Op-Ed: Is Scarcity in Art a Good Thing?
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One of the best things about the advent of this here internet is that it opens the airwaves for dialog and opinions of people you would never have heard of without it. It’s how I ended up writing for Awards Circuit and also how I discovered the Operation Kino podcast. For those of you un familiar with OpKino, it’s a podcast that features four film writers, Da7E from Latino-Review, David Ehrlich from Film.com, Katey Rich from Cinema Blend, and Matt Patches of Hollywood.com. On a recent Tuesday episode, they spoke about scarcity in art and it’s merits. It was a fascinating discussion, a topic I’ve often thought about and it seemed like an interesting place to start a discussion.
Scarcity in art is both essential and fickle part of the business. Think of how much tourism is driven from museums housing pieces of art or Broadway with their shows or how Mondo drives their business with limited poster sales. Also, with scarcity, it allows the art to have an aura, meaning the experience will be the much more special, the poster that much more valuable, or the show that much more unique. Art and commerce often find unique ways to interact and making something rare is a simple way to drive the commerce without harming the art. A Broadway show isn’t harmed by the fact by it’s scarcity. However, I do feel like the podcasters missed some key points.
Personally I feel like it is much easier to speak on scarcity in art being a good thing when you live in a place where you get art all the time, even on a limited basis. All four of the podcasters live in New York where they are virtually guaranteed to not have to worry about not seeing the small indie movie, or the exhibit, or the event. If they lived in say Idaho I have a feeling this conversation might go a bit differently.
Matt brings up Broadway performances. As a theater lover who does not live in New York, I can’t tell you how it frustrates me that shows I might want to see close before I can even think to plan a trip. But for the life of me I cannot figure out why they are so resistant to airing filmed versions of the shows or selling them for profit. I think about The Scottsboro Boys, a musical I had the opportunity to see in San Francisco, being the perfect show to be recorded and then showed on some channel like PBS or that would be wonderful to sell. Have all those Fathom event opera specials NOT helped the MET stay relevant in this new age? I think about when Legally Blonde the musical was on Broadway and they broadcast the show on MTV, which helped boom ticket sales and even spawned a reality tv show. I completely understand the creative resasons behind not wanting to broadcast Broadway shows while they are currently on Broadway (especially given ticket prices) but they are not exploring all avenues to broadcast their product.
The most interesting portion of the podcast is when they bring up Mondo posters and Criterion dvds. It has taken me a while to get to this point but as a fan of movie art, I think Mondo poster sales are a sham, and this is coming from someone who owns 4 Mondo posters. I have a Mondo account and have tried about 5 times to get a poster during an online sale and not once gotten one. This doesn’t make me want the poster more, in fact it turns me off to them and makes me angry, especially given the price of the posters. Da7e brought up the concept of taking the hi-res jpegs of the posters and going to kinkos and printing it and in about 5-10 years I could totally see it going that way. Much the same way people can rip songs from Youtube, if someone is that desperate to have the poster, they’ll do it.
All of this is why I feel like Criterion gets it right. The dvd house manages to make their dvds seem special with the custom dvd art work, special features, and a limited series. But unlike Mondo, if the demand is there (and 90% of the time it is) the will release more dads if something is on back order. It is something unique to publishing industries, but an attitude I wish more artists adopted. You don’t have to bend over backwards to appease your fans or people who want your work, but don’t turn down prospective customers simply because you feel that if you don’t the demand will wane.
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