Illegal Streaming of Movies

Some kid from the UK was running an illegal streaming site, called TV Shack, and he's in the process of being extradited so he can face trial in a US Court. Read about it here.

Now, that's fair enough. He broke numerous laws, probably lost the studios hundreds of thousands of dollars, and he profited through advertising.

So, he's the bad guy.

But watch what happens two years from now, when the studios make websites that look exactly like the illegal ones. Why? Because It's what the people want, and soon the studios will follow.

These kids who set up video sites are catering to what the people are demanding. The studios could do the same thing now -- cut prices and stream the films online. Give the public what they want.

That's what we learned from the music industry. The argument was "people just want to steal", but it wasn't true. People just wanted mp3's. And remember when they tried to stop music being on YouTube? They used to ban your account if you put a track online. Now they welcome it with a big advert on your video, because they found out how to monetize it.

I'm tired of this game. I'm tired of the crazy prices. When I was a teenager I saved up week after week to buy 'FRIENDS' on VHS. It was £19.99 per video. Each video had four episodes. I spent hundreds and hundreds.

And then the DVD'S came out, and they put eight episodes on a disc and a deleted scene or two. And we accepted it because the technology was better.

And then eventually they put it on a single box set, which cost a couple of hundred but now only costs £40.

But if I go on a website tonight and stream an episode because one of my DVDs won't play properly, I'm breaking the law?

Netflix just launched in the UK, streaming only, £5.99 a month. This kind of thing is the future, but right now their catalogue sucks, it's half-assed. Same goes for lovefilm.

But all the major broadcasters in the UK stream their programmes the next day online. And you can get them through your Xbox. Netflix is here from the USA and maybe someday we'll get Hulu.

The point is, everyone is coming up with answers, but the Studios sue the kids who supply them. But a year or two from now, they'll copy them. One way to look at the people behind these sites is as lawbreakers, but in my opinion, they're just leading the way. The studios will follow, right after they've put them all in jail.

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No Fantasy

We're locked in, numb. We don't love enough. We don't risk enough. We don't fight for things.

That's where films come in. They paint our lives in all the colours we don't quite see.

We were better when we were kids. That's why we keep watching. We know It's in us.

Maguire. Brockovich. The Tramp. Gump. They're us. We see ourselves. We see our dreams.

Maguire took the risk. Brockovich fought the man. The tramp kept his curiosity, and Gump talked to strangers. They're the us we wanna be. The us we pretend to be.

We don't talk when we sit next to each other on a bench. We don't take the risk. And we don't fight the man and the injustice he perpetuates, we just write tweets about it.

Films show us the road to our better selves. They're all the parts we keep locked up in our broken hearts and resentful minds. The world fucked us over, again and again. Didn't get the job, didn't get the girl, didn't get to change the world.

Films are not unrealistic. They're not fantasies. They're more real than the bullshit that leaves us at home, all alone, complaining about everything the world did wrong.

Watch your favourite movie and then take that feeling, that essence, that thing that resonates with you and use it in your life.

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No Movie Kid

I'm not really watching any films at the moment. It's not like I don't have the time, I do, but with that time - the things I am doing are not watching movies. I don't even have an interest in going to the cinema.

I think I'm different to most of my film-obsessed friends in this way. I am able to let go of it sometimes. Not just let go, sometimes I'm not interested. I guess I need a break; sometimes when you watch six films when you have a free day, that can't be totally good for you!

What's happening more as I get older (wow, I've started saying 'as I get older.' Don't expect wisdom) is that I don't identify with my interests so much. Sure, I love Charlie Chaplin, but I can not react when somebody says something incorrect about him, I can listen and enjoy that someone thinks 'Mamma Mia' is amazing without needing to rip it to pieces. I am able to have people say "You are not a real film fan if you don't watch movies every day!" They could be wrong, they could be right -- it doesn't really matter. I'm just living and breathing and creating and watching movies and not creating and not watching movies. Definitions like film geek, film fan, film snob, etc, they're just labels right?

Sometimes it's really freeing. I remember when I was younger, and there was a film I hadn't seen -- someone would say, "have you seen Léon?" and if I hadn't, I'd feel like a failure, like I didn't know films, like they'd think less of me if I hadn't. I still sometimes feel that impulse now when someone says "Did you love Inception? Did you? Did you understand it?" - I could feel completely diminished by their superiority. Except, they don't have any superiority. It's just a movie. Maybe you got it. Maybe you didn't. It doesn't matter.

The term 'Kid In The Front Row' was, I figured, just a cool term about being like a kid who loves movies. But the more I grow into the blog, the more I feel like it's about an attitude, a way of approaching films. And it's about doing it on your own terms. About how you really feel. On a simple level, it's about watching 'Mamma Mia' nine times in four days if you want to, it's about watching Jimmy Stewart with a loved one at 2am and feeling the world is fucking fantastic. But it's also about not watching movies. It's about loving movies, not about loving that you love movies, or loving that people think you love movies.

Essentially, movies are just movies. They're things that capture life, and inspire life, but they aren't life. And if they are, they're one minuscule part of it. Right now, I have nothing to say about movies and I'm loving every second of it.

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It's Time For More Diversity In The Movies

I'm a white guy, and I tend to write movies about white people, who are about my age, who have names like Darren and Amy. And their problems are love and work and not loving work. And that's fine. But the problem is, often - all the other films are like this too.

