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

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

#221

Post by blooalien »

GormanFletcher wrote: post #187
jtwaleson wrote: post #183

Ok, here's my problem with the movie theatre industry. There's 100+ years of fantastic historical content and we're not doing anything with it. 99% of what's shown in theaters is new releases. I understand we don't want to "go stale" as a society and that movie producers also need to make a living, but the balance is just way off. I would pay good money to see "the good the bad and the ugly" with my kids in a couple…

Before everything shut down last year, my local theaters played a showing of a classic film each month, often Hitchcock. The few I went to had plenty of attendees. Another local theater took the lockdown as an opportunity to do outdoor socially-distanced showings of previous blockbusters, like The Dark Knight . Plenty of attendees there, too. I'd be happy to have more showings like that.

We have a neat theater in the town I live in called "Brewvies" (it's a pub/theater) that on weekends often shows classic old cinema matinees for free. There's also a group that shows "classic" movies in the parks for free, too. Much fun!

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

#222

Post by edflsafoiewq »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #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…

The reign of quantity and the sign of the times.

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

#223

Post by jandrese »

mumblemumble wrote: post #145
majormajor wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a broader cultural issue for all sorts of art today, not a movie specific thing. The depressed/angry mood has been building for a couple decades or more, and getting more widespread. Even something intentionally over the top like Fast and Furious or Marvel has more "serious issue" stuff in many of the installments from the last 5 years than previously. It's easier in the news to see all the bad stuff that used…

Tangentially, last night I half-listened to an interesting YouTube video that used the history of Robin Hood movies to describe this trend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=428ZxrW6jhk It's a slowly escalating 45-minute rant, but I think that this quote from toward the end summarizes it fairly well: "I'm admittedly a little tired of seeing heroes always surrounded by worlds of gray, because, if they're there long enou…

IMHO this what Thor: Ragnarok got right.

It was one of the few Marvel movies that seemed to remember its comic book origins. Quick pace--individual comic issues are short, snappy (not necessarily quippy) dialog--because there isn't space on a comic panel for walls of text, colorful and interesting character designs, and a good dose of humor sprinkled in.

It would probably get old if every Marvel movie were like that, but all in all I think the formula works. Guardians of the Galaxy also did pretty well in this regard, but making most of the characters assholes in one way or another undercut the theme somewhat.

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

#224

Post by johnohara »

The Allen and Co. Sun Valley Conference is winding down.

The pandemic forced a lot of reaction to, realignment of, and reflection on, all of the current paradigms. But nobody was able to meet last year and many conversations that needed to happen were left hanging in abeyance.

As the many attendees represent organizations that pull heavy carts as it is, there is no doubt an eagerness to get the wheels turning again. The sooner the better. But they have also had a year to completely evaluate what was causing them to be so laden prior to February 1st, 2020.

This year's conference will be remembered as a watershed moment. Great food and real-world golf scores notwithstanding.

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

#225

Post by mrec »

watwut wrote: post #124
nineplay wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People who complain that nothing good is made anymore must just be looking at what's advertised heavily I can't speak for everyone but I think it's hard to find anything 'fun'. The indie films inevitably seem to be deadly serious, whether it's terrible crimes or failing relationships or the inevitably of death. If a viewer wants 'fun' then they're stuck with formulaic superhero blockbusters. It feels different. Spi…

I remember seeing indie comedies and horrors. I dont think indy implies serious, altrough there are also sad indie movies. > . If a viewer wants 'fun' then they're stuck with formulaic superhero blockbusters. I dont think this is true either. The industry producing formulaic is not because it is only way to have fun. If you look at series that came out lately (Money Heist, Westworld ... ) they are not formulaic and a…

For anyone looking for a fun and surprisingly heartwarming indie gem, I can highly recommend 2017's One Cut of the Dead [1]. Budget: $25,000. Worldwide box office: $31,200,000.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7914416/

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

#226

Post by jandrese »

ryandrake wrote: post #208
nineplay wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People who complain that nothing good is made anymore must just be looking at what's advertised heavily I can't speak for everyone but I think it's hard to find anything 'fun'. The indie films inevitably seem to be deadly serious, whether it's terrible crimes or failing relationships or the inevitably of death. If a viewer wants 'fun' then they're stuck with formulaic superhero blockbusters. It feels different. Spi…

