Piracy - Robbing the Lives of Underground Film Makers!!

Okay, so once again my views on pirating movies seems to have hit a raw nerve with some people!!  This came about after I realised that indie horror V/H/S (pictured above and below) was making it's way around oil rigs.  

I live in an area where a large percentage of people work off shore, so this is obviously gonna be one of the most noticeable areas where pirated movies are shared.  Another would be the forces, they're terrible for it too!!  Getting off track though, seeing that a film that was made within a community of my some of my closest friends was getting passed around for free, it obviously got me on my soapbox!!  

I think when it comes to piracy, be it pirated DVD's, or downloading/streaming movies for free, the majority of people don't give a second thought for the film makers, the people that gave their blood, sweat and tears to make the movie.  I mean, could you imagine, giving your all to something and then getting pretty much nothing back from it...it wouldn't feel that great would it?!!  Getting movies funded in this day and age isn't as easy as what most seem to think, even the big studio's, they're wary to fund films unless they know that it's gonna make them a fortune right from the get go!!  It frequently baffles me why certain big Hollywood studios will put a shit ton of money into a film like Green Lantern, or Battleship, or god forbid any Michael Bay movie (that's a whole different rant though, haha), yet they won't fund smaller independent movies that would take a teensy tiny fraction of the cost to make...and then go on to make millions.  A perfect example of this would be Saw, or Insidious.  James Wan and Leigh Whannell (pictured below), you are both geniuses!! :)  

Because the big studios are usually unwilling to fund smart, intelligent and original films, the film makers often have to largely fund the film themselves, or to have fans help to raise funds for them.  This is something that is largely evident in the horror industry. The big studios will fund utter wank like the Nightmare on Elm Street remake, or The Omen remake...actually, pretty much any remake...yet they won't fund anything original as they usually don't have the balls too!!  Many film makers are using sites such as KickStarter and IndieGoGo to fund their projects with the help of fans.  So fans are helping to fund these movies, yet "casual movie watchers", like the people who watch stuff just for the sake of it and couldn't give a fuck about the people who made the film, they're stealing from the true fans as well.  Yet they don't seem to get why this grinds my fucking gears!!!

When it came to looking for the moohlah to fund their follow up to their grindhouse self funded Dead Hooker in a Trunk, American Mary...Jen and Sylvia Soska's parents Agnes and Marius Soska mortgaged their freakin' house to help finance it!!  This money then made other financier's feel more comfortable about getting on board this darkly twisted and fucked up little beauty!!  How cool is that, I mean, how many parents would be willing to do that for their twisted little children? :)  This was obviously a very risky move, but it turned out to be a great one!!  Now Universal Films have acquired distribution rights for many international territories including the UK and Germany, and are looking to acquire world rights.  

Dead Hooker in a Trunk however was funded entirely by the two of them working their arses off in their day jobs, and then totally maxing out their credit cards.  Again, a move that worked to their advantage but could have completely backfired, as so many other film makers have found out.  The success of Dead Hooker in a Trunk was largely due to the support from the underground film industry, and especially the Women in Horror Month movement...which I am proud to call myself a part of. :)  This backed with support from Eli Roth and things started really started to move forward for Jen and Sylvia...but it took a whole lot of clever networking and support from horror film nerds for them to get to the point where Eli Roth asked if they had any more scripts...the point from where American Mary was conceived. :D

We live in a society where it's deemed okay to pirate films, but what people seem to forget, is that this is these people's livelihood's that are being messed with.  The whole thought that "all film makers are loaded and don't need the money anyway", that's a heap of crap!!  Some of them work day jobs and then film in their evenings and weekends.  They basically have no life, and then for people to just download or pirate these films without a second thought, I said it before, and I will say it again, they're just raping the fucking film makers up the arse...and they couldn't give a fuck about it!!  

My thoughts and opinions have caused a lot of controversy among people close to me, but I don't fucking care.  And my graphic depiction...sometimes one needs to be so graphic to get a point across.  Rape is taking something without any regard for the other person, it is an action where you couldn't care less about the other person's feelings, or life.  And I'm sorry, but that is exactly what pirating these underground films does.  You could ruin a film makers career, and even life, just because you have no regard for what they do, or them as an actual person.  

I then got into an argument where the prices of cinema tickets came into it, yet, most of these underground films don't make it to the cinema....and why...because people fucking pirate them and then the film company doesn't see the point, I mean, where's the money to be made!?!!  A point that was made very clear when desperate to see Adam Green's Frozen, I had to go to Edinburgh to the Cameo Cinema, the only cinema in the whole of freakin' Scotland that was showing it!!!  (Pictured below - Me showing my support from indie horror at the Cameo Cinema in Edinburgers)

At the end of the day, I know I'm never going to win this argument with everyone, but if people could at least think about what they're doing, and if they enjoy these the films at least then buy them on DVD/Blu-Ray, or watch them through LoveFilm or Netflix.  Just let the film makers know that you appreciate their work and support them in their journey to bring more great films to you.  All films suffer as a result of piracy, but it's the smaller budget independent films that suffer the worst, and that's just not cool!!  So don't be a dick and contribute to destroying a world of decent fucking movies!!  

And this was never aimed at any one person, it was aimed at society in general.  The End.