Lets all download!!!

I went to see the Gilbert and George exhibition at the Tate Modern on Saturday. I loved it, and was so visually inspired by it, but it got me thinking about technology and what the way forward should be. Sure I loved the work I saw, but bugger me if I am going to fork out £100 for a print. I may as well get my creative juices flowing and do my own thing with Photoshop. Make it personal. Or heck, if I love it enough, find a high res file online and print it off myself!
What I would like more than anything is to be able to down load all the things I love, and this is mainly TV, film, and music. Thanks to the people over at Apple , we now have iTunes which does some TV and whole slew of music for the picking. But what of film?
Sure we can download movies to rent, but what I want it to be able to download a current release right to my pc, convert it to iPod format, and play it through my idiot box.
The movie studios complain about piracy and bootleg movies being sold, but they need to understand why.
When a film like Little Children comes out, with no fan fare, or push by the studios, people have to flock to specialist cinemas to see these films.
Some people cannot even get to these places as they live in bumblefuck nowhere and the only cinema for miles is playing some bloody buggery blockbuster that was slated by critics, but for some reason people flock to see it. For the poor cinema junky who yearns for something more, they either have to move to a city, or do something illegal.
So they go online onto their file sharing software and type in ‘ Pan’s Labyrinth ’. Lo and behold it appears, they click, and it begins to download.
And then what happens is these people get something we others do not. They get to watch a current release in the privacy of their own home. No talkers, loud sleepers, people getting up to pee, kids. They can lie on their sofa, put their feet up, unplug the phone and be transported without interruption.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds plenty good to me.
Some movie just work better in the cinema, you get the large screen, the atmosphere, and the crowd, but others work equally well on the small screen. If I could download Letters From Iwo Jima I would. There are some films (like during Oscar season) that you would never usually go and see, but because of awards buzz you feel obliged. I wasted valuable time seeing Blood Diamond , and Babel , when I would have much rather downloaded the file over night, and caught it the next day, watching it on the sofa, wearing my pj’s and scoffing down hob nobs.

Movies studios need to stop the bitching about piracy and start offering up movies to download. Sure it could spell doom for some of the large cinemas, but that was already happening due to the fact you can install people can now have large flat screen TV’s with surround sound. Cinemas will always exist no matter where technology goes. They just need to be run right.
I am a member of my local Picture House. I can take in a glass of wine, and lay back and not only watch current releases, but older films that they have special showing of. I mean who wouldn’t pass up the chance to watch Cabaret; It’s a Wonderful Life and Gremlins on the big screen on a lazy Saturday afternoon? This cinema is always packed, and always busy because it is managed correctly.
The big studios have an amazing opportunity on their hands. When will they grasp it?