Like to Watch Movies Online? You Are Not Alone - That's the Latest Trend!

In the digital era in which we live, the old ways of doing things are almost anathema. No longer do people actually write paper checks, instead, they swipe their credit or debit cards to keep things moving. Convenience and speed have taken the place of hard copies and slowness. The same is true when it comes to watching movies at home. Rental houses like Blockbuster have seen a dramatic decrease in their profits since movies and the Internet joined forces. Today the easiest thing to do is to watch movies online.

There are a number of sources that allow you to see movies online. Some are free and some are paid services, but things they all have in common is the easy access, immediate gratification, and the total convenience they offer to consumers. While services that still rent physical DVD's still have a wide range of clientele continue to crop up, the future of movies at home has a direct connection to the Internet. While the cost savings for places like RedBox in not having a physical store that needs maintenance and employee staffing, it pales in comparison to the number of people that can be reached using the Internet. It is getting easier and cheaper all of the time, to watch movies online.

Netflix has risen to stardom in recent months because of the popularity of their streaming application. They saw record earnings in 2010 that placed them firmly at the top of the list of the best money making stocks of the year. They have announced that they plan to put a lot of money and work into the area of making more titles available for online streaming in 2011. The biggest complaint that people have with Netflix is the ability to watch movies online that are newly released. Netflix is aware of the issue and has plans to resolve it in the near future.

Another venue to watch movies online comes in the form of the networks themselves. It is now common to offer full episodes online on the network's site after they have aired on television. For many people who do not subscribe to the channels from a cost savings standpoint, if they watch the movies online, or in this case, watch TV shows online, it will give little reason for them to pay the exorbitant fees charged by the cable companies.

As the trend of watching movies online continues to grow, it is likely that we will see other venues arising yet to be imagined. The access most of the people in developed countries have to high speed internet make watching movies online more of a reality than ever before. People are realizing that watching movies online is quickly becoming the most preferred way to see movies at all.

It is hard to say what the future will hold for movies and the internet, but one thing that we can be sure of is that innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit will drive innovation to the point that will make it easier and more profitable for everyone involved. If you have not done so yet, you might consider trying it in the near future. You might just find yourself hooked enough to watch movies online from them on.

Drowning in an Industry That's Circling the Drains

The last film I saw from Scotland being advertised on TV was "N.E.D.S.", while not my cup of tea, I tip my hat to the cast and crew to getting their film made. However the writer and director is well known in the UK, and he's already made a couple of films and been in quite a lot of films too, so it's no surprise that what little money our professional bodies are giving out, went to that director and project.

Again, the Scottish film industry is putting out the same films again and again - dark comedies, or kitchen-sink dramas - "Donkeys" (which had a big hoopla, then vanished!), "Red Road", "Wild Country" (although that was a werewolf horror film that didn't quite work, but Peter Capaldi was excellent) a few years back, Gamerz (a nice original idea yet just vanished after being in Cineworld for two weeks!), "Valhalla Rising" didn't even get a cinema release in it's own country! Hallum Foe flopped, and I'm struggling to name other Scottish films in the last 5 years.

Surely it's time to try different genres? Where are our "Back to the Future", "Ghostbusters", "Scott Pilgrim", "Inception" and even the re-booted version of "Batman" which is filmed in the UK yet, known as an American film. At least "Kick Ass" had a go at it (and again, suffered at the box office, but DVD sales have secured a sequel, "Balls to the Wall").

The UK (or, England) has two massive franchises - James Bond (23 films and counting!) and Harry Potter (I think there will be 8 films by the time the last part is released) and they have made billions and billions of pounds worldwide.

In Holland in 2009, 66 films were made. In Scotland there was about 6. Can you name them? There needs to be a change - different genres, that might be a bit more affordable, to be explored. Romantic comedies like "The Decoy Bride" with David Tennant and Kelly MacDonald, and "Fast Romance", a low-budget romantic comedy with some well known names involved. I just hope for the sake of the latter, a distribution deal within the UK can be found, but I don't doubt for a second they'll get picked up in Europe.

I was told by the head of Creative Scotland in a recent radio interview that I had finished my first film, Night is Day, and what could they do to help me and I was told right now they have no money and that when my movie was finished, it would be my calling card and I was to pitch another movie idea to them then and they'll see what they can do. So I need to make a film first, before they'll help me make a film? So how do I get money to pay all of my cast and crew? Lottery funding? Nope. Max out my credit cards ala Kevin Smith? Nope, not in today's financial market. Give the script to a casting agent and hope that Harvey Keitel reads it and part-funds it and stars in it ala Tarantino? Or make a shock-horror film about zombies in the woods in a cabin and hope that it gets banned in cinemas so a low-key UK distributor buys it and then I'll go on to make Spider-Man 10 ala Sam Raimi?

There is so little support and affection for new talent in Scotland, anybody trying to break through the ranks are stopped at the first hurdle and forced to go think of something new to try. Well not this filmmaker. I've got ideas for films that international audiences will lap up - not ground-breaking, thought-provoking, award winning movies - but fun films where you can go to the cinema for 2 hours (well, an hour and a half, if I have my way...) and forget what's going on outside in the world. Then hopefully like the soundtrack enough to go out and buy it!

So tell me Scotland - what does it take for a rising filmmaker in this country to make it? Will I be forced to move country just to get some recognition?

Surely, I'm not alone in thinking there needs to be a change?

But rest assured, I am not giving up.