pHo
Oct 2001
pjeer?
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I've kept my mouth shut so far, because I was at work when this whole thing broke out, and a lot of posts were already here stating pretty much the usual thing. Plus I've written so many of these long piracy based posts, I wanted to contribute something a bit more this time 
Piracy is such an odd subject, because its not simply a case of "its right" or "its wrong". People will lose money because of it... but thats the key.. money. It seems that the majority of large film houses have forgotten the "art" and seem to concentrate on making as much money as possible, even tho the industry is booming at the moment. And why shouldn't the industry be booming, lots of cheap sequels, remakes and badly written "teen comedies" that I'm shocked were even considered by a normal human being to be made. But people go to see them, people buy the DVDs, and they make a lot of money.. basically exploiting the masses stupidity. You can sell the same film to a lot of people over and over again in different guises, and they'll keep lapping it up.
When it come's to independent, obviously the money matters as it really can affect whether the next film will be made or not. But at the same time, you're only going to have limited marketing ability for a new, clever and original film compared to the WB will have for Police Academy 8. Its without doubt that more paying customers will go to, and even have the ability to see, a new Police Academy movie, compared to an independent that isn't backed or hyped by a larger studio. So in this aspect, piracy is good. If everyone out there took the "risk" of downloading a movie they don't necessary know much about, or recognise the actos/actresses, they might find they enjoy the films more. And if everyone does this... the studio will realise this. More theaters bring in more indies, and more people go to them due to previous experiences. Maybe then we can finally have a Hollywood that is capable of putting out more than about 5 good fims a year, and spending the rest of its budgets backing films that are guaranteed success. Miramax is probably the worst of the bunch, for buying the rights to foreign movies just to make sure they're not released. Whatever happened to the US release of Battle Royale? Oh yeah, its still in their vaults as they'd rather remake it than introduce the country to another kind of cinema. If it wasn't for piracy, I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't have seen that film in the west, and now there's a lot of hype surrounding HK, Korean and Japanese cinema again. Fingers crossed the same can happen for home grown talent. One of our (Mystic and myself) favorite movies of recent years was Interstate 60. Watching the extras shows you how hard a film it was to make due to the studios not wanting to buy films without obvious selling points.. the fact it was Bob Gale's project (creator of the Back to the Future series) meant nothing to them. I60 is without doubt one of the best storytelling films of recent years, and the fact it was close to not being made is... disgusting. At least on here, we have a decent community generally, and as we discuss movies that are freely available, a lot of people are opening their minds... this can only be a good thing surely. I don't think the majority of people downloading indie flicks are the kind that think "hey, i was going to buy this.. but now its free!", but the sort that are willing to take a chance. Personally, I don't think if i went down my local market, to see the scumbags selling pirated wares.. I don't think a film like LA Twister would be on their desks, regardless of the quality of filmmaking. Like the rest of the masses, they're more comfortable with selling commercialised crap, and in all honesty the only reason I dislike these people is because of the ethics involved, and the fact it puts people like us in a bad light. I couldn't give a damn if half of Hollywood closes overnight due to piracy, if it did it'd be because of their inability to create decent films, and it's their own doing. Independent cinema will always live on, as long as people have the ability to write and pick up a camera.. and create.
Amazingly, I think a thread like this will actually help spur the success of the movie. In the UK, if you're not online and you don't read industry publications, there's very little doubt that you won't have heard of a movie called LA Twister, but I think every active member of our community has.. and I think a large percentage of them have it now because of this! People see the fact the director has taken the time out to talk here, and rather than criticise and shout his mouth off about how our actions are killing him, seems pleased that people are talking about and enjoying his movie. It really does make a difference, and again.. hopefully this will spur sales of the DVD, and make the major labels take note. I'm sure if a new wave of independent filmmakers does manage to take Hollwood by storm, they'll manage to screw it up in their own special way.. but thats life
Incidentally, you're not actually the first film maker on our forum whose had their work put out on the net. Jane White is Sick and Twisted was distributed for free, and the director took note, so that might be of interest to you. Alas, I was never able to secure a copy myself, and I've never seen it advertised or mentioned on our shores. Which is a shame, as it sounds like an interesting movie i'd probably really enjoy. Personally, I have a PD150 sitting next to me thats aching to be used creatively, it's just a case of time, money and talent Maybe in the future I'll be able to comment on one of my own films being passed around the net (even if I'm the one to put it out there myself  )
edit: oh yeah, forgot to mention good ol' Uwe Boll he should have his status changed from Filmmaker, to Marketing Genius.
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Last edited by pHo on 11-30-2004 at 01:58 PM
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11-15-2004 04:58 PM
