How awkward is this: I got a 93%. It’s full of spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the movie, you might want to bookmark this for later.
[The Nines quiz](http://facebook.flixster.com/facebook/jsredirect?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fapps.facebook.com%2Fflixster%2Fquiz%3Fq%3D698618%26red%3D0&message=Generating+quiz)
Based on the syntax, I think it’s made by a non-native speaker. And I’m still not clear what the final (and missed) question is referring to: the poster, “Crime Lab,” or something else.
The LA Times has [a great article](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-thurber20jan20,1,1213177.story?ctrack=1&cset=true) about my friend and former assistant Rawson Thurber, whose adaptation of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh debuts at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. I’ve seen the movie five times, and am ridiculously proud of Mr. Thurber.
Trivia: If you’re watching The Nines, that’s Rawson’s house which gets burned down at the start of the movie. And if you’re watching The Nines on DVD (ahem), the short film God was shot at my apartment off of Melrose, which Rawson later took over.
I probably need to start paying my location scouts more.
There’s been a lot of feedback and reaction on this site and others about my [c’est la vie attitude](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2008/the-nines-on-bittorrent) towards The Nines showing up on BitTorrent. Some felt I was tacitly endorsing piracy (no), while others wondered if I’d feel the same if I had financed the movie, rather than writing and directing it. So I thought I’d address and clarify some of these issues.
I’m not bouncy with joy over my movie getting torrented, but I think it’s a stretch to equate unlawful downloading with traditional theft. As many commenters have pointed out, The Nines isn’t available in any legal form in many countries around the world, nor will it be in any foreseeable time frame. So I have a hard time arguing that a reader in Germany should pay for the movie when there’s no way he could. ((Several commenters have suggested the “tip jar” model, where motivated viewers could contribute to the filmmaker. I don’t know of any successful examples of this form of micro-patronage, but I’d happily be proven wrong.))
But I’d draw a distinction between an individual downloading an otherwise inaccessible movie and the business of piracy.
I get pissed off when I see blackmarket DVDs sold on the sidewalks of Manhattan, because those are literally discs we’re not selling. It’s organized crime. Even the big torrent sites are essentially profiting off others’ work, by selling ads. So yes, I’m mindful that even as I excuse the individual downloader, the system which allows the individual downloader is far less noble.
The pro-torrent argument, particularly for indie films which get limited distribution (like The Nines), is that a torrent allows a lot of people to see the movie who otherwise couldn’t. And yes, a filmmaker wants his work seen.
But he also wants to be paid for his efforts. No matter where you work — an office, a factory, a retail store — you do your job with the expectation of getting paid. If your employer decided he didn’t want to pay you, you’d be upset. If the employer said, “Well, the customers decided to take the products without paying for them,” you’d rightly tell him to get off his fat ass and hire a security guard.
That’s why I have no problem with Sony and the MPAA going after bootleggers and other merchants of ill-gotten films. It’s not just the studios’ right to see that the law is enforced; it’s their job.
But I’d steer the legal machinery towards stopping the true black market — counterfeit discs and camcorder specials — and spend more time coming up with legitimate, convenient alternatives to the torrents, so that’s it’s not any more difficult to find and download a movie legally. ((And legally worldwide. Given the dominance of American media, it’s especially frustrating that cinephiles in Australia and other markets have to queue at the back of the line for movies they’ve seen promoted 12 months earlier.)) Apple’s new rental deal with the studios sounds promising. That and a dozen other efforts could make the market competitive, which will be better for everyone.
On the money
—
The Nines was independently financed. And while the money came from various sources, it all streamed through me. I signed every check. I own the copyright through Confederated Products LLC, which in turn licenses the movie to distributors like Sony, Newmarket and Optimum.
So when I refer to The Nines as being “my movie,” I’m not just claiming artistic ownership as writer/director. It really is mine. So unlawful downloading has a much more direct effect on me for The Nines than it would for the other movies I’ve written, like Go or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
One of the things I hope to do with The Nines — sometime after the writers’ strike, when I can call Sony again — is work with them to release a low-res version of all the source material for The Nines, so budding filmmakers can try their hand at cutting (and re-cutting) a real feature. So I’m watching this first wave of torrents carefully, hoping the people who are downloading The Nines are doing it because they love movies, and not because they want to screw over some mythical The Man. Because to a very large degree, I am The Man in this case.
Since well before our Sundance debut last year, I’ve been curious-slash-paranoid about when The Nines would start showing up on the BitTorrent trackers, the online repository of pirated movies and a few legitimate wares.
It was inevitable that the movie would get bootlegged at some point. The timing was the delicate issue. If it showed up before Sundance, some distributors might be frightened off (why spend x dollars when people are already watching it for free?). If it showed up online before our theatrical release, we could anticipate a hit in ticket sales, and a tougher time selling it overseas.
So for a while, I was checking every day. And nothing.
But yesterday, my Google News Alert feed showed the inevitable had come to pass: there was a DVD rip of The Nines online. Given the subtitles attached (Spanish and French), it was almost certainly the North American retail release, which I haven’t even held in my hands yet. ((We’ve had plain DVD screeners available for months, mostly for journalists and folks in the industry. But they don’t have subtitles, which is why I strongly suspect this comes from the official disc.))
I haven’t downloaded or watched the rip, but I have gotten three emails in the last 24 hours which began, “I recently saw The Nines…”
So it’s out there.
And that’s okay. Not “okay” in the sense of “legal” or “right.” But okay in the sense of c’est la vie. People are going to watch the pirated version, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Sony, Interpol and the MPAA will do their best, but as the guy who made the movie, I honestly want people to see the movie. If the only way you’re going to watch The Nines is illegally, so be it.
In fact, for a writer/director, there’s not a meaningful financial difference between someone watching an illegal download and [getting it from Netflix](http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The_Nines/70066350), which distributes a limited number of discs to a large audience. Discuss.
But as the director, there are some good reasons to steer you towards the physical disc once it [comes out on January 29th](http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FNines-Ryan-Reynolds%2Fdp%2FB000YW8RN6%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Ddvd%26qid%3D1198301424%26sr%3D8-1&tag=johnaugustcom-20).
→ It has a ton of the usual special features: two audio commentaries, a making-of, gallery, deleted scenes (with commentary), and a bunch of Easter eggs.
→ It has one thing I’ve never seen before. For the opening sequence, you can see the script scroll by in the upper half of the screen, matched up to the movie and the storyboards for each shot. It’s a lot to process at once — you’ll probably need to watch it a few times — but it’s very cool.
→ You can loan a DVD, without passing along that troubling knowledge that you’ve done something illicit.
→ If you’re seen buying (or renting) The Nines, you’ll immediately identify yourself as someone drawn to challenging, divisive movies. So make sure to put it at the top of the stack as you slide it across the counter.
→ Hidden in five DVD cases are magical golden tickets. ((This is not true.))
But if these reasons and/or your conscience doesn’t persuade you, it’s not hard to find The Nines online. And I won’t think less of you. Probably.