Foolology,
Part One
I suppose the thing I like best about DVD is how
quickly the catalog became both broad and deep. Part of that is due to the format's having
been established as a sell-through medium as opposed to a rentals-driven one like VHS
cassette.
I never completely understood the bizarre two-tiered
pricing structure of the pre-recorded videocassette. The public was expected to want to
own certain titles, which were priced around $20, while other titles were designated
"rental-only" and priced to sell only to video stores at $80 to $100. Who
decided -- and what were the criteria?
That system almost guaranteed that movie lovers who lived
in less-populated areas would never get a chance to see most art films, foreign films, or
serious independent films. Ironically, only the enthusiasts who lived in the very areas
where those films had been exhibited in theaters had the chance to catch them on
videotape.
The laserdisc was always marketed to sell and, once out of
the chute, so was the DVD. The simultaneous rise of the Internet also worked in film
buffs’ favor, since now they could find places not only to buy obscure films on DVD,
but with the rise of NetFlix et al, even to rent them.
Because of the DVD's immense data storage capacity,
companies began competing with one another to include features and extras on the discs,
which means that some films are much better when experienced through their DVDs than
through their theatrical screenings. Viewers were given access to the screenplay, actors'
biographies, the director's commentary tracks, trailers, and even scholarly articles.
But there's something even better than a blockbuster made
richer and more complete through its extra features (as the new edition of The
Fellowship of the Ring has been) and that's the raft of worthy films that never
received their due in theatrical release and achieve greatness through their DVD release.
Films like Songcatcher, The Cat's Meow, and 13 Conversations About One
Thing are all worthy films that were overlooked while actually in release, but seem to
have found their audience on DVD.
Imagine that -- a successful business that understands what
its customers want and gives it to them.
To determine just how big a deal that is, cast your
eye on the record industry (sorry if you just ate), where they've been busy shooting
themselves in the foot at a cyclical rate that can only be described as full-automatic.
(I also suggest that those two linked incs, Video
and Hollywood, learn a few cautionary lessons from the bloodbath going on there.)
The record labels' insistence on treating their customers
contemptuously has alienated an entire generation of consumers and performers to the
extent that the continued existence of the industry as we know it is in doubt. So far, the
video industry has avoided this, but the cynic in me slyly suggests that it is not due to
conscious decisions. It’s rather a side effect of the DVD format's immense popularity
-- DVD "caught on" so fiercely, you'd have to be a fool to blow the opportunity.
Between Hollywood and Washington combined, however, there's
a huge talent pool of fools, and I suspect most of 'em are looking for an opportunity to
do what fools do best: blow a sure thing.
Hollywood's antipathy toward high-def TV and its plan to
use Congress to cripple it in exchange for copy protection (as in, for example, 1998's
so-broadly-cast-as-to-be-meaningless Digital Millennium Copyright Act) is a guaranteed
route to disaster. Want to bet on whether or not the fools will succeed?
All it will take is for consumers to wait. Don't do it -- act!
Write your legislators and remind them who they work for and what you want. Otherwise,
what we'll get is a hobbled television system, compromised formats, and an entertainment
monopoly. Don't just resolve to do it -- make it a priority this year.
If we don't act now, we'll be the ones who lose --
and then who'll look like fools?
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com
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