Reaching platform exhaustion? #richardarmitage

[I’m not asserting a single position here, but trying to articulate some conflicts I am feeling at present.]

My general reaction to the announcement of Richard Armitage’s inclusion in Arden’s Wake: Tides Fall was: enervation.

enervated: feeling drained or deprived of energy or vitality; weakened.

Or, in the immortal words of Shakespeare:

This is a little more animus than I feel but I couldn’t find an image with the resolution I wanted. I’m more tired than angry.

The following things are true, in no particular order, but roughly in the order in which I thought them:

I’m enervated.

But

A new Richard Armitage project is, in principle, good for Armitage and good for fans.

Doing things to improve one’s future professional opportunities is, in principle, good for Armitage’s career. This piece could be a stepping stone to more voice work in animated films; perhaps, eventually, even one of Armitage’s Pixar or Pixar-like favorites.

Certainly many people will seek to see this for Alicia Vikander, which will spread awareness of Armitage to industry people.

Certainly some industry and tech people will seek to see this due to the VR format, which will spread awareness of Armitage to industry people.

Pecunia non olet. An actor’s got rent to pay, sneakers to buy.

I want Armitage to pick the projects he wants most to do and to be happy doing them. I realize that he doesn’t have an infinite choice of projects. I don’t think he should pick projects based on what I or anyone else will enjoy most or is most convenient to me or any other fan.

And

I am enervated. I turned the youtube video off after less than a minute.

There’s been this regular issue since The Hobbit of having to chase down a particular format, platform, or experience — starting with 48 fps. In part this happens because artists are interested in new formats and in part because we’re living through one of those huge historical media transition periods and new formats emerge as people seek new sources of profit.

This could lead to greater creativity. It might be leading to greater creativity.

I am not convinced. I wasn’t convinced that (particularly after the first Hobbit film) the frame-rate added much to the films. I see them most often on television without 3D or enhanced fps and I think this is how most people now watch them.

It leads to greater expense — each new platform, each new subscription, each new equipment purchase. Often we no longer own content we buy, but only the right to stream it for the length of the subscription. A friend who I was trying to help navigate the most recent of the problems with a media company said, in no uncertain terms, that we’re being subjected to legalized theft. I know people feel that way about Digital Theatre.

But / and in principle I am opposed to a media platform monopoly. It’s not a good solution to me that a*****.com just take over everything. Monopolies lead to other problems.

It leads to even greater frustration as an international fandom tries to cope with intellectual property issues. It leads to scheming about piracy. It leads to actual piracy. It leads to frustration in fan circles as some pirate to see what they want, whereas others are angry because they are following the rules, or they don’t have access to friends with pirating skills.

It leads to tech problems that leave fans marooned and unable to see content they’ve paid for. It leads to exhaustion on the part of those fans who try to help their friends navigate their tech problems, with which the media companies leave them alone after nominal efforts to assist.

Or it leads to inaccessibility, period. It’s very hard to buy a legal copy of Lords of the North, although there were both traditional and download versions of that, because it seems to be caught in rights limbo. Nobody wants to steal, I think, or plans primarily to steal, but what’s the alternative? It was frustrating in Australia that it took a month for The Hobbit to get there; it was enraging that it took years for Berlin Station to get there; what if Arden’s Wake: Tide Falls never gets there in its original VR format? It’s one thing if you can’t see a play because the journey is too far or too expensive; that’s been true forever. But if something’s available in a hypothetically portable format, but just never makes it somewhere legally, it’s infuriating.

I just don’t know. I feel like since 2011 there is just one long litany of issues like this.

OK, there was always  the question of whether one should buy a region-free DVD player. But after 2012 came the struggle to find the right theater to see The Hobbit in, in order to see it as Jackson wanted it seen. There’s the question of buying content from Audible (and others) in a proprietary format, including titles that are available in some areas and not in others. Stitcher premium subscription, or wait? You can download those files but not to a computer; I’ve put them on my phone in case I need them, but I don’t know if they will still play after my subscription ends or when I change phones. The Digital Theatre fiasco, with a notable number of fans who are marooned despite making multiple requests for help — or just those who haven’t had the time to pursue the reclamation of the material they were told they had purchased permanently. Blenheim Films’ problems with streaming fulfillment. Your relationship with your VPN. Berlin Station and its uneven distribution across the most common television platforms in the U.S.; its non-distribution in the UK despite Armitage’s statements in Fall 2017 that it would be “imminent.”

I don’t think of myself as a tech Luddite (other than hating my cell phone), and the Armitage fandom has definitely taught me a few things. I am emphatically not a victim of the digital divide and I’ve been incredibly privileged to be able to obtain what I wanted and needed so far. But honestly — what does project this mean? More equipment? Another subscription? A trip to a faraway city to see a half-hour short at a convention or a film festival? It’s not like I haven’t made equipment investments before (see: region-free DVD player) or monetary investments (see: Thorin Oakenshield merchandise) or long trips (see: London for The Crucible; Chicago for The Crucible on screen; New York for Pilgrimage; Toronto for Brain on Fire). But this pattern is starting to bug me.

Just writing this post left me feeling: enervated. And I suspect it’s a reaction that’s not going away. I’m too tired to really want to view this project.

If it were video of some kind, I probably wouldn’t be too tired, but I’d be frustrated at either the logistical challenges or the cost, or both. If it were stage, I’d be on pins and needles trying to figure out if I could go. I don’t enjoy those feelings necessarily but they seem “worth it” on some level.

So I know I should be rejoicing about this wonderful new thing but it has just left me feeling tired.

On the upside: Ocean’s 8 is coming!

~ by Servetus on April 28, 2018.