The cinema industry is once again at the crossroads where today they face the daunting challenge of reinvigorating an ageless pastime – bringing the word fun back to cinemas near you. Believe it or not but there was once a time where people actually enjoyed going to the movies and experiencing the glitz, the glamour, the sound, the scenes and the actors that they loved and cherished. Yet this has been almost labeled an outdated trend where a combination of different issues and the continuous rise of the technological era have spawned calls for a response from the film industry whilst raising questions of what films will look like in the not so distant future.
The Effects of Video Piracy –
There is no doubt that video piracy has had deep and long lasting affect on cinemas today where movie lovers have bucked the trend of watching films in theatres and swapped it with a sofa and their laptop. The fact is this that people are unwilling to pay for an overpriced movie ticket, where someone can simply go on the Internet and watch it online for nothing. Chris Anderson’s ‘The Long Tale’ highlights the dilemma that consumers are currently having when faced with the quality vs. quantity debate which resonates well with this debate. On one hand we have a quality – a product ensured to give you the ‘full movie experience’ but with a hefty price; and on the other you have quantity, providing you with an array of options with questions being raised over its effectiveness to fulfill consumers needs. Nevertheless, consumers today are not willing to spend fifty to sixty dollars on a movie ticket, popcorn and a large drink. People today want a product that is affordable and accessible – a problem that is leaving cinemas at the crossroads today.
In July this year, Australia was branded “the worst in the world” when it came to video piracy according to Attorney-General George Brandis. Brandis, who is the architect of the “three-strike crackdown”, recently stated that Australia lacks any effective protection against online piracy. Australia, I’m sorry to say, is the worst offender of any country in the world when it comes to piracy, and I’m very concerned that the legitimate rights and interests of rights holders and content creators are being compromised by that activity.
“Australia is impressive and with a population of just over 22 million people it has the highest piracy rate in the world,” wrote TorrentFreak at the time. In the U.S, the problem exceeds even further. The U.S film industry contributes approximately $80 billion each year to the American economy (Scholes, 2014). That number is according to Wayne Scholes, substantially lower than what it should be where it is estimated that 750,000 jobs have been lost to online piracy. As Scholes points out, “70% of online users don’t see illegal downloading as a form of ‘theft’”. The problem had originally stemmed from the music industry where 95% of online music downloads are illegal.
Prof. Smith and Wellesley College economist Brett Danaher published last month indicating last year’s shutdown of illegitimate-download site Megaupload by the U.S. Justice Department boosted the studios’ digital revenue by 6% to 10% (Bialik, 2013). Dr. Danaher calls the 6%-to-10% estimate a lower bound on piracy’s impact—which would mean $2 billion to $3 billion of U.S. revenue if the study’s finding for digital revenue translated to box-office and DVD sales and rentals.
The fact of the matter is that even though video piracy is providing an accessible product, film studios are feeling the effects today and in the long term, consumers may bare the brunt when confronted with an increase in job cuts, further economic heartache and potentially a decrease in the number of movies produced as studios will be unwilling to spend millions without meeting there own status quo.
Are today’s movies all the same? –
Today’s generation has been brought up with Batman, Superman, Indiana Jones, The Matrix, Die Hard and other large budget action films that ensure studios remain in the black rather than the red. Don’t get me wrong, I as much as the next person love a superhero film or an action pact movie blockbuster, yet what this has created is rather a product – a brand that producers and studios can explore whilst attempting to squeeze out as much money as they possibly can that a franchise can make. The bottom line is that studios would rather invest millions in an action pact drama that is guaranteed results, rather than a promising script with an up and coming director that has the potential to be a flop. Acclaimed film critic Matt Zoller Seitz believes that the renowned auteur theory that allows the directors to express themselves is almost lost through these types of films. “Studios don’t like personal expression— not on this level. Their goal is to minimize financial risk and avoid a scenario in which viewers buy a ticket for the latest Marvel picture and get something substantially different from what they’ve been conditioned to expect” (2014). Seitz goes on to add that studio would rather make a mediocre Iron Man 2 than underestimated and unique Watchmen. Is that a sign of the times? Is mediocrity the goal for directors today? Or is it just a strategy to ensure that studios stay afloat rather than in debt? Personally, I hope that mediocrity is not the new goal for writers and directors today, just to ensure that companies make their annual turnover. Producing films is supposed to be enjoyable, the satisfaction that you get when you have created something with all your passion and desire is indescribable – a feeling that is potentially being squashed by the film hierarchy with their enormous check-books and their influence that is ensuring that films are made in a certain way and within a certain boundary.
The Avengers box office success eclipsed a record $1.5b
Hollywood’s troubles returns –
This is not the first time Hollywood is experiencing such a problem of this proportion where job losses, financial woes and stagnant filmmaking has been somewhat of a recurring theme. The late 60s and early 70s provided Hollywood with a transitional phase that threatened to derail the industry. Following the Paramount Case, which ended block booking and ownership of theatre chains by film studios and the advent of television, Hollywood were investing in “big money productions that were almost taking the studios down with them” (Schrader). Coupled with the loss of key figures such as Harry Warner, Louis Mayer and Darryl Zanuck, and with audience numbers continuing to dwindle, Hollywood was in a state of “general panic”. ‘Old Hollywood’ was rapidly losing money whilst the major studios were unsure how to react to the much changed audience demographics. Politicized by the Vietnam War and Watergate debacle, young Americans demanded to be heard rather than being placed in the corner. Subsequently, audiences were sick and tired of seeing the outdated style of films as musicals and westerns were replaced by radical, revolutionary and original styles of filmmaking. Julie Christ, one of the most influential actresses throughout this period stated that Hollywood had stumbled across a “different audience, an audience that studios didn’t know existed”. This so called “counter culture” (Coppola) illustrated how “every single consensus, the way [they] lived their lives was ultimately questioned” (Pollack).
“The film business was a decayed whore house and it had to be assaulted, and so you had that student film mentality – lets pick up the banner and walk in their and take it over” – Paul Schrader.
Soon enough, the Baby Boomer generation that consisted of directors such Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg would take the country by storm, as foreign filmmakers of the caliber of Godard, Bergman, Visconti, Rossellini, Kurosawa and Bertolucci became a shinning light for aspiring directors whilst paving the way for avant-garde filmmaking. Suddenly, viewers were witnessing a new wave of actors entering their screens, as Eastwood, Beatty, Di Niro and Hoffman became icons of a new generation and a new era of storytelling.
The Graduate (1967) became a shining example of the American New Wave
Amazingly, this is almost a mirror image to the problems being exacerbated today where currently Hollywood is struggling to adapt to the so-called ‘new scenery’ that we are providing as an audience. The American New Wave wanted “to deal with difficult films and different films rather than the same old stuff like nowadays where the same old stuff is just repeated and repeated” (Christ). This ageless time of cinema should provide today’s generation with a precedent of how to attract viewers once again to something that they can recognise, “something of them that they can relate too” (Pollack).
So what will the film industry look like in 10 years time? Can it bounce back from the rise of video piracy? Is it able to create a more appealing brand of cinema rather than the same old stories? These questions have not yet been answered and it is up to the next generation of aspiring writers, editors and directors to bring about change, to ensure that going to the cinema remains an endless pastime, and to ultimately act upon these problems in the near future.
By Julian Di Nezza.
References –
I. Hopwell, Luke; June 2 2014; Australia Worst In the World For Piracy, According to Attorney General
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/06/australia-is-the-worst-in-the-world-for-piracy-according-to-attorney-general/
II. Zoller Seitz, Matt; October 8 2014; Things Crashing Into Other Things: Or, my Superhero Movie Problem
http://www.rogerebert.com/mzs/things-crashing-into-other-things-or-my-superhero-movie-problem
III. Scholes, Wayne; January 2014; Piracy’s Ripple Effect on the Global Economy
http://www.diplomaticourier.com/news/sponsored/2011-piracy-s-ripple-effect-on-the-global-economy
IV. Bialik, Carl; April 5 2013; Putting a Price Tag on Film Piracy
http://blogs.wsj.com/numbers/putting-a-price-tag-on-film-piracy-1228/
V. Demme, Ted; LaGravense, Richard; 2003; A Decade Under the Influence – documentary
VI. Bialik, Carl; April 5 2013; Studios Struggle for Focus on Film Pirates’ Booty
http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324600704578402850894445768