It's not that I'm in to all this equality stuff in the sense that every film should have every ethnicity and gender and sexual orientation represented in equal measure (although that would be a fascinating experience!) but I am just aware that life is such a rich and complex experience and we all delve into the depths of our differences and culture every single day. Even if you live in an area lacking in diversity, that's still an experience relating to diversity. So there is so much to delve into!

But it's also time to move beyond mere diversity issues and stereotypes. As much as I love a good movie about black and white people hating each other before learning life lessons, and as much as I enjoy that every gay character in the movies has a high pitched voice and funny walk - I really think it's time to move beyond that. And before anyone says "but we have moved beyond that, I have five examples," that's exactly my point! You have five examples. But if I asked for examples of white rich Americans falling in love in New York, your examples would be unlimited. It's time to burst through whatever invisible strange barrier it is that keeps us writing the same shit over and over.

How about a disabled character whose story is about a challenge in life other than his or her disability? How about a character who is gay but that isn't part of their story, just like being straight isn't always the key part of a story? How about more films with women; films where being beautiful isn't a pre-requisite, films where women get cast in roles that aren't sexy or 'playing the guy's role' but are instead, like life - just struggles and events and ideas and emotions and action.

I dream of a world where we aren't able to 'give examples' of diversity in movies or able to make a list of films where disabled people aren't stereotyped, because instead I'd like it to be the norm. I am as guilty of this as anyone. But I am starting to see the bigger picture, and feel inspired by how different we are; we're all different colors, we have different ideas, we're fucked up in different ways, we're the same in many ways, some of our bodies work and some of them don't, some of us are good and some of us are oppressors and some of us haven't got a clue what's going on -- but how exciting! Surely exploring these differences is going to be more rewarding and fascinating and exciting and original than another Ryan Reynolds rom-com or a medium-budget drama with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner.

When you approach writing your next project, or begin casting your next movie -- have a think, what could you do differently? Might it be more interesting? Might it be more truthful? Just a thought!

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Film Scraps.

This morning I watched twenty minutes of HIGH FIDELITY. A few days back I watched about half of SOME LIKE IT HOT. Earlier in the week I watched six minutes of an episode of ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE and I even watched all of IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS apart from the last fifteen minutes. I never plan to do this -- and of course, many of you will be like "Dude, I'm like-- oh my god, what the hell? You're meant to be a film dude but real film dudes watch all of each film dude what the hell dude, really, what the hell?"
And of course, I agree. I never plan to not watch all of a film. I'm not really sure what happens, or why it happens. There are two factors that I can think of. One, my attention always drifts. Maybe I have Attention Deficit Disorder; but unfortunately it wasn't invented back when I was a kid, so I never had it. My mind drifts. Sometimes it's thinking about girls, "oooh, I wonder what Mandy Frumpton looks like naked." Sometimes, it's more creative thinking, like "oooh, I wonder if I creep down Brownhurst Avenue late at night, maybe I could sneakily see Mandy Frumpton naked." Sometimes my mind just drifts off and dreams of nonsensical things, like "ooh, I wonder if I asked Mandy out, and she said no, maybe I'd bump into her in the store, and she'd be buying beans, but they'd have no beans, and I'd steal some cheese. I'd steal the cheese and everyone would be running after me...." Then I snap back. I missed a bit of dialogue from the movie I'm watching. I get grumpy. Then I go for a pee. Then there's someone at the door. It's Mandy, she says to stop fantasising about her because she's trying to get some work done. Then I get a phone call. Then I come back to the movie but I quickly check my emails, and there's an email from a disgruntled blog reader saying "Your blogs are crap man! Don't you ever blog about important film stuff!?" and I say, "I do. Didn't you read the one about Mandy Frumpton?" and then I start the movie again-- but now I've lost it. Or rather, the film has lost it. Lost its flow. I decide to make a cup of tea then come back to it.

The problem that happens when I come back to it is part of the bigger problem. Namely that, my moods swing erratically when it comes to movie watching. I really have to be in the mood to watch a film. Often, when I stare at my DVD's, wondering what to watch; it's not so much about what is a good movie but 'what is it that I need?'. I need the drug of film, and I need the right prescription. For example, the other day; I was in a flighty, happy, Billy-Wilder-is-God mood, so I put in SOME LIKE IT HOT. But as it was playing, I got a great idea for a film. I paused the DVD and began frantically writing. Twenty minutes later I realized my idea; about two men who dress as women to make some money and avoid criminals was hardly original. I shut down my laptop and returned to the movie. But now I was angry at myself for starting a crap script, and this comedy nonsense was clearly not what I wanted to be watching.

This morning, I was in the mood for HIGH FIDELITY. I'd been avoiding it for about four years-- ever since I lent it to a girl called Gemma who decided to let her cat have a three hour disco on the data side of the disc (I can only assume). I decided to risk it, hoping the disc would work. It did, and the film was good. Just as I remembered, scenes in order and everything. But after a short break because of a work matter, I couldn't get back into the movie. I've seen it a heap of times, and it's slow and predictable and blah de blah, la la. I won't be going back to it any time soon.

I have these scraps of movies everywhere. It can't be good for me to be watching random bits and pieces of films. Am I the only person who does this? I suspect you are all good film-people who would never ever even pause a film or even stop for fires, but maybe someone can relate.

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