
The Shawshank Residuals - yarapavan
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304536104579560021265554240
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diego_moita
Shawshank Redemption is one of the most "American" of all movies, the movie
Frank Capra allways wanted to make but never did.

When I first saw this movie, in theaters, in 1995 I found it highly enjoyable,
with a narrative very well built, but certainly not a classic. It is very
conventional and I didn't see anything revealing or innovative about it.

Now I understand that its virtues are exactly its conventionalism. Its message
is the same belief that drags people to churches and self help books:
"preserve and you will prevail". The storytelling is perfect: a slow and
steady stream of setbacks until a liberating end. It has a Morgan Freeman
voice over, what can be more reassuring than this? That voice is so reliable
that the man played the role God more than one time and Nelson Mandela.

Whenever you're unsure, confused and insecure about what you think or believe
"Shawshank Redemption" is the most reassuring and comforting of all movies.
Not even Frank Capra could do better.

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findjashua
'persevere', and you will prevail

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anigbrowl
On the other hand, screenwriters are strongly advised to make sure their
protagonist ends up in a jam...

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findjashua
ba-dum-tss

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pp19dd
> Mr. [Stephen] King never cashed the $5,000 check Mr. Darabont sent him for
> the right to turn his story into a movie. Years after "Shawshank" came out,
> the author got the check framed and mailed it back to the director with a
> note inscribed: "In case you ever need bail money. Love, Steve."

That's ... incredible.

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waterlesscloud
King offers a number of his stories to student filmmakers for non-commercial
use for $1.

[http://stephenking.com/dollarbabies.php](http://stephenking.com/dollarbabies.php)

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anigbrowl
Thanks for that - a bunch of good ideas in here.

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anigbrowl
_" Shawshank" was an underwhelming box-office performer when it hit theaters
20 years ago_

This is something to bear in mind when advocating shorter copyright terms or
arguing that the market will establish the 'right' price for some piece of IP.
Studios cross-subsidize pictures all the time as a matter of fiscal necessity.
While _Shawshank_ has proved to be a very reliable money-spinner and secondary
& tertiary market rentals thus subsidize lesser films, in turn it is because
of the residual income from other films that films such as _Shawshank_ get
made and have theatrical releases. Packaging films in the distribution cycle
is a risk mitigation strategy: if every film had to be the subject of an
individual deal then fewer and more (aesthestically) conservative films would
get made, because neither producers' expectations nor release audiences are
good guides to the long-term performance of a film. The same is true in many
fields of the arts. Insistence on equating the commercial of cultural products
with artistic merit promotes the lowest common denominator of whatever
performs best in the initial release window, and 'whatever performs best' is
typically a function of the marketing budget, which these days makes up about
50% of a film's headline cost.

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acabal
That's all well and good, but copyright doesn't exist to promote the possible
financial viability of art owned by megacorporations for centuries, nor does
it exist to promote financial subsidies for other art. It exists, according to
the Constitution, "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts ... for
limited times".

Even if it did exist for the purpose of generating profit versus promoting
culture and progress, I feel like many (except, of course, said
megacorporation) can agree that its current incarnation is for a ludicrously,
damagingly long amount of time.

In either case I'm not weeping for Hollywood; it's not like they've never made
anything but a staggering profit regardless of copyright era, and if your
argument is true then I'd rather have a handful fewer movies made than bow to
the eternal stranglehold on all culture the current copyright regime entails.

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rayiner
> the purpose of generating profit versus promoting culture and progress

That's a false dichotomy. Promoting culture and progress is the end, but the
means is creating a property right the value of which is, like every property
right, the possibility of generating a profit.

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coldtea
Depends on your theory regarding arts and profit.

For others, including prominent art critics (of the European persuassion at
least), "culture and progress" can mostly be harmed by profits.

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anigbrowl
Speaking as a Euro who works in the arts, I certainly prefer that art take
priority over profitability if push comes to shove, but I'm also keenly aware
that if there's no profit there won't be as much funding for the art.
Subsidies are sort of a nice idea and I think there's a role for them in
production financing, but they're a double-edged sword - they may help some
deserving projects get made, but only at the whim of the subsidy-dispensers,
which gets you back to a patronage system.

As well as working in film, I also enjoy opera, and I'm struck by how the San
Francisco Opera does _Tosca_ almost every damn season, presumably because
someone on the board or high up on the donor list really loves it. Yeah, it's
a great opera, but there are hundreds of operas and even a moderately large
and well-financed company like the SF Opera only does about 12 productions in
a year. They aim for a mix of reliable favorites and interesting new
works/productions, but the near-permanent presence of _Tosca_ on their
calendar is a reminder of how badly patronage can skew things. By rights, it
ought to be staged every 5-6 years; having it on stage almost every year means
proportionally fewer productions of other great Verdi operas such as _La
Traviata_.

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fleaflicker
The writer/director had a chance to flip the rights for a huge profit and
turned it down so he could make the film:

 _Mr. Darabont said he took a night to think about it. "But it was never an
option," he said. "Most of it boils down to, 'Why are we here?' That was a
passion I was very determined to pursue and not just sell to the highest
bidder."_

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wallflower
I think we all love when the "underdog" wins! This has been posted on HN in
the past. Enjoy!

"A partial visual history of sugru"
[http://sugru.com/us/story](http://sugru.com/us/story)

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jevinskie
By the way, I have heard high praises for the Halloween tours (I'm not sure if
they are "scary" tours or not) that the Mansfield Penitentiary offers every
year. If you're in the area in October, you might want to check it out.

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drdeadringer
Like 'Casablanca' for many, 'Shawshank Redemption' is "my movie' of sorts to
keep quoting from -- at least in terms of being uplifting. "I guess, I just
miss my friend", "Everyone in here is innocent", and "Get busy living, or get
busy dying", for example.

But maybe that's because I'm Irish.

