Sunday night at the Golden Globes, Jeff Bridges won Best Actor for his performance in CRAZY HEART. In other words, Sunday night at the Golden Globes, George Clooney did not win Best Actor for his performance in UP IN THE AIR.
John brings up a crucial discussion that is taking place throughout the entertainment industry between artists, producers, owners, distributors and consumers. There are many elements to the digital rights debate, but they boil down to two basic areas of contention: morality (as determined by law) and economics (as determined by self-interest).
John has suggested that the morality of so-called piracy has to do with the taker’s intention. “Am I trying to defraud the artist by copying this DVD?” Well, of course I’m not. I am trying to watch a movie for free, and I don’t know (or care) who gets burned. Most movies today are licensed for exclusive exploitation by studio distributors “in any and all media now known or hereafter devised throughout the universe in perpetuity,” etc, etc. So for all intents and purposes the artists are not the owners of their work (and they can afford to be ambivalent): the studio takes the hit. I won’t waste my tears on the fat cats, but stealing from Wal-Mart is still stealing. Let’s face it, the kid using bit torrent to download X-MEN on Pirate Bay is no Robin Hood.
The economic arguments are much more intriguing to me. Given that public self-esteem now accommodates piracy in the broad daylight of mainstream, how does this effect the production and distribution of good movies? Adversely. Distributors (who hold the purse-strings) are now only greenlighting films that will make a big opening-weekend boxoffice. Piracy is undercutting long theatrical runs (because the films leak early), and simply gutting the DVD market. And what kind of films slam-dunk opening weekend? Franchises and genre pictures. The veritable junk food of cinema. And don’t get me wrong, I love junk food as much as the next guy– but we can’t live on it.
My forecast has one similarity to John’s: the theater screening experience has to kick up its appeal. But I also predict that encryption technology and piracy-prevention will gain traction; compression technology will advance and consumers will begin to pay for access to streaming films (like Netflix‘s very successful online feature); the concept of owning a personal copy of a film will fade out and communal streaming libraries will fade in; piracy advocates will lose a few key legal battles and die slowly.
Even junk food costs money to produce, and there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Get it?
Among the leading production companies Mandate Pictures is unique. It combines spunky, independent fare with commercially solid genre films. The company was founded in 2005 by Joseph Drake (CEO), supported by the prolific executive-producer Nathan Kahane (President), and is now under the creative guidance of Nicole Brown (SVP Production).
Since its birth the indie studio has made its business producing some of the smartest mainstream movies in decades with the likes of STRANGER THAN FICTION and JUNO. The company has hedged the inherent risk of these non-genre films with a number of solid horrors from cult-favorite Sam Raimi by pairing with his Ghost House Pictures. Among those are THE GRUDGE 2, THE MESSENGERS, THE STRANGERS and the recent DRAG ME TO HELL. Mandate has also dipped into broader fare with the family film MR. MAGORIUM’S WONDER EMPORIUM, the broad comedy HAROLD AND KUMAR 2 and the emo darling NICK AND NORA’S INFINITE PLAYLIST.
Mandate’s upcoming releases include Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, WHIP IT, a dramedy starring indie wunderkind Ellen Page (JUNO) and THE BASTER, a neo-romcom starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman (ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, JUNO). Mandate is currently in production with the thriller PEACOCK (another vehicle for the Oscar-nominated Ellen Page). There are also a number of noteworthy projects on the Mandate development slate, the most interesting of which are JAY AND SETH VS. THE APOCALYPSE and I’M WITH CANCER (Seth Rogan attached to both).
Mandate was acquired by Lionsgate in 2007, and since then has grown more than 500% (according to The Hollywood Reporter), helping to buoy the studio in its hour of need. Mandate is located in Santa Monica.
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