The Future of Cinema- In Your Living Room

Recently, during one of those cold, miserable and rainy afternoons where you can think of nothing to do but stare blankly into the television, a thought suddenly came to my head: when was the last time I actually went to a cinema? I came to the conclusion that it must have been about two years ago. At first I was quite shocked at this revelation and had a sudden urge to march down to the nearest cinema and watch the first film I laid my eyes upon but then I realised I didn’t need to because I realised that to have a good night with a film I didn’t have to leave my front room.

Maybe it’s just me becoming increasingly out of touch with modern trends but I really doubt that anyone goes to the cinema half as much as they people used to, when going to the cinema was as popular as iPods and Facebook is today. But don’t get me wrong, I’m all for society embracing new technologies like we did with cinema 20 years ago because I can enjoy everything a film has to offer in the comfort of my own home because of the huge advancements in technologies during recent times.Thanks to the DVD I can now view any film I like, from any era I like, within seconds. Unlike the tedious rewinding and fast fowarding of the old VHS I can just skip happily to any given scene in the film. I can even explore the exiting world of DVD extras where I can indulge in a host of documentries, deleted scenes, outakes and even directors commentary. It’s these additions that make film exhibition that much more of an exiting and interactive experience.

The attractions don’t stop there either; watching films on my brand new 40 inch, high definition, surround sound television makes the cinemas we were so amazed by twenty years ago seem primitive and low quality. I still haven’t got to grips with how good the picture quality is on this television, I mean the huge level of detail you get adds a whole different dimension to watching films because at times you feel as if you are really there as Luke Skywalker fighting Darth Vader.

Digital television now means I can Sky+ a film and watch it when ever I want, And even if I chose to watch a film live on the T.V I can now rewind and pause a film at my own free will which is fantastic if you fancy a quick cup of tea just before Rocky begins his final fight in between the ropes.

I must confess that despite my apparent bias towards these new technologies, there is nothing that home cinema can do to compare to the real thing. Nothing can compare to that moment when the lights are dimmed and everyone escapes reality for two hours. Now I’m sure we’ve all at some point been dragged to the cinema, without caring about the film you are seeing and still ending up having a really good time. Yes it is true that less and less people are going to the cinema, after all it was only recently when Carlton Screen Advertising announced that the amount of people attending cinemas had dropped from 162 million to 151 million viewers in 2008, in spite of this statistic cinema will always promise a great experience despite the overpriced food and noisy popcorn eaters. Cinema itself is revolutionising itself; we are now seeing the introduction of 3-D cinema with epic sci-fi film 'Avatar' , cinemas are now becoming a lot like your front room because now certain cinemas are installing sofa areas which I think is for increasing that good-night-out vibe which cinema has. Yes cinema is slowly being dwarfed by the growing lure of home cinema but believe me, it’s still well worth the admission ticket.