Steven Speilberg Vs. Netflix

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Team Spielberg.

Filmmakers will get lazy if netflix is an easy option to make movies. Getting to make a movie with someone else's money is supposed to be next to impossible. Thats when movies get good. With netflix we get lazy movies like hold the dark and velvet buzzsaw



Team Spielberg.

Filmmakers will get lazy if netflix is an easy option to make movies. Getting to make a movie with someone else's money is supposed to be next to impossible. Thats when movies get good. With netflix we get lazy movies like hold the dark and velvet buzzsaw
Brings up a question. How many of these movies are simply acquired by Netflix as opposed to being complete productions by them.

Not sure I follow your logic here either. Movies will get better if we don't give film makers any money?
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Brings up a question. How many of these movies are simply acquired by Netflix as opposed to being complete productions by them.

Not sure I follow your logic here either. Movies will get better if we don't give film makers any money?
Filmmakers need to make interesting hybrid genres so that they can appeal to studios. Using their success they need to branch out into prestige filmmking. Ryan johnson made money for disney and now he is making knives out. Thats how it works. No easy route. You have to earn the right to make a movie with the budget of hold the dark. You can't just make a movie with the budget of green room and not make a hit and then jump onto big scale movie like hold the dark and it shows in the film.



Team Spielberg.

Filmmakers will get lazy if netflix is an easy option to make movies. Getting to make a movie with someone else's money is supposed to be next to impossible. Thats when movies get good. With netflix we get lazy movies like hold the dark and velvet buzzsaw
What does any of this have to do with the Oscars?

Plenty of crappy movies get made every year - whether they're released theatrically or not. If the Academy Awards are actually about artistic merit, then the voting process should be more than enough to prevent those movies from getting nominated in the first place.



Filmmakers need to make interesting hybrid genres so that they can appeal to studios. Using their success they need to branch out into prestige filmmking. Ryan johnson made money for disney and now he is making knives out. Thats how it works. No easy route. You have to earn the right to make a movie with the budget of hold the dark. You can't just make a movie with the budget of green room and not make a hit and then jump onto big scale movie like hold the dark and it shows in the film.
I think you are getting this backwards. Johnson got to make Last Jedi because he made Brick, Brithers Bloom, and Looper. There was a progression. He has independent sensibilities so now gets to make Knives Out.

Hold The Dark was in fact acquired by Netflix, they didn't produce. Couldn't find a budget but if it is too much more than the 5 million fir Green Room I would be surprised.

Really not trying to argue with you. Just pushing back against the growing Netflix stigma a bit. I think people hear Netflix and bristle because they are definitely shaking up the status quo. Not sure people totally grasp exactly what they are doing yet, including me and possibly even Speilberg.

Case in point Mojo's comment about Irishman. Many Netflix flicks have had limited theatrical runs including Roma. They just get dropped on Netflix same day. Seems like Speilberg would know this so he must want wide releases and steaming later like Amazon.

Annihilation is another extremely weird case from last year. Dropped on UK Netflix immediately upon release, not sure if they got it in theater. US got a normal theater run then went to streaming. Streaming on Hulu and Amazon but not Netflix here. Figure that one out for me. I sure as hell can't.



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Team Spielberg.

Filmmakers will get lazy if netflix is an easy option to make movies. Getting to make a movie with someone else's money is supposed to be next to impossible. Thats when movies get good. With netflix we get lazy movies like hold the dark and velvet buzzsaw
By filmmakers I assume you mean directors. But if that's what you mean, then don't most directors get to use other people's money, since the movie budget is usually payed for by the producers?

Also, how come the Oscars are recognizing Netflix as movies to win now, but they never nominated TV movies before?



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Ironpony is right. Most movies are made using other people's money and that's still no guarantee that the movie will "get good" as a result - if anything, the more common stereotype is that individual artists have to compromise their creativity in order to fit their producer's demands for commercially viable (and artistically mediocre) product. Netflix's hands-off approach is essentially a gamble that will either pay off big or not, but in the grand scheme of things it's not all that different to major studios in that it does bank on accessible content to help finance its bigger risks.

Ironpony - I would think it's got something to do with the rule that a film can only be eligible for Oscars if it plays in commercial theatres for a minimum amount of time (I think it's about two weeks), which is something that I don't think gets offered to actual TV movies very often (if at all). I remember reading somewhere that part of Spielberg's proposal was to extend the minimum theatrical run needed to qualify to four weeks, but I don't have a source on hand for that.
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By filmmakers I assume you mean directors. But if that's what you mean, then don't most directors get to use other people's money, since the movie budget is usually payed for by the producers?

Also, how come the Oscars are recognizing Netflix as movies to win now, but they never nominated TV movies before?
The pressure on filmmakers to make a hit is much more higher when its a theatrical release as opposed to netflix release. As long as you pay your monthly subscription fee netflix doesnt care if you watch a movie or not.



