[redpillage]

(07-21-2016 03:11 PM)Dan Woolf Wrote:  

(07-21-2016 12:01 PM)redpillage Wrote:  

From a different perspective. ALL of this hassle would be avoidable if the studios would finally relent and build a worldwide platform that permits legal/paid and low cost distribution of content. Let's say 10 cents per flick and 5 cents per series plus minus. The Interface has already been built for them = Popcorn Time. I would happily pay for a service like that. Actually I'm still paying for Netflix but need to use a complex shell script as those fuckers made it impossible to access abroad, even with a commercial VPN. So I'm forced to actually SSH into a remote U.S. server and on a special port and use that as my proxy. It works but it's sluggish at times, plus the sound is crap (Netflix sucks on computers), plus the content is antiquated. Result: I rarely watch it.

Meanwhile I keep using Popcorn Time as it still works better than anything else out there. It's easy and it just works. the industry just doesn't get it. Instead of squeezing a few million people for several dollars (for an old release) they should accept a few cents from billions of people.

Those assholes in the entertainment industry continue to fight a war that they cannot win. People will always find a way - it's simply an arms race. One outlet falls and another one pops up.

The reason why many films are region locked is very simple: pretty much all the films outside of the big studios (Universal, Disney, WB, Fox, Columbia, Paramount) are financed by pre-selling territories.

"Hey, we have a script for an action film. James Wan is directing, Liam Neeson is starring along with Maggie Grace and Morgan Freeman. It's set in Mars."

"We'll give you $500 000 for theatrical and VOD rights in Spain."

"We'll give you $250 000 for TV rights in Japan."

You raise the budget by pre-selling the film to all these territories, then you go to the bank and say "we have deals worth of 20 million" and they'll loan you that amount of money. Then you go make the film, deliver the film to the distributors, they pay you what they promised, you pay back the bank.

If and when Netflix and others get rid of these regional restrictions, the whole financing model collapses and then it's bye bye independent films. Well, not all of them, there are always guys willing to suck some oligarch's cock or max out their credit cards to make their films. Then you have low-budget films in Europe that are made mostly for the local audiences and they get their funding for the national film foundation and national broadcasting company. Anyway, it would/will further centralize the film industry - more Fembusters and Jamal Bond, less films that might have some value.

You make good points here but I counter this with.... (drumrolls) crowdsourcing! A lot of good movies could get made this way, especially if the people funding it are actually part of the revenue model. I think there's a possible business opportunity there, even for big Hollywood productions.