Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 492 posts

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#91

Post by res0nat0r »

klodolph wrote: post #20
afavour wrote: post #13

The actual quote (with my emphasis added): > "The movie business *as before* is finished and will never come back." And I think that's correct. Superhero blockbusters taking over all box office receipts was one thing, but now those blockbusters are becoming deeply tied to streaming services like Disney+ that's bringing content into people's homes and away from movie theatres. I won't mourn movie theatres (though I ho…

TV shows have also gotten more prestigious, and so the people who would have been telling their stories as movies may be making TV shows instead. The article compares traditional movies to movies from streaming services, and I just think that’s avoiding the elephant in the room. The change started happening slowly in the late 1990s, but at this point I’d say that the change has happened and we’re in a golden age of t…

There are more amazing high budget TV series out now than I have time to keep up with. Many of them are foreign also. It went into overdrive after The Sopranos, so has been going steady for 20+ years.

Anyone complaining "nothing good" anymore just either have terrible taste, or don't know how to do simple searching for new content. Same for movies IMO. There are good films everywhere on almost all the streaming platforms too if you just look for them.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#92

Post by elmers-glue »

afavour wrote: post #13

The actual quote (with my emphasis added): > "The movie business *as before* is finished and will never come back." And I think that's correct. Superhero blockbusters taking over all box office receipts was one thing, but now those blockbusters are becoming deeply tied to streaming services like Disney+ that's bringing content into people's homes and away from movie theatres. I won't mourn movie theatres (though I ho…

> I don't want to have to watch three previous movies and two TV shows to fully enjoy the movie that's in front of me.

And then you still won't enjoy it, I promise you.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#93

Post by iNane9000 »

handrous wrote: post #23
afavour wrote: post #13

The actual quote (with my emphasis added): > "The movie business *as before* is finished and will never come back." And I think that's correct. Superhero blockbusters taking over all box office receipts was one thing, but now those blockbusters are becoming deeply tied to streaming services like Disney+ that's bringing content into people's homes and away from movie theatres. I won't mourn movie theatres (though I ho…

> I won't mourn movie theatres (though I hope places emulate the likes of Alamo Drafthouse and do dinner, drinks and let us make an evening out of watching a movie), but I do worry about things like movie financing. It feels the industry has split in two, either making super-expensive superhero blockbusters or super cheap indie films. I'm informed by my cinemaphile friend that exactly this phenomenon has been much re…

How do I find these movies? Amazon has some old, mostly low quality movies, but nothing good or recent. They got rid of the criterion collection years ago. Sincere question: How does one even find or acquire films today? I’d love to watch a movie, but literally don’t know how to go about it anymore. Netflix is not an answer as most of their content are not movies and basically spam to me.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#94

Post by okareaman »

I can understand most of Dillers complains but not this one:

"These streaming services have been making something that they call 'movies,' " he said. "They ain't movies. They are some weird algorithmic process that has created things that last 100 minutes or so."

I'd like to know why he disparages writers and directors who work on streaming movies this way and if it has any validity

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#95

Post by Flatcircle »

socialist_coder wrote: post #75

I think "Movies", as we remember them from the decades of yore, will have a resurgence in the near future due to 2 things: 1) The demand for movies outside of what the streaming services are making. 2) Most aspects of movie production go completely digital to bring costs down astronomically. The easiest way to embrace digital is to just make an animated movie that looks animated with some interesting cool art style /…

Also just the novelty of it, in a world where it went away for a bit.

If vinyl records can come back, Boutique films in a movie theater and maybe even rental stores can too.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#96

Post by exo-pla-net »

jbay808 wrote: post #70
iamacyborg wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on your home setup, a big screen and some big speakers go a long way

Living in an expensive area like Vancouver, a home theater might not be an option. Most of my friends rent a room in a sharehouse where they're not allowed to have guests, or where the TV is a communal area. Others live in basement suites with noise rules and can watch TV by themselves but not with friends. The theatre is much better for watching a movie with a group, unless you're very wealthy.

I managed a pretty good theater setup in a dorm room, using a projector, mounted speakers, and a pull down projection screen.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#97

Post by sosborn »

iNane9000 wrote: post #93
handrous wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I won't mourn movie theatres (though I hope places emulate the likes of Alamo Drafthouse and do dinner, drinks and let us make an evening out of watching a movie), but I do worry about things like movie financing. It feels the industry has split in two, either making super-expensive superhero blockbusters or super cheap indie films. I'm informed by my cinemaphile friend that exactly this phenomenon has been much re…

How do I find these movies? Amazon has some old, mostly low quality movies, but nothing good or recent. They got rid of the criterion collection years ago. Sincere question: How does one even find or acquire films today? I’d love to watch a movie, but literally don’t know how to go about it anymore. Netflix is not an answer as most of their content are not movies and basically spam to me.

Netflix has a tab to browse only movies.

Amazon does too. They usually have a handful of quality old movies (lots of junk too), but some of their originals are very good.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#98

Post by grawprog »

okareaman wrote: post #94

I can understand most of Dillers complains but not this one: "These streaming services have been making something that they call 'movies,' " he said. "They ain't movies. They are some weird algorithmic process that has created things that last 100 minutes or so." I'd like to know why he disparages writers and directors who work on streaming movies this way and if it has any validity

Possibly this?

https://blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com/en/the-entertainment-in...

https://tecreview.tec.mx/2021/04/26/en/how-to-make-a-blockbu...

>A team of scientists from the Spanish universities of Granada (UGR) and Cádiz (UCA) has designed the first computer system to help screenwriters write movie scripts that will do better at the box office, a model that makes use of artificial intelligence techniques to analyze the most successful clichés or tropes.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#99

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

I think this interview that gets at a broader point that I find depressing/scary: that the availability of so much data and analysis has ended up "quantizing" creative endeavors to the point where formulaic output is just much, much easier, and that any truly innovative or "misunderstood" productions become much harder to sustain.

I really see this issue everyone nowadays, from movies, TV and music to things like the Olympics. Two good examples: to fix problems with subjectivity and unfairness (which were definitely problems) both gymnastics and ice skating moved from 'fuzzier' 10.0 or 6.0 scales to a 'code of points' model where every element has a fixed value. The result has been that the types of competitors that can win in this model are only the ones that can do the most impressive spins/turns/jumps etc. I mean, I'd be willing to be that you will never again see a 2x "women's" olympic figure skating champion, because you have these young teenagers doing quads now (who almost always lose this ability as they age and develop), but who retire from the sport before they hit 20. These feats are surely impressive, but they also crowd out other types of competitors.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#100

Post by okareaman »

grawprog wrote: post #98
okareaman wrote: post #94

I can understand most of Dillers complains but not this one: "These streaming services have been making something that they call 'movies,' " he said. "They ain't movies. They are some weird algorithmic process that has created things that last 100 minutes or so." I'd like to know why he disparages writers and directors who work on streaming movies this way and if it has any validity

Possibly this? https://blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com/en/the-entertainment-in... https://tecreview.tec.mx/2021/04/26/en/how-to-make-a-blockbu... >A team of scientists from the Spanish universities of Granada (UGR) and Cádiz (UCA) has designed the first computer system to help screenwriters write movie scripts that will do better at the box office, a model that makes use of artificial intelligence techniques to analyze…

Interesting. I thought something like this was going on. I remember remarking to a friend that I got the feeling from some shows that the screenwriters had help from AI. The plots of some were at the same time more complex but had weird twists the people normally wouldn't think of. I am also not surprised the AI is mining TV Tropes. Now I think Diller is right that there is some "They are some weird algorithmic process" going on, but I rather like it. It's less formulaic.
Post reply on HN