Black March

[jackfaire]

Netizens are calling for a boycott of anything that falls under the MPAA and RIAAs scope of responsibility during the month of March.

Here is the thing about that. Theater owners do not have a viable alternative.

They are in large part screwed by the MPAA and have seriously imbalanced contracts for releasing movies.

The boycott is my generation's *blech* idea of a solution. It's not a solution.

It's a bunch of whiny kids saying, "Fine you won't give the stuff to me for free or the price I want and you censor my stuff then I won't take any of it."

A solution would be to realize that the MPAA is not and never will be a branch of the Government. So start a similar association. An indie association. Isn't that what we are supposed to be all about touting the independents as being so great because they don't bow down to the MPAA?

Imagine all of the Indie Studios forming an organisations going to the Theater Owners and saying, "Hey we will give you fair contracts and plenty of movies so that if the MPAA wants to screw you over you can tell them where to shove it"

You know like many recording artists who don't like the RIAA have done. The artists still with the RIAA are either there because their contracts haven't run out or because they want to be.

Seemingly though we only respect artists if they live only for their art and they want to give us everything that they spent years working on for free.

We act like we live in a tyrannical society because people expect to be paid for their work. It saddens me that I see more posts about made up or not serious problems where the solutions offered reek of a sense of entitlement.

I am not saying everyone wants everything for free I am just saying that if there were alternatives instead of whining we would all win.

[AdminAssistant]

The problem is distribution. A recording artist can record an album on the cheap and make a profit quite easily by selling it on the internet, particularly if they're already established. People like Trent Reznor and Amanda Palmer have found that if you offer a 'pay what you can' option, you get less piracy and more money.

Films are so much more expensive that digital distribution alone doesn't really work, unless it's two film school students making a movie about a plant in an empty room or something. The indie movie theatres, as far as I know, don't have a network, and still depend on major studios for their films. The MPAA has a much tighter grip on the film industry than the RIAA has on the music industry. Also, with movies, there are fewer people willing to risk taking a loss on their product.

[Andara Bledin]

A solution would be to realize that the MPAA is not and never will be a branch of the Government. So start a similar association. An indie association.

They may not be part of the government, but they pay billions in lobbying funds to have power with those who are. Similar, independent associations are often destroyed through disingenuous means such as death by litigation when the larger groups sense that they might be competition.

Eventually, both organizations will become redundant, but until that time, they are both doing their best to stifle anything that isn't a part of them, and that is what people are protesting.

Although, as mentioned, boycotting theaters really won't do much. Boycotting big-box music and video sales, both offline and online, however, may be more effective with much less collateral damage.

^-.-^

[Silverharp]

Remember too that when it comes to movie distribution, it's the studios that handle that, even though they bill themselves outrageous amounts of money in order to jack the theaters.
Example: Bill and Ted's Catgirl Apocalypse costs 120 Million to make, but the studio pays out the writers a percentage of the total proit, so they then turn around and charge themselves and additional 200 million in distribution fees, so when the movie makes 300 million, it shows as a loss in the books, but those "distribution fees" are seperate from other totals, and so the theaters charge twice as much as they otherwise would in order to cost what THEY have to pay

[Andara Bledin]

Totally but I so would love to see that movie made (as long as it wasn't pure crap).

^-.-^

[jackfaire]

The indie movie theatres, as far as I know, don't have a network, and still depend on major studios for their films.

Many of the ones I have seen in my area get their movies from Independent film studios.

I am referring to the indie studios that think the MPAA is crap.

There are plenty of studios that would do better if they distributed their movies without working with the MPAA and if the Theater Owners all of them had the ability work with studios willing to share the profits then they could tell MPAA studios to go away.

The strangle hold they have on the whole process is because everyone in the movie making world knuckles under instead of saying nah we are going to go do this.

And not buying movies has collateral damage of the people actually making movies. The majority of people making movies are middle class Americans. Yes the direcctors and actors are rich but they are only 1% of the process everything else is done by the crew most who don't make the millions the others make.

[AdminAssistant]

A small fragment of the actors are rich.

[jackfaire]

A small fragment of the actors are rich.

Which makes my point even more valid.

[mikoyan29]

It is my understanding that boycotting theaters will not have an effect on the studios or the distributors. Instead, they will affect the theaters as in some cases they have to pay a certain amount up front. So if they get stuck with a bomb, the studios don't care because they've got their money.

[Ginger Tea]

More or less, I have been in theatres where it's just me and the projectionist and for a little while an usherette, Ground Hog Day being one such event, mind you I decided to watch the movie then as it was pissing it down and I didn't fancy hanging around for a later showing of another film I was going to see.

If I wasn't in the room at the time, they might have played it to an empty room or just not played it at all, but they had paid to have the film for X ammount of days regardless.

[gremcint]

actually the success of most movies is judged on the opening weekend ticket sales and if that is really low it may affect future movies being made either by those people or about that subject so a boycott could work.

[telecom_goddess]

Digital distribution of films would totally work. Edward Burns does it all the time. His movie Purple Violets was released exclusively to ITunes for the longest time, and now it's finally on DVD. His latest film Newlyweds is showing at film festivals, special screenings and is currently on the ON Demand thing from comcast. Instant distribution and his budgets are extremely small. But his movies are high quality regardless of the small budget and they do well this way.

[AdminAssistant]

his budgets are extremely small.

That's the thing. There are entire genres of film that really can't be done on small budgets, due to the amount of technology and people required to make them. Not to mention actor's salaries, which aren't likely to go down any time soon.

[Andara Bledin]

That's the thing. There are entire genres of film that really can't be done on small budgets, due to the amount of technology and people required to make them. Not to mention actor's salaries, which aren't likely to go down any time soon.

For the most part, there's a lot of technology that they don't need to make most movies. Sure, they want it, and in some ways it makes them more fantastic (Avatar, as an example, is a wonderful example of how to make 3D part of the movie and not just slap it on top, quite unlike, say, Clash of the Titans), but as often as not, the tech isn't required. Most movies will live and die on their writing, direction, and acting and the fancy stuff is mostly gravy.

^-.-^

[AdminAssistant]

I'm all for quality writing, direction, and acting (which can also cost a lot of money), but I wouldn't say that the technological aspects are 'gravy.' All the writing, acting, and directing in the world don't mean a thing if you don't have quality cameras and mics operated by trained professionals and someone who knows how to put it all together.