Sometimes I wonder about the sanity of the film industry.
The torrent sites currently have for download a high quality copy of a “DVD Screener” of the big new Will Smith film, I Am Legend. The film has only just opened in the UK, and has only been out about three weeks in the US where it’s been doing fantastic business.
What’s happened is that someone has got hold of a DVD version of the film and ripped it. But what I want to know is this: why are film companies even making DVD screeners of their big films? These discs very existance increases the likelihood of high quality pirate goods getting out.
In actual fact, the only real reasons for doing it are either to pass to critics who are too lazy to go to the cinema to watch the films, or to hand to members of the various groups like the Academy and BAFTA, who give films awards. You see these people, despite having cards that get them free into cinemas, and having special screenings laid on all the time, still can’t be bothered to get off their fat backsides and go out to see films the way they were made to be seen. So film companies send them DVD copies to watch at home, in the hope that they might vote for Will Smith as Best Actor or whatever (this is the same industry that openly campaigns for votes with those For Your Consideration ads in the trade press – again a waste of money benefiting only the companies who publish those trade publications).
What the companies are saying is this: it’s more important that they win an Oscar than it is that they might suffer significant financial setback if a high quality DVD gets out.
Before Christmas, the film companies were heavily promoting a campaign to persuade us not to be “Knock-off Nigels” and buy pirate DVDs. Yet at the same time, they actively produce DVD versions of films. So while there’s little to stop dreadful camcorder versions of films, they’re basically giving “Knock-off Nigel” a leg-up by making them.
The whole industry needs a massive kicking to get into the 21st century. They need to stop spending millions on advertising and DVD production for a handful of crusty old fuddy-duddies who can’t be bothered to go to the cinema a bit more. And they’re fighting a losing battle with internet piracy and dodgy DVD sales.
Personally, I believe that they should be selling DVDs to cinema goers on the way out of the theatre – can you imagine how many parents would have picked up copies of Enchanted on the way out? And the whole awards industry needs a ground up reworking. If members can’t be bothered to see films, then they shouldn’t be able to vote. And they should be seeing those films in cinemas. Shortlists of films can be put together by committee, and then voted on by the mass electorate once we know for certain that they’ve seen all the nominated titles.