THE INTERACTIVE FILM MAGAZINE
.tv
Distributors seek to connect with audiences across any number of platforms. The public appetite for great stories, well told, appears insatiable.
As the converged, online entertainment world evolves, new PPV/VOD [pay-per-view, video-on-demand] options are being piloted. Assuming that the cinema continues to offer the type of cutting-edge, compelling experience that audiences crave, what else is needed to ensure its continued well-being?
Speed and flexibility are the cornerstones of the new business – consumers, especially younger audiences, expect nothing less – so I can only urge all parties to seize the opportunities while the ball is still at our feet.
Consumer-focused distributors seem likely to invest as far as possible in formatted products – new franchise entries and sequels – and to identify quality products tailored for local markets.
Distributors are seasoned risk managers and I wish them every success. The varied line-up, at least in the months ahead,
Why film is crucial
for Digital Britain
for Digital Britain
By Lord Puttnam
President of the Film
Distributors’ Association
President of the Film
Distributors’ Association
holds enormous promise. As the most potent force of the creative industries, film should go from strength to strength over the next 10 years.
Service industries already account for 75 per cent of an economy whose future prosperity depends on those sectors where the capital is essentially “intellectual”.
The concept of copyright has probably never been as challenged as it is today, but it remains the basis on which the revenues that enable future investment are generated.
One of the most important contributions any government can make to its creative industries is to help ensure that the (global) intellectual property regime is robust.
It must also support existing forms of distribution with incentives to reward those who create and deliver the content.
I firmly believe that without a healthy film distribution sector, the potential of a digital Britain will never be fully realised
• This is part of Lord Puttnam’s Foreword to the FDA Yearboook, which is available via info@fda.uk.net
By Eddy Leviten
head of communications
at the Federation Against
Copyright Theft (FACT)
head of communications
at the Federation Against
Copyright Theft (FACT)
Let’s knock out the knock-off merchants!
continuation of the consumer messaging and education campaign to explain why it is wrong to purchase knock-offs, using the experience gained through the Knock Off Nigel campaign.
And ultimately in the background
PIRATES’ LAIR: DVD
copying equipment seized in a raid
copying equipment seized in a raid
there would be continued enforcement from FACT, targeting the persistent offenders and bringing them to justice.
For more information on FACT visit www.fact-uk.org.uk To report the sale of counterfeit DVDs call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111
or visit www.crimestoppers-uk.org
or visit www.crimestoppers-
Piracy has been casting a shadow over the film industry for three decades and criminals have kept changing their methodologies as digital copying has become every cheaper and easier.
What has been happening in recent years is that organised criminal networks have become involved in manufacturing, distributing and selling counterfeit DVDs. In this area it is apparent that the attractions have been a high volume, high margin, high-profit business.
Sixty million knock-off DVDs are sold in the UK every year, with a half billion pound loss to the UK
film and TV industries and the threat to tens of thousands of jobs of people working across a wide array of skills,
from make up artists to actors,
lighting engineers to stunt men.
film and TV industries and the threat to tens of thousands of jobs of people working across a wide array of skills,
from make up artists to actors,
lighting engineers to stunt men.
Markets and car boot sales are still
a major source for knock offs, with
a fifth of purchasers saying they
obtained their counterfeit films
and TV series at such venues.
a major source for knock offs, with
a fifth of purchasers saying they
obtained their counterfeit films
and TV series at such venues.
FACT is working with the Industry Trust and the Intellectual Property Office to find a way to institute a Code of Conduct for market owners and operators where they could ensure that fakes are not being sold, keeping the criminals out and making the markets safer for everyone.
Posters and leaflets would be produced to let the public know that the market they were shopping in was a safe and legal one and that the goods they were buying were not
fakes.
fakes.
Supporting this there will be a
“As we age, loss of some hearing or sight is inevitable. Access to film via subtitles and audio description is something that we all may appreciate, eventually".
The UK leads the world in accessible cinema – subtitled and audio described films for people with hearing or sight loss.
It is estimated that about nine million people in the UK have some level of hearing loss – one in seven of the population. Each year around 800 children are born in the UK with significant hearing loss while more than 700,000 people, including 34,000 children and young people, are severely or profoundly deaf. Every day another 100 people start to lose their sight and some two million have significant sight loss, the majority of them aged 65 and over.
Thanks to subtitles and audio description, people with hearing or sight loss can enjoy the cinema experience. The digital age has had a transformative impact on provision.
Most UK cinemasnow have facilities for subtitles, and more than 300 have audio description facilities.
UK distributors ensure that most
By Derek Brandon ‘Accessible cinema’ mover-and-shaker
Shine a light!
popular releases are available in both audio described and subtitled versions for 35mm and digital release and every week there are more than 500 English language subtitled shows and thousands more audio described performances.
Cinema subtitles, displayed along the bottom of the screen, include the spoken text as well as descriptions (captions) of sounds such as”'door creaks”, “footsteps approaching”, “gunshot”.
Only in 2009 was the technology developed to the point where subtitles could be overlaid on a 3D image. Until then, 3D cinema could not be experienced by people with hearing loss.
November 2009 saw the first 3D release with English language subtitles – A Christmas Carol followed by Avatar.
Phil Clapp, of the Cinema Exhibitors' Association, said: "The UK cinema has a justifiable reputation as the world-leader in the provision of accessible cinema to those with hearing or sight loss.“
• For more information go to www.yourlocalcinema.com
