I’ve probably said this before, but for my money, one of the most enjoyable blockbuster experiences of the year was “Kong: Skull Island.” Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts gave his giant ape a grand adventure, with plenty of well-staged spectacle. However, if you’re catching up with the movie on HBO, you’re missing out on the full extent of the carefully crafted mayhem.
Vogt-Roberts has hit Twitter and called out HBO for airing an airplane edit of “Kong: Skull Island.” As we all know, airplane edits — boxed in and sometimes censored versions of movies — are hardly are indicative of a director’s intent. Why on Earth HBO, who spend a lot of time and money courting A-list filmmaking talent to work under their roof, would show these butchered versions instead of the real deal movie is a bit baffling. However, Peter Atencio, the director of “Keanu,” weighed in on Vogt-Roberts’ thread, noting that HBO only plays movies in their correct aspect ratio if they’re contractually obligated to.
In short, they assume audiences don’t like those black bars at the top and bottom of their flat-screen TVs:
https://twitter.com/Atencio/status/935368051217723392
https://twitter.com/Atencio/status/935584588474097667
https://twitter.com/Atencio/status/935587466349645824
https://twitter.com/VogtRoberts/status/935589256180805632
This isn’t the only battle filmmakers have had this year with protecting their work. Sony‘s plan to offer cleaned up versions of their catalog titles, removing any objectionable content for sensitive viewers, was met with fierce backlash from many directors. Eventually, Sony offered filmmakers a chance to opt out of the program, and it seems like they’ve scrapped it all together (the website promoting the clean movie program is dead).
As for HBO, it doesn’t seem like rocket science — show movies as they were intended. For a company that prides itself on top-tier programming, it’s bizarre that this is going on.
These guys come off like irritating babies. Once a movie leaves the final edit and enters the market, filmmakers cede exhibition control to networks and distributors. Moviemakers have had their ratios compromised for home viewing since the invention of video. Fair or not, the window to fight your battles closes when you lock final cut. Bitching because you don’t like how your movie looks when it’s playing on a tiny screen on the back of someone’s airplane seat seems fruitless. Maybe just be happy that they chose to watch your work in the first place.
I think more of the point was that HBO, the channel on television, was playing the Airplane cut when they could play the proper aspect ratio.
Yeah I don’t think you read it..at least not well enough. The problem is with HBO, not the airlines.
And why shouldn’t filmmakers be upset? If you’re a filmmaker and people are watching a movie for potentially the first time, you want them to see it how it was envisioned and how it was filmed and made to be seen. Otherwise, people won’t enjoy it as much as they should or they’ll wonder why the movie was so poorly cropped, which distracts from the viewing experience, which may be fine, on a plane, but it shouldn’t happen in the comfort of your own home on a TV screen.
Never said the problem was with the airlines. I 100% understand filmmakers being irked over this, I just think they should maybe share their beef with 1) Their agents and 2) The studio sending out ‘unapproved’ masters to broadcasters and not publicly with HBO’s PR twitter person.
Try creating a work of art and having others mess with it and alter it after the fact. I’m not saying these movies are works of art, just that they are art to the directors and many involved, and I back them 100%.
The dumbing down and complacence of America started in comment sections.
You don’t need to attack me as dumb or complacent, man; as I stated before, I 100% understand filmmakers being irked over these kind of issues, and always support a director’s intended way of viewing their work. My gripe was that these guys thought that the public forum of twitter was the place to air their grievances, rather than with the studio (WB in both cases) who is sending out ‘unapproved’ masters to various outlets.
Nobody is attacking you, ease up, Buttercup.
No one except you, hoss.
Have a good day, Hondo.
Man, what a lame comment. It’s a disgrace that HBO does this, a slap in the face to filmmakers and audiences alike. I pay for HBO Go and routinely have to pay more to buy or rent movies that HBO offers so I can see them as they were intended to be seen. Why you’d be on here defending these soulless, empty suits butchering the work of real artists is beyond me. Why are you so focused on this egregious sin of addressing the issue over Twitter? Are we worried that HBO’s feelings were hurt? Who cares? Maybe it will bring more attention to the issue. Obviously people have addressed it with HBO in the past and gotten nowhere. This idea that this shouldn’t have been brought up on Twitter is just totally bizarre and random. Why in the world not?
Dude I am mot on here trying to piss anyone off. Like I said in other comments, I 100% back the artists’ preferred vision. It is always unfortunate when media outlets display movies not how they were intended. Please chill.
ITS BULLSHIT…..HBO SUCKS BIG DOG!