HelsinkiZim Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 I was thinking about the notion of the studios getting their way and shutting down online piracy. It sounds great from almost every angle, to anyone in the industry. But I think there is another side to the Many-Faced demon of online piracy that we haven't considered. The fact may be, that torrent sites are the last remaining 'hosts' of ALL films anyone has seen in the last 2 decades. Before the internet, the selection becomes more about 'what films we are supposed to see'. If torrent sites disappear, then the history of modern cinema lies in the good graces of Netflix. Is that such a good idea to give so much control of our film history to a profit driven data-bank? Will there be movies like Joe vs The Volcano that will never, ever, be seen again by anyone on this earth (Its kind of like trying to quantify in reality the length of time it takes for nuclear energy to dissipate - the language we speak now will literally not exist - so will go the visual references of Turner and Hooch)? Availability of movies will become truly democratic, because you will never see it unless your peer demand it. But isn't that the most cannibalistic way of learning a craft... though public preference? Where will the next post-millennial Tarantino's get their inspiration from. Another question, can a site like Netflix host it all? Do we need to start thinking of some kind of digital film archive... Torrents, in essence, are data on our ever changing hard drive storage systems... so the future of cinema is in our hands? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristoferman Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 I find that the vast majority of people who pirate movies would never see the film otherwise. It's the reason I laugh when studios used to trumpet about how much money they "lost" to piracy, when in reality the actual amount lost would be a small fraction of it. I would be ecstatic if I made a film that was heavily pirated because in the end, people will have seen my material and might tell someone else about it. And more to your point, it's a very valid view point. The video game industry is the same. There are tons of old DOS games that would be lost forever if they weren't ripped and put up for free. Archival is important and nobody else is stepping up to the plate so... Michael Coffee and Marco Tecno 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damphousse Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Some heat from Hollywood is a good thing. It gets rid of the casual downloader. Honestly with things like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc it kind of eliminates the need to illicitly download. I remember back in the day you could download prerelease DVDs. That was bad. You could watch every movie before it even came out. I think now where you generally have to wait at least until the DVD/Bluray release for good quality is much better. And now you can get HD downloadable content for a reasonable price even before the DVD hits the shelves. I would like even more options personally. What irks me about Netflix, Amazaon, and Hulu is you never know what is on what. If I want to watch a movie I have to search all three and hope one of them has it. That's BS. I wish there was some kind of central repository where everything was rentable or available for purchase at a reasonable price. 1 hour ago, Kristoferman said: I find that the vast majority of people who pirate movies would never see the film otherwise. It's the reason I laugh when studios used to trumpet about how much money they "lost" to piracy, when in reality the actual amount lost would be a small fraction of it. Yeah the court cases are amazing exaggerations. I've known people who have downloaded different things that they never even ended up watching. Just to repeat. Even when they got it for free they didn't watch it. For the industries lawyers to book those as sales is fraud. If I counted up how many people connected to a swarm on bit torrent and used that number to show projected sales for an IPO the SEC would have me in handcuffs for securities fraud. Econ 101 tells you when price goes up demand goes down... particularly on a luxury like movies. This isn't bread and water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 I love netflix as a happy medium. Everyone has netflix, it's not illegal, money is exchanged, comes with tons of films. I used to torrent, but since netflix, I don't think I have at all (though I also have hulu, amazon prime, directv, and hbogo /: ). Netflix's recent price increases have me nervous if they ended up being the only one in the game.. also netflix has also made me less eager to go to theatres and made me never want to try louis ck's new show.. so mybe the same torrent-minded entitlement. Not sure what I'd prefer as the filmmaker... I guess just for money to fall out of the sky Michael Coffee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavier Plagaro Mussard Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 The problem is that watching a movie doesn't have a price. A Whopper, a Coca Cola can or even a Sony A7S has a price. Watching a movie goes from zero to ??? And the fact that for years it has been free hasn't helped, imho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Coffee Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 4 hours ago, Liam said: I love netflix as a happy medium. Everyone has netflix, it's not illegal, money is exchanged, comes with tons of films. I used to torrent, but since netflix, I don't think I have at all (though I also have hulu, amazon prime, directv, and hbogo /: ). Netflix's recent price increases have me nervous if they ended up being the only one in the game.. also netflix has also made me less eager to go to theatres and made me never want to try louis ck's new show.. so mybe the same torrent-minded entitlement. Not sure what I'd prefer as the filmmaker... I guess just for money to fall out of the sky Horace and Pete? One of the best things I've seen.. truly groundbreaking I reckon 4 hours ago, Liam said: Netflix's recent price increases have me nervous if they ended up being the only one in the game.. also netflix has also made me less eager to go to theatres and made me never want to try louis ck's new show.. Wow, I watched all of Horace and Pete, and loved it. Truly groundbreaking I reckon! Liam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff CB Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 I buy legally unless it's not an option. For example I was thinking about how much I would enjoy watching The Abyss again so I went to amazon to buy the blu-ray. Except they don't make the blu-ray, they only have DVD. So I turned to illegally downloading it, because that is the only way I could watch it in 1080p. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 4 hours ago, Michael Coffee said: Horace and Pete? One of the best things I've seen.. truly groundbreaking I reckon Wow, I watched all of Horace and Pete, and loved it. Truly groundbreaking I reckon! So I've heard, but just can't really pull the trigger.. I'll probably cave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Tecno Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 11 hours ago, Kristoferman said: I find that the vast majority of people who pirate movies would never see the film otherwise. It's the reason I laugh when studios used to trumpet about how much money they "lost" to piracy, when in reality the actual amount lost would be a small fraction of it. I would be ecstatic if I made a film that was heavily pirated because in the end, people will have seen my material and might tell someone else about it. And more to your point, it's a very valid view point. The video game industry is the same. There are tons of old DOS games that would be lost forever if they weren't ripped and put up for free. Archival is important and nobody else is stepping up to the plate so... This. I'd be interested in figures about denuvo games. I guess, at most, they gaines 5% in sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HelsinkiZim Posted July 7, 2016 Author Share Posted July 7, 2016 We should really be rallying around Horace and Pete because it shows us we can sell the videos ourselves, without having to release into the streaming ecosystem. The creative possibilities of creating your content on a week by week bases with a couple of Canons, actors and one set (has anyone used airBnB for locations?) is exciting. i would imagine that will be the case in 10 years, you will get your content directly from many different independent providers that specialise in one type of content. I feel places like YouTube Red will eventually become too clunky for people as they won't see why they need to be distracted by anything else except what they want to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Coffee Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 2 hours ago, Liam said: So I've heard, but just can't really pull the trigger.. I'll probably cave I loved it.. really amazing. Revolutionary in the way it was made, and sold too! Louis talks at length about the production here Liam and HelsinkiZim 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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