New Freeman flic to go online
p2pnet.net News:- Film studios “were a little slow on the uptake of the inevitable” and music producers, “wound up suing 12-year-olds,” said actor Morgan Freeman back in early 2004.
But he wasn’t going to fall into that trap and his Revelations Entertainment would release a movie online at the same time it opened in cinemas, he said.
Freeman has not, however, quite lived up to his promise.
His 10 Items or Less, slated to open in theaters today, will be also available for digital download from Clickstar, “a company that Morgan Freeman’s production company and Intel have founded to bring small movies to those who live far from boutique cinemas,” says Associated Press.
But that won’t happen today. Instead, it’ll be two weeks down the road.
“Last year, Steven Soderbergh released the indie ‘Bubble’ across three platforms over just five days: in theaters, on the high-definition cable channel HDNet and on DVD,” says AP.
Working with Soderbergh was Mark Cuban who last year told p2pnet he and Todd Wagner’s 2929 Entertainment company, and Soderbergh, would use p2p as a distribution vehicle in their then new joint venture.
“They plan to make digital movies for simultaneous release on tv, in cinemas and on DVD,” and the files would also be available online, Cuban told p2pnet. “We’ll deliver most likely from sites like Movielink and CinemaNow, and we’ll charge a price that’s more expensive on release date and then come down in price in what would be normal release windows.”
He went on, “We’re delivery agnostic,” and a movie made under the venture with Soderbergh would be be available from Day One, “however people want to get it”.
But that didn’t happen either.
Freeman, meanwhile, believes, “the risk of piracy with DVDs is too great (especially in foreign countries) and that coded downloads present a safer avenue for distribution,” says AP, going on, “It also helps level the playing field between independent productions and the studios.”
As p2pnet has often said, where counterfeiters (aka pirates) use the billions of physical entertainment cartel discs as templates, they’d have a considerably harder job trying to sell a non-physical digital file on a blackmarket. We’ve also suggested that if the studios were to use p2p technologies as delivery systems, there’d be concomitant benefits such as savings in print, marketing, storage, distribution, and advertising and other costs.
“You can come up with money sometimes to make a film, but you can’t distribute it because it costs a lot to get prints and advertising,” Freeman says.
Meanwhile, “Both Freeman and Silberling think Hollywood doomsayers will be proven wrong on Internet distribution in the same way that fears of TV, the VHS and DVDs all (to a certain extent) turned out to be exaggerated,” says AP, adding:
“They believe digital downloads present the future of home entertainment and expect it to spread prominently within a few years.”
Also See:
early 2004 – Freeman to launch movie onlinee, January 8, 2004
Associated Press – Morgan Freeman to release new film online two weeks after theater opening, November 30, 2006
p2p as a distribution vehicle – Cuban / Soderbergh p2p move, May 1, 2005
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December 1st, 2006 at 8:46 pm
That’s all fine to put it out on line. However it isn’t worth buying at the prices they seem to think they should get. What actually are you paying this price for? To be the first to see it? You certainly aren’t paying to own it. Maybe in this manner it is quicker to get out but it still isn’t showing a price reflection in cheaper delivery.
Why is it cheaper? Well there’s no army across the nation of attendants to see you have your popcorn, super screen, super sound set up, nor building costs. Building costs have to be added for everything from rent to seeing that the structure meets fire codes, doesn’t allow cell phones to work, or meets national safety codes for the disabled. Again this looks to be plain out price gouging and greed at work.
Here again the specter of p2p for distribution pops up as the very cheapest way to get it out. Wanna bet if it does become a distribution vehicle that they’ll want to charge the same price for your assistance and use of your own bandwidth? This isn’t going to float anymore than paying the same price for the download as for the theater experience.
Freeman is seeing that if he can get his own distribution channel going he can cut out some of the expense of getting to the customer, line his own pocket before p2p cuts the money channel, and pocket a little extra by being his own delivery service. Nothing wrong in that other than again, there is no reflection to the customer of those savings being passed on. The customer is once again viewed as the cash cow and everything is fair that fleeces that cow. Only thing in argument here appears to be which way the money should flow, not the quality, not passing on a bit of the savings to the customer reflected in the true cost savings being done virtually.
I think that most can agree that Freeman has a good bedside manner when it comes to the movie presence for an actor. What I don’t see is value for the money if that cost is going to up there with the price for theater tickets.