Frame By Frame: The Theatrical Experience

Curt Bright Author

12/17/2015 Added

160 Plays

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Professor Wheeler Winston Dixon discusses how audiences watch movies today and how that is changing the way movies will be made in the future.

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[99:59:59.999]1 00:00:16,613 --> 00:00:22,348 I'm Wheeler Winston Dixon, James Ryan Professor of Film Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and this is Frame By Frame.
[99:59:59.999]2 00:00:22,348 --> 00:00:27,822 And I want to talk for a moment about movie-going in 2015 and beyond.
[99:59:59.999]3 00:00:27,822 --> 00:00:31,675 There's no question that the theatrical experience is in danger.
[99:59:59.999]4 00:00:31,675 --> 00:00:38,036 Only mainstream, big budget movies make into theaters now, and the reason for that is very simple.
[99:59:59.999]5 00:00:38,036 --> 00:00:43,357 If a movie costs $200M to make, that's the movie that they're going to put the advertising behind.
[99:59:59.999]6 00:00:43,357 --> 00:00:49,501 And the more interesting films are going to be shuffled off to streaming...
[99:59:59.999]7 00:00:49,501 --> 00:00:53,858 it used to be DVDs, but now it's just streaming, or video on demand, and things like that.
[99:59:59.999]8 00:00:53,858 --> 00:01:01,875 If people have the option of watching things on laptops, or even on their cell phones, or at home on their flat screen TVs through Netflix,
[99:59:59.999]9 00:01:01,875 --> 00:01:04,455 these are the new content providers.
[99:59:59.999]10 00:01:04,455 --> 00:01:10,494 But the theaters have a real problem keeping an audience and getting people in the theater,
[99:59:59.999]11 00:01:10,494 --> 00:01:17,812 And there's also, of course, a certain element of danger associated with going to the movies that was never there before.
[99:59:59.999]12 00:01:17,812 --> 00:01:24,475 There's an increased number of theatre shootings unfortunately, which have really put a damper on things.
[99:59:59.999]13 00:01:24,475 --> 00:01:26,538 And it's deeply unfortunate.
[99:59:59.999]14 00:01:26,538 --> 00:01:30,890 Right now when you go to the movies, it's become a more rarified experience,
[99:59:59.999]15 00:01:30,890 --> 00:01:33,670 and there's also this... all movies are now digital.
[99:59:59.999]16 00:01:33,670 --> 00:01:36,801 There is no such thing as a "film" film anymore.
[99:59:59.999]17 00:01:36,801 --> 00:01:44,497 When people say they're going to see a film... maybe it was shot on film, but it's projected as a DCP, or a Digital Cinema Package.
[99:59:59.999]18 00:01:44,497 --> 00:01:48,722 Recently the critic Amy Taubin came back from the Cannes Film Festival and said,
[99:59:59.999]19 00:01:48,722 --> 00:01:54,854 "Even if the film was shot on film, it's run as a DCP. There's something missing. There's a certain warmth that's missing."
[99:59:59.999]20 00:01:54,854 --> 00:02:00,513 People like Christopher Nolan, of course, have noted that because they're still shooting on film.
[99:59:59.999]21 00:02:00,513 --> 00:02:06,705 The question is: the theatrical experience can offer you something that no other medium and give you.
[99:59:59.999]22 00:02:06,705 --> 00:02:10,164 As my friend, the late director Roy Ward Baker once said,
[99:59:59.999]23 00:02:10,164 --> 00:02:15,545 When you watch a film on a DVD, you can inspect it, but you can't experience it.
[99:59:59.999]24 00:02:15,545 --> 00:02:19,578 So if you really want to SEE a movie, you have to go to a theater.
[99:59:59.999]25 00:02:19,578 --> 00:02:24,561 And I'm running a course right now.. we're running them on the big screen, which is the way they should be seen.
[99:59:59.999]26 00:02:24,561 --> 00:02:27,591 The audiences see the difference. The students see the difference.
[99:59:59.999]27 00:02:27,591 --> 00:02:31,313 So there really is no substitute for the theatrical experience.
[99:59:59.999]28 00:02:31,313 --> 00:02:36,189 But it's in danger. And what will the future of the theatrical experience be?
[99:59:59.999]29 00:02:36,189 --> 00:02:39,975 We'll have to way and see, but for the main point right now
[99:59:59.999]30 00:02:39,975 --> 00:02:47,721 it seems we're going to have more spectacles, more action and more comic book movies flooding the screens of a multiplex near you.
[99:59:59.999]31 00:02:47,721 --> 00:02:50,942 I'm Wheeler Winston Dixon and this is Frame By Frame.

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