Many of you
may not have seen some of the best films of the last few years in the cinema. Both
Moon and Let The Right One In are starling pieces of filmmaking that no one saw
in the cinema: slow, atmospheric, emotionally affecting and daring different to
virtually everything else. Unfortunately, it is exactly this kind of unique
movie that the multiplexes we all frequent are completely uninterested in showing.
Trying to find a screening of a critically acclaimed, internationally lauded
Swedish vampire film amongst the plethora of god-awful rom-coms and horror
remakes was like searching for a true vampire fan at a Twilight convention.
Similarly, my journey to find a screening of Moon ended up taking me an entire day,
having to make my way into central London in order to see it in a small
independent cinema in one of its twice-daily screenings.
Yet whenever
we go to the cinema, we are bombarded with anti-piracy adverts: “piracy is a
crime”, “love films, hate piracy”, “you wouldn’t shoot a policeman...”, etc.
The money spinners of Hollywood are so desperate for every penny they can
squeeze out of you that they even warn those of us who do legitimately pay to
see movies of just how bad those naughty people who do download them are.
However, such a view seems to me entirely misguided: Hollywood’s preaching to
the converted seems very much like the music industry’s refusal to recognise
that those who illegally download their music are also the same people who put
the most money back into the system, who buy just as much music legally if they
like what they hear illegally, and are far more likely to become fans of the
artists themselves, eventually leading to their buying up merchandise and live
tickets, which brings in far more money that sales of the actual music anyway. Similarly,
I have given more money than anyone else I know to the Hollywood system and to
the film industry in general, whether that be through DVDs, cinema tickets, or
merchandise, and yet I admit to occasionally downloading the odd film.
Why? Not
because I don’t feel that the makers don’t deserve my money, nor because I have
some sort of agenda against the entertainment industry as a whole. Instead, it is virtually the only way I am
able to see certain movies. Independents, documentaries, and TV series’ are
either not shown in easily accessible places in the UK, or else come to our
shores months after their release elsewhere and after the wonderful world of
the Internets has spoiled everything for us. It seems to me to make absolutely
no sense, either logically or business-wise, to not release these films as
available to download at the same time as their release in cinemas.
The major
objection from many is that it will be the death of cinema (something levelled
at the development of television and the home video market, with very little
effect.) the fact is, people will always go to the cinema: we don’t need
adverts to tell us that “It’s the experience that counts.” Instead, by
releasing independent or small features in a minor number of cinemas, what
studio could possibly hope to make much money? There is a reason the success of
such releases is measured by its per-screen average rather than its total
gross. Yet if say this month’s Juan of
the Dead were to be released as a pay-for download online at the same time,
what would be the harm? Just as many people would go to see it at the cinema
for the experience, but those of us who wish to view films that have garnered
decent reviews or interesting word-of-mouth would be able to actually see them,
something we are more than willing to pay good money for. If however such
things are available for us to see online, in a slightly dodgy pirated form, and
it is the only way we can see them, then that is of course what we will do.
Dear movie
bosses everywhere: legitimise and charge for movie downloads of smaller films
at the same time as their release in cinemas. You will thank me in the end,
hopefully with some of that mountain of money that will be heading your way...
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