“There are days when I really wish Al Gore hadn’t invented the Internet,” DGA Vice President Steven Soderbergh said in a 60 minutes piece about Internet film piracy last night. “As the margins of profit shrink, fewer projects get made, which means fewer people go to work.”
“There is a feeling out there that, ‘Boy, I got this and I’m not hurting anybody but some fancy, overpaid movie star who can well afford it,'” the 60 Minutes host remarked.
“Well, in fact, you know, the wealthy movie star isn’t hurt by it. It’s just everyone else. Most of the people in this industry are not the A-list talent that you see in a magazine or interviewed on 60 Minutes,” Soderbergh said.
“You’re talking about all the people behind the camera,” Stahl said.
“Supporting cast and all the crew,” the director replied.
“The chances of a movie, for instance, like ‘The Matrix’ being made shrinks. Here’s a guy, here’s a movie, two guys, they’ve made a small independent film. Warner Brothers gives them $75 million to make this script that nobody can understand, right?” Soderbergh said. “Wouldn’t happen today.”
There’s some interesting thoughts in the piece. We’re definitely anti-piracy and whenever people post links to embed full movies in our comments section (which people do often), we always immediately delete them (which is about all we really can do other than encourage our readers against it), but this 60 Minutes piece does feel very much like a puff piece, perhaps because every TV piece they do for the 50-plus ground feels that way, simplistic and easy to digest. If these guys were a little bit more hard hitting they might have asked Soderbergh about the direct-day VOD options like IFC Direct or Magnolia’s version of the same idea. Earlier this year when we spoke with Sony Pictures Classics’ Tom Bernard he said SPC didn’t believe in the direct roll out because it killed buzz for a picture. “You have five times to make your movie available in the marketplace,” he said. “If you [release it day-and-date on pay-per-view] you basically closed all those other windows because a lot of the other distribution venues will not take the movie after that. So you’re basically knocking the revenue power out of the film.”
We’re inclined to agree, if only because most direct-to-DVD films tend to die faster deaths than indie films that receive a regular roll out (who here not in L.A. or New York has seen “Bronson”?) Then again, the market is small for all these films, and generally smaller it seems then the online demand which is usually loud, but very niche voice. Anyhow, it’s obviously an ongoing subject, but we’d love to hear Soderbergh’s thoughts on the issue as he’s part of the direct-to-VOD deal with Magnolia. But obviously, VOD is not akin to theft and a different ball of wax.
One idea that won’t win him any fans is the idea to deputize the industry as most people who do pirate online find it so easy to do they don’t think they are committing an illegal and criminal act. What does that mean? “It means the ability after repeat offenses to kick someone off an ISP,” which he likens to a store not calling the police when someone shoplifts, but having a security guard drag you back in the premises. “My point is there was we don’t have cops stationed at every drug store in America, but there are security people there and they’ve been deputized to catch people.”
But we would imagine even most film writers and bloggers can agree piracy is a bad thing that trickles down and hurts everyone. Look at the decimated music industry and publications that are hollow versions of their former selves (we won’t name names, but have been friends with many of these people and seen the magazines shrink into veritable leaflets as well as many people downsized; it’s been ugly). Anyhow, give it a watch and see what you think though his best, most salient thought might be, “culturally, if you don’t want stuff to suck, you should go pay to see it.”