Team Spielberg.

Filmmakers will get lazy if netflix is an easy option to make movies. Getting to make a movie with someone else's money is supposed to be next to impossible. Thats when movies get good. With netflix we get lazy movies like hold the dark and velvet buzzsaw
We also get Roma. Who would have funded that if not for Netflix?



Again, Netflix distributed but didn't produce with Roma. Is the distinction that I am making on that irrelevant? I am honestly asking because it seems relevant to me but I am well aware I don't grasp this stuff as well as others.



Again, Netflix distributed but didn't produce with Roma. Is the distinction that I am making on that irrelevant? I am honestly asking because it seems relevant to me but I am well aware I don't grasp this stuff as well as others.
You probably grasp it better than me to be honest. Maybe I worded it wrongly - would Roma have been seen by fewer or more people if Netflix had not distributed it?



Ultimately, many of the Academy’s members may not get any say in the decision. As one of roughly 50 governors, Spielberg will be in a privileged position to change things. On Twitter, director Ava DuVernay, who worked with Netflix on her documentary “13th,” expressed concern that opponents of the move may not be heard.



You probably grasp it better than me to be honest. Maybe I worded it wrongly - would Roma have been seen by fewer or more people if Netflix had not distributed it?
I would say fewer, bit I wonder by how much. It's the kind of movie movie lovers were going to see anyway. I would say Netflix gives it more drive by viewers though.

My point in distinguishing between the producers and distributors is this. We are talking as ifNetflix as a distributor is determining budget and having some sort of creative say. I don't think that's true, I think the producers are determining that. Again, happy to be wrong and quit addressing it but I don't think anyone has pointed out the difference yet.



Again, Netflix distributed but didn't produce with Roma. Is the distinction that I am making on that irrelevant? I am honestly asking because it seems relevant to me but I am well aware I don't grasp this stuff as well as others.
Good point. I just looked at Roma's Wiki page and it does indeed say Netflix was the USA distributor of Roma. Netflix was not listed as the producer. In my book Roma is an indie film. I think it should have qualified for Oscar nomination, as it did.

I much rather see movies like Roma getting funding so they can be made, then Spielberg's own entertainment film Reader Player One.



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I'm gonna chime into a topic I clearly have no business doing given my complete ignorance of it, but I'm at work and bored. I have a few questions if someone would provide the time for a response? Correct any of my assumptions, please, as they are mostly based on what I'm reading in this thread.

I am unsure what's going on here. The quote from the OP implies that Spielberg wants rules created specifically to prevent streaming services from being eligible for Oscar qualification. Does that not already exist with the current regulations of:
  • Public theater premier
  • Format
  • X days of paid runs

By definition, aren't streaming services already disqualified? If so, then how would creating more restrictive rules help, if current rules are being ignored? Are current rules really being ignored? How did a Netflix-distributed film get nominated then to begin with?

Or am I reading a quoted misinterpretation/misrepresentation of Spielberg's meaning?

On a more personal perspective, should the Oscars be more inclusive of new distribution tech? Should there be a new category? Should there be a completely new awards ceremony for just streaming or, more aggressively, to compete against the Oscars to be more inclusive?


*EDIT*
I'm typing only in context of Oscar qualifications and not quality of film regardless of the source or distribution.
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Again, Netflix distributed but didn't produce with Roma. Is the distinction that I am making on that irrelevant? I am honestly asking because it seems relevant to me but I am well aware I don't grasp this stuff as well as others.
Getting a movie made is easier than finding a distributor. There are a lot of independent production companies that make tons of movies that go straight to video. All it takes for them is to get jake gyllenhaal to star in one of those and the movie will get made with the budget of 10 straight to video movies put together. Most movies with sizable budgets like hold the dark or velvet buzzsaw don't go into production without securing a distributor. That is where netflix is sucking all the juice. A movie with the script like hold the dark or velvet buzzsaw will not get a theatrical distributor with the script and the directors track record. Thats fair and those movies shouldnt be made that way. But due to netflix directors and scripts are jumping classes and ranks and getting made prematurely and feel weak and amateurish.



Getting a movie made is easier than finding a distributor. There are a lot of independent production companies that make tons of movies that go straight to video. All it takes for them is to get jake gyllenhaal to star in one of those and the movie will get made with the budget of 10 straight to video movies put together. Most movies with sizable budgets like hold the dark or velvet buzzsaw don't go into production without securing a distributor. That is where netflix is sucking all the juice. A movie with the script like hold the dark or velvet buzzsaw will not get a theatrical distributor with the script and the directors track record. Thats fair and those movies shouldnt be made that way. But due to netflix directors and scripts are jumping classes and ranks and getting made prematurely and feel weak and amateurish.
Honestly I think I lost what we are even talking about but I will say Gilroy and Saulnier had very good and successful movies and that's why they got more movies.