FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Talking pictures

Talking pictures

The film industry is undergoing yet another monumental change with the advent of streaming. Three directors discuss whether it can survive

TALKING pictures 
  THE FILM INDUSTRY IS UNDERGOING YET ANOTHER MONUMENTAL CHANGE WITH 
THE ADVENT OF STREAMING. THREE DIRECTORS DISCUSS WHETHER IT CAN SURVIVE
  PARINYAPORN PAJEE
THE NATION

EVER SINCE the Lumiere brothers showed their moving pictures to the public in 1895, the movie world has itself been on the move. The industry has constantly evolved across all dimensions from storytelling to camera type, crew size and even the audience. Indeed, big screen entertainment has been disrupted so many times that studios have lost count, weathering such storms as the advent of television, the age of the video tape and DVDs to today’s digital technology and now they face new challenges – streaming and the tiny screen of the smartphone.
“Moving forward for me doesn’t only mean going forwards, it means change all the time, forwards as well as backwards,” says director Sophon Sakdaphisit, who was behind such hit horror flicks as “Laddaland” and “Phuan Thee Raluek” (“The Promise”). Sophon is now working on “Khweng” (“The Stranded”), the first Thai original Netflix series.
“When I think of ‘moving forward’ in the Thai film industry, I see that many filmmakers are shifting to work for online streaming and also for television. Even though there is more demand thanks to the increase in digital television channels and online content like Line TV, demand and supply are badly out of sync. The budget is tight and consequently, the outcome is not as good as it should be,” says director Kongdej Jaturanrasmee.
But the transformation isn’t just related to platform choice. Content also plays a role. 
Trends, at least in the Thai film industry, travel in a circle. For example, sometimes horror stories with a twist are really popular and studios release a slew of films with that kind of plot. Then the audience gets bored and so the productions shift to horror dramas. But before long, boredom sets in again and it’s back to horror with a twist. The other aspect is the platform, with new ways of watching catching the audience’s attention and filmmakers struggling to find ways to adapt their work to survive.
Yet there’s nothing new about having to adapt to change. Remember how filmmakers protested the move from reel film to digital formats and how they insisted that the reel film had an intrinsic beauty that digital couldn’t provide? Audiences were less troubled by the switch and soon got used to it.
These days though, the biggest challenge comes from the shift in going to the cinema to catch films on the big screen to watching content on a tablet or smartphone.
“The emerging of streaming is another major disruption. In the past, watching a movie in the cinema was bliss. I love the magic of the big screen so watching a movie in the cinema is still my first choice. But when you ask younger generation who grew up watching on tablets and smartphones, they don’t feel the same way at all,” Sophon says.
Sophon adds that for a long time he couldn’t understand how anyone could watch a movie on such a small screen but sees why many people prefer to watch films in the comfort of their homes by casting them on the television screen.
“Young people only go the cinema with a friend if it’s a special occasion,” he says.
Kongdej agrees, adding that the whole movie process needs to be adjusted while acknowledging that it won’t be easy.
“The movie is a cumbersome medium throughout its entire process and requires a lot of manpower at every step right up until the release. Other media are on-demand and resource light. Sure there are platforms that are less dependent on others like cinema owners but you need to fight to survive on your own,” he says.
“And because the movie is so big, the investment risk is greater too, meaning that producers and filmmakers tend to play safe.” adds director Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit.
“Working for the small screen is less of a profit risk so we can focus more on creativity. But I don’t the studio movie is becoming extinct. Adjustments are always being made, and successfully too. Hollywood studios are staying relevant by creating more IMAX films that give off a sensation that a small screen simply can’t provide.” 
Nawapol believes that the biggest disruption to the movie is not the growth of streaming but the amount of entertainment choices available today. 
“Young people love watching YouTube or playing online games instead of going to a cinema. It’s fun and free because they can stay home enjoying it. Those forms of entertainment distracts them from movies,” says Nawapol.
All three are adamant that when marketed properly, the magic of the movie still attracts, citing Hollywood and Marvel Studio use of the “event movie” like “Avengers: Endgame”. By drumming up so much hype around the release, audiences rush to see the movie on the very first day for fear of being left out of what people are talking about
“Studios like Marvel plan many years ahead and they have a new ‘event’ film every year. Unfortunately for our industry, the nearest thing we have had to an event film was ‘Pee Mak Phrakhanong’ and that was released six years ago. It happens once in a while, every 10 years or so which is not enough to boost the Thai movie industry as a whole,” says Nawapol.
“People of my age still love the cinema, but we can’t stop the fast development of technology or force the audience to only watch movies at the cinema. The only thing that we as filmmakers can control is make good content no matter what kind of platform we are catering to – big screen or streaming.”
So is it possible that streaming will replace cinema?
“Ask people of my generation and is answer is ‘I don’t think so’. But for the generation growing up with the small screen, of course it’s possible. We know from what has changed in the past, from film to digital, from the big screen to the small screen, that anything can happen. All we can do is be ready to adapt,” says Sophon.
 

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