The future of movies: More senses?

For about 100 years we have been enjoying the movie magic. Two-dimensional moving images with sound have kept us happy. Now Avatar has kick-started a discussion about the future of movies. Are all movies going to be 3D? And what about the other senses?

3D is here to stay! So say the enthusiast and some former skeptics alike. Avatar is said to be the movie which finally puts 3D into good use. And this is being seen as a portent of the future.

3D is also invading the living rooms. Some believe that the regular television will be replaced by a 3D version. In the U.K. and Ireland Sky HD service is bringing 3D to homes this year. Might sound awesome but there are drawbacks. Do you really want to spend the night at home wearing 3D glasses?

The availability of 3D programs is another good question. The glasses and expensive equipment won’t do any good if you don’t get quality entertainment to watch.¹ Apparently, at least Hollywood is planning to re-release some of its big hits in 3D.² We already bought the same movies in the theatre, on dvd, on blu-ray disks, so why shouldn’t we buy them once more in 3D?

But why stop at adding visual dimensions? How about other senses? Adding olfactory experiences, smells, to movies has already been tested. And in the future you could wear a tactile jacket and gloves which allow you to feel the movies.

Much Ado About Nothing?

Do these “enhancements” bring any new value to the movies or are they just gimmicks? In the 1950s and ’60s William Castle probably tried just about every possible way to add new experiences into his movies. Glow in the dark skeletons flying in the theatre, joy buzzers in the seats sending out sensations similar to mild electric shocks, fright goggles, and so on.

And 3D itself has been around a long time. Be sure to check out the Three Stooges 3D clip below. (You need the old-style 3D goggles for the full experience! Luckily they are included in the dvd package.)

Sometimes the enhancements really are for the better. In the beginning movies were without sound and colour. These have really contributed positively to our experience. I don’t think there are many people who would say that sound or colour spoiled movies.

The further improvements might fail because of several reasons. Susan R. Barry writes about how the contradicting information we get from our bodies and the 3D movies might be bad. Joseph Shoer discusses the limitations of 3D technology. In both cases the limiting factor is not the technology itself, but our bodies, our mammalian senses.

And it might be good to remember that while the boundaries of mediums are flexible, even they do have limits. How many features can you add to the medium of cinema so that it doesn’t transform into something else? Besides, sometimes the extra features are not even suitable for the medium.

Remember when the future of movies and tv included interactiveness? That died out pretty quickly and people hardly even remember the attempt anymore. Interactiveness was just not compatible with cinema or tv. We do not go to the movie theatre or watch tv to make decisions. If we want to decide for ourselves, we can play games. Movies and tv are about storytelling – not playing. And that was something the hype about interactiveness completely missed.

And this might be the case with movies vs. full sensory experience too. Do you really want to have a holodeck where you smell the corpses, duck for every flying spear, and freeze during winter scenes? Perhaps you do. But perhaps when you’re too stressed out to go to the holodeck, you just want to watch a good movie.

And even if the experience itself would be similar to experiencing something live, it still looses the social aspect. We go to movies, theatre, or a sports game not (just) for enjoying the external stimuli but because it is about sharing the experience with other people.

Show me the Magic!

Photo by bizmac @ Flickr.

So, am I such a whining anti-technological pessimist that I sound like? Not really. We will definitely see more weird media in the future. And probably they will provide fun for more senses than just vision and sound. But I’m not so sure the cinema itself will change so much. Although, the cinema might be a breeding ground to new unforeseen forms of media.

The current 3D hype is much more likely to be about something else than the future of movies. It might just be a gimmick that Hollywood is using to convince that there still is movie magic. That there is something better in going to the theatre than in downloading torrents at home.

I actually believe in movie magic. And that you need to go to the theatre to catch it. But it’s not 3D. It’s not the technology. It’s the social experience. It’s the great stories. That’s the true Magic!

1. Well… we don’t get quality entertainment even with the current two dimensions. [↩]
2. On a side note, I have to express my worries about the fact that George Lucas is going to do Star Wars in 3D. Every time that lunatic leaves his padded cell and tampers with his old works the end results are horrible. He has become the anti-Midas whose touch turns gold into excrement. [↩]