My god I am sick of the remakes and endless cycle of sequels coming out of Hollywood the days. It seems that for every truly original movie, such as Inception or Dinner for Schmucks, we have at least 4 or 5 remake/sequels. Do we really need to remake a movie, like Halloween or Let the Right One In, that were both incredible the first time around. What does the medium gain by doing it? I would say nothing.
However, should we actually be looking in the mirror to find the reason for this proliferation of trash? Is it the direct result of all these "free movie download" ads and links I see whenever I google the word movie? I am not a free movie downloader - both out of principle and a supreme fear of spyware and viruses, but clearly thousands of web-users are. I can't help but think that Hollywood's sudden aversion to risk is related to the increased activity in "free movie downloads".
I have not back-tested the data to compare the number of remakes and sequels in the last two years to that of 10 years ago, but it certainly feels like there are a lot more now than there used to be. It is also a very popular topic in the movie blogosphere. Whether or not the incidence has increased, one thing is for sure -- if the profit is driven out of the movie business, the quality of the product will suffer.
Some artists will continue to create movie masterpieces without a thought of earning a profit, but even they would not be able to lose money making movies over the long-term. I am a huge believer in free speech, but not copyright theft. I believe in paying fair value for a product and downloading movies for free is theft.
So please think about the future of the movie industry the next time you go to download a movie for free. Whether your favorites are big-budget action movies or low-budget human interest stories, the quality will suffer if we don't let the artists make money.
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While I agree with the lack of originality in Hollywood I am going to disagree with the originality being a result of people who choose to pirate movies. The world of media has changed drastically over the years and so the creativity needs to adapt as well. Many musicians are currently embracing the downloading by making their music either available for free, or else they are allowing ther end user to donate what they want in order to obtain their music. The questions is how would this work for the movie industry?
ReplyDeleteThe way it would work is to have movies available like they are not NetFlix and other such various sites, but allow them to download the movies at a donated cost or a small fixed rate and I bet you would have much more people spending money on the industry then what is currently happening.
Plus you can not blame the people for not spending money on movies when the companies are cramming endless amounts of remakes and sequels down our throats. If somebody would have the brains to come up with a solid original idea then quite possibly word of mouth would spread enough to draw people back to the theatres.
Movies companies need to give the people what they truly want, and not what they think we want. It is time for a change in how things are run and how they get back to the people.
Valid points Rob.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the real solution is a better price for instant downloads online. The iTunes store is ridiculously overpriced at $3.99/$4.99 for rentals and $14.99 to buy new movies.
Netflix lets you watch some movies online at no additional charge to your monthly subscription -- which is great. But they rarely have newer releases and don't have many of the less popular older movies available for this service.
If the industry can work to create some affordable options for downloads, I would buy them more often.
I could not agree more. What needs to happen is a great team of movie buffs need to have a site simular to Netflix or ITunes in nature but at a more affordable rate for the common user. Movie downloads at 14.99/ea are not going to attract any attention when most movies even on Blu-Ray end up in bargain bins for 10 dollars or less within a year or two of their video release.
ReplyDeleteA site would benefit from either a monthly subscription where you can watch as many streaming videos as you would like including movies that are possibly still in theaters.
Also another feature would be to have lesser known films, documentries, and even a place for end users to request certain movies. I know there is always lots of legal steps in order for something like this to work, but in order to address the issue of pirating material you need to understand the audience. People pirate because they feel that prices have become way too absured. Why should they spend 10+ dollars for each movie only to be left horribly dissapointed at the quality most times.
I feel that a change in pace would be exactly what the industry needs. In fact a not too bad idea even is to release movies online for free to stream in regular quality format. Then offer an HD viewing or HD download for a donated or a reasonable price. I also feel if you offer up a movie for free streaming you can then also offer DVD and Blu-Ray copies with all special features included for in around 10 dollars or less depending on cost to mass produce the copies of the movie, or also the popularity of the movie. Of course it might cost more to buy a copy of a lesser known movie compared to say something like Toy Story 3 as the supply and demand would be higher.
Digital copies could be sold for minimal amounts and would create a major decrease in the pirated market out there. This si also very trackable by studios as well, especially seen as the movie studios themselves could offer up their film library on their sites for these reduced costs and would then be able to track numbers of what is watched, downloaded, and also add these numbers in to the overall statistics of what the movies are making.
I feel strongly about artists getting paid for their bodies of work, but the bodies of work need to be offered up with new media ideas in order to keep up with the ever changing times. The music industry is beggining to adapt and I feel the movie industry can not be too far behind on this one.
I mean in reality how many people out there would pay a monthly fee even to have a cable box in their home that distributed HD copies of movies that are in theaters. You could be viewing brand new movies in your home for say 60-80 dollars a month. This would raise an argument that it would ruin the theaters out there, but in all honesty I have seen how busy the movie theaters are even despite piracy being at an all time high and I figure that means that people are still drawn to the attraction of going out in order to get away from their home.
These are always just ideas to ponder over, I am just a very firm believer in giving art back to the people. Most artists allow you to view their masterpieces free of charge, it is only when you wish to own it that they ever make their money, so why should the movie industry be any different?
Plus if things were to change like this, and then if numbers did drop slightly it might force movie executives to consider brand new ideas and movies with lesser budgets as opposed to feeding us the same old tired junk that they have been doing in recent years.
I like your radical ideas Rob. It is going to take creative thinking like that to solve the Industry's problems both for film and music.
ReplyDeleteWhere "we" as a general populace are responsible for the overload of crap in the fact that people keep paying money to go see the crap so they make more of the crap. Until people stop going to see sub-par pieces of crap, it's not going to change.
ReplyDelete"Dinner For Schmucks" is a remake too. The original is a 1998 French film, "The Dinner Game," from Francis Veber.
ReplyDeleteWow Eric, I didn't know that. Thanks, I am going to check out the original.
ReplyDelete