There was a thread[1] earlier in the week lamenting how tough it is to make modern comedies. Between the Twitter mobs scrutinizing anything for insensitivity and the need to appeal to international markets, it's really hard to come up with a universally funny and PC-acceptable comedy anymore. You can't do slapstick or silliness. You can't (even gently) poke fun at "groups" anymore. Best you can do is a cynical "dark…

Comedies are supposed to be mid-low budget affairs. They are supposed to be able to ignore the international market because they can make a profit on just the domestic audience.

This sort of ties in with what a previous poster was saying about the mid-budget movies disappearing because the money flows to the top and the bottom end is full of recently graduated art students trying to out-serious one another.

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

#227

Post by deadbolt »

nebula8804 wrote: post #188
xriddle wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Placer is one of many, many platforms that do this. Assume any app that requests location permissions is selling your data. Hopefully anonymized.

A few months ago I chose a random set of iOS apps to decompile and view their included libraries. Its amazing how much tracking is going on. One interesting that I recall was a Bluetooth library in a convenience store app. Seems like they had Bluetooth beacons around there store and it would use the phone to track you as you walked through the store.

I recall the CVS app requesting Bluetooth permissions when I installed it. I can imagine them implementing something like this, but couldn't they just passively listen for Bluetooth beacons from people's phones using the devices in the store, without needing the app to be installed on a customers phone?

I suppose I'm not familiar enough with Bluetooth - I figured phones with Bluetooth enabled are constantly sending out some kind of "hello" beacon.

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

#228

Post by bloat »

roymurdock wrote: post #41
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…

Can you recommend some good movies from last/this year? Have been digging into old movies to get my fix recently thinking there wasn't anything good out.

From what I've seen released from 2020 onwards I've particularly liked:

Black Bear, Possessor, Palm Springs, Love And Monsters, Psycho Goreman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, White Tiger, Moxie, The Mitchells Vs The Machines

Going back a bit further:

Saint Maud, Color Out Of Space, Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood, Midsommar, The Lighthouse, Crawl, The Personal History Of David Copperfield

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

#229

Post by handrous »

watwut wrote: post #115
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…

> People who complain that nothing good is made anymore[0] must just be looking at what's advertised heavily, is all I can figure. That would be me. I am utterly uninterested in superheroes and found movies I seen last years somewhere between boring repetitive and annoying. Tho I liked parazite and some of other international splash making movies. At minimum they used different tropes. I have no idea where those fun…

1) Try film festival schedules or lists-of-what-showed from previous years. Not just Sundance and Cannes and such (though lots of the films shown at those are, in fact, good, so don't not look at those)—if you have any special genre or topic interests, there may be some festivals for them, so look up a few big ones and start browsing. Why previous years? Because those films usually aren't widely available the same year they're in festivals, and you'll get the benefit of reviews, if you don't want to just start blindly watching anything that looks interesting.

2) There are niche streaming services that specialize in genres, or in indie + international, films, which are great for finding all kinds of wonderful things you'd never have known about otherwise. mubi.com, for instance, features those sorts of films from all years, including recent ones. Shudder is a streaming service for horror films (horror is downright rich these days—I can provide lots of strong, varied recommendations from the last few years, if you're into that kind of thing). Stuff like that. Really, just look up lists of video streaming services and take a glance at the catalogues of any you've not heard of.

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

#230

Post by jandrese »

johnchristopher wrote: post #135
watwut wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember seeing indie comedies and horrors. I dont think indy implies serious, altrough there are also sad indie movies. > . If a viewer wants 'fun' then they're stuck with formulaic superhero blockbusters. I dont think this is true either. The industry producing formulaic is not because it is only way to have fun. If you look at series that came out lately (Money Heist, Westworld ... ) they are not formulaic and a…

I only watched the first season of Westworld and I found it very formulaic and full of common trope but it's been too long now for me to discuss it. Last série I really appreciated: the OA.

Westworld tied itself in knots trying to "gotcha" the audience. At the end of the day I think a more straightforward storytelling method probably would have worked better.
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