[originally posted 12/9/11]
So my friend ombrophilia just made an interesting post about music piracy, so I wanted to put in my two cents about film piracy. I’m not going to sit here and pretend I’ve never pirated a film, or tell you that you’re a bad, mean person for doing so. But let’s not pretend that piracy isn’t affecting people. And not just bigwig producers and popular studios; don’t kid yourself by thinking that you’re sticking it to Big Hollywood by pirating movies. It has more of an effect than you think.
Remember those anti-piracy PSAs that used to be shown before trailers with below the line crewmembers telling you that you’re cutting into their pay by pirating movies? Remember how we all wrote it off as guilt trip shit? Well, it totally was, but they’re also not lying. The thing is, not paying for a movie you’d otherwise see in theaters doesn’t just mean that you’re not giving revenue for that movie. How do you think studios pay for films? It’s by profits from other films. And less profits means a possibility for less productions, and less productions means less work not just for producers and big name stars and big directors, but for everyone. And it takes a ton of people to make a movie. If you’ve sat and watched the credits of…well, anything forever, you’ll see how many people work on films. There’s enough competition for those below the line jobs anyway without the job market shrinking.
Some people justify these things by saying that Hollywood is producing a ton of bullshit anyway, so why should they support it? And yeah, I have no intention of telling you that The Smurfs and Jack and Jill are pinnacles of American comedy and you should throw money at them. (Please don’t oh my god.) And tons of people complain about remakes, and that Hollywood only makes them to make money.
Well, duh. The reason studios do these things is because people go to see them. Now I could tell you that remakes are far from something new, but that’s not the point. The point is that the film industry makes things that they think or hope people will see. If you really wanna see something new, go give it your money in theaters. Instead of taking your money away from bad stuff, take a chance on something new. I of course understand that you don’t want to possibly spend the hilariously expensive amount of money for a movie ticket to something you might not even like, but in my opinion, if you’re going to see something, that thing doesn’t have an obligation to come to you. Otherwise, as I said before, you’re not just stiffing the studio directly on that movie, but indirectly for everyone else involved. There’s more to movies than just the lead actors, director, and producers.
Which comes to my last point: supporting indie/smaller films. You know how I basically said up there that I wasn’t going to judge you about pirating?
Okay, okay, I may have lied a tiny bit. If you pirate smaller films, I am a little pissed at you. Now, I understand that if you live in the middle of nowhere, you probably don’t have an indie theater nearby. But really, is it that horrible to just wait for that DVD? (hint: my answer is ‘no.’) But if you live near an indie theater, or for fuck’s sake, in or near LA or New York, you’ve got to be kidding me. With indie movies (or movies directed / written by up and comings like Source Code), there’s a ton more on the line. Studios need to see profits to be convinced that 1) making more off-beat movies like this is worth their time and money, and 2) there’s enough of a market to open the film wider, where more people can see it. If you’re pirating these types of movies, you’re helping to fuck over the talent and kind of movie that you wish big studios were making. Directly.
Waaah, you might spend money on a movie you don’t like. It happens. But unless it was three hours of the director pooping or something, you didn’t waste two hours of your life or whatever excuse people might use to get pissy at the chance of paying for a film. You supported an smaller film, which might help other small films to get made. If you saw it at a smaller theater, congratulations, you helped that theater out a bit too! (Theaters needing more money is one aspect of why movie prices are so ridiculous nowadays.)
And if you’re bitching over anything less than $10, stop. Seriously. People in major cities (especially New York and LA) are paying $12-$13.50. I really hate the “consider yourself lucky” shpiel, but…come on.
And if you’re too poor to see movies at the moment, you know what? Tough. I think we all think we’re entitled to entertainment ever since piracy got super-big, and let’s be honest, we’re not. As I said, I’m not trying to tell you you’re a terrible person for pirating anything or trying to guilt trip you into stopping (I’ve made myself stop pirating movies but I have done it quite a bit in the past!), but I think we all need to stop kidding ourselves about what’s going on here. We think that we deserve entertainment for free, when…that’s just not true.
Also if you have a chance to see an smaller / quirkier movie and decide to pirate it instead, I am a little pissy at you.
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