While most of the interviews and discussion surrounding Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One” centers on the nostalgia the film lovingly wears on its sleeve, that’s not the only thing Spielberg is interested in talking about. Specifically, in an interview with ITV news, the filmmaker has thoughts on a variety of topics, including virtual reality, Netflix, and the current studio system. Particularly, Spielberg has some concerns about the streaming services and their effect on the film industry and awards ceremonies.
Clearly, the easy question is to ask the legendary director about virtual reality, since it plays such a large role in his upcoming film. Surprisingly, Spielberg doesn’t see VR as a future evolution in filmmaking. At least, not yet.
“It’s not a medium for narrative storytelling,” says the director. “The director can’t get people, who are in the experience to pay enough attention. We’re always roaming and looking around at everything available to be seen.”
“I don’t think VR will be competitive with the motion picture theater experience,” he continued.
You see, for Spielberg, it’s all about the theater experience. With the emergence of technologies like VR, and the abundance of quality on streaming services, the director is worried about the future of films. Particularly, with how he sees studios moving forward, in the age of SVOD.
“A lot of studios today would rather just make branded, tentpole, guaranteed box office hits from their inventory of branded successful movies than take chances on smaller films. Those smaller films that studios used make routinely are now going to Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix,” says Spielberg. “Television is really thriving with quality and art. But it poses a clear and present danger to film goers.”
That last bit of the quote is really important. You can read that as Spielberg talking about the amazing work being done on TV series today, but what he’s really talking about is a clear distinction in his mind. TV is different than film. And in his mind, TV doesn’t just mean the networks and television series. No, he lumps Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon in as “TV.”
Not only does Spielberg believe that streaming services are just another method of watching TV, but he thinks that the films that are being shown on these services aren’t true films, but rather, TV movies.
“But in fact, once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie. You certainly, if it’s a good show, deserve an Emmy, but not an Oscar,” the filmmaker clarified. “I don’t believe the films that are just given token qualifications in a couple of theaters for less than a week should qualify for the Academy Award nomination.”
This is a topic that has been discussed quite a bit in the last year. Some awards bodies have said that films from Netflix and its streaming ilk should be forced to have legit theater runs, while Netflix has spoken out quite a bit against this idea. Netflix believes that they’re another movie studio, like Warner Bros., Universal, and Disney, however they just have a different distribution model.
While Spielberg doesn’t have any direct power to make change with these rules, in regards to awards consideration, he definitely holds some significant influence. It’ll be interesting to see if, and when, changes to the rules get made.