While the idealistic experience of attending the cinema - that is, seeing the film on the big screen, with Dolby Digital Surround Sound, and in 3D when possible - with friends is a nice one, it's quickly flattened by the undisciplined teenagers sitting around you, commenting on everything that happens in the film, or sometimes just gas-bagging about nothing in particular, and ruining the entire experience. I have even seen, over the past few years, children, with their parents present, sitting as casually in the seats and aisles as if it was their own living room!
Over the past few years, however, I have noticed the sound being played at an almost deafening volume, which I believe is in an attempt to drown out the noise of people sitting near you, who you care not to hear.
Also, TVs being what they are these days, it's getting easier an easier to have a close-cinema-experience at home, which leads me to my next point:
What I wanna watch, when and where I wanna watch it.
At home, a user can watch a film in the leisure and comfort of their own living room, with little to no disturbance from outside sources.
At home, the user doesn't have to conform to the time that best suits the cinema to run any given film, and can watch any given film from their collection at a time of their choosing.
ONLY IN CINEMAS
Many a film today is promoted with the phrase Only in Cinemas at the end of the trailer, indicating that the film will not be available to purchase on DVD/Blu-Ray until a few good months until after its run its course at the cinemas.
However, all it takes is one person, with one camera to make bootleg or "cam" copy of the film to distribute the media to various online sources, thus making the line Only in Cinemas a mute point. Again, this goes back to the What I wanna watch, when and where I wanna watch it. (Not when or where the industry want me to watch it)
Hollywood attempting to combat this with 3D will only go so far, given that 3D is now becoming a more and more common place thing in ordinary people's homes.
As for legal downloading ~
A brand new DVD/Blu-Ray will cost around thirty dollars ($30AUD) give or take, and what most people don't realise is what they're actually paying for, the smallest amount of which would be for the film itself. The rest of that money is for the manufacturing of the plastic cases; the glossy covers; the plastic discs, and the printing of the films onto those plastic disc. When it comes to legal downloading, all of that is done away with, and the user has only the file to download.
There are many users, I know, who are content just to have a film, for the sake of having and watching the film, but I am one of the, perhaps few, who actually enjoy the additional content on discs such as Audio Commentary, Making Ofs, and Interviews with Cast & Crew, yet no legal movie download sites, of that I am aware, offer the download of a complete DVD or Blu-Ray, leaving the user with only a film to watch.
World Famous Across America!
Another thing with most, if not all, of these legal movie download sites, is that they seem to feature only English-language films, and only American ones at that. As a genuine movie buff - that is someone whose happy to watch almost any kind of film, in any language, from any era - it's not surprising to me that people will download films illegally, having, at times, that being the only way to acquire a copy of a movie they've been longing to see.
Hollywood, if you really want to combat illegal movie downloading, you should endeavor to create an easy to browse, legal movie download site that contains the following (in no particular order):
- An international selection of titles, both old and new (including 3D titles)
- The ability to download a file as if it was a store-bought DVD or Blu-Ray, extras and all.
- Unlimited downloads that can be kept forever
- Reasonable Prices
- Pay-per-film/Membership fee.
Signing off,
Ian/ZetaCron
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