When it comes to movies, there just no control here in this country. There's an illusion of control, or rather, there's the talk only, but no action done. Well, when you can talk, the promise of doing things aren't followed through enough to be justified to the public. In other words, satisfaction isn't guaranteed. It's just semantics to assure you that it won't happen, a delay if you must, but it will eventually happen anyway. The need of the many, outweigh the need of the one. Let's start at the beginning shall we?
A new movie comes in, the first thing we do is to find out when it's going to be released. These days, it's not difficult to find out on the Internet, especially when the movie has a homepage of its own and a release schedule in the individual countries it'll be screening.
Sometimes, to our horror, the movie comes in 3 months to 6 months and sometimes to 1 year later from when it was released. Take for example, the movie Identity. It was released in the USA on 25 April 2003, the trailer only screened here some time in December 2003. It's release was delayed till February 2004, by that time, the DVD had already been released. You could easily purchase the DVD on any overseas Internet site that market it. Take another example, Sin City. The movie was released in the USA 1 April 2005. It will be screened here on 14 July 2005, over 3 months of waiting. Why is this? conflict of interest? The movie's too controversial to be screened here? Money problems in obtaining the movie? Is it a B-grade movie? Censorship problems?
It's no wonder patrons of the movie will turn towards bootleg (piracy) copies of the movie, which is cheap and disposable. They'd rather watch the movie first, in whatever form, be it bootleg or Internet uploaded, than wait 3 months for the movie to come to the cinemas here. But really, can you blame them for wanting to watch a movie?
A movie distributor said that there's lost of patrons because of the parallel imports of DVDs which will lead to lost of revenue in obtaining new movies to be screened here. What total, complete and utter rubbish! If anything, this movie distributor is obviously not trying hard enough to obtain the new movies from overseas for our screening pleasure and to maintain his control over his other competition. He must ask himself, is his bureaucratic red tape preventing work from being done in his company, or is there a censorship problem when deciding to bring the movie here. I guess it's neither, owing that he's the CEO of the movie company - like I said, all talk and no action, it's all complain, complain, complain when competition outwits, outclasses and outplays his company - sour grapes!
The harder you tighten your grip, the easier it is for your goals to slip right through your fingers. Whatever happened to showbiz? I say, give the patrons what they want. A freedom to do what they want free from a control that doesn't work, a half-past six stop-guard or is an illusion anyway.
In the end, the patrons are not the ones who suffer, no matter the outcome of the decision to impose a period of time to ban parallel import of DVDs, because they have their own little circles to obtain and circulate the movies, be it original parallel imports, or bootleg copies. And like I mentioned in an earlier post: the more you restrict someone from doing something legal, the more he/she will do it out of defiance, even if it's illegal, to show everyone that it's do-able. And believe me, everyone will start following their example. The reign of cinema movies will be over, the reign of piracy will return, just wait and see, I don't want to have to be standing here and quipping out "I told you so."
If movie distributors do nothing but raise ticket prices for the movies they screen here, then perhaps it's time that movies go straight to DVDs than waste space being screened at overpriced cinemas with censored material.
Ultimately, it is an insult to the patrons, and it's an insult to the actors, directors and everyone who put in their hard work to produce the movie. Period.
All comments are welcomed. HBTM
A new movie comes in, the first thing we do is to find out when it's going to be released. These days, it's not difficult to find out on the Internet, especially when the movie has a homepage of its own and a release schedule in the individual countries it'll be screening.
Sometimes, to our horror, the movie comes in 3 months to 6 months and sometimes to 1 year later from when it was released. Take for example, the movie Identity. It was released in the USA on 25 April 2003, the trailer only screened here some time in December 2003. It's release was delayed till February 2004, by that time, the DVD had already been released. You could easily purchase the DVD on any overseas Internet site that market it. Take another example, Sin City. The movie was released in the USA 1 April 2005. It will be screened here on 14 July 2005, over 3 months of waiting. Why is this? conflict of interest? The movie's too controversial to be screened here? Money problems in obtaining the movie? Is it a B-grade movie? Censorship problems?
It's no wonder patrons of the movie will turn towards bootleg (piracy) copies of the movie, which is cheap and disposable. They'd rather watch the movie first, in whatever form, be it bootleg or Internet uploaded, than wait 3 months for the movie to come to the cinemas here. But really, can you blame them for wanting to watch a movie?
A movie distributor said that there's lost of patrons because of the parallel imports of DVDs which will lead to lost of revenue in obtaining new movies to be screened here. What total, complete and utter rubbish! If anything, this movie distributor is obviously not trying hard enough to obtain the new movies from overseas for our screening pleasure and to maintain his control over his other competition. He must ask himself, is his bureaucratic red tape preventing work from being done in his company, or is there a censorship problem when deciding to bring the movie here. I guess it's neither, owing that he's the CEO of the movie company - like I said, all talk and no action, it's all complain, complain, complain when competition outwits, outclasses and outplays his company - sour grapes!
The harder you tighten your grip, the easier it is for your goals to slip right through your fingers. Whatever happened to showbiz? I say, give the patrons what they want. A freedom to do what they want free from a control that doesn't work, a half-past six stop-guard or is an illusion anyway.
In the end, the patrons are not the ones who suffer, no matter the outcome of the decision to impose a period of time to ban parallel import of DVDs, because they have their own little circles to obtain and circulate the movies, be it original parallel imports, or bootleg copies. And like I mentioned in an earlier post: the more you restrict someone from doing something legal, the more he/she will do it out of defiance, even if it's illegal, to show everyone that it's do-able. And believe me, everyone will start following their example. The reign of cinema movies will be over, the reign of piracy will return, just wait and see, I don't want to have to be standing here and quipping out "I told you so."
If movie distributors do nothing but raise ticket prices for the movies they screen here, then perhaps it's time that movies go straight to DVDs than waste space being screened at overpriced cinemas with censored material.
Ultimately, it is an insult to the patrons, and it's an insult to the actors, directors and everyone who put in their hard work to produce the movie. Period.
All comments are welcomed. HBTM
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