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This topic comprises 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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Author
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Topic: Anti Piracy Trailer Disappointing
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John Schulien
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 206
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-25-2003 05:12 PM
It seems that the movies being most bootlegged on the internet -- Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, etc. are going on to become the top grossing movies of all time.
I think that the relationship between copyright infringement and sales is much more complicated then a simple one to one correlation between downloaded copies and lost sales. The record industry made millions of dollars when fans lined up to replace their vinyl records with new CDs containing the identical music. Whose to say that the same phenomenon isn't driving today's blockbusters. Is the kid whose watched the grainy VCD of Spiderman 20 times more or less interested in seeing the film a second time in the theatre, or in buying the extras-laden, high quality DVD of the film than the kid who saw it once in the theatre and doesn't care about it anymore by the time the video comes out?
The recording industry is finding out what happens when you piss away all your goodwill among your customers. The movie industry should be very, very careful with this sort of campaign.
So far, from what I've seen, I'm not impressed. The implication of the campaign is that piracy threatens to put "everyday workers" in Hollywood out of work. Can anyone provide a concrete example of a movie project that was cancelled because of the hypothetical fear of future eventual piracy of the finished product? The "little guys" in the ads -- costume designers, set painters, caterers, cameramen, etc, are all salaried employees who do not receive points, so they will be making the same amount of money whether the final work is pirated or not, and the movies that are being pirated are the ones that are making record amounts of money.
The whole campaign seems very disconnected from reality and left me with the distinct impression that I was being lied to, or at least deliberately misled, and certainly insulted. I can't believe that they're going to show that trailer. What a terrible idea.
Imagine walking into a Walmart, and being told that before you enter the store, you have to watch a 30 second video entitled "Please don't shoplift", that laid a similar guilt trip on the viewer. I would turn around and walk right out. I arrived with money in pocket to buy something, not to steal something, and I don't need to give my money to anyone who suggests otherwise.
The most insulting part is that the people in the theatre are exactly the people who have already paid money to see the movie. In other words, you have a captive audience who have already paid in full to see your product, and you're going to patronize and insult them by lecturing them not to steal what they just paid to purchase a few minutes ago.
My internal response would be something along the lines of:
![[Eek!]](eek.gif) ![[bs]](graemlins/bs.gif) ![[fu]](graemlins/fu.gif)
Insulting your audience has no place in good showmanship.
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Thomas Procyk
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1842
From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 07-26-2003 01:26 AM
quote:
As far as the trailer playing it is no different than an anti-drug trailer or don't drink and drive. In order to get the message out everyone must hear it reguardless if you have never thought of pirating a movie, taking drugs or driving drunk.
Interestingly put, but you'll agree we're all adults here. If we want to do drugs or drink and drive or pirate movies, we're going to do so regardless of how many times we see some trailer in a theater or commercial on TV. Not only is it insulting, but some might even do these things out of spite, knowing they're naughty.
Besides, no one in their right mind pirates a movie with an audience present. Too much talking, laughing, munching, heads in the way, etc. So there's no one to "tattle" on. They should really make a trailer about ratting out the person who duped their screener for you since they "get em for free all the time."
What's with the industries and government these days wanting people to turn in their neighbors with promises of rewards and knowing you're keeping the nation safe from communists, drug dealers, terrorists and movie pirates?
I wonder if Spy Kids 3D is downloadable yet. I'll just stand by the trash can outside the auditorium and wait for some glasses. ![[Cool]](cool.gif)
=TMP=
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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"
Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 07-26-2003 03:44 PM
quote:
The most insulting part is that the people in the theatre are exactly the people who have already paid money to see the movie. In other words, you have a captive audience who have already paid in full to see your product, and you're going to patronize and insult them by lecturing them not to steal what they just paid to purchase a few minutes ago.
Indeed. This campaign is completely idiotic.
I know VERY few people who download and watch pirated movies and for all of them it is more a hunter and gatherer thing, just having it before their downloading friends have it. And many of them still go to the movie theatre and even buy the DVDs for the special features.
I think this campaign is a huge cloud of smoke. It has been thought up by people in the film industry who want to cover up the fact that they turn out too much crappy product. So when they have flops, they can conveniently blame it on the "video pirates".
Like: "Oh, The Hulk and LXG would have been HUGE box office hits, but they were PIRATED too much."
No, they weren`t. They were just VERY bad movies.
As to the meaning of the word "pirate", here is an excerpt from an etymological dictionary:
pirate - 1254, from O.Fr. pirate, from L. pirata "sailor, sea robber," from Gk. peirates "brigand, pirate," lit. "one who attacks," from peiran "to attack, make a hostile attempt on, try," from peira "trial, an attempt, attack," from PIE base *per- "try." Meaning "one who takes another's work without permission" first recorded 1701.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 07-27-2003 10:54 AM
First off, I agree with the guys that starting my show with the inference that my patrons are thieves and that their neighbors, as in Nazi Germany, should rat on them, is nothing short of absurd and certainly not the atmosphere I want to create for my patrons before the show, especially in the service of the MPAA. The theatre, where patrons have PAID to see a specific movie, is not the place for the MPAA to air its security problems (real or imagined) about people who DON'T want to pay to see movies. As much as the studios claim that counterfeit movies cost them BILLIONS of dollars every second, you don't find them offering to REDUCE the price of tickets if the movie-going public is able, somehow by their snitching actions, to reduce the supposed loss. It's not my honest, ticket-paying, THEATRE GOING patron's responsibility to police the theatre for video pirates.
Showmanship should not be compromised for the sake of one segment of the industry which, it should be noted, has never shown any propensity to help exhibition with their problems....and with the expectation that exhibition do it for free. Wanna pay me for screen time by reducing my percentage or my guarantee? Well, that would be a start, but you know what? I STILL wouldn't play your trailer if the tone is that everyone sitting out there is conspiring to steal their "product."
Frank
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Don E. Nelson
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 138
From: Brentwood, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 07-28-2003 02:58 PM
Counter Fitting' is what the contractors from Proctor do when you get a new concession stand installed.
I REALLY thought counter fitting was the name of the little booth/COUNTER(SOME PLACES ITS A TABLE) at the GAP, or Old Navy Store WHERE you show Blanche what you want to try on, AND SHE COUNTS THE ITEMS, AND GIVES YOU A BOOTH NUMBER.
BUT I was informed that it is actualy a German word, derived from early Germaic/Latin origin, "Coontar Fytieting," meaning to: copy secretly material of an origin unknown, and to claim it for oneself as said originator."
I kinda like that better than the word "pirat/piracy"deriived from the Graeco-Roman world (peirates) meaning "undesirable others". Piracy was very much linked to banditry in early times, , and both words were used interchangeably in early Greek literature.
Bandit or Bandito has a more "Johnny Depp" flair to it, and has a more romanticised connotation when used in this context, ie, The Frito Bandito.
So my pirate friend, who lives down the street, now prefers to be called, The Video Bandito, it almost sounds cartoonish and not so threatening and i believe it is also more politically correct. If and when Jack Valenti sends this guy to the Film/Video Pirates Prison, in Penzance, Illinois, he can tell the other inmates he is doing hard time for being a Video Bandito, and everybody will laugh, but some of us will cry because we miss him, and because he is also the mayor of our town.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 07-28-2003 03:11 PM
What IS offensive, is that someplace along the line, the studios have come to regard my product, i.e., my theatre, my projection services and my screen time, which anyone else rents from me for a fee, is theirs, free for the taking. Well, I've got a bit of news -- it's not. They want to play their silly little self-promoting vignettes? Fine....line up with the rest of the merchants who can rent screen time for a fee. They certainly won't go to NBC and say, "Gee, would you play this spot during prime-time? Not to worry....it's low key" and think NBC would play it for them for free! What makes them think exhibition should? As I said, if they start treating exhibition as a partner and pass on savings, be it the billions they claim will be saved if they get rid of having to make prints or the billions they loose by some guy videotaping a movie screen, fine, then we can talk about cooperation. But since that fantasy may not happen unless we can somehow move to a parallel universe, then they don't get to say what I put up on my screen in my theatre. They don't get to do that just because they are charging me a hefty rental fee to play THEIR product -- the feature.
Frank
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