Muppets and Avatars

Yes it’s finally coming soon to a cinema near you. The much hyped, much anticipated, much banged on about 3D sensation Avatar. Read the first reviews here. Love or hate 3D, you have to go and see it. Will it be a triumph of spectacle over narrative and CGI over character development? Or simply a darn good film. Either way its anticipated box office revenue will ensure a profitable end to a very profitable year at the UK box office.

This year has also proved that smaller independent cinemas can no longer delay converting to digital. With a slate of 3D titles lined up for 2010, and, at least in the short term, serious profits to be made with this format, no venue can afford to ignore the winds of change any longer. And at the other end of the artistic spectrum, with only one 35mm print of The White Ribbon in the UK, even those cinemas who balance their books on specialised titles, can’t afford not to convert.

So what deals are on the table for the cash strapped UK indy? Well the UK Digital Funding Group has gathered pace and screens are joining together to barter for a favourable Virtual Print Fee deal for all. And the light of public funding is shining from Europe for all those cinemas who screen European titles, as the European Commission prepares a funding stream that aims to help cinemas acquire digital projection. Read the full story here.

On a wider note, I’ve just hot footed it back from the Future Projections conference in London which explored new ways of presenting the moving image. As pubs and restaurants start to use film as a bait to bring in more custom and the traditional separation of leisure activities crumble away, new business models and new ways of presenting film are beginning to emerge. And as student numbers decline in the UK, bums on cinema seats are set to also decline on week day nights unless venues start thinking creatively about how to fill them.

But you know, as excited as I am about the change in the air and the brave new future of the moving image, right now I’m more excited about heading off to my nearest and dearest old art deco cinema and sinking into that old red velvet seat to watch, what I’ve no doubt will be a sold out screening of The Muppet Christmas Carol in glorious 2D.

Change or die!

I’ve just been sent this article about the change in TV watching habits in Canada. At the risk of sounding old, I remember the days when you would dread anything happening to the telly before Christmas just in case it wasn’t back from the TV repair shop in time to enjoy all that top quality festive TV. Now, who cares? I watch more programmes on BBC iPlayer than I do on conventional TV.

I’ve also been reading Tom Fleming’s new report Embracing the Desire Lines – Opening Up Cultural Infrastructure – download here. I quote: For many theatres, cinemas, galleries and other types of culture house; and for pretty much all such venues with a strong dependence on public investment; this wholesale renovation is born out of an urgent requirement to change or die, and it is just the beginning.

To change or die – that’s a harsh ultimatum. But the tools of change are emerging. The Digital Britain report has finally been published, more and more cinema screens are converting to digital and funky new ways of engaging and giving audiences added value are appearing. A much needed breath of fresh air all round!

For me the mind set change is more important than the technology change. Stick a digital projector into a cinema that’s managed by a 35mm mindset and you’ve just wasted £65K. I work with a number of mixed arts venues and independent cinemas all of which are gasping at cost of conversion and seriously worried about the future of their cinemas. But I know that the ones who have made the digital conversion in their heads, and see the possibilities contained both within and without their venues, are the ones that are going to stay relevant and as such stand more chance of survival. I’m not going to make the obvious Darwin reference, but let’s face it, where are TV repair shops now?

I’m thinking digitally

So, I am feeling differently about digital after the Cinema Exhibitors Association roadshow last week. Not least of which in how independents might afford the switch and keep some options open around alternative content and Virtual Print Fee deals. Even if it does mean that working with VPF prevents the full potential of digital being unlocked.

The other reason I’m feeling so positive about digital is that I feel confident cinema will survive despite the changes brought to our lives by the wider world of digital development and web 2.0. Let’s face it, cinema has reinvented itself many times already, did anyone ever expect it wouldn’t in the digital age? And this time the possibilities open to those exhibitors who recognise the full potential of digital are far greater than those offered by any of cinema’s other incarnations.

I came across this online interview with John Knell from the Intelligence Agency chatting to Bill Thompson the other day – in which Knell makes the (tongue in cheek) suggestion that all cinemas should be operating with a sense of impending extinction.

My grandmother was a cinema usherette in Coventry during the war. From an early age I was feed stories about GIs, gas lit auditoriums, nicotine stained cinema screens, mothers who let their children pee on the floor as they didn’t want to take them to the toilet and miss the film and the times they ignored the air raid sirens to stay in the cinema as the bombs that destroyed the city fell all around them. The cinema she knew was different to the one I grew up with – the worn out, divided up auditoriums of the late 70s and early 80s. Pressed up against bingo halls and British Legion social clubs with minimal sound proofing, smokers on one side, intermissions and usherettes with ice cream trays around their necks.

And these faded cinemas, where those of us who are old enough remember the first time Star Wars revitalised their tired screens, are different again from the modern multiplexes that screened the digitally shot Attack of the Clones with glorious Dolby surround sound.

All of these lives are a world away from cinema’s first silent incarnation where people flocked to see the news as well as films. So Knell is right when he claims that cinemas should be operating with an impending sense of extinction, but then they always have. Cinema has become extinct many times and digital is just another reincarnation – if anything one that harks back to cinema's roots and allows ‘alternative content’ to be screened alongside films.

All that’s ever stayed the same in cinema, and ever will, is a dark auditorium, a big screen, a magic lantern and a deep seated desire to momentarily escape from the real world.

I'm re-thinking

.. the whole definition of cinema.

