Not On The Big Screen

[Eldon Stevens]

How the hell did you get interested in THIS website if you don't like to go to the movies? That's like saying you'd prefer to see Renoirs in a coffee table book rather than the Louvre.

 

Tim, my journey to cinematography.com is, in fact, a long, convoluted, often-contradictory story. (With many commas, hyphens, and parenthetical statements.) It would be quite boring to everyone, I'm sure. You can indirectly thank -- or blame -- Mr. Mullen's patronage of this site for my continued attention. I find his stories and information to be compelling.

 

And typically I don't post, because I'm here to learn and absorb, not having much to offer in the way of experience.

 

However, I will address your Renoir comment. It's interesting: I find that a movie can have an emotional impact on me whether I see it in a brand new theater, or on a 20-inch TV, letterboxed. The story is the thing. I saw "In America" on my home theater system, and it was a devastatingly emotional film. Would I have been more moved had I seen it in a shabby theater, with sticky floors and unkempt upholstery, with the theater owner running the projector bulb at 80% because he mistakenly thinks that'll make the bulb last longer? I don't know. Would I have been more moved had it been projected correctly in a brand spanking new multiplex? I don't know. I believe it's highly subjective.

 

But what's not subjective is that this trend is growing. Theaters are in trouble financially, and quite frankly going to the theater is not the same experience that it once was. And, studios want to sell DVDs at the same time a film is showing. More and more people are seeing films on DVD, not after they've already seen them at a theater, but for the first time. And of course, home theater systems are improving. How long until most of the middle class (ah, in the U.S. at least) has a 100-inch flat screen TV? Five years? Eight?

 

I realize that I'm probably in the minority here, as most readers of these forums are in the business and it is their life. But for me, storytelling is the real attraction, and I appreciate the artistry of the DP in that storytelling process. I do. I find the filmmaking process fascinating. But the venue is less important than it used to be.

 

J.