Director Carol Morley says that owning DVDs and Blu-rays “makes archivists of us all”, as she expresses the filmmaker fear of their movie being deleted.
Director Carol Morley has made an impassioned defence of physical media – and cited the importance of actual disc releases for a director’s films – as her latest feature Typist Artist Pirate King is released on a joint Blu-ray and DVD edition.
The director told industry newsletter The Raygun that having her films removed from a streaming service after leaving one of her films in its hands was her “worst fear”.
Her passionate defence of DVD and Blu-ray formats comes as the creative community and many directors voice concerns over films vanishing without warning from streaming services. That’s even before some studios can finished films before they’re even released.
In a lengthy missive supporting the release of her film, she said that “the idea for the screenplay for Typist Artist Pirate King was conceived in an archive, and I’m convinced that my compulsion to make a film about Audrey Amiss would not have happened if all the materials she left behind, all the artworks and diaries and letters, were digital and on a drive or in the cloud.
“There is something wonderful about the weight of things, holding something in your hand, physically engaging with it. With a DVD/ Blu-ray at your fingertips, you can appreciate the cover artwork, hold the weight of the disc in your hands, knowing that it’s yours to watch whenever you like, for as many times as you like, without the fear of it vanishing.
“While streaming has revolutionised how we watch film and TV, both in terms of access and range, owning physical media gives you utter control over what you get to see and when you get to see it. You are not at the mercy of a streamer removing a film from their platform, which as a filmmaker is my worst fear – both for my own films and for other films I want to watch.
She added that “I suppose you could argue that in some cases (but not all…) if you own a digital download then you will have it forever, but I’m not sure that much is known about a download and its stability and longevity. For me, I’m only truly certain about things I can physically hold close.”
She concluded, arguing that “I wouldn’t want to own everything. I’m happy to watch something once, at a cinema (always my favourite way!) or on a streaming site, or TV, or legally on YouTube – but collecting Blu-rays/ DVDs, makes us all curators, and is a fantastic way of building a personal library of films and television programmes, and that take on a momentum as a collection, and that we can return to at any time.
“And owning physical media also makes archivists of us all, we are literally holding on to something, preserving and conserving it for future generations. As a filmmaker I want my films to reach the widest possible audience they can. We are living at a time when the route for a film release may end with a streamer, and not necessarily have a physical home movie release, so I’m delighted that Typist Artist Pirate King is going to exist as a Blu-ray/ DVD. It enables it to be collected by those that have already seen it, and wish to own it, but also it makes me happy that it will be accessible to a whole new audience who will discover the film for the first time.”
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