The Buy Physical Media Discourse comes and goes, so here's a quick breakdown:
1. "Yeah, well, discs decay and the technology to play them may stop working, so what's the point!"
Archivists and collectors have been playing stuff that wasn't even playable WHEN NEW. But you need the recordings.
1. "Yeah, well, discs decay and the technology to play them may stop working, so what's the point!"
Archivists and collectors have been playing stuff that wasn't even playable WHEN NEW. But you need the recordings.
Comments
Most people in the silent era didn't have money or space for the home formats that were available. 16mm and 9.5mm projectors weren't in every home or community center. But I am sure glad they were SOMEWHERE.
I get this a lot less in the era of Zaslav but it used to be super common in the past. The sweet, innocent times.
Why are most silent movies lost? Because the studios that made them pulled in all the copies and junked them.
Okay, most silent film releases sell in the dozens and barely break even. They are being made legally available and even a few stolen copies hurt the bottom line.
Source: Me. I kickstarted a silent film home media release.
Yes, it's real. Yes, I saw it. Yes, I laughed my head off. Yes, I was blocked.
Whether or not you answer the call today is up to you.
Intro your kids, nieces & nephews to these films as young as possible!
My 3 1/2 year-old LOVES Buster Keaton. I’m confident his early fandom will help keep these movies around for another generation.
WHO is dumb enough to use that as a valid point?!
There's also the time the *entire* DuMont archive was dumped into the New York Bay in the 70s.
on a streaming service, they simply click a button and you no longer have it
There was an article on Discogs about preserving CDs and DVDs (CD rot is a thing) to preserve them, too.