Hollywood's New Distribution Model?

This article on BusinessWeek caught my eye, and I had a thought about its sociological implications. There's a movie called Bubble, which will be released almost simultaneously in theatres, on DVD and HDTV. The point is to collapse the distribution windows and deliver entertainment to consumers on demand. This is what piracy and file sharing is all about, and adapting this model can help turn revenues back to people who earned it.

I thought about the growing authority of consumers to dictate when they want things. We're like little brats, and because we're such a mass, we have the capability to be bullies too. Imagine if we could have everything at the times that we wanted them. It's democratic, yes, because no one tells us when, but at the same time, it creates a highly disjuncted world. It'll also be an impersonal world because our time will only be our own, and everything else are like fixtures we can schedule at our own convenience.

Still, I'm not actually sure if we could fall into such a state. The social nature of human beings seems a powerful enough counterbalance. I guess it's just nice to put our feelers up for things like this.
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Will Bubble Burst a Hollywood Dogma?

"Consumers have a lot more authority these days," Disney CEO Bob Iger told me shortly after his ascension to the top job at the Mouse House. Iger has said collapsing distribution windows is something Hollywood needs to investigate. "We can't put limits on movies when consumers don't want limits," he says. You betcha, Bob.

The movie industry is struggling to find its way in a new and fast-changing world where content is only as good as the consumers' ability to find it when he or she wants it.

Until You Come to Me

Why in the world do things blow up just when they're proceeding quite well? Why do they blow up just when we're about to cross a threshold? Things blow up and it throws us back even beyond the place where we once stood.

Danny Boy
(Irish Traditional)

Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying
'Tis you, 'tis you mus go and I must bide.

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.

And if you come, when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.

And I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be
If you'll not fail to tell me that you love me
I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.

I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.

Lifts

I ride lifts five days a week. I watch the doors gently close in front of me, confining me to a room that is pushed and pulled downwards and up.

I watch the doors close... gently... smoothly... carefully.

I watch the doors and I wonder what it would be like to ride lifts that had doors, which I would have to close myself-- those old-fashioned, industrial-age lifts with metal gratings that passengers needed to scrape closed-- the ones we see in movies filtered in sepia.

Funny, this nostalgia for an age in which I never participated.

I want to ride an old-fashioned lift.

Finally -- Good Service

Once again, I set out on my quest to find a Starbucks store that still had planners in stock. This time, I went to the store in the Standard Chartered Bank building, across my own.

This store is one of my favorites-- good lighting, warm interior... and more couches than chairs, which all makes for a really good place to linger with a book.

The first thing I noticed as I approached the store was that the tarp that said "The red cups are here" was still up. There was also still a white wreath hanging at the door, and true enough, by the cash registers lay piled of red cups.

I approached the counter; asked if they had a planner. The girl politely told me that they'd run out but that they would be getting a delivery within the week.

Then she asked me if I wanted to reserve one.

Hooray! Finally, someone who asked! Someone who thought to think of my (the customer) welfare. I gave her my name and number. She asked me where I worked, and thanked me when I left.

We normally don't expect much from the people who serve us. We just expect them to take down our orders and give us our change. If we know that we want anything else, we ask, but the reverse is rare. It is rare to expect to be asked if we want anything in particular. Yet this simple act of concern certainly goes even beyond the extra mile.

The Elusive Starbucks Planner

For the first time in my adolescent life (well, uh, not that I am adolescent anymore), I was able to complete all the stickers in my Starbucks card, which entitles me to a 2006 Starbucks planner and a donation in my name for their charity, Spark Hope.

I completed the card before Christmas... and everywhere I went, the answer was the same: Starbucks Planner out of stock.

What?! Out of stock this early in the promo period? Wow, how many coffee freaks are there in Manila who can afford to buy 21 cups of designer coffee in one month? (I don't fall into this category because I didn't buy all of my coffee!)

I tried again in the New Year. This time, there was an official notice on display, explaining that planners were out of stock due to (I think) unexpected demand.

Unexpected demand?! Wouldn't management have anticipated the demand as a function of the number of red cards they were giving out??? Even if they decided to produce only about three quarters of that amount, I'm sure they wouldn't have run out of stock so early in the game.

Planners to be available in the third week of January...

On the first day of the third week of January (yesterday), I went to the nearest Starbucks and asked for my planner. Delivery was expected at 7:00 PM.

I couldn't believe it. STARBUCKS STILL COULD NOT DELIVER! But what could I do, right? Local customer is very rarely king in these snobby, designer establishments. (Hey, I have to admit, possessing some Caucasian-ness to one's appearance merits special treatment not available to the natives in stores like these.)

I come in at 5:00 PM the next day (today)... ONLY TO BE INFORMED THAT THEY WERE ONCE AGAIN OUT OF STOCK BECAUSE EVERYONE WHO HAD RESERVED A PLANNER ALREADY CLAIMED THEM.

Now why wasn't I offered to reserve a planner? NOT ONCE IN THE THREE TIMES I ASKED ABOUT IT. Not before Christmas. Not after the New Year. Not yesterday. NOT ONE FRIGGIN' TIME!

DID I REALLY HAVE TO ASK? WHY WASN'T IT SUGGESTED TO ME IF EVERYONE ELSE WAS DOING IT?

Customer maltreatment, ipso facto. You draw your own conclusions.

Excerpt from "The Pianist"

Wladyslaw Szpilman's profound reflection the psychological effects of Jewish isolation in Warsaw's ghetto:

"I think it would have been psychologically easier to bear if we had been more obviously imprisoned -- locked in a cell, for instance. That kind of relationship clearly, indubitably, defines a human being's relationship to reality. There is no mistaking your situation: the cell is a world in itself, containing only your own imprisonment, never interlocking with the distant world of freedom. You can dream of that world if you have the time and inclination; however, if you don't think of it, it will not force itself on your notice of its own accord. It is not always there before your eyes, tormenting you with reminders of the free life you have lost."

Friendships

Had lunch with a friend from way, way back. While waiting for our food at the counter, we saw two other friends from college walking in our direction. It was like being in school again: standing in a lunch room and seeing old friends around.

Friends and friendship. One has to have faith to be able to know what comfort these things are. We are mobile creatures, constantly moving on -- from one phase of life to the next, one state of mind and being to another. But friendships are the ties that bind. They are the strings we hold on to and unfurl as we pass from the familiar to the unfamiliar. They guarantee that things are never completely foreign, and that we find some measure of comfort in this familiarity. Because of them, we are able to find home in ourselves, and we are all the stronger because of it.