Digital projectors allow a whole range of alternative content such as live shows, sporting events and gaming to be shown on the big screens traditionally reserved for the feature films. So where does the definition of being a cinema begin and end in a venue whose big screen experience could be anything from Gone With the Wind to live ballet to mass gaming? And why should venues be tied into block booking anymore, or long programming periods when there are no physical prints to book or cart around the country? Are distributors still relevant in a system when expensive 35mm no longer have to be struck and directors/producers could go straight to bookers and venues with their films?

3D anyone? Well, for me the whole notion conjured up thoughts of bad 50s cheesey films or family friendly shows at Universal Studios. I was firmly entrenched in the frame of mind that the whole thing is a cheap gimmick with limited shelf life. All singing all dancing 3D titles maybe rolling out of the major studios, whether there’s the screens for them or not, but is it really the future of cinema? (If you want to find out more check out this story from the New York Times). Well some are saying big budget movies are the tip of 3D iceberg and that one day all films and all TV will be 3D. Meaning that this in your face format is the future and good old 2D will, like dear old black and white, be banished to the realms of nostalgia.

One last thought to add to this blog entry. If/when Britain opens up and invests in digital and the day arrives when films can be downloaded into venues in the blink of an eye – what will this mean to the way we all, as exhibitors and programmers, work. Death of the programmer? Festivals curated through facebook polling? And if a venue can upload just as much content as it downloads, can it also embrace the roles of producer and distributor. And if we do, what happens to the industry when these three separate roles, which define the way we do business, start to disintegrate?

More importantly, how do I draw this down into a three year business plan?

I'm remembering...

I remember the day that two rows of awkward looking lumps of plastic with slightly scary dark screens appeared in a little used classroom near the drama studio at my school. These mysterious contraptions were introduced to us as ‘computers’ and we were informed that they were somehow connected to ‘the future’ and ‘saving time’. My first experience of this new cutting edge technology was a programme that taught me how to touch type – which all my teachers assured me would be far more useful when I left school, than anything creative I might be getting up in the drama studio.

However, after spending two days at an Arts Council Ambition road show and the Clicks or Mortar? symposium, at Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle I’m trying to get to grips with the fact that those awkward looking lumps of plastic in the little used classroom and the drama studio aren’t as far removed from each other as I was once lead to believe.

For those of you who weren’t at either event and who might now be worrying that all art will soon exist only in the virtual world, don’t panic. The clear consensus was that the core of what we do i.e. art and getting people to experience it, will remain the same.

But change is a foot. Funding streams are drying up, producers and distributors are pushing for us all have digital projectors and the ways in which we communicate with those people ‘formally known as our audience’ (to quote Bill Thompson) are changing.

Despite all the talk from these two events, tangible suggestions of what we in the world of independent cinema can do to embrace change are still few and far between. And it’s arguably harder for those cinemas without digital projectors to get to grips with digital development as those who are part of the UK Film Council's Digital Screen Network. But, the other clear message to come out of both events is that we are all in a position to do something, whether it’s using social networks to attract audiences, getting our Wikipedia entry written before someone else does it for us, or seeking out new ways for audiences interact with what we do.

And there is information out there to start sparking ideas; see the Get Ambition website and related north east regional ning network to get the ball rolling. Plus of course the Tyneside’s the Pixel Palace.

It’s not the easiest leap for anyone like me who was forged during the Thatcher years to embrace the infinite possibilities of bottom up ways of working and sharing not owning. But finally I can see that in the brave new future the arts is clawing towards, touch typing and messing round in the drama studio really aren't as far removed as my teachers told me.

Digital Futures

I’ve just come back from a digital cinema Training Day run by the Independent Cinema Office and my head is swimming. I’ve worked at a venue that’s part of the UK Film Council’s Digital Screen Network so I thought I knew a thing or two about dear old digital. However, what’s put me in a spin is not the practicalities and costs of this wonderful new format – it’s the possible potentials it holds. The flexibility of digital means that all the old systems we’ve been working with for decades could start breaking down.

For example, the definition of a cinema. Digital allows a range of alternative content such as live shows and sporting events, gaming on screen. So where does being a cinema begin and end in a venue whose big screen experience could be anything from Gone With the Wind to live ballet to mass gaming? And why should venues be tied into block booking anymore, or long programmes when there are no physical prints to book or cart around the country? Are distributors still relevant in a system where expensive 35mm no longer have to be struck and directors/producers could go straight to bookers and venues with their films?

3D anyone? Well, for me the whole notion conjured up thoughts of bad 50s cheesy films or family friendly shows at Universal Studios. I was firmly entrenched in the frame of mind that the whole thing is a cheap gimmick with limited potential. All singing all dancing 3D titles maybe rolling out of the major studios, whether there’s the screens for them or not, but is it really the future of cinema? (If you want to find out more, check out this story in the New York Times a few days ago). Well some are saying big budget movies are the tip of the 3D iceberg (no bad James Cameron puns will be made at this point!) and that one day all films and all TV will be 3D. Meaning that this in your face format is the future and good old 2D will, like dear old black and white, be banished to the realms of nostalgia. Maybe - maybe not. 

One last thought to add to this blog entry. If/when Britain opens up and invests in digital and the day arrives when films can be downloaded into venues in the blink of an eye – what will this mean to the way we all, as exhibitors and programmers, work. Death of the programmer? Festivals curated through Facebook polling? And if a venue can upload as much content as it downloads, can it also embrace the roles of producer and distributor? And if we do, what happens to the industry when these three separate roles, which define the way we do business, start to disintegrate?