Cinema within the Household

The simultaneous release by director Steven Soderbergh movie ‘Bubble’ within the cinema, on DVD and on the internet available for download on the same day was seen as a first for Hollywood. It saw the preference of medium used for the release of a film, placed not on the traditional medium of the cinema used throughout, but digital mediums available to the producers.

Digital technology available now and in the near has recreated the experience audiences can have within the household, through the remediation of the typical experiences of the cinema within the household. The remediation of the cinema into the home can be seen not as a plot to kill off the cinema but to simply provide an alternative to audiences in viewing preference; ‘as the digital future is all about convenience and choice.’

However are the likes of transparency and hyperrealism created within the cinematic experience really duplicated within the household? Can a home cinema system create the atmosphere and excitement which surrounds each visit to the local cinema and will this new-age multi medium access to audiences really destroy this ageless medium of the big screen.

Let us hope not.


Ben