The Cloverfield experience

I was looking past Friday for a movie cu watch and I’ve found Cloverfield, a classic monster attack of New York, or at least that’s what the IMDB synopsis said, with the little amendment, what it was a movie trying to mimic the experience as viewed from the point of view of city’s inhabitants.

The movie was pretty short, at 85 movie with final credits, but the way was filmed was what impressed me. The whole movie was meant to be a cassette from a video camera of one of the New York inhabitants, nothing more, nothing less. I really loved the idea, even if the monster was pretty ugly (not Godzilla ugly, more like giant insect ugly).

Movie industry has to change

The movie made me think that after all the movie industry still has a chance if it adapts to present needs of the audience. The old business model of selling cinema tickets, television rights and DVD versions of a title seems so unsuited today. At least for me and my friends who love seeing movies on their own computers.

I would eagerly pay to see high quality movies on my PC if the price was right. By right I don’t mean 10-20 $ per title. If the movie industry doesn’t realize that people don’t want to pay 25$ to see a movie that potentially is very bad (look at IMDB ratings of recent titles, there are a lot with ratings under 4, even 3).

Southpark is now online

Movie industry has to change or else faces a slow and painfull death. Look at Southpark model, which now can be watched online for free, each and every episode. All you have to endure are little ads, like one seen on TV. I don’t mind them, as long as there aren’t 15 minutes breaks every hours (like it happens in Romania). Plus I get to see them whenever I want, I can see even older episodes, and newer ones right when they apper.

How is this affecting the industry? Well, I’m pretty sure that Southpark publishers will sell the series to other televisions at lower price, as the interest for a show that’s broadly available will be lower too. As for DVD versions I think only collectors will venture for now to buy them.

What can be done?

My take on this matter is pretty simple: make people with Internet access pay a small fee every month, which will be distributed to movie producers (also music industry can lay their hands on some of the money). The evident problem will be how you count the money, how you divide it.

I think I have a solution to this also: movies and music should be watched online for free, at no additional costs trough special websites, that include a counter to how many times the movie/videoclip was watched in a timeframe. Then it’s pretty easy to divide the money. Also additional money can be made by selling DVD’s or Blu ray disks with the higher quality video.

This is how the movie industry and music industry can stop complaining about people not wanting to pay a lot of money for bad products and prefer to see them for free (even it’s against the law).

What do you think? Do you have a better idea on how the movie/music industry can be saved? Feel free to let us know what you think and comment below.