothes, wigs, sunglasses. this watch has a camera inside the face of it. this is a key chain that also does have an undercover camera in it. >> reporter: james bond would be jealous. here's video of an undercover per chase. what investigators believe is a pair of counterfeit headphones. monster beats by dr. dre. the real ones retail for almost $300. here, the subject shows the goods, and money is handed over. >> there's a darker side than what the public even knows. it's huge. it's beyond what anybody can even comprehend. >> reporter: buckner says counterfeiters do a lot more than rip off high end designers. he says their money funds gangs, organized crime, even terrorist organizations. so, you are saying, here i am, a guy trying to get a good looking pair of jeans and i have no idea where that money ends up. >> you have no idea. >> reporter: there is an attitude that this is a victimless crime. do you run into that attitude? >> we don't want lawn enforcement to say, you're wasting my time on a really tiny case and it's not good. our job is to make sure we bring them spg that they really will e vail wait. and i can tell you that a majority of the cases we do all get prosecuted. >> reporter: the warehouse in the back of their office proves that. >> you have everything from luxury goods to tennis shoes. you name it, it's in here. >> r rorter: a mountain of confiscated goods, boxed up and stored as evidence for trial. police are the first to say they couldn't do it without buckner. >> what kris does for us is pretty much 50% of our tips and investigations. >> reporter: it's not just the investigative work. >> we'll peel off here. >> reporter: he also goes on the raids. we tagged along for this one with the lapd. kris waits a few blocks away to get that call. >> perfect. aweso awesome. >> reporter: this time, officers arrest this woman for selling goods out of a makeshift store in an area of downtown los angeles known as the city's counterfeit capital. her shop may not look like much, but police say she is part of a crew making more than a half million dollars a year. >> it's about $2,000 a day. >> reporter: their evidence? allegedly in her own handwriting. >> we got the subjecter with were looking for, merchandise. nobody got hurt. huge success. >> reporter: but success is tough to measure when the problem is this massive. and d ckner doesn't have to look far for a reminder of that. the port of los angeles is the largest in the country. a major entry point for illegal goods. mostst of them from china. 14,000 containers come through here every day. that's a shipment every seven seconds. officials are trying to keep up and say illegal seizures increased 40% last year. >> with the volume of freight that we get here in los angeles, i believe that the smuggler is pretty sure if they send 20 containers that a few of them are going to go through. >> reporter: but kris buckner is sure trying. last year alone, he took about a quarter of a billion dollars worth of counterfeit goods off the street. >> the public just doesn't really understand the true effects of counterfeit goods. until they stop buying, this problem is going to continue to get bigger and bigger. >> reporter: i'm ryan owens for "nightline" in orange could nty california. >> counterfeit goods, one burgeoning business. thanks to ryan owens for that. and next, behind the scenes of the latest "planet of the apes" reboot. no charleston heston, but more computer generated graphics than you can shake your stinking paws at. another good thing about geico is, they've got, like,e,eal live people working there 24/7. so like say you need to report a claim, alright. a real person n ll be there to help you. then you can use geico.com to view photos of the damage, track your claim, print an estimate. you want an english muffin? they literally hand you a toasted muffin with butter and jam. (sigh) whaa. tasty. that's, that's a complete dramatization of course, but you get my point. vo: geico 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. >> announcer: "nightline" continues from washington with terry moran. >> well, "rise of planet of the apes" hits theaters today. it's a prequel to the 1968 classic "planet of the apes." the actors in that movie wore several pounds of great makeup. edge technology where a human actor's movements and facial expressions are captured by computer and rendered into a realistic on-screen chimp. david wright went behind the scenes of the new movie to file this report. >> reporter: it's a concept that seems as old as charles darwin. let along charlton heston. >> get your stinking paws off me you, damn dirty ape. >> reporter: evolution as entertainment and social commentary. >> take your stinking hands off me you damn dirty human. >> reporter: it's meat "planet of the apes" one of the most profitable movies ever. "the simpsons" parodied it with a musical. the latest marks an evolution in movie making and acting. gone are the hours of makeup that had to endure. there was no makeup on this set. he wore a performance capture suit. >> you have markers on your face which pick up your facial expressions. they track your eye movements. you can perform very subtly for camera as if it were -- as we are talking now. >> reporter: like your a puppeteer. >> like you're inside a video game. you're connecting with an avatar on scene. >> reporter: he's been called the charlie chaplin of this new craft of digital acting. he was cogollum in "lord of the rings." >> my agent's call was,s, they e doing "lororof the rings," they are looking for a digital character's voice. i'm like, there must be a dozen dekent roles in that movie. can't you get me something proper? >> reporter: little did he know how much his career and the industry was about to change. >> when we first were working with andy circus on gollum, we did exactly what disney animators did. we do frame by frame just articulate our character to match his performance. when we did king kong, we figured a way to capture his facial performance by using a similar technique. >> reporter: so, when it came to "platen of the apes?" >> now it's just the pure performance. we can concentrate on what his face and body is doing and then afterwards we turn that into cesar. >> reporter: and