cheaper to play a movie on line than in a theatre, thats for sure.

but what is being lost is the sense of group escape. before movies, people clamored into a theatre and watched a play or opera. then the flicker shows got popular and they almost wiped out the stage but not really since it's still around today. what i'm most alarmed at is the perpetual indvidualization of every experience. magic will be lost no doubt.

This is where we differ because this really excites me (I'm gonna be writing my dissertation on this), I dont think the internet is going to whipe out film they thought tv was going to kill it but it didnt, sure people werent going to the cinema to watch the news reels but it just meant people went to watch films instead.



But tv is going to be fundamentally changed, because the computer and the tv are going to merge together. We can see the evidence of this already because every knew tv you buy can also be used as a computer monitor and there are computers designed to go in the living room and connect to the tv and net already.



Its just the technology hasnt become comerically viable yet because internet speeds are still too slow.



The speed of which videos can be streamed is vital because we want high quality videos, its why most of the content out at the moment is short but thats deffiently going to change.



Thats not to say the short content will die, its just going to be viewed at different times for example on your trip to work.



sorry my thoughts are a bit all over the place, I'm really interested in this subject but I'm only at the start of my studies.

then why are theatre sales down nationwide if filmgoing is going to remain strong in this persistent individualization of experience?



minimizing outlets, as you say tv and computer will combine, only reduces the amount of ways in which content can be viewed. if anything, the widdling down of a television entity, controlled by the fcc and an internet entity, free of the fcc, is vital. combining the two lessens freedoms of expression.

I dont really know, my area of expertise isnt really film (but its an area I'll look into) as for tv and the internet its extremely difficult to guess whats going to happen.



Were going through pretty major changes at the moment, that as you point out is quite contradictory. At the moment we have net neutrality but people are trying to remove it but there is a serrious movment to make net neutrality enforced by law.



Which means that any media produced by companies the distribute solely on the net wont be bound by the fcc but old media will.



Thats going to be a huge debate.



I have to ask, I dont really understand your comment about it viewing becoming an individual act, surely its already individual. When you go to the cinema dont you sit in the dark looking up at a big screen in complete silence?



There are people there but people tend to block them out.

yeah obviously it's dark and you don't talk, or shouldn't talk, during the performance. if you're going to be a tv or film person, take into account it's entire history; which includes stage, which includes a live a audience comprised of 'norma' people looking for an escape, entertainment, inspiration, whatever; point being, it was always a communal experience. during admissions and act breaks (commercial breaks) people can talk about what they just saw, what they may see, say hi; it's a group experience. thats an essence that is being drained.

if you think, that at least here for instance, that if the web becomes the sole proprietor of media; after the merge between tv and web, that the government won't step in?

at least for here in the states that's immensely optimistic

*'normal' people