|
Film downloads nothing to stay home for
By Patti Hartigan, Globe Staff, 09/24/99
It's billed as ``the world's first virtual video store,'' a new concept in
home entertainment. The sales pitch goes something like this: Rent a movie on
your personal computer without ever having to leave home. No more staring at
empty shelves on a Saturday night. No more late fees. No more scoldings for
failing to rewind.
This is the future, say the founders of Sightsound.com, an Internet company
located near Pittsburgh that recently began renting films for digital download
on its Web site. Wave bye-bye to your VCR.
Well, I've been to the future, and frankly, I'm keeping the old VCR.
The idea of the virtual video store is great -- if you have a few hours,
or a few days, to spare. A recent visit to www.sightsound.com turned out to be
an exercise in frustration. First, it took forever trying to decide which
movie to rent out of the library of 68 films. Hmm. Should we go for
``Cannibal! The Musical'' or ``Killer Condom?'' Or what about ``The Chosen
One,'' starring Carmen Electra and a few of her playmates?
As it turns out, the company that says it wants to be the Blockbuster of
the Internet isn't exactly offering blockbusters -- at least not yet.
We opted for ``Cyberdorm,'' a film described as ``The Real World'' meets
``Wayne's World'' -- on the Web. We paid $4.95 for a five-day rental; most
one-day rentals cost $2 to $4 on the site.
On a high-speed modem at the Globe, the film took about 45 minutes to
download, which isn't really that bad considering the size of the file. But
remember, it would take hours or days over a 56K or slower modem, in which
time you could crawl to your local video store and back. Oh well, what's a
little inconvenience when you're an Internet pioneer? When the movie was
finally ready to play on the Windows Media Player, there was a slight problem:
The audio and video were out of synch. As one woebegone character lamented,
``I used to have a main squeeze but she dribbled away with my hoop dreams,''
another completely different character was shown on the screen. (Given
dialogue like that, maybe the film was supposed to be off kilter.)
And that wasn't the only glitch. About 20 minutes into the film, the
player just stopped cold, forcing me to close the file. I restarted the film,
but the Windows Media player didn't allow me to fast-forward to where I left
off. Nobody in their right mind would willingly watch ``Cyberdorm'' more than
once, so it was time to come back from the future and give up watching movies
on the computer at work.
``These are early days, and there are going to be problems,'' admits Scott
Sander, Sightsound's CEO and president. ``It's not perfect, but we are scaling
up with a site that shows the promise of Internet distribution of films.''
Sander and his partner, Sightsound's chief technology officer Arthur Hair,
foresaw the dawn of the digital age nearly a decade ago. In the late '80s,
Hair applied for a US patent on the idea of distributing video and music
digitally, and in 1993, he received the patent, which covers the concept, not
the actual technology that makes it work. In January, the firm took action
against two Internet startups that distribute music on line; CDNow is fighting
back in court, while MP3.com simply mocked the complaint by posting
Sightsound's letters on its Web site.
The patent is a bone of contention in Hollywood these days, where all the
major studios are trying to figure out how to distribute their films on line
without leaving themselves open to piracy. Industry analyst Mark Hardie of
the Cambridge-based Forrester Research predicts that the patent won't hold up
in court. ``It's like saying I'm going to patent levitation,'' Hardie notes.
``My theory is that that some day everyone is going to be able to levitate,
and even though I don't know how to do it yet, I'm going to patent the idea of
doing it.''
The folks at the world's first virtual video store aren't exactly
levitating or walking on water yet, but they are, in fact, proving that
Internet film distribution is inevitable. This summer, such films as ``Star
Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace,'' ``Eyes Wide Shut,'' and ``The Blair
Witch Project'' began appearing illegally on line, available for download by
those with the patience to try. ``That was our clue that we'd better build our
business now or they will steal the movies anyway,'' says Sander.
A few weeks ago, Sightsound created quite a stir when it announced an
agreement to distribute a film made exclusively for the Internet by
Metafilmics, the production company that released the Academy Award-winning
``What Dreams May Come.'' That film will only be about 40 minutes long to make
it easier to download, although it may be expanded for a theatrical version
after it premieres on the Web.
The Internet movie, called ``The Quantum Project,'' will be released on
line in May. But for now, Sightsound is trying to build the library of its
virtual video store, which is now limited to cult films, B movies, sports
videos, and a few oldies. ``We want to get to the point where we literally
have every movie ever made in every language,'' says Sander. ``Our job is to
bring the convenience of the Web to the movie rental experience.''
But nonvirtual video stores give refunds. At Sander's suggestion, we
requested a refund from the virtual video store's customer service department;
we haven't heard back yet. The check is in the e-mail, no doubt.
This summer's runaway success of ``The Blair Witch Project'' has left all
the marketing honchos in Hollywood scrambling to think of innovative ways to
promote their products on line. Warner Bros. Records has come up with a scheme
for Adam Sandler's new CD, ``Stan and Judy's Kid.'' For the past two weeks, a
six-minute animated short based on a skit from the record has been viewed 2
million times, making it the most-watched film on the Web. The film, called
``The Peeper,'' is proceeded by a warning for viewers under 17: It ``is the
story of a sick, sick man who says and does things that would get you arrested
or at least grounded for months.'' In other words, don't try this at home. The
film is available at www.adamsandler.com or www.warnerbros.com.
Last week, Newsweek breathlessly announced the dawn of the Internet in a
special section, declaring that we all need to get an ``e-life.'' Well, one
interesting little venture is trying to convince us we need to celebrate
e-death, as well. The company, with a site at www.obitdetails.com, distributes
information about wakes and funerals on line. For a fee, family members can
also publish ``lasting memorials'' on the site. There is already a site for
proud parents to crow about the birth of their babies (www.estork.com), so it
was only a matter of time before we began bookending our e-lives on line, from
e-birth to e-death. Sounds like an e-movie to me.
This story ran on page F11 of the Boston Globe on 09/24/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
|
