Slashdot Mirror
The Shutting Down of FilmStruck and the False Promise of Streaming Classics (newyorker.com)
The FilmStruck indie, arthouse and classic film subscription-streaming service will shut down next month, Turner and Warner Bros. Digital Networks announced this week. The New Yorker's film critic Richard Brody writes: The site isn't accepting any new subscribers, and it's a good bet that it won't be adding films, either. In the year and a half that I've been offering recommendations here of movies to stream, FilmStruck titles have featured prominently. One could keep busy, happy, and cinematically sustained for a long time on the sole basis of FilmStruck movies, and all the more so with the inclusion of movies from Turner Classic Movies. (The movie diet wouldn't be an entirely balanced one: the site does poorly with such domains as American independent filmmaking, African cinema, and the past forty years of film history. Its over-all flaw is its reliance on recognized classics: the programming of the site is more responsive than it is proactive, and it might have been improved by more personalized, idiosyncratic selections that would have made it more like a permanent online film festival.)
The site instead offered various modes of promotional outreach. Some, such as essays, and some home-produced videos, were significant works in themselves, but the site over all diluted its offerings with a home page of diversions and distractions that felt like a tawdry sampling of multiplex ballyhoo raising an unwelcome racket amid the art-house tranquillity. That conspicuously commercial waiting room to the classic-cinema library suggests the culture clash at the heart of the enterprise, the one that arises from its odd original fusion of Criterion with TCM, which was then a part of Time Warner -- and which foreshadowed its doom. That air of doom arises from more than the inherent conflicts of the high-culture outpost and the mass-market colossus. Slate's arts and culture critic Joanna Scutts writes: FilmStruck did not care who you were: It set out to teach you something new, not just to feed you more helpings of what you already know you like. It employed a team of smart women and brought in directors like Barry Jenkins to record short, passionate introductions to films they loved. Its personality shone through tightly curated collections, from a timely gathering of all the previous incarnations of A Star Is Born, to a larger batch of Japanese horror titles, to deep dives into a particular director or cinematographer. It offered up inventive double-feature pairings and led you through its extensive archives in ways that were creative, cheeky, thought-provoking, and unpretentious. It made it clear that a passion for art-house and classic film was not exclusive to old white men. That kind of personality, that kind of discoverability, that kind of curation, can't be replicated by an algorithm. It takes time, money, and effort. It takes thought and education. It takes human beings.
The site instead offered various modes of promotional outreach. Some, such as essays, and some home-produced videos, were significant works in themselves, but the site over all diluted its offerings with a home page of diversions and distractions that felt like a tawdry sampling of multiplex ballyhoo raising an unwelcome racket amid the art-house tranquillity. That conspicuously commercial waiting room to the classic-cinema library suggests the culture clash at the heart of the enterprise, the one that arises from its odd original fusion of Criterion with TCM, which was then a part of Time Warner -- and which foreshadowed its doom. That air of doom arises from more than the inherent conflicts of the high-culture outpost and the mass-market colossus. Slate's arts and culture critic Joanna Scutts writes: FilmStruck did not care who you were: It set out to teach you something new, not just to feed you more helpings of what you already know you like. It employed a team of smart women and brought in directors like Barry Jenkins to record short, passionate introductions to films they loved. Its personality shone through tightly curated collections, from a timely gathering of all the previous incarnations of A Star Is Born, to a larger batch of Japanese horror titles, to deep dives into a particular director or cinematographer. It offered up inventive double-feature pairings and led you through its extensive archives in ways that were creative, cheeky, thought-provoking, and unpretentious. It made it clear that a passion for art-house and classic film was not exclusive to old white men. That kind of personality, that kind of discoverability, that kind of curation, can't be replicated by an algorithm. It takes time, money, and effort. It takes thought and education. It takes human beings.
"It made it clear that a passion for art-house and classic film was not exclusive to old white men"
WHO CLAIMS THIS?
I haven't even finished watching "Black Mirror" on Netflix, or "The Motorhome Experiment" on Youtube, or any of the movies I have waiting to watch. I have video games that I bought, still in their shrink wrap because I didn't have time to play them. I always mean to go back to that excellent restaurant I ate at, but it will probably go out of business before I find the time to return to it. I'll probably end up watching the Incredibles 2 in some flight on a tiny screen in the back of the seat in front.
Too many options to entertain in my time, and too little time for all the options.
Classic Turner you say? Pass.
I never thought you could fit so many dog whistles and virtue signals into a single Slashdot summary. It's a wonderful achievement in its own accord.
This really goes to show the weakness of streaming. Sometimes a company is streaming exactly what you want, and owns the content - but will just decide to shut down that access anyway because they don't see quite enough profit in it.
That is why, even though it seems like madness these days, I still prefer to buy a handful of movies I really want to see again off and on.
You can even imagine some distant future where a corporate AI conglomerate that takes over Netflix vanishes some Netflix original content you enjoyed, for some inscrutable reason...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
...it's to buy and own your own media.
Don't misunderstand me. This service sounds like something to which I'd have subscribed, had I known about it. I have no idea why the service shut down, but you can bet it was due to licensing arrangements and the like. All you know is that you are now deprived of something valuable.
I know that streaming is the shit right now, and that guys like me who still buy audio and video discs and run their own home media servers are viewed as retrogrades. On the other hand, I'm not subject to the caprices of those who run those services, or those who cause those services to be shut down. I get to watch La Jetee any time I like.
Here's hoping FilmStruck comes back, or something even better replaces it.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, write technology blogs.
