The Unwritten Contract

Anytime a movie is viewed or a TV show is watched, there is a transaction taking place that is not obvious. Certainly there are the obvious things like the purchase of a ticket or the purchase of an advertisers product but there is more beneath the surface.

When someone decides to view a movie, no matter how it is done or whether or not there is cash involved, they come to it with certain expectations. The largest of all is that their time is not being wasted. Unlike factors such as money, they can never recover the 90 minutes to 2 hours that they might spend watching a movie.

They take a risk every time they watch a feature film and the willingness to risk that time involves a number of other factors beyond just the time used up. For one thing, they expect to be entertained and this can take a number of forms. This might involve vicariously living the life of the hero of the story. This might mean a certain amount of spectacle although it is not just that. Sometimes the movie has to be thought provoking and at other times pure escapism is desired but one thing is for sure: the film must deliver.

Very often filmmakers and the studios under which they work forget about this unwritten contract and let other factors steer the course of their movies. A filmmaker may have some personal story about some family matter that nobody cares about except for them. A filmmaker or some other creative player may do something simply for the money without regard to whether it will create a satisfying audience experience.

Studios, for their part, may do something only because of the money involved, letting obscure foreign tax deals be the source of motion pictures rather than the desire to make good pictures. The focus solely on money can make possible sequels and series that have no creative reason to be other than the hopes for studio executives to continue cranking the cash machine.

Agents, the people who work between the studios and the creative talent, have the least interest in what the audience experiences. Their world is entirely devoted to the art of the deal, so the costs of making movies climb ever higher while the attention to quality declines. Very often the agent and the studios are partners in crime in this matter.

And what about the poor audience? To go out to the movies requires a major undertaking. Schedules have to be coordinated and money allocated - and the price of admission has climbed while the quality of theatres and the movie they show has declined. Not only is there the cost of admission but there is the cost of surrounding factors such as babysitters for those with families, dinner out, and astronomical concession prices.

If the audience chooses to stay home, as so many now do, the risk is still high. The DVDs they are likely to rent still contain the movies that they didn't go to see in the theatres and because of the way the distribution system is set up for most video stores, a lot of the choices have disappeared in favor of only the mainstream releases of the most common films. Although they no longer have to lose the time that they had formerly used up going to and from the theatre, they still have those 90 to 120 minutes of average screen time to negotiate. Even though the financial cost may be lower, they still might come up the loser if they picked the wrong film.

How can filmmakers live up to their end of the unwritten contract? The easy obvious answer is simply to make good movies but what does this involve? One thing to be aware of is that the more the movie financially costs the viewer, the more of a risk it is going to be for them to watch. Studios and filmmakers often forget this when they release movies.

In another industry, the record industry, a similar situation has happened. In the 1960's, well before the introduction of the CD or of music downloads, record albums and singles were much more affordable. It was much more feasible to check out new bands and singers because the risk was lower. Once record companies went to CDs this situation changed. There were no longer inexpensive singles widely available to check out new musical talent. The record companies insisted that you buy the whole album. What usually happened was that these albums consisted of the one or two hit singles with the rest being uninspired filler. Sales went down. Why? Despite the assertions about music piracy, the reason was they broke their unwritten contract with the buyers. In fact the buyers took the matter into their own hands with music downloads because the record companies were not looking after their needs. Now the situation is out of control for these companies and rather than seeing how they might live up to the unwritten contract, they have actually accelerated their decline with their money games and homogenizing of material.

It has happened way too often where a studio has a movie that is a real stinker and they'll over hype and do a blitz advertising campaign to get everyone to see it on opening weekend. The public sees it and word of mouth makes it sink like a rock by the next weekend. The studios hope, of course, that enough people will be suckered into giving it a profit that first weekend but this game is not the sure thing it used to be. The public has the internet now and can find out information in advance, whether the studio wants it or not. Perhaps they could simply concentrate on the movie rather than the money that surrounds it.

If filmmakers and studios could be just a little more willing to fulfill this unwritten contract, the movie business may have a chance. If they could just think a bit more about long term survival rather than short term profits, they might actually be a long term. And lets not forget the exhibitors, for it is there that the breach of the unwritten contract is most obvious. If things could just get to the point where going to the movies could once again become a satisfying experience rather than seeming like the big rip off that it has become, attendance might increase. If a potential viewer is tired after a long week at work, why not give them something at the end of it? Studios, filmmakers, exhibitors - Why not hold up your end of the unwritten contract and watch your business truly grow?