Just watched the Digg Dialogg interview with Peter Jackson. I always kind of liked the guy, not knowing much about him. But, if you watched his Digg interview, you may have been just about as disappointed as myself.
Basically, Digg users were able to vote on questions that Peter Jackson was then asked (on camera) by some dude you probably don't know. The very first question was how he felt about movie piracy. First of all, what a lame question. I'll admit, I think I dugg the question also (hehe) because the pool of good questions was slim, but his answer was quite a lame one. It just shows how much he really loves money. He basically said that since they steal our money from what we make, they will kill film. The equivalent of a toddler screaming at everyone because no one wants to play his way, so he's just gonna' go sit in his room and cry about how mean the evil film pirates can be.
He seemed pretty ambivalent, though, about the death of film. Which is how I'd expect Peter Jackson to be. But come on, film piracy will lead to the death of film? People are going to make movies whether they profit off of them or not. Maybe they just won't be the movies that you like. But, you know, if someone really loves something enough it doesn't matter how much you bank. Mr. Jackson, if you only realized that you are raping your own fans, sir.
There were a few other lame-ass questions, however one was quite interesting and made me think of Peter Jackson as a whole new breed of lame. They asked if District 9 (a flick he produced) made him think differently about how much money it takes to make a film now.
Honestly--I was tuning this guy out at this time, but I think his answer was something like, "blah blah blah, yeah it surely did, I guess I can make crappy movies with less money, I'm sure that's what will happen with Lovely Bones." Perhaps I misquoted him, but either way, wow. So you hate movie pirating (which had a hand in the success of such films as Paranormal Activity, District 9) as the death of cinema, but you think making movies on the cheap is a fine idea. Whatever makes his pockets fatter and his hair fray-out a little more professionally on the ends.
I guess my problem is this, it seems like these huge movie guys are just totally ignoring the potential of social networking and how it applies to movie distribution and piracy. Is it the consumer's fault that they want a product quickly and cheaply when it can be made quickly and cheaply? Perhaps a question like that should have been asked. What about, "why is it that we should have to pay $40 for a blu-ray disc that costs only $6 to make? What right do you have to price gauge?" If we were talking about some other industry (say the oil industry) people would be outraged and probably justified in stealing their gas if prices were being marked up that high.
So, the point is this: perhaps there are people who are illegally profiting off of the hard-work of the movie industry insiders. But how much of the profit is actually making it back to the people who make the movies? Lets give an example here, say I make a blu-ray DVD movie. I bank about $100 for producing the blu-ray, it's low-budget (and everyone has an HD camera nowadays, shit, there is software that can convert DVD quality to blu-ray). So lets say that I start off by having 5 printed. That costs me $30. This leaves me with $70. I sell 3 copies to my friends, but someone steals 2 copies. So, I can not sell them, I have to eat the cost of the two for myself. However, since I sold the bluray (3 copies) at $40 each, I just made a shit load of money. That leaves me with $190....thats 3 times what I invested in the first place!! Who reaps those benefits? Not the cameramen or set designers, I promise. Most of the time they are already paid by the time the movie comes out. Most are salaried, or contract workers who get paid regardless of the success of the film.
Lets say that someone leaks my stupid movie on some illegal download site. Lets say that because it is such a terrible movie, people download the shit out of it. People that would not even buy a DVD of this shitty movie in the first place. So me, being an enterprising type of person, decide that I will do things a little bit differently. I am going to profit off of the pirated files of my own movie, the same way the pirates are (supposedly) stealing all my profits, I'm going to steal theirs.
All of this, in turn, equals more and more profits for me. Think that the record companies and film distributors haven't already thought of this? Well, what about those sites that allow you to download unlimited amounts of content for a monthly fee? Or sites like Hulu, that support their content using ad-revenue? Oh my goodness, it's like a treasure trove of more and more profits I never knew existed!?!? Glee and glee. I'm now a fucking millionare, because I started off by making a movie that cost me only $30 to make in the first place.
Oh yeah, since my movie became sooooo famous now, they are going to start showing it in the theaters. So I am going to make money from the ticket sales. Oh yeah, Burger King wants to do a deal where I sell my movie characters in kid's meals!! I get to make a sequel!!
This seems to be the business model for now, I don't understand why people like Peter Jackson hate on piracy. Oh wait! I think I've figured it out, he wants to make money. You guys getting it yet? It is more profitable for this guy to hate on the piracy and reap the benefits of it, than it is for him to make a better quality, more engaging film that profits because it is a quality flick, not because they were able to market it well.
I guess this is my ultimate beef with assholes like Peter Fucking Jackson, I supported his shitty cinematic vision starting way before Lord of the Rings BS, at Dead Alive. You used so much money to make such a terrible film and it bombed in the public market, like you knew it would. But you did it anyways, because you had a vision and loved blood and guts and grossing people out. Where'd that fat bastard go?
It's sad to see your heroes become victims of the almighty United States of Finance, but you know, he's gotta eat. I guess all the movie pirating is why he lost so much weight. Sorry Mrs. Jackson! I'll buy your son's movies from now on. I don't want him wasting away on us. Hopefully someone will slap some sense of community (that he helped to create his success) back into him. Fuck you Peter Jackson, I H8 you.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment