Cooler Dirt

It seems like every time we start talking about movies, someone brings up the Academy Awards.   We like the Oscars, we do.  We like to think about what movies were good, what movies were bad, and which ones we think were better than the rest.  (Though we don’t really think all movies are equal, or should be judged equally.)

Our problem with the Academy Awards though, is not about them specifically.  People can make up any award they want.  Super.  Have at it.  Go nuts.

No, what troubles us about the Oscars is the impact it has upon discussing movies.  Here’s what we mean;

1.  Sycophantic Explosions: Movies are great entertainment. They are art. They are enjoyable, thought provoking and capable of changing the way you view the world.  They are also the surest way to get someone to claim that a person involved in the film industry is astonishing/amazing/unbelievable/brilliant/tremendous/possessed of unearthly intelligence/a once in a century genius, etc.  Our point is this: why do we pile praise upon films, or actors, or those involved with film making so effortlessly?  Why do some people feel the need to adore and gush over actors or filmmakers?  Why does an actor’s performance or a director’s work have to be praised with ‘I hope they get an Oscar‘?  Isn’t it enough to say you enjoyed the movie, or that it made you think, or cry, or laugh?

2.  The End of Existence: Discussing what is good or bad about a movie, what you like or don’t like, all that makes for wonderful conversation.  But when someone wins an Academy Award, this fact is often brought up as if it is the single greatest achievement in human existence.  “Well, they did win an Oscar.”  Congratulations to them.  Being recognized is wonderful, and as movies are such a popular medium, we can see why the Oscars get so much attention. But is there nothing a person can do or achieve that will bring about a sense of awe in the faces of their peers as winning an award for making a movie? Is this the ultimate achievement, so much so that it has to be treated with almost reverential awe?

3.  The Removal of the Personal: Movies, books, music, any art is experienced on a personal level. That one person gets something from it is one thing, that the work reaches a wide audience and resonates strongly with it is another.  The only way to evaluate a film is by what you think of it, what effect it had on you.  That awarding an Oscar to an actor or movie often causes people to think differently about that film, even if they’ve seen it and already formed an opinion, seems ridiculous.  If authority has be given from on high, you should now like/dislike/fawn over the movie in questions?   Rubbish. Saying a movie was great because it won an Oscar is like saying a meal tasted great because the chef said it did.

It may sound lie we’re down on the Oscars, but we’re not.  Not at all.  But it has been our experience that people who use the Oscars as basis of their conversations about film usually leave us wanting.  Be it layman or professional film reviewer, we’ve found that best film conversations come from those who watch the movies on their own terms, not on those of the people who vote for the Academy Awards.

(Photo courtesy hellochris’s Flickr page, through Creative Commons  license.  Thanks, hellochris!)

Books, Movies, TV, Music and Art book, books, conversation, conversations, music, personal

A conversation came up the other day about DVD’s.  Specifically, why do we own them?

You may have experienced the following phenomena:  You are watching television when you come across a movie that is just about to start.  You happen to own the movie on DVD, but for some reason you sit and watch it anyway.

Why? In your mind you know that you can watch it at any time.  Why watch the movie now?

After a brief discussion, we came up with the following reasons:

1.  It’s easier: Yes, it isn’t very hard to get up and go to your DVD player, place the movie in the tray and hit play, but it is more than pressing the channel button.

2.  It’s disposable: Something on TV isn’t permanent, it’s disposable.  You can turn it off and not give it a second thought.  If you stop the DVD, you have to get up, remove it from the player and place it back in its case/rack, etc.

3.  You don’t feel obligated: If you take the time and effort to pick a movie out of your DVD collection, place it in the player and start it, you feel an obligation to watch it.  Yes, you can pause it at any point, but you’ve gone through all the work and built an expectation in your mind that ‘Yes, I am going to commit to watching this now.’   It’s very different than finding a movie on a channel and setting the remote down.

All of this brought up another point: the digital revolution.   With the advent of digital technology (the access and recording of information into a digital format), all manner of media is becoming easily transferable and more portable.  Music, movies, books, photographs, you name it.  You can have it all on your computer, your Ipod, your cell phone.

How long will it be before you carry all of this on a Star-Trek like handheld device?  You may only have to carry around something like your cell phone to have access to all of these things.  You could play your movies wirelessly on your TV screen, or send your music to your stereo, or have your picture frames show changing images of your children.    With sites like HULU, you might be able to go online, click on the movie you want and watch it instantly, anywhere in your house.

So will DVD’s go the way of the 8-track or laser disk?  Clearly, yes.  But what they, or their successors, may be replaced with is…nothing.  At least, nothing physical.  With data being conveyed digitally at an increasing speed and with more and more ease, how long will it be before we all have personal tricorders that have access to every piece of media ever created?

And what happens after that?

(Photo courtesy john a ward’s flickr page through creative commons license.  Thanks, john a ward!”

Books, Movies, TV, Music and Art, technology book, books, conversation, music, personal, tech, technology

Here’s a conversation topic that came up the other day.  A friend of mine likes the show Dexter.  But, because he doesn’t have cable, he can only watch the show after it is released on DVD or, as he prefers, download the show illegally.  He doesn’t believe downloading the show constitutes theft, and further, it is not immoral.  Another friend held the opposite opinion.  Here are the 2 basic arguments

File Sharing IS NOT Stealing:

1. Intellectual property is intangible: When you steal a car, you deprive someone of that car.  When you download a file, you aren’t depriving anyone of anything.  The property is intangible, and you can’t really ‘take’ it.  Therefore, it isn’t stealing.
2. Downloading a file doesn’t prevent the creator from making money: A writer, movie maker, song writer , etc., can still make money from their creations.   They can use alternate distribution models, they can use subscriptions, etc.  Not only that, but people downloading files often go out and buy the tangible good.  (The CD or DVD, etc.)  They also become fans of the artist and pay them money in other ways, like going to their website, concerts, etc.

File Sharing IS Stealing:

1. You are taking something of value: The file you are downloading is someone’s property, and it has value.  That you can’t hold it is irrelevant.  There are lots of things you can’t hold (a logo, your cable subscription, your neighbor’s wi-fi access), but that doesn’t mean everyone can use them.  If you cut into your neighbor’s cable, or access their wi-fi, or use a corporate logo for yourself, you are still stealing.  It has value and doesn’t belong to you.  So taking it is theft.
2. How do you know: Lots of people depend on intellectual property for their living, and more specifically, on the right to exclusively make and sell copies of their work. (Anyone who makes music, entertainemnt, etc, or is involved in the process.)  If you remove the copyright protetions, that may take all, some or a portion of those jobs away.  Yes, those jobs might still exist if you change the protections, but that’s a hell of a gamble.  If it doesn’t, the jobs are lost and all you have left is “Oops, my bad.”.

What do you think?  Where is the line when it comes to file sharing (or illegally downloading)?  Is it theft? Is it immoral?

Is it….EVIL?!?!?

(Photo courtesy KUNTA.TOKYO’s Flickr page through Creative Commons.  Thanks, KUNTA.TOKYO!)

Foolosophy Friday conversation, conversation topic, dexter, evil, file sharing, foolosophy friday, illegal downloading, music, peer-to-peer, ptp, theft