“The Hollywood director, Ridley Scott, warned yesterday that new technology is killing off the big-screen experience. The Oscar-winning County Durham-born movie mogul said mobile phones and computers threatened movie-making on an epic scale,” Raymond Hainey reports for The Scotsman.
“He insisted that the best way to experience great film was still in a cinema with a big screen and state-of-the art acoustics,” Hainey reports.
“Scott launched the attack at the prestigious Venice Film Festival, where he unveiled a newly remastered version of his 1980s sci-fi classic Blade Runner,” Hainey reports. “He said: ‘People sit there watching a movie on a tiny screen. You can’t beat it, you’ve got to join it and deal with it and also get competitive with it. But we try to do films which are in support of cinema, in a large room with good sound and a big picture.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “doc” for the heads up.]
This would all be well and good if not for these facts:
• Our 60-inch screen viewed from 10 feet away is perceptually larger than any movie theater screen this side of IMAX.
• Our 60-inch screen viewed from 10 feet away looks better than the one at the movie theater.
• Our 60-inch screen is available immediately, without a drive, parking, waiting in line, etc.
• Our surround sound system sounds infinitely better, especially since we don’t have to listen to people continually jabbering about nothing in the rows surrounding us. Movie theaters too often supply the wrong kind of surround sound.
• Our seat is more comfortable and nobody’s freakish height, goofy hair, or ugly hat is blocking our view.
• Our popcorn didn’t cost US$8 (and wasn’t stale) and our $5 large vat of Diet Coke isn’t watered down by half and we didn’t have to wait on a woefully under-staffed line for half an hour, missing the previews and the first five minutes of the movie, when – at those prices – we should’ve been served immediately upon entrance by a fleet of servants kneeling before us dispensing rose petals.
The movie business is broken. That’s why 25-cents worth of popcorn costs $8 and 15-cents of soda costs $5 and why we stay home to watch more often than we go out to the movies.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s famous 60-second “1984” television commercial, in which – ironically – an individual rebel destroys a large movie theater-like screen, was directed by Ridley Scott.
[UPDATE: 12:27pm EDT: Revised comments to remove theoretical names of people who may be jabbering at the movies so as to not distract some from the topic at hand.]
I have yet to be in a movie theater with “state-of-the-art” acoustics….
Fine then, kill cinema. But first kill the pile of shit they call TV
Paid 22 bucks for my wife and I to see a movie on Saturday, over 15 minutes of trailers and commercials. I kept trying to hit the menu button so I could start the movie.
Oh and the print had a big line down the right hand side and the color was off on reels 2 and 3.
Sorry the cinema experience has been kicked in the ass by my plasma and surround sound at home.
P.S. – I don’t think 3D glasses are the answer.
Funny, I thought crappy plots and over-reliance on franchises/sequels were killing cinema.
You mean the big screen experience of screaming kids and smelly parents?
You mean the big screen experience of jackasses who wont turn their phones off?
You mean the big screen experience of tiny seats made for 3rd grade pygmies?
You mean the big screen experience of 12 dollar popcorn and cups of ice with a splash of pop?
You mean the big screen experience of 35 minutes of adds before the previews even start?
I’m wondering where the hell you’ve been, Ridley, because my cinematic experience was ruined a long, long time ago.
-c
MW: ‘history’ (will teach us nothing)
It is all about money. The reason theaters have a poor experience and over charged concessions is because the movie makers screw them.
Most theaters make their money from the concessions not the movies. So they have enough to operate, but not to keep up or upgrade.
I love movies but just like the music industry, they are working on broken model, and they need to find a new model, not whining about losing their current model.
Unfortunately I do have to agree with Mr. Scott here. Cinemas are the best way to enjoy movies, even if you get strange and roudy people there as well.
And Home Cinemas with 60″ screens are great too. If you can afford it.
But I think Ridley Scott’s problem is with ‘TINY’ mobile phones and computer screens. That I can understand.
I mean Films (even if they are rubbish) like Transformers do impress more on a big screen with great sound, be it cinema or Home Cinema, rather than a mobile phone with tinny speakers, or even watching it on an iPod.
Now tell me, that’s not true!
I agree with MDN, and would add that the movie theater experience is stuck in the ’80s, just as the music industry, and indoor malls.
I would HAPPILY pay $8-$10 (or, say, $20 or so for a ‘site license’ to invite peeps over) to watch first run movies AT HOME on my fantastic 1080p LCD. My couch is infinitely more comfortable than any friggin’ seat in a movie theater!! And, I don’t have to constantly “shush” people (or tell them to STFU if shushing doesn’t work). On demand first run films, movie studios, that’s where it’s at!!
You people just hate people…
Nothing beats the cinema – as long as there aren’t a***holes in the audience (and where I live they thankfully are few)
I would enjoy movies in the theater a lot more – if there were a better selection to justify the $50 I have to spend for 3 tickets, food, etc. – –
Start with banning Cuba Gooding, Jr. in movies…
Cinema is far from dead judging by the record profits of some movies today. But MDN is right as far as the food prices and the non-existent service.
Obviously, he’s been going to the wrong theaters. I recently found an AMC Premium theater near where I live (a few in the country). They only seat maybe 200 or so, but it’s only for 21 and over and has humungous seats…even has benches if you want to snuggle.
