After being at Broken English Films since it’s inception, I’ve noticed one clear transition in the world of consumer film watching; people don’t buy films like they used to. It’s far from an unusual statement when someone quips to me, “Why pay for movies?” Or, “Why pay for music?” When you can easily torrent it or download it from some shareware bootlegging website.
My reaction is simple, maybe somewhat blunt. Why pay for movies? “Because you’re fucking enjoying it and being entertained!”
It’s that straight forward. Even the worst productions and stories have had time and effort put in. Setting up one scene takes time and planning. Quite often sacrifices are made, money is spent and someone (not always) views the project as their baby. But you and your free everything that’s made because I have an Internet connection and this can download for free attitude, deem anything you can click on and view without having to fork over a meager sum, ignore this.
To you it’s digital content and worth no value. You’ll put it on a memory stick, share it via your Dropbox and generally shit on those that spent time creating it.
I’m not holier than thou on this measure. I’ve done it, many times. The difference is I recognize it’s wrong and buy the Blu-Ray, or I’ll gift a DVD or digital download to a friend if it’s abysmal to laugh at.
Bottom line is if you don’t support art and creativity, it will cease to be so easily acquired and abundant because people won’t make it. Instead they’ll only be drones working in server farms to ensure your files are available when you want to share that medium from a bygone era that you’ll describe to your friends in relic terms like when we used to create corner hand drawn cartoons on pads of paper to flick through and see the animation.
Maybe I’m being melodramatic. No, I’m am being melodramatic, but stop stealing people’s hard work and pay for what you use.