Spielberg foresees 'implosion' of film industry

[purbeast0]

His basement stereo system can very well sound better. The theater has to spend an insane amount of money to scale up the sound to a massive room. Gigantic amps, gigantic speakers (and more speakers to cover the area), huge screen and projector. And you got the premium cost of so few being made for a theater size venue. Sound and visuals don't like to scale up either, so you can have quality loss all around. Iv'e heard many many home systems that sound and look much better than theaters.

dude don't even bother, it's not worth the effort.

 

[T9D]

It's getting cheaper and cheaper to do CGI. although still very expensive it's getting more streamlined. It's like the music industry. We now have many artists doing it all online and with their own recording studios. In the future we'll have way more options as more and more people are able to make their own movies.

At some point it will be possible to have all CGI characters and not tell the difference. The software will all be automated. No high paid actors if you want. Just make an Actor. Type in the words for his lines and he speaks them, draw a line where he goes and it does it automatically, type in a few commands and actions and it does it. All the cities and trees and things will be in a CGI database to place where you want.

Yeah that's a ways off but it's coming. But yeah if the general public gets a hold of tools like that Hollywood won't be able to compete with it's bloated expenses and union wages and restrictions. But we'll have way more content than we could dream about. Instead of a release in theaters we'll go to youtube and pay a small fee to watch some amazing small company of a few people who made a professional full length movie we can watch in our homes.

 

[JimKiler]

Spielberg is wrong. The growing international markets have actually made it less risky to release big budget films. Even films that bomb domestically will often recoup enough money in foreign to greatly soften the blow to the studio relative to what would have happened a decade ago. Because of this the major studios are more apt to green light films that will appeal to the global box office. India really doesn't give a shit about seeing Lincoln or Red Tails.

Other distribution platforms like cable and online have been picking up the slack in the art market for a number of years now, this isn't a new phenomenon. The niche films that he's talking about can still be made and he is one of the few people in a position to actually put his money where his mouth is. I kind of find it disingenuous to bemoan the state of the industry and bitch about having trouble getting your film out when you're a billionaire studio owner. Dreamworks has also been responsible for a number of high profile/high budget bombs so this sounds more like sour grapes. Studios like Disney and Warners take their licks but move on to the next film and don't wallow in self pity.

Good point, lots of movies are bombs here but profitable after overseas total. What was hangover-ish movie about turning 21 earlier this year. The Chinese funded the movie and they added scenes to show the Chinese character going back to China at the end because us Americans are crazy.

 

[K1052]

Good point, lots of movies are bombs here but profitable after overseas total. What was hangover-ish movie about turning 21 earlier this year. The Chinese funded the movie and they added scenes to show the Chinese character going back to China at the end because us Americans are crazy.

I think last year's John Carter is a pretty good example. 300M budget (thereabouts anyway) tentpole film crashes and burns with a 75M domestic gross. Globally it rakes in $290M and racks up another $20M in domestic video sales. That's even before you figure online, PPV, and other TV based revenue.

So what would have been an epic, possibly studio crippling, bomb 10 years ago becomes slightly profitable.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

I know nothing.

FTFY

 

[zinfamous]

****ing video games have better stories and are better written than a lot of movies now. Movies are embarrassing. Its all terrible sequels (Transformers, Scary Movie, Taken 2 (LOL how bad was this movie?)) + anything with Vin Diesel in it... lol


Yeah, I'm gonna pay $25 to see 'masterpieces' like Avatar

well, if those are the only movies you guys are considering; then, yeah, I guess...

 

[SagaLore]

There's going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen megabudget movies are going to go crashing into the ground, and that's going to change the paradigm.

Will they all be his?

 

[Jeff7]

Fellow filmmaker George Lucas, on the panel with Spielberg, agreed with his assessment and said cable television is now "much more adventurous" than the movie industry. The pair both warned students that they are living in a time of great change for films and those who make them.

Lucas and Spielberg...the ones who decided to, respectively, introduce Jar-Jar Binks, and replace guns with walkie-talkies? One of them said that movies aren't being sufficiently adventurous?

That is probably # 1 reason I hate theaters. People are fucking annoying and inconsiderate.

And the volume is just absurdly loud, all the way down to very quiet. I was brought along to see Iron Man 3 a few weeks ago. There was just a simple ad at the start for some nature-oriented nonprofit organization. Good christ they really ratcheted the volume up just for that, for simple scenes of waterfalls and trees. Someone in the audience mockingly yelled, "Louder!!!"

Oh, and the previews at the start. They show so damn many previews, I shouldn't have to pay anything to watch the movie - their advertising department can pick up the tab.


Bleh. Give me DVDs, plus a software player that so kindly ignores the industry's dickish movie of adding "prohibited user operations." Mandatory advertising? Go to hell.




