When I was a young would be filmmaker I absolutely loved going to the movies. I loved the sounds, the smells and the anticipation while I awaited first few flickers of a movie. It was an amazing and vital time. Films, while they had much smaller budgets were much larger. The actors were compelling the, the craftsmanship and care giving to that 35mm stream of consciousness was awe inspiring. The problem is that all of the preceding is dying and being obliterated by the onslaught of changing economies, the advancing ease of digital technology, poorly thought out industry strategies and the lack of knowledge of the history of the moving image. There are a group of accomplices who can claim knife plunges into the body cinema. I think its is only fair to shine a light on these folks and let them take ownership of their sins and their culpability in the demise of cinema;
The large theaters operators: For diminishing the film going experience and presenting the epoch of man’s artistic creativity in the physical equivalent in a cattle feed lot. I personally think that they really have got what’s coming to them.
The Hollywood agency system: These are the folks who find it much more lucrative to insist on high fees for their client bases and as well package film projects based on their client roster and the agencies fees they can derives rather than what makes a good movie. The package is more important than story and or plot. They have universally lowered the quality of the movies.
The small theater operator: Who rid themselves of union projectionist, skilled craftspeople who took pride in the fact that the image was in focus, the sound strong and even and that they put on a good show. The replaced their skilled projectionists with part-time popcorn pushers who run maybe six of seven screens at a time. Routinely out of focus pictures, bad audio now seem to be the rule of the day.
The independent distributors: These folks decided that DVD and VOD would make a quicker buck and that they could spin more product into the market by forgetting the theatrical venue. This is an ill-fated strategy, they have closed off the theatrical market to independent product because of their short sightedness and now are forced to take what they can get.
The large distributors: Jaws got released to 900 screens and did very well. You folks decided that releasing a film to 3500 screens was a sound strategy, well maybe for the short term but in the long run you have manged to control screens that should have gone to alternative and independent product. You have squeezed out the cinematic oxygen and have made the market barren.
Newspapers: Most newspaper have laid of their film reviewers and reporters, in fact have diminished their entire arts offering. You have told the world that movies really are not important and do not have a local perspective or dimension. The reviewers that do exist today, can be easily bought for a plane ticket and a dinner. The public no longer trusts the headlines of these corrupt observers. They are no longer valid.
People can blame technology, technology always changes and for the most part should enhance a strong market. While the about mentioned perpetrators let the ball drop, flat screen TV’s have come into the market, and with some of the advances in home theater technology present an image which is often superior to the one screened at the local movie house.
In a nutshell, movie going in a theatrical environment is doomed. The theater going experience has been massively mismanaged and abused. Ask yourself a simple question in what place today would films like “Three Days Of the Condor” , “The Graduate”, and “The Godfather” find themselves in today’s market place. It is a gloomy picture.
There is hope, and that hope is that filmmakers and film goers demand that in the emerging single screen theaters that are popping up in family rooms across American, that care and forethought are applied to presenting and marketing movies. My fondest hope is that again, film-goers shall await with great hope the start of a movie.
I shall miss going to a theater to see a movie, I shall miss standing in line excitedly. Movie going will never be as good or as fulfilling.
How many of you saw “Raiders” in a 1200 seat theater? I did. How many of you saw ‘Star Wars” in a 650 seat theater built in 1923? I did. How many of you waited in line waiting for “Empire ” to be screen at a 1600 Cinerama theater and had to wait til the 9:30 show because the 7:00 PM show was sold it? I did. I was very lucky and for the generation of film fans that follow me, I am sorry I know what your missing.
We once had an amazing film going culture and I for one am missing it dearly. Shame.
