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2fs - 2005-11-30 21:21:34
I don't know - but if it didn't exist, the popcorn industry would be in the red.
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Tim W. - 2005-12-01 01:40:57
It's called the "DVD window." Pretty boring--I think they should call it the "probationary period" or something.
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Paula - 2005-12-01 10:00:49
Or "purgatory"! Well, "DVD window" at least suggests a nice view, a cool breeze, perhaps some haimisch curtains...
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Alan - 2005-12-01 10:15:26
Not the accent, maybe. But I still think the high-pitched gibbering was a little too over the top to be real.
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Joe - 2005-12-01 13:23:26
Wow! That NME thing smacks of Joseph McCarthy in tone, though obviously not weight - "I have in my possession a list of albums..." Idiots. Bloc Party - come on!
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Michael - 2005-12-01 14:26:32
I would've guessed "theatrical distribution" but "DVD window" certainly sounds unsettling enough to be right. I understand that almost all movies, even the quasi-"successful" ones, now actually lose money for their studios during theatrical release because of the economics of the movie industry, a fact that the studios are careful to conceal as much as possible, and the theatrical release functions more or less as the publicity for the DVD version subsequently vomited up, which makes so much money so fast they can barely count it. (The tail truly wagging the dog.) The real purgatory for cineastes, though, is when you realize that you've let a good movie slip past you in the theatres and have to grit your teeth and settle for a comparatively low-resolution picture on a smaller screen instead of a real 35mm projection. (There's just no comparison.) I predict that when they make the shift to predominately digital projection in theatres with movies shot digitally instead of with actual film, the movie theatre industry will finally collapse and disappear, since what's the point of paying to see exactly the same shoddy picture you can get at home a few months later? It'll be like what happened to the men's hat industry when they styled the brims so narrow on the typical hat worn with suits that they wouldn't even shade your eyes, and there was no point.
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chris - 2005-12-01 15:06:33
There is a great article on the "DVD window" and the effect on Hollywood as it shrinks in slate.
The link is
http://www.slate.com/id/2123588/
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Paula - 2005-12-01 15:43:34
Interesting, Chris....I also point you towards this article about the Fordham experiment undertaken by Eric mcLuhan (Marshall's son) that suggests a difference in the effects of film-watching vs. TV-watching. As much as I love DVDs, nothing replaces the whole movie-going experience for me.
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Joe - 2005-12-01 19:56:40
We have skipped several Digital Video-shot movies in theaters for Michael's reason. The main benefit of DVDs to movie studios is the 80% royalty rate they get, thus making the DVD business much more profitable.
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2fs - 2005-12-01 23:15:43
Now if only we could asshole-proof theatres. Seriously: the main drawback I notice in going to movies is all the idiots yapping away. Plus, the previews for utterly braindead movies. Last movie I saw (okay, it was Harry Potter) featured a preview for some movie about Tim Allen and a dog that was so breathtakingly stupid I could barely believe this actually got made. And people diss Ed Wood. Then there was a preview for that Steve Martin too-many-kids sequel - which seemed like freakin' Sartre in comparison, but was still awfully stupid. Oh, and then ads for amphetamine soda and the Marines. I feel like some alien visitor from Mars or something - is this really my culture that thinks these things are funny? Rant rant rant rant...
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Michael - 2005-12-03 00:17:45
Paula, I was completely unaware of that whole Fordham experiment and find the whole idea of whether the light is reflected off the screen or coming through the screen making a big difference in the viewer's involvement to be fascinating. We all know about what peering at a cathode ray tube does to the alpha brain waves, but isolating the pure reflection vs. emanation aspect was an entirely new one on me. All I know is that once I turn a television on, it's very difficult for me to turn it back off (I feel like I'm really snapping some connection), which is one of the many reasons why I finally threw mine away.
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Paula - 2005-12-03 13:13:26
...All I know is that once I turn a television on, it's very difficult for me to turn it back off... I finally threw mine away.
Yes, and yes. Or when I'm at the gym and there's a TV on, I find it hard to look away, even if the sound is off and I have no idea what's happening onscreen.
My compromise on this position, though, is that I do watch a lot of DVDs, including TV shows on disc. It's almost as narcotic, but I feel like I have some control over it--I can watch a few minutes, turn it off and come back later, and it's something I've chosen to watch, rather than some Sunday afternoon golf tournament, or Weekend at Bernie's
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