I’ve seen two kiddie crossover (Transformers, Pirates of the C) movies there and it was a fantastic experience, visually and audibly.
Well it all depends on where you live. I live in Effingham Illinois and you have to drive 23 miles to watch a movie on a decent screen with decent sound. Bad movie theaters are also responsible for killing the cinema experience
Exactly.
I’m sitting next to a big, fat, mouth breathing, scene commenting, white guy who took all the arm rest with his fatness. He kept checking his cell phone and talking and mouth breathing through the movie. He also wore his keys on a neck chain. so every time he moved his keys jiggled.
I would gladly never go to a movie again. I would pay 50 bucks to buy a HDVD or Blue Ray if they would simultaneously release movies on disc for home viewing.
Oh and I’m a white guy. So let’s keep race out of this. And if the guy was skinny, he would have still been unable to keep his mouth or his cell phone shut.
People suck. So the movie going experience sucks.
I just hate being in the cinema these days.
One, the price of admission.
Even if I only watch the DVD 3 times… it is cheaper to OWN it then go to the cinema. So I buy.
Two, even on a old 27″ CRT the picture is better.
DVD is sharp, clean and vivid colour… Yum.
Three, the seat at home is more comfortable.
No one is in my line of view, I can pause and re-start, go to the fidge or water closet on will — without missing a beat. Plus re-play something I thought was interesting.
Ridley Scott – may need an upgrade himself.
The classic, social, theatre experience is as dead as Subscription Cable. hahahahaha
Oooops, that is the only thing I miss from going to the Cinema.
Sharing the experience with tonnes of FANS who love the same movie… the fanatic social events. Cos my apartment is too small to house a hundred guests.
j
“I have to spend for 3 tickets”
Well, there you go, you’re taking one person too many
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I like watching movies at home more than the cinema because I can pause when I need to pee.
Film has a certain quality – or actually – lack thereof, and why a movie looks like a movie, the grain and the color gamut primarially.
But now, movie making has rapidly switched over to digital production, and the “film look” is added by both the camera and in post. Yes, movies are dumbed down to look like film, and not HD, because we inherently know what “film” movies look like.
But with HD rapidly gaining home acceptance, watching sports or other shows in HD is changing the way we perceive image quality.
For many, movies no longer have that great image quality we once associated “film” with. Now we see a truly 3-D like look with 1080p as being “the real thing” the “top quality image” and this is what freaks out guys like Ridley Scott.
In but a few short years, virtually anyone will some film knowhow will be able to produce the highest of high quality HD movies as good as any studio…
Add in YouTube, Apple TV and iTunes HD, independant films that show at top quality with creative non-corporate agenda’s and forumlas, will soon start springing to live – in your living room – on your 60″ HDTV.
Ridely represents the corporate big movie viewpoint, the dynasty that is about to fall to an entirely new wave of home cinemas – and we the consumers are aiding in ushering it in – and love it.
I’ve got a 92″ screen driven by a DLP front projector at 1500 lumens, my cinema experience is quite good.
I love going to the moves. Or at least I used to. You know, back in the days when people were considerate and didn’t talk out loud on their cel phones during the movie. Back when small kids were in bed with a babysitter at 8:00, not sitting next to me crying through a 3 hour movie that they get nothing out of. You remember when they had ushers who would kick people out for talking or putting their feet up on the backs of the seats next to them? Those were the good old days. Now going to the movies sucks and I can’t get any of my friends to go with me due to the aggravation of it all. So, it’s DVD rentals on the big screen at home. Even though it doesn’t totally compare to the movie going experience, it’s a lot less frustrating.
@Hey hey hey
rofl- too funny! thanks for the perspective
FWIW, the cinema experience in my town is not too bad (Cineplex-Odeon Galaxy), other than the cost of snacks. 10 bucks flat fee to get in, high back stadium style seats, surround sound, some films shown using DLP. And at the Galaxy in the next town over, I can get a pizza delivered fresh from the lobby pizzaria, to my seat in one of the 10 theatres.
However, I do limit my trips to the Galaxy to seeing movies that need large screens. And Ridley Scott films would be in that group.
GIRL, you said it BEST!!!!!
Mr.Scott is only realizing this now?
He needs to get out more, or get with the times.
Oh — and WOW — gee wiz, a remastered version of BladeRunner.
THE REMASTERING new technology must of RUINED his vision of the classic master? Tech-no-good.
j
Great take on the “cinema experience”. I gave up long ago for all the reasons stated (don’t forget ‘parking’ and the general mall, inner city experience. Ridley Scott can continue to give us big screen thrills, only we’ own the screens.
Lets not forget popcorn kernels, milk duds, and gummi bears stuck to the screen. Oh and screaming kids, the old lady sitting behind me that needs to talk all the way through the movie, rotten little snought nosed kids running up and down the aisles, the security guard going and checking the exterior door mulitple times – my personal favorite is when he or she decides to open the door. Oh, and crappy out dated movie projectors where I can see “trailing” or “ghosting” because the frame is not in synch.
No I’ll take my 1080P HD TV and home theater system any day.