Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Screener DVDs & Tapes Discontinued

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Topic: Screener DVDs & Tapes Discontinued

David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 10-01-2003 11:51 AM

EDIT: Aw Crap! Now I see I should have posted this in Manny's thread, here . Oh well. Lock it or move it if you think it's called for... Sorry.

Oscar Screeners Scratched (Yahoo News)

Oscars Screeners Scratched
Tue Sep 30, 8:10 PM ET
By Bridget Byrne

Apparently Academy Award voters are going to have see movies the old-fashioned way--in movie theaters.

The major studios have agreed to go along with the Motion Picture Association of America's proposal to stop the sending out DVD and video screeners to those who vote for the Oscars (news - web sites) and other Hollywood awards.

In recent years, the proliferation of screeners has allowed voters to watch films in the comfort of their own living rooms. But the MPAA sees the wide availability of award-contending films, many of which are just beginning their theatrical runs, as too tempting for pirates who could put make digitally perfect copies available online and on street corners.

And the MPAA and studio bosses don't want to repeat the Napster (news - web sites)-fueled downturn of the music biz.

The screen ban was announced Tuesday, just in time for MPAA President and CEO Jack Valenti to announce it before a Senate committee in Washington, D.C. He cited the move as "a determined commitment to combat digital piracy and to save movie jobs in the future." Valenti added that "400,000 to 600,000 films are being illegally abducted every day...and the MPAA intends to deploy every weapon at its command" to stop this theft.

But many indie distributors and specialty divisions within the major studios see the screener ban as a deadly blow to their films' chances of winning major awards. Their movies usually play in limited release and don't have theatrical outreach of the big-budget flicks and they had used screeners to help level the playing field.

"It's a sad day in Mudville," one unnamed indie exec tells Daily Variety. Says another, "This has been a big conspiracy to make sure the specialty companies don't participate in the Academy Awards (news - web sites). There will be no Pedro Almodovar winning Best Screenplay, because he won't have a chance."

The major studios agreed late Monday to make the home-video mailings taboo, despite the upset it will undoubtedly bring to what is already a shorter season than previous campaigns, with the Oscars being handed out on February 29. Those MPAA signators agreeing to the ban are MGM, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. DreamWorks and the independent New Line, agreed despite not being MPAA signators. No word yet on whether indie houses like Lions Gate, Artisan or IFC will comply.

The last major to sign off on the agreement was Howard Stringer, vice chairman of Sony, according to Variety. Miramax chieftain Harvey Weinstein, whose vigorous Oscar campaigning avidly embraced the home screener tactic and whose so-called independent movies like Shakespeare in Love did very well at Oscar time--reportedly only agreed reluctantly.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (news - web sites), the organization behind the Oscars, said Tuesday it had nothing to do with the ban. But the Academy did say in a statement, "We have always urged our members to see the films on big screens the way they were intended to be seen and to base their judgments on the achievements contained in the films on those viewings and not to vote based upon an image seen on the television screen."

Because of the ease of duplicating screeners, the increased use of broadband and new compression technology (Valenti says a new program developed by Caltech researchers allows a movie file to be downloaded in five seconds), the studios have plenty to lose should their big-bucks event pictures get leaked online and are looking to protect their investments

Among the would-be blockbusters coming down the pike in time for Oscar consideration: Warners' The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise (news)' Fox's Master and Commander, starring Russell Crowe (news); Miramax's Cold Mountain, starring Nicole Kidman (news); New Line's third and final Hobbit tale, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; and Sony's Big Fish, directed by Tim Burton (news). (Disney and Universal's key contenders, Finding Nemo and Seabiscuit, respectively, were released earlier in the year and will have commercial DVDs on the market before voting season wraps up.)

According to reports, the big fights came between studio bosses, who are scared of piracy, and marketing executives, who look to award ceremonies as a way to boost box office. The screener ban will not only impact Oscar voters, but also those who vote for the Golden Globes and Directors and Screen Actors guild (news - web sites) awards, as well as various critics groups.

With the voting process kept anonymous, there is no official data on how much home viewing contributes to a film's chances of getting an Oscar nod, and it is not known how many voters, accustomed to what one studio executive termed, "a lazy way for marketing people to make sure their film is seen [and] a lazy way for voters to see the film," will now make the effort to leave home to attend screenings before marking their ballots.

The only thing we do is that screening rooms will be fully booked and duplication and shipping companies will lose money. And Pedro Almodovar might just want to content himself with last year's wins.

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