jwz wrote about how Hulu to require Cable TV subscription. "It's like they're trying to chase their customers away!" He pointed to this Oatmeal comic and this classic about how annoying DVDs are to watch. I have to agree.
I'm planning on seeing The Avengers this weekend. I'm already checking mediastinger to find out if there's an "extra scene" after what I'm sure is about 10 minutes of credits. Maybe one of the reason I love old movies from the 30s, 40s and 50s is that the credits were short. Short enough to be at the start of the film. A couple of title cards with actors and the writer and director and a big vanity plate for the producer. Then a couple of cards with the major crew. Oh and the title. I noticed this year at IFFBoston that a lot of films didn't even put the title at the beginning, they saved it for the end. Maybe they wanted to trick someone who walked into the wrong theater into staying through the film.
One thing they didn't leave out is several studio logos at the beginning. Films are expensive enough now that they are financed by several sources and each one wants to be recognized with a several second video intro that's usually some rendered video-game like cut scene. Then after you sit through those (which have nothing to do with the film you came to see), these same funders get their names at the beginning of the credits. Maybe in the fifties people cared about the new MGM release because MGM owned a set of actors and cinemas so if you said you were going to the new MGM movie that kinda included who was in it, the kind of film and where it was playing. But those days are long gone. No cares if Fox made the film or Universal. Maybe Pixar, but they don't need to be reminded that Pixar made it by having a bouncing lamp at the beginning of the film, they already knew it coming in.
It's amazing to me how difficult it seems to be for companies to want to delight their customers. It's like managers don't even try to use the finished product before releasing it to customers. Do studio execs go to theaters and sit through the whole experience of a film starting 15 minutes after the scheduled time? I suspect they watch it in cushy private screening rooms with no ads or trailers or via a screener disc with no FBI warning given to them to watch at home. Here's what made Steve Jobs great, he used the product his company shipped before you did, and he demanded the experience, the whole experience, even opening the box, be a good one.
It's perfectly reasonable for someone putting millions of dollars into something to want some recognition and it's reasonable to think that that's worth 5 seconds of screen time. But someone has to be in charge of understanding how all those parts fit together to make sure they don't kill the whole product.
5 comments:
While I do love that Oatmeal comic, and overall I agree it sucks that I still have to have cable, there's only one thing that really bothers me about the need-it-now mindset. And, that's the need-it-now mindset. Used to be we saw a movie in the theatre, then waited a year or more until it was available on DVD. Before that, VCR. Before that, HBO. Before that, network TV Sunday night movie. Now, movie companies are producing the DVD at the same time as the movie, and people STILL want it before it even hits theatres. People, it's just a movie.
But overall, I still have not dropped cable because a)the kids don't have an effective way to watch the same damned Disney Channel shows over and over again, and b)I can't train my family to use three remotes...how can I train them to use 3 different streaming devices or services? and why should I?
The hard drive on my Tivo is not big enough to support our TV habits, so as a result occasionally I will find nothing of interest to watch on it. when I do, I will browse through the live listings and find even LESS to watch there.
It seems to me that some day Big Cable is going to give up on the regularly scheduled TV concept. Gone will be the 130 channels no one watches anyways, replaced by simply an On Demand box. But maybe I'm dreaming.
1. And before that, you're out of luck. Used to be movies and TV were separate. One thing has changed since we were kids, movies are in theaters for far less time and that kinda sucks.
2. Agreed, I have cable and TiVo because it works for all my TV content.
3. You can get a second TiVo and train it to your likes or you can upgrade your TiVo's hard drive. http://www.weaknees.com/
4. The myth of the 130 (or 500) channels that no one watches is that everyone watches a different few channels. While I don't watch the kids channels, I know people do. Also the travel channel and rich living channel and golf channel. I don't understand it, but they do :)
I am watching GOT off of Vudu, when the streaming actually works. And I'm paying for it too.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/dvds-and-blu-rays-will-now-carry-two-unskippable-government-warnings/
Morons.
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