simply the matter of a click of a mouse? >> click a mouse and wait about a year. >> reporter: for fox studios, it meant making this movie was possible. >> this was a great script we had for a number of years at the ststio that we loved from the first minute we read it but didn't have to worry about it because it couldn't be made. >> reporter: how do you get the actor? >> you couldn't. unless you know some very talented apes out there that we maybe have an audition, that you can do it. >> reporter: in fact, a big leap forward in this movie has to do with acting. through the magic of movie making, real actors and animated characters have appeared together on screen since the earlier dst days of walt disneyn down to "mary poppins" and "roger rabbit." all the way through to "avatar." with this film, the technology is finally at a point where the digital characters and the live action actors are physically together on the set for all the big scenes. >> if we're doing our job right, we're essentially acting like a makeup artist would. we're addingel s on top of his performance. >> reporter: the film is set in the present day, before the apes have evolved. making it harder for any makeup person to fudge. the absence of all that makeup means the acting is more natural. i don't know -- can you show me? performance capture didn't just make this possible. andy circus plays cesar from infancy all the way to adulthood. >> he goes from this innocent all the way through. >> reporter: the evolution of special effects has brought things to a place where acting is important again. >> you know, it really is a lot of fear about what actors are going to be replaced by computers. >> reporter: exactly. >> and it's -- it's the complete opposite. here is a tool which enabled you to play anything. >> reporter: yet, if the movie works as it showed, you won't even know he's human. he's a movie actor who's not a movie star. seems to me you are probably the biggest star who is also anonymous. nobody knows your face. you have trouble getting into the v.i.p. room? >> yeah, all the time. they kind of -- always asking for i.d. look, i'm in this. >> reporter: is he ever. i'm david wright for "nightline" in hollywood. it's game day, buddy, and, boy, are we in for a doozy. oh, man. mr. clean is dominating the competition! mr. clean is tackling mess like some sort of mess tackler. oh, and what's this? [ sniffs ] that's the scent of gain original fresh. that counts as a performance enhancer. i am complaining to the cleaning products athletics board. did you just make that up? yes, i did, and i'm the president. you're losing it, buddy. maybe you should hit the showers. mr. clean already did. they're spotless. i bet. [ male announcer ] introducing mr. clean with gain original fresh scent. victory over dirt's never been easier or smelled so great. what if we designed an electric motorcycle? what if we turned trash into surfboards? whatever your what if is, the new sprint biz 360 has custom solutions to make it happen, including mobile payment processing, instant hot spots, and 4g devices like the motorola photon. so let's all keep asking the big what ifs. sprint business specialists can help you find the answers. sprint. america's favorite 4g network. trouble hearing on the phone? visit sprintrelay.com. and finally tonight, a new take on a primitive practice. it's called noodling. but it looks a lot like fish wrestling. no hooks, no lines, no rods. just your bareands fred oklahoma, our matt gutman matched wills with a giant set of cat fish gills. >> reporter: nothing summons your inner caveman quite like this. noodling. a decidedly wimpy name for what is arguably the world's toughest, scariest sport. >> this is the most primitive style of fishing that you will ever do. men on fish, hand to hand. >> reporter: that's why it's hill billy hand fishing. animal planet has dedicated an entire show to the sport, pairing the ill prepared city slickers -- >> got my taupes. >> reporter: with these hilly billy handlers. but they all share a single goal. to catch big catat fish bare handed. and the bait? your hands and feet. you're a celebrity. >> we're just fishing. >> you know what? we've been performing out here for 20 some years. this is our audience. can you imagine -- there's not another care in the world. we don't even know these cameras are here. >> reporter: these skippers have been doing it since they were kids. and they invited "nightline" to noodle on the red river, home to deadly cot tom mouths and giant cat fish. all in water so murky, so soupy, you have to rely on a single sense. touch. >> come on in, nice and easy. come in hands first. oh, here he is, big one coming to you right there. >> reporter: oh geez. >> get ahold of him cowboy. get ahold of him. >> reporter: he's slippery. sorry. >> here he is again. >> reporter: seconds later. >> bring him out. bring him out. >> reporter: i got it. >> hang onto him. >> reporter: i got it. >> got him? >> reporter: yeah, i got him. is set him down easy right there. >> reporter: after a parting kiss. >> there's your cat fish. >eporter: that wasn't so bad. >> i think there's more in there. >> reporter: you think there will be more? >> there he goes. get on in there. >> this is the way they caught fish millions of years ago. the indians were here in this country. they were having fun in the water and they were feeding their families. and that's exactly what this hill billy hand fishing is what it's all about. >> reporter: but i hit a missing streak. >> you got him? hang onto hit. >> doesn't have him. >> all right. >> reporter: skipper and jackson ususone of their favorite psychological tools to get folks like me back in the game. humiliation. did you just smack me in the face with a fish? okay, let's see that one againi in slow motion. that hurt! and then, with adrenaline and shame coursing through me -- >> there he goes right here. >> reporter: i heave myself at slimy redemption. >> yeah! >> reporter: something primal in me just went -- yeah. >> that was a hell of a catch. >> first time i ever seen a man reach down and hold him up by the tail. >> reporter: really? for "nightline," i'm matt gutman, noodling on the red river in oklahoma. >> good catch, man. >> and gutman got his fish.