The case for a cinema make-over after lockdown...
The case for a cinema make-over after lockdown...
It was already happening, but now more than ever, viewers have adapted to life without cinema, bringing the cinema experience home to their living rooms with the latest technology. Forced behavior change with COVID19 has accelerated the inhome cinema movement to the point where studios are skipping cinema release altogether and releasing online...screening at a giant flat screen near you...
Some argue (or hope) that people will return to cinema after lockdown, but, why...? Cinema has historically been a place to break new entertainment ground, worth a minimum $30 outing with the over-priced drinks and popcorn; you go to get a cinematic experience that you can't get at home. Except that now you can.
And so we have a case of change or die, if we're honest. But what does that change look like for cinema, or what could it look like with a little imagination, innovation and a change in attitudes from major studios and cinema heads?
Cinema has always been the home of break-throughs; Edison (and others) invented the motion picture, then along came sound; Walt Disney created the first full length animation feature, then we had CGI and IMAX, all the way through to when James Cameron truly gave 3D the raison d'être with Avatar, which became the highest grossing film for a decade.
And so now the glaring question: what is the next groundbreaking technology in cinema that is going to get people off their couches and back into the cinema? At Mastertude, we believe the answer is XR cinema. That is: cinema that enables viewers to not only experience the excitement of a huge screen, but also to participate in the big screen action, and to interact with the story as it comes off the screen and out to the audience.
For this tech-enabled generation to be motivated to leave their in-home screens or put down their mobile devices, the experience needs to be engulfing, productive, interactive, and high tech. Passive viewing in a cinema is not engulfing enough for this gen, who are so easily distracted. In fact, for anyone who has a mobile device, sitting through a 2 - 3hr film without interacting with it is difficult. Hence the plea to "turn off your mobile device" before screenings.
Observe any regular tech user, but in particular Millennials onwards, watching an SVOD film and you'll witness them performing multiple tasks simultaneously (beyond eating and drinking) - interacting with social media, gaming, browsing online, making purchases, texting, and even working and studying.
Therefore, to engulf the senses of these multi-tasking tech buffs, we need a more participatory approach to viewing great films. In other words we need to keep our viewers busy, or they'll take it upon themselves to get busy, and that's not something you can do in cinemas currently.
With an XR film in cinema, our viewers are wearing headsets and haptic gloves (although eventually the technology will evolve so that gloves are not needed), being immersed in a made-for-cinema experience. Like when you just had to see that epic sci-fi fantasy in cinema to get the full benefits of the VFX, before HDTV, Blu-ray, LED and plasma...
Cinemas will survive if they reinvent themselves to once again offer the ultimate film experience (because we can get comfy lounge chairs at home and Postmates will bring whatever you want to your door for half the price). A premium cinema experience today means upgrading to cutting-edge tech, which means the inclusion of XR (AR/VR/AI/3D) and productive, not passive, entertainment.
If cinema owners don't have the foresight to make this transition, they are going to get acquired by the Big Five tech giants who do have the vision, the innovation, and let's face it, the money.
So if this hypothesis is correct and XR cinema is the now, then who are the content makers? Well, Mastertude for one, but we consider ourselves to be pioneers of a new film format that is also being developed by other content makers.
With Polymath, our big-budget sci-fi fantasy XR music learning film, Mastertude is trailblazing the next-generation of immersive cinema, by evolving cinemas into edutainment hubs, combining passive viewing and interactive learning.
During the passive viewing segments, the audience takes in the story, guided by the director's vision; however, during the interactive segments the viewer finds themselves in a breathtaking Music Dojo, where each experience is curated by the film maker to meet the learning requirements of the individual, while never losing the motif of the film.
And here's the catch: forget the lousy $9 average cinema ticket price, it's going to cost a minimum of a whopping $80 a ticket to have the Polymath experience. For this, the viewer/user, let's call them the viewser, gets not only the use of the best in XR tech, not only an epic sci-fi fantasy film made with the highest caliber talent, but they walk out of the cinema having learned the fundamentals of music (scales, chords, reading music, composing music, playing songs, etc.) within an exhilarating story.
Aspiring musicians (and studies show that most of us are, but we find music learning hard) pay thousands of dollars for music tuition that is not particularly enjoyable; what better way to launch the concept of premium XR edutainment cinema than through the universally loved and desired language of music?
Our vision is that the Polymath experience will inspire other influential Hollywood filmmakers to create similar edutainment films in which adults and children can acquire new skills. The possibilities for learning through narrative topics are endless - some thought starters: learning a language through a spy thriller, forensic science in a murder mystery, quantum physics through a space adventure.
Tech companies will back XR technologies being introduced into cinema as it gets new tech to mainstream faster. Hollywood has always been used as a trendsetting tool to get brands into the hands of the masses, and XR is no different. Once XR technology has been introduced in cinema as a premium experience, consumers will buy XR products to recreate the magic of the experience inhome, as they have always done with other out-of-home media entertainment.
Our revolutionary XR edutainment system could save cinema, future-proofing it and giving it relevance and profitability by increasing the value that cinema can offer to audiences. The audience leaves this re-imagined high tech environment feeling accomplished; they've acquired a skill while being thoroughly entertained in a captivating story. The question is, are cinemas brave enough to take a step into this brave new world or will they cling to a Hollywood that doesn't exist anymore...?
Disclaimer: These views and opinions are not intended to malign any organization, company, or individual. The views expressed here are mine as an observer of Hollywood, tech industries, and the changing entertainment landscape in my role as CEO of Mastertude. Mastertude does not have a financial stake in cinemas, and the roll-out of our system is not dependent on the survival of cinema, so we have no agenda in which way the market goes. However, we still believe in the virtue of cinema, which brings people together for shared experiences, and we believe the magic of cinema can be restored with the introduction of our XR edutainment system.