You know, there are some really, really cool movies coming up in the near future.
The fans sure know.
They are, as usual, hunting down movie trailers, and saving the movie companies tons of money by hosting these trailers themselves, sharing them with their friends, and generally selling the movie companies' product for them, for free.
They are greeted with cease and desist letters from corporate attorneys hired by executives with no actual business sense.
There's some good music out right now, too. But you most likely aren't hearing any of it. This is because when radio stations play anything other than, you know, Top 40 - they get threatened with the looming notion of royalties - which would kill radio, as the station owners well know. Because the music companies would kill, to keep you from selling their product for them, for free.
Let me back up a bit.
Robert Jordan is a widely read, really, really terrible author. He sucks; his fiction is complete garbage, and he wrote the single, solitary book I've ever - EVER - thrown out after reading.
But he sells millions of copies, thanks to his publishers, years ago, making an astoundingly wise business decision: to put standups for his books in the airports.
You've been in airports. When you didn't bring a book, because this is only supposed to be an hour-long flight anyway, and you're just in time, and you're ready to go...
...And your flight is delayed for three hours. Now what? Well, you go to the airport gift shop, where you find local souvenirs, Tiger Beat magazine, and Robert Jordan books. Most adults, given the choice, will settle for the lesser of three evils, and buy Robert Jordan books.
Now for me, frankly, this is an idea that just begs to be repeated. And outside the major media companies, movies, music, and publishing, it is embraced with gusto. Look at the tabloids: where do you find them? Right where you can't avoid seeing them. Where are the rest of the magazines? In a separate, secluded section the customer has to actively seek out. Not the tabloids; the customer couldn't avoid seeing the National Enquirer if their life depended on it. Want to bet which publication has the wider circulation?
If you guessed the tabloids, you guessed right.
Now, for the customer, a song on the radio - or a movie trailer - is the equivalent of a tabloid at the cash register. The only way to avoid it, is not to go to the store. If you have the radio on, whoever owns the station you're listening to can play anything they want, pretty much, and you're at least going to hear enough of it to decide whether to change the channel.
You went to the theater; the trailers come first, because you can't get up and leave without missing what you paid for.
So, they're free advertising for the media companies, just like at a bookstore, when they have that standup display next to the register for the books they really want to sell this month. You're more likely to buy a product if you KNOW ABOUT IT.
Which brings me to the internet. Fans of movies, books, music, you name it, put clips on YouTube, their blog, their homepage, what have you. And they share through BitTorrent. I've seen downloaded movies; you basically can't download a movie in decent enough quality to justify not buying a DVD of it if you liked the movie. The same is true for songs; in order to get them to a filesize that a reasonable person would want to download, the quality comes down from what's commercially available.
Now, I can understand the media companies' unwillingness to let random Joes give away their product; after all, there's not exactly strict quality control if just anybody can rip / edit their product, you know?
What mystifies me, though, is why the media companies aren't giving their products away over BitTorrent THEMSELVES.
Picture this. You go to your favorite Torrent website, and see a listing for a new, hot movie that just hit theaters, or is about to come out on DVD in a week. You download it, not even noticing that the account name of the uploader is "officialuniversalstudiostorrents" or some such. You watch it, and when it first loads, you see a trailer. Not for any random Universal movie - although no reason not to do that too - but for the theatrical or DVD release of the movie you're about to watch. It says,
"Thank you for downloading this Universal Studios product; we hope you enjoy it. But the picture quality, the sound quality, and the overall experience is a whole lot more enjoyable in a theater (or on DVD, ??/??/????.) The DVD contains features, and video and audio quality, not available through the internet, and we hope you choose to try our product in its best presentation."
You'd make a fortune. DVD sales would go up, ticket sales would go up, and you would lose... wait for it...
...Nothing.
Just the way the music companies have had nothing but profit, for years, from radio "giving their product away." Which is why they've never ACTUALLY charged the radio stations royalties; they know it's free advertising. Or at least they did. Now they seem to have lost sight of that concept; as though a song I heard in terrible radio quality would prevent me from buying the album, because, you know, I've heard it.
Crap.
If I had any say in it - which, as a customer, I clearly don't - I would pimp the product as much as possible. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. Even if you give away free copies to do it.
Which brings me back to YouTube.
There are some really cool movies coming out, some of which were a complete surprise to me. (I'll explain in a sec, promise.) I am going to post trailers for some of them.
Wanna bet on how long they last before the cease and desist letters come in? (I will note here that SOME of the movie companies seem to have figured YouTube out, and are posting their OWN trailers on it, which is what I've been hoping would happen all along. Dimension Films is an excellent example; too bad most of the other movie studios can't get it yet.)
The surprises come in two flavors for me: first, that several of them are remakes; usually remakes are bad, but it looks like the studios are actually giving some efort to the idea of making remakes that are actually good movies in their own rights. Secondly - well, the first of the trailers I want to show you should pretty much say it.
First up is one that was a total shock to me: not because they're making it, but becase based on the trailer, I think it will be really good, and actually want to see it: "John Rambo."
That's right, with Stallone. It looks like a return to First Blood, which was actually a damn good movie. Granted, the sequels have been crap, but the first one was good. This one looks... well, see for yourself.
Next is the Rob Zombie remake of "Halloween". Rob, when asked, says "within five minutes of the movie you will know that they cannot be compared, because they are completely different films," which from the trailer seems accurate. I can't wait; Rob is the man.
Next is "The Invasion," also a remake, of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers; looks good, and creepy.
Next is "30 Days of Night," about an Alaskan town under siege by vampires. Awesome potential, trailer looks good, we'll see.
Next is "1408," one of several upcoming Stephen King films, starring John Cusack, and it looks badass.
Next is I Am Legend, also a remake. Will Smith I wouldn't have picked for the role, but having seen the trailer he looks like he could pull it off; we'll see.
Next is an upcoming project which is as yet untitled but for its release date - 1/18/08. Watch the trailer. To me, this just SCREAMS Godzilla, but if that's the case, why the secrecy? Only time will tell.
Next is "The Devil's Chair," which I know little about other than that the trailer looks badass. But it does look badass, doesn't it?Next is "Fragile," about a nurse in a children's hospital where Bad Things are happening.
Next is "War," which looks like nothing but action, which is good sometimes.
And last, but by no means least, is "The Host," which I've actually seen - it's Korean, and looks to be coming here finally - and actually is a hell of a lot of fun.
Check 'em out. Maybe, who knows, you'll want to see one of them. And then you'll get my point; the people doing free advertising for these companies ought to be embraced, not criminalized. And make no mistake; the things these people are doing weren't against the law, until they started doing them - and the media companies decided it should be.
Show 'em they're wrong; download a movie, and then buy it - and tell them you did, at the video store. "Yeah, I wouldn't be buying this movie if I hadn't seen it thanks to BitTorrent."
Maybe they'll figure it out if enough people give them a nudge in the ribs.
