I just read this "Dear Hollywood" letter by Ken Womack on The Morning News. It reminded me that I was going to comment on the very same thing.
I've seen this two minute commercial a couple of times now, nestled in between the previews before whatever film I'm about to see. It features a guy who works on Hollywood productions, but he's one of the accessory people, not a producer or director.
The commercial paints him to be a hard working American who is just trying to make his way in the world like the rest of us, and the message of the commercial is that movie piracy hurts him more than it hurts the Hollywood bigwigs.
Peripheral employees of the movie business, this hard working citizen just trying to keep a roof over his head, have you figured it out yet? He's union. This man is not going to make any less money than he's already making, and as Womack points out, he's probably not going to get fired, because they need him. Sure as hell ain't gonna be Jerry Bruckheimer painting movie sets when the loss of revenue due to piracy hollows out a small cave in the Hollywood money heap.
What I find to be most striking about the commercial is that they are showing it to paying movie audiences like myself. Frankly, I didn't even know movie piracy was something of a concern. Certainly not like the highly publicized piracy of the music industry. But I am paying to see this commercial about how I should not pirate movies? I don't get it. Haven't they missed their audience?
Sep.18.03 at 8:32 PM
drjuju writes:
And you know what chaps the hell outta me about that? Is that 80% of the movies traded on P2P networks originated with an insider leak. WHAT HYPOCRITES.
Source: http://www.cd-rw.org/news/archive/4480.cfm
tim writes:
You know what bothers me? It more than likely tells people, shit you paid for this? what's wrong with you?
All these other people are watching the movie for free and without trailers/commercials!
And yeah, piracy isn't hurting the little guy. It's hurting the big guys with the deep pockets.
Mom writes:
And while they're busy bemoaning the loss of revenue to piracy, they are also taking their productions out of the US for cheaper labor (most likely non-union) in other countries.
Unfortunatelly, the same motivation runs this pack as pro sports--GREED.
tim writes:
actually productions are coming back to the US, at least the one's that were going for Anytown, USA (and by that I mean Vancouver, Canada)
Apparently costs for productions outside the US are on the rise so they are bringing them back home.
phil writes:
The best part is...almost all of the movies available on p2p networks are mislabeled. There are a shitload of copies of Rush Hour 2 out there.
"Wow, I didn't know Jackie Chan was in Memento..."
kris writes:
maybe the tactic is to annoy paying audiences enough so that they go out and beat up all the filesharers so that they don't have to endure any more sob stories before their films.
On a similar note, maybe they could use RFID technology to see if the majority of the audience had bought a Coke from concessions, and if so, they would skip the damn "Footballtown, USA" ads. I might actually pay 3 bucks if i got a soda AND didn't have to sit through another ad.
Dave writes:
I used to feel a bit put off by those damned stupid LA Times commercials where some jackass would talk about "The physics is right here, man... it's gonna work."
But that piracy ad just left my ass feeling sore. It scares me just a little that those jerkasses think the public is going to buy the "Piracy hurts the little guy" line... what scares me even more is that the public isn't smart enough not to buy it.
kris writes:
There's a separation in the industry between the "creatives / execs" and the "common working guys." They call this, in true classist fashion "above the line" and "below the line."
Our friend the carpenter, being below the line, gets paid a wage, does his work, and goes on to the next gig. He makes no royalties, and gets the same money whether the movie shows once or a million times. So unless the execs hatch a brilliant plan to fight piracy by ceasing to produce movies, then I fail to see how this guy is going to be affected.
The truth is that piracy DOES hurt the million dollar guys much more than anyone else. If they choose to take it out on the little guys, then who's fault is that?
Dan writes:
It's obvious that the way to stop piracy is to endear yourself to your customers by sueing a bunch of them!
Athena writes:
Right on. :) I could waste my breath reiterating what everyone else said...but it's all been covered. :)