They had better advertising when closing down then any other time, I probably would've signed up if I'd known.
Obsession with skin color is a red flag, and probably means they're willing to sacrifice quality to satisfy it. It's very likely that nothing of value was lost here.
The truth of it is that the site was propaganda. Movies selected by the left and anything that the elitist left don't like won't be shown.
THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES KEN DOLL YOU DISHONEST NAZI FAGGOT
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
I've never even heard of it before today, but I still know exactly what happened to it.
I don't know why you think you would be zapped, those are all excellent examples (especially Song of the South!).
A company has the right and means to bury something if they so choose, but if you have a real copy yourself you can play (and better duplicate to back up) then future waves of madness hold little power over your entertainment.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
There was once a time when literal retards were not welcome on Slashdot. But now you're here.
THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES KEN DOLL YOU DISHONEST NAZI FAGGOT
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES DISHONEST NAZI FAGGOT KEN DOLL Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
I say 'Congratulations, you have just proven yourself to be racist, and sexist', and I'm not even white.
BTW, you continue to live in America - so stop trying to signal virtue, its like smoking a cigar while explaining to children how to live healthy..
Though it doesn't carry the criterion collection, mubi.com has a similar rotating carefully curated art film selection with bonuses, and will fill some of the gap -- and for those who hadn't heard of FilmStruck before this shutdown may be a good place to start.
Well, Richard, why don't you start up your own fucking streaming site then? I mean, since you think that adding all of that is so fucking easy. I'm sure you'll make a goddamned fortune.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Granted, I spend zero time looking for the next cool thing, but I had never heard of this service before, and I probably would have subscribed had I known about it. My kids are too young to watch some of my favorite movies from when I was a child, but so many of the classics that used to be shown on Turner Classic Movies are appropriate for many ages, and those films are not available on Netflix or Amazon. Looking at the comments, the management completely missed an entire category of film buffs. More "old white men" subscribing to the service might have kept it afloat. I bet they had interesting advertising algorithms.
Make love, not reality television.
Why do I only hear about a lot of cool-sounding online services when the notice comes across Slashdot that they are shutting down? It happens all the flaming time.
I resent the use of the phrase "old white men" - a tryptych of abuse- to describe something you don't like. Hyper-liberal women really push women's privilege when they use this odious combination to describe men. They don't expect to be taken as hypocrites.
E Proelio Veritas.
It employed a team of smart women
It made it clear that a passion for art-house and classic film was not exclusive to old white men.
Gee, with an approach like that, how could it fail????
Sad to see my subscription end. Very high quality films without ads. Some complained about streaming problems, but I never had any.
The reason: owner TimeWarner is going into the Hulu business and doesn't want any competition from itself. I quit cable and got Filmstruck because I was spending most of my time on TCM anyway and Google Fiber was gigging me on the TV bill again.
AT&T and Warner Bros also pulled the plug on a service called DramaFever that showed Korean dramas without any warning what so ever. When I found out they shut down that service, I was so upset! That was my escape from everyday life. Those scumbags have gained my animosity and I won't be buying or watching anything from them.
When it comes to movies they fall under copyright and there is a reason we have those laws.
That is a great point, after the expiration of copyright I agree that a company no longer has the right (moral or otherwise) to bury something... of course that means someone elsewhere has to have kept the material to release it, but at least they can...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It made what could have been an article about streaming services, how they are managed and advertised, became a SJW discussion.
Old guy here, I have seen pretty much every old movie so there's not much missing for me. No need to watch Ben Hur or Singing In The Rain three times a month. Now what would interest me are old movies ***rarely*** shown if any. If want to watch Diana Dors and Mamie Van Doren movies, probably buy the DVD. Trudyscousin posted about buy your own discs which many perceive as retrogrades but with your own media you have control.
Regarding old movies, back in the 1950s there were several major movie studios and something like 400 movies per year were produced. I'm sure many were stinkers but there probably some films that if were seen again probably be highly acclaimed. I think many of those films are long gone due to deterioration. If film still good, it could be the copyright owner still demands huge sum of money to have it broadcasted (note that copyrights never expire i.e. Mickey Mouse court rulings). But then there's some renegades out there that taped on VHS back in 1980s when TV stations showed old movies late at night. Occasionally someone will post on a list videotape copy for sale.
mfwright@batnet.com
I knew DJT was a deplorable POS the moment he announced his candidacy. And he did nothing but enforce my conclusions about him.
The real reason it's shutting down because Hollywood doesn't want the new generations to see the old movies in order to compare them to the crap the studios put out today.
Being an old white having 3 girlfriends (with benefits) in their mid 20's mostly because men (boys) their age are jerks. And I'm not. I win.
Yeah yeah yeah, we know the reason they ACTUALLY hang around is because your old ass has a steady hydro prescription, but keep telling yourself it's cause you're a "real man".
As an old white guy I can say I enjoyed watching movies from around the world and that spanned the generations. I had at least 1 more year of serious mining of their collection, maybe longer as they kept adding new stuff.
As for buying watching movies, I found I don't watch many movies more than one or twice. Some I do, but those are definitely the minority. FilmStruck was a great resource. I hope someone else will pick up the banner once they are gone!
-- Many men would appreciate a woman's mind more if they could fondle it
Helps a lot, you know.
Granted, I spend zero time looking for the next cool thing, but I had never heard of this service before, and I probably would have subscribed had I known about it. My kids are too young to watch some of my favorite movies from http://trichejeuxmobiles.onlin...