(I don't like obtrusive ads. )

 

[Meractik]

I guess the youth of today is dumbed-down even worse than I thought, they would probably find "Shawshank Redemption" a boring crappy film...

Shawshank Redemption is a great movie, first saw it when I was 16 and thought it was a great piece of work, still to this day I have to watch it for a bit when I see it on TV!

 

[mmntech]

Lucas and Spielberg...the ones who decided to, respectively, introduce Jar-Jar Binks, and replace guns with walkie-talkies? One of them said that movies aren't being sufficiently adventurous?

Spielberg did apologize for the walkie-talkies and made the theatrical cut available. Lucas on the other hand... :sneaky:

I'm sure the industry is itching raise ticket prices and looking for any excuse to do so. Hey, if the smart movies are cheaper, might actually get more people seeing them. That could end up being good for our culture.

 

[Cerb]

I guess the youth of today is dumbed-down even worse than I thought, they would probably find "Shawshank Redemption" a boring crappy film...

That statement raised my stress level.

That's kind of like saying my Polks sound better than your $6k speakers.....not REALLY.

But it is close enough (that's for sure) and definitely NOT worth the premium price.

You just validated my statement of "difference is MINIMAL at 10x-20x the cost".

Thanks

Most home theater setups should sound better. With a cheap EQ, a $30-50 meter, and some spare minutes, you should be able to handily beat the theater, where they've turned everything up after the THX or Dolby or whoeveritis' tech leaves for the year/quarter/whatever (and, that's assuming they designed each room right to begin with). The Star Wars re-release was the last time I actually heard good sound in a theater, and prior to that, audio sucked, too (I'm sure Lucas' guys were being quite the assholes about making sure that was done right ).

 

[DrPizza]

Not only does that cost money (staffing) I am willing to bet its not worth it to the movie theater to cause a scene and piss off some entitled asshole who thinks they should be able to do whatever they want where ever they want.

Sure there are those of us who get pissed off but I wonder if we are in the ever decreasing minority

You're in the ever decreasing minority who still go to theaters. The rest of us have, for the most part, almost quit going. Though, i do go to the drive-in theater about every other week. $6 for two movies??! I always wonder how big theaters always claim they barely make any profit at all from tickets - when their tickets cost at least three times as much. My local drive-in is just switching over to digital projection this weekend - so apparently they're doing good enough to even put capital back into their business. Must be from all the huge tubs of popcorn for $3.50.

 

[bradley]

Meanwhile he couldn't foresee Bernie Madoff stealing a good chunk of his fortune.

 

[Doppel]

I know probably less than 1% about movies compared to Spielburg, but that said, I know 0% compared to him about the effects of smoking crack cocaine, which is what he did when he said this.

We have more entertainment options than ever. He's mainlining and injecting heroine if he thinks people will pay a shit load more for less movies coming out. I won't, who would? Hell, there are TV shows now with budgets that match Hollywood's most expensive from only 10-15 years ago. Production quality of series like Game of Thrones is competitive with a lot of films.

You're in the ever decreasing minority who still go to theaters. The rest of us have, for the most part, almost quit going.

I am in this group, of course. However, is it because we're getting older? Did your parents go to many movies? Mine never did, it seems like it's always been something youngsters favor.

Given the fact a large TV and basic 5.1 surround system can be had now for peanuts it's amazing people still see movies in theater. There is mainly one reason: impatience. They come out months earlier and people (particularly young) are just too impatient. Is the experience really much better? No. Hollywood would cannibalize their theater sales if they released movies to blu-ray on the same day.

Movies are hellaciously expensive for those who want to get food and pay for a baby sitter, but I guess they always have been:

http://tlevier.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/movie-ticket-inflation1.jpg

I do believe the future is opposed to the theater model. In time, theaters will likely be the laughable anachronisms that movie rental stores have recently become. Our grand kids will listen in awe as we tell them how we used to get in the car and drive somewhere and sit with strangers in uncomfortable chairs to watch movies because there was no other way to do it.

 

[Jeff7]

...
I do believe the future is opposed to the theater model. In time, theaters will likely be the laughable anachronisms that movie rental stores have recently become. Our grand kids will listen in awe as we tell them how we used to get in the car and drive somewhere and sit with strangers in uncomfortable chairs to watch movies because there was no other way to do it.

And I think a big reason that theaters exist is simply because, historically, they needed to. If you wanted entertainment, you would either hire a private entertainer for a premium fee, or you would have to go somewhere so that economies of scale would make it cheap enough to afford, where a crowd could all benefit from one source of entertainment. Now that you can get that entertainment in the comfort of your own home, from a person who might not even be alive anymore, recorded a long time ago, in a studio far, far away, the ancient theater setting just has no purpose.
Unless you're one of those social sorts, who likes to have other people around.

