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Movies Online?

Posted by Cliff on from the woe-to-the-cineplex dept.

Crowdpleazr1 asks: "I'm starting to wonder if someday I'll consider going out to a theater to be a quaint experience. I just finished downloading the online-only movie 405, created in the spare time of two visual effects guys, and I thought it was a lot funnier than most flicks I pay money for. On top of that, I've been having a blast watching the choose-your-own-adventure movie, It's Your Movie. With Titan A.E. recently being downloaded to a movie theater, I wonder if all movies will soon become online-only affairs. Is there a business model to support this?" An interesting thought. Do you all think that digital movies may eventually bypass the traditional cineplex and be delivered straight to your home? I would pay for something like that.

2 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. The Joy of Film by skeller · · Score: 5
    Aside from the numerous responses regarding the theater being a social experience (very true -- I tend to see about a movie a week, and always with other people), there is the fact that digital technology is still not up to the par that actual projected film is. I'll grant that it's catching up, but even the very best DVD is only trying to mimic how the real thing looks.

    Additionally, there are new technologies in film that supposedly increase the way it looks dramatically. Maxivision, a system that is projected at 48 frames per second as opposed to the standard 24 may be a major boon to traditional film. Not only do you maintain the richness of color and depth of film, but you get a much sharper picture (particularly of moving objects) as well. Roger Ebert has written pretty extensively about this technology -- you can find one of his articles (not credited) at http://www.cameraguild.co m/news/techno/film_v_digital.htm

    Digital recording and projection will have their uses; digital is substantially cheaper than film, and is already becoming a huge boon to independant filmmakers. Movies that are essentially all digital anyway (Star Wars, any sort of big budget Sci-Fi / Action movie) will also see improvements from never having to touch celluloid.

    The one other topic I'd like to touch on is the fact that so many people seem to be jumping at the idea of on demand movies from the internet as a great way to replace Blockbuster -- what happened to wanting to actually own movies? Did we learn nothing from the DIVX fiasco? Then again I'd love to have a whole archive of movies that I could watch when I wanted to... there are some obscure movies that are essentially impossible to track down without paying insanely high prices, and if the internet could get me a way to see them cheaply, I'd be all for it.

  2. Depends on the format of the film... by Shoeboy · · Score: 5

    disclaimer: I work for AtomFilms.com , but the views express are my own and my employer isn't happy about all the time I spend on /. so I'm unlikely to run this post by them.

    I don't believe that the theater will be obsolete. It's too much fun. My house doesn't have
    1) a concession stand
    2) rowdy kids yelling "focus"
    3) sticky floors
    4) complete darkness
    Some of these seem like nuisances, but I think they're critical to the movie going experience. It's fun. It's not something that you can duplicate in your living room, and not something you'd want to.

    That being said, there are a lot of formats that don't work well in the big theater setting. A 7 screen theater is expensive and really only hollywood features have the financing to support the theater distribution model. Online is a lower cost medium that's very friendly to short films, expirimental formats and interactive technology. But there's a limit to how interactive you can get, you can't reproduce the Rocky Horror experience in your living room, and again, you wouldn't want to.

    Online movies are going to revolutionize the way content is created, marketed and viewed, but it won't kill theaters. There's always going to be a demand to GO OUTSIDE and see a film. I suspect the people saying 'I can do everything in my living room and don't need to leave the house' don't date much.

    Anyway, what online films can and will do is increase the market and exposure for innovative and expirimental films, showcase new technologies, improve audience interaction and empower (I can't believe I just used that word) consumers.

    --Shoeboy