Jim Kukral wrote a post about file sharing, and brings up an important point, illustrated in the title “You Can’t Stop File Sharing, But You Can Kill Your Brand By Trying.”

And I have to agree with that.

The movie industry can save face in this whole situation if they step away from the ledge, and instead of jumping into the lawsuit fray, and attempting to stop a movement they can’t possibly squash, and evolve with the times, they’ll end up more profitable.

How?

For starters they can stop relying on teenage boys for their core market.

There’s a whole new, ignored demographic out there - those of us who have varied levels of independent work.

I come and go as I please.

I make good money and like to be entertained while I’m working.

I constantly seek out artistic, moving, character driven entertainment, but also like to see stuff get blown up.

Hey film execs? Get your head out of your butt and market to ME.

I can afford to buy the DVDs I want, so I won’t do the bootleg thing. I work for myself so when a film comes out, I can go see it Tuesday afternoon when no one is around. It’s not because I’m an honest person that I pay for my movies, though.

It’s because I appreciate quality and have somewhat varied and eclectic tastes. I imagine that films I would like, such as The Lives of Others, would be hard to find in a torrent site, nor do I have the time to search. The film industry ought to change the type of films they make to include more varied tastes, and market to the folks who are willing to pay in the first place.
You see, the kids I know who are torrenting (is that the right term?) and using P2P to get their movies are constantly expressing frustration about getting a clear file that is in the wrong language, or a bad quality. It’s extraordinary to me what their demands are for what is essentially a free movie.

Of course, these are young cats with time on their hands. I like to watch movies while I work, don’t get me wrong? But I’m not going to spend three hours looking for a decent online copy of Stardust when I can be at the theater in ten minutes. Time is money.

And my generation LOVED the movie experience. We still do. Many parts of our lives are shaped around it.

This also isn’t the only opportunity here.

Some smart company is going to

• use the entire p2p industry to study what movies young people truly like, (and make more money - every one I know under 25 wants the Superbad DVD, just like all my friends have the 40 Year Old Virgin DVD),
• appeal to older audiences who typically don’t steal films (and make more money - even people my age who are willing to hunt for a film, find it, then wait for it to download would rather pay Movielink $3 a movie to save time),
• increase quality of plot, story, picture, collectible DVDs and merchandising to the point that it can’t be easily replicated (and make more money - there’s a point where it’s too much trouble to try and get all the extra stuff from a DVD onto a server, etc. I can’t imagine you can put that back together in a decent format for less time than the DVD would be worth)

How else can the film industry make more money? DVD sales. Profitability of a film is now determined by both DVD sales and ticket sales, not one or the other. Make people want the movie experience again. Put the art and extras back on the DVDs. Let directors go nuts with alternate endings and back story.
The first day the first portable tape recorder was mass produced, this war was over. All the kids I know torrent. All the kids I know use the online version of films to decide what DVDs they’ll rent and buy. It’s like Jim said in his article, they don’t see it as stealing.

If that perception was ever to be changed, it should have happened before Betamax and VHS were invented.

Because the line is always shifting. If it’s okay to buy a DVD and lend the physical copy to a friend, you can’t make a teenager, whose concept of the very word friend is changing, believe that they can’t share music or video with all the “friends” they have all over the world.

The movie industry still has a chance to make a fortune with this and turn this around. They can take a cue from IFC, and release movies to theaters and Cable’s On Demand at the same time. When faced with trying to find a quality copy of an obscure film online and paying $4, which would you do?

My time is money. I spend it accordingly, and I’d spend it more on films if what was available was more for me.

[tags]films, file sharing, jim kukral, p2p, peer to peer[/tags]