 

[HeXen]

From the blog: "The pathway to get into theaters is really getting smaller and smaller," Lucas said."

Of course, with LCD sets spiraling down in price and blu-ray playback, the future of movies might just be direct to consumer, the traditional theater might go the way of the drive-in..

I suspected this as well when gradually the price of popcorn and watered down Coke costs went up to almost $20.
I go to the theater about once a year now and Netflix is certainly awful convenient but certainly what I consider a classic movie theater in terms of aesthetics..etc no longer exists. Now I just walk into a large square building that lacks much of any theme normally associated to a theater, at least the fancy ones I remember though i'm sure they exist in some cities.

Tv's now are huge and much cheaper as are audio systems. There really isn't a need for such anymore.

 

[jagec]

When you step back and look at it though, how stupid is that? The computers are doing most of the work, and a lot of the CG animation is way over the top. It almost seems like hand-drawing would be cheaper (and perhaps more memorable).

Umm...where do you think the content that the computers are rendering comes from?

Have you SEEN how many digital artists are involved in a big-budget CGI film?

I mean, sure, some college kid can easily use off-the-shelf models and basic textures to tell a decent story, but for the legit, I-can't-believe-it's-not-butter feature-length CGI that we are enjoying today, it takes thousands upon thousands of hours of work to set everything up, and THEN it is shuffled off to the supercomputers for rendering.

Now, it being over the top I can agree with.

 

[HeXen]

Umm...where do you think the content that the computers are rendering comes from?

Have you SEEN how many digital artists are involved in a big-budget CGI film?

I mean, sure, some college kid can easily use off-the-shelf models and basic textures to tell a decent story, but for the legit, I-can't-believe-it's-not-butter feature-length CGI that we are enjoying today, it takes thousands upon thousands of hours of work to set everything up, and THEN it is shuffled off to the supercomputers for rendering.

Now, it being over the top I can agree with.

I dunno, that youtube video of those giant robots walking through the ocean with the jets attacking looked almost as good as Transformers and apparently done by one guy.

 

[Malak]

I guess the youth of today is dumbed-down even worse than I thought, they would probably find "Shawshank Redemption" a boring crappy film...

It has nothing to do with that. It's just the idea of going to a theater is only tempting if there are amazing audio and visual experiences. I've got books if I want a story.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I haven't been to the public theater in almost a decade. I've learned to be patient, built a home theater, and avoid the asshats in the public spaces. Now this is considered to be just one of the industry's problems. The other is any asshat can make a [so called] movie these days.

 

[biostud]

There's huge lack of good suspense, thriller and crime stories, which really can't be that expensive to produce.

Good is the keyword here.

 

[HeXen]

There's huge lack of good suspense, thriller and crime stories, which really can't be that expensive to produce.

Good is the keyword here.

I agree, In the past 5 years or so, I started watching a lot more of the old black n white films which to me seem to far surpass most every newer movie made. The social interaction and dialogue between characters in those old films are amazing and more believable along with the characters themselves...very tired of the large boobs college girl stuff in most every movie these days.

 

[Murloc]

I guess the youth of today is dumbed-down even worse than I thought, they would probably find "Shawshank Redemption" a boring crappy film...

The youth actually watch movies like shawshank redemption and such, the issue is that those movies are not in the theaters so no one is making money.

Also I already have to pay 25$ to see 3D movies. That's why I never go.

 

[MikeyLSU]

one thing that keeps it going, that many are forgetting.

Yes it is easy to get a home setup for not very expensive, I used to have a decent one, then I had kids.

With 2 young ones in the house, I can't turn the volume up loud at all. So while I still have a nice TV, I do lose some of the entertainment(especially big blockbusters) of the audio.

Now, if I could have my sound as loud as I wanted when I watch a movie, I would prefer to stay home, but I can't.
I think the same applies to kids.
#1 they want to leave the house, movies are a simple solution
#2 they can't watch loud movies in their house(for most families)
#3 it is so engrained in society that going to movies is an event/date that it will take a while to ever go away.

 

[JamesV]

The problem with these 'old' directors, is they are still trying to force the movie experience into what they had as a kid, and they don't see any other way, because they are blinded by their own self importance. A movie isn't a movie unless it's at a theater and you are buying popcorn.

$25 movie tickets? What the industry needs to do is offer home viewing at the same time as release in theaters for a premium, and then they might get their $25.

Superman is out now, and is $12 at my local theater. Not interested in going, I'll wait until it's on Netflix. But... if I could pay $15 now to watch it at home for three days, I just might do it.