I visited the cinema the other day, to watch No Country For Old Men. After the film, everyone I was with had an opinion on what was seen, good and bad, we spoke our words and they beamed across to each others ears, then evaporated into thin air. We then walked off to the car and each went home. How dull.
Was that it? I was thinking. I wanted to leave a comment, for the next person to find. There was no-where for me to do that.
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No number to text,
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No Kiosk to give my thumbs up or down,
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No video booth to leave a rant,
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No community cafe led by a local fanboy of the director to join in a discussion.
Sure the indie art house cinemas, have actor and director post feature discussions. But I wasn’t at one of those. I was in a multi screen complex. Where 10s of thousands of pounds exchange hands and thousands of people filter through every week… and I know these cinemas have a production line mentality, but they’re also fighting the backlash of DVD sales, illegal downloads, and online screenings. Shouldn’t they be embracing the current (forget the new) technology? Rather than putting their hands over their eyes and thinking no-one will notice.
I can’t help but think that cinemas are slow to catch on. Their visitors are used to communicating instantly and hearing, reading, seeing opinions from everyone else before them.
I don’t think it’s enough for any form of media to just deliver anymore… whether that’s books, music, films or stage shows.
How hard would it be to impliment just half of the things I’ve mentioned above? Not much I’m guessing. Maybe one day hey? Until then, there’s definitely no community for old media.
Mark
(Orginally posted by me on Mediasnackers.com, but cross posted here, due to its topic and relavance)
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February 1, 2008 at 10:04 pm
K
This is exactly what I’ve been talking about with my discussion of new models for distribution. The current movie distribution model is all out of whack. It only offers four or five flicks at a time to the consumer, that are normally fairly similar in the appeal. It also offers no real form of interaction with the consumer, other than voting with our feet, what have we got to show our like or dislike for a given film.
In all seriousness, I believe that you could feasibly create a model for “self” distribution that allowed for a greater quantity and quality of flicks on offer at the cinema. Along with this, I believe that you can include local discussion groups and online feedback sessions that gives viewers the chances to interact with the filmmakers. This could even take the form of multi-person video ichat conversations or simply a comment based system.
That would benefit the filmgoer and the filmmaker, instead of some fat cat distributor… all I have to work out is how to generate a revenue stream from such an idea and I’ll be away.
Kieran