Terminator, Esmée, and the future of Cinema

Well, I just got back from seeing Terminator: Salvation. It was a pretty awesome movie with lots of neat plot twists and explosions, but I am a self-proclaimed Terminator fanboy (I watch the oldies every few months). Anyways, if you are a fan of big explosions and machines-destroy-world plots, go see it. If not, see T1, T2, and T3 and then go see it.

Also of note, I like the sound of Esmée's latest piece of origional music on youtube. I've posted it below. I started following her videos around when she hit the big time, going from girl singing to webcam in the Netherlands to befrending Justin Timberlake after being "found" on youtube by the American music industry. Give it a listen:



As I was driving back from the other side of town (Cedar Rapids is home right now) after watching Terminator, I pondered over my vision of the future of "the movies". If you know me, you know I am a fan of free media and a believer that the movie and music industries are a bit backwards. The real question is what is the right way forward? Here's my thought (see if it comes true):

I think that the movie industry will eventually come to the realization that the industry and the way people get entertainment is changing drastically. Back in the 1930s when the drive-in movie theaters were a big draw, TV sets were huge boxes almost the size of a refrigerator with 5 inch screens and 2,500 Volt picture tubes. This means that watching a movie on a screen the size of a building is a big upgrade and was easily worth the extra money patrons paid to attend. As technology improved, TV sets got much better by the 50s and 60s and thus the movie theaters changed tactics to stay ahead of the curve. They became fancy affairs providing a more fantastic night-out than sitting in front of a home TV. Plus, at that time, consumers still couldn't take the movies home.

Then fast-forward to the dawn of the videodisk and the VHS tape. Consumers can now take the movie experience home but at a much lower quality than a movie in the theater. It's only standard resolution compared to the general HD-comparable picture (1920x1080) in movie theaters, so they still have a big audience who come to see movies in huge, lifelike quality. Then in the last decades we developed this technology (miniturized it really) so that we can have it at home. The latest revolution allows home users to get movies in full HD resolution if they have a Blu-Ray player and HD screen or projector. This changes the status quo with the theater industry. Now the draw to the theater is being minimized. While theaters can still flaunt new things like many channel surround and resolution the home can't match (Sony makes 4096 x 2160 projectors), these things are costly for the small gain they provide.

I predict that in the near future, movies will basically come straight out to your home. There may be some interum process where for a few weeks you can only watch them with a hollywood-built box or something, but shortly thereafter they will be available for direct purchase. Some movie theaters will survive by having outstanding resolutions and experiences, but the change will be to abnormal types of theater experiences, like IMAX and 3D productions. It will be difficult to make this happen, as there have already been stumbles (real vs. fake imax), but it will happen all the same. It should be interesting.