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Steven Spielberg Says Netflix Movies Shouldn’t Win Oscars, Warns TV “Poses Clear And Present Danger To Filmgoers”

posted 6 years ago by Satan2016 (23351)
3 replies | jump to latest

http://deadline.com/2018/03/steven-spielberg-netflix-oscars-tv-clear-and-present-danger-to-filmgoers-1202353123/
https://youtu.be/_hTTvO50QTs (8m)

In an interview with ITV News (see video below), Spielberg noted that the movie business has never faced more of a challenge from television, especially given the rise of streaming. While there are benefits from that to the overall culture, he said features launched on streaming platforms should not be allowed at the Oscars.

“I don’t believe that films that are given token qualifications, in a couple of theaters for less than a week, should qualify for Academy Award nominations,” he said. “Once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie. If it’s a good show, you deserve an Emmy. But not an Oscar.”

Movie studios who once took chances on fringe, indie fare they discovered at film festivals, he said, are focused on branded tentpoles. And filmmakers are able to find willing buyers in the SVOD world, fundamentally changing the game. “Television is thriving with quality and heart,” he said. “But it poses a clear and present danger to filmgoers.”

Reflecting on his previous film outing, he expressed no regret. “I’ll still make The Post and ask an audience to please go out to theaters and see The Post and not make it for Netflix,” he said.

[–] Renovatio (2990) 6 years ago

I agree... Fully.

Movies made for streaming are TV movies, not cinema...

The theatrical experience is key... Watching movies on a 50 foot screen with a crowd is cinema, not the tiny 65" TV set in the livingroom with one or two friends, or more likely these days, on ipads, alone...

Even the average horror movie, thriller or drama in cinema towers above the very best TV has to offer...

[–] Satan2016 (23351) 6 years ago

The size of the screen irrelevant! I can sit 20" from a 40" TV or 20' from a 40' screen and the eye sees exactly the same.

A 40" UHD TV costs less than 50 movie tickets. You can probably get good 5.1 sound for the price of 50 snacks plus transport. I don't care for crowds.

[–] Renovatio (2990) 6 years ago

I know about the specifications for screen size and seating distance, etc... They are hugely important for immersion and fidelity. I am lucky enough to have a 106" scope screen at home with a projector in a dedicated cinema room...

BUT,

I also recognise the limitation of the seating distance/screen size equivalancy... When a screen is bigger than my house, it feels different, more cinematic... When a screen is smaller than I am, it feels different, less cinematic, more like TV...

But more importantly than arguing the geekary of cinema specs (I'm sure we could do so for days and probably agree more than disagree anyway), more importantly than that is that I'd argue that filmmakers make a different kind of movie when they know it will be shown on streaming rather than in theatre... Both conciously as well as unconciously... The theartrical experience sets the bar higher... 😎

Netflix have spent billions on crearing content, yet non of their productions look, or feel like movies... None are properly cinemaric... Annihilation is probably the only one, but it was bought by Netflix, not produced for them, and originally was made as a small budget sci-fi for theateical release.. 🤔

Every few weeks there are movies at cinema that look and feel as or more cinematic than Annihilation... Far above anything made for any of the streaming services... 😉

Maybe this will change with bigger directors such as Scoresese making Netflix production, but we'll have to see. Is the Irishman supposed to have a theatrical release?

Cinema feels different. The theatrical experience... I can fit a little over a handful of guests in my home cinema, it's great, but far less than the crowd of hundreds at the local cinema... Watching a horror movie or comedy the crowd makes a difference.. 👍

In theatre we have to submit to the movie, we are not in control, wecannot pause it to make a sandwich, or rewind it to check out that cool scene, or hear a bit of dialogue that we missed because we were playing with our phones, or checking moviechat.org replies 😉

I really hope we don't lose the theatrical experience as the key proving ground for movies... as the intended medium... I appreciate the convenience and quality of home theatre, of discs, streaming and such, but cinema is not TV. And I think the art form will be compromised when filmmakers start to make movies with streaming in mind... They will make "content" for a distracted, episodically trained user base, not movies for a receptive and engagged audience of film goers...

Cinema is outside, public, not inside, private.