Losing The Piracy PR Battle
As a rare treat this weekend I found the time to take not only my wife to a night out at the movies Friday night, but the kids as well tonight. To spare the gory details of the movies American Wedding was great. Spy Kids III made me wish for Rocky XIV.
Anyhow, back to the topic at hand. It appears the MPAA has decided to try to take the battle to the mostly clueless public during the previews/commercials.
Now it not bad enough that I've paid $8 a ticket, plus whatever to have to sit through 16 minutes (yes, I timed it) minutes of commercial, commercial, commercial, preview, preview, preview, standard theatre warnings, preview, preview. Now, I need to hear about how Mr. Set Painter is really being hurt by the possible piracy of "his" art. Just as it was the hot dog vendor's "art" that he fed to the prissy starlet. The comment I loved was this...
"...the effect on the producers, I think is miniscule compared to what effect it has on me..."
Now c'mon. I'm pretty sure that Mr. Set Painter isn't getting a take of the gross. If he is, I'm sure it isn't anything to get excited over. So I did some digging and guess what, these guys make an hourly wage. Probably isn't tied in at all to what the film makes. And I don't think ANY union on the planet would dare want to have pay tied to a company's performance, especially when it could be a really BAD performance.
I guess the MPAA really does miss it. Because in the two airings of that promo, there were two reactions. In American Wedding, it was a bunch of laughs from the "barely over 18" audience. In Spy Kids 3 it was dead silence. What did that mean? I'm sure in American Wedding it meant "Umm, aren't we ALREADY in the theater PAYING for the movie?". In Spy Kids 3, it probably meant "Does this mean we can't see 'Pirates of the Carribean'?".
Mr. Set Painter, I really do feel for you. Because it isn't piracy that isn't going to put you out of a job. It's a green screen that will.
Comments
INTERNET MOVIE PIRACY
Recently released in the movie theaters across the United States and Canada, is an interview with Local 729 member, Brother David Goldstein. Brother Goldstein was interviewed on the issue of “internet movie piracy”. Since this has been released, Local 729 has received numerous telephone calls asking the question: “How does this affect me, the painter on construction”? Through contract negotiations over the years it had been agreed that any movie that was made under the “IA” banner, prior to 1960, and was sold or rented, a percentage would be paid into the Motion Picture Industry Pension, Health and IAP accounts. They call this “Post 60's”. In addition, everything that was made after 1960, and was rented or bought, a percentage would be paid into those same accounts. This is called the “Supplemental Market”. So, every time a video is downloaded from the internet illegally, those monies do not go into those accounts. These accounts receive millions of dollars a year and help to fund our Pension, Health, and IAP plans. For a detailed breakdown of those percentages and how they are calculated, you can contact the union office for a copy of the “Agreement of Consent-Producer-IATSE.”
Posted by: sankofa | December 8, 2003 10:11 PM