cinema and videoconferencing

For over a century cinema has fascinated audiences from all walks of life. Not just does it tell a story, it makes you want to watch more. A favorite of mine is Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), which starts slow and gradually picks up pace as the princess and her caveman friend face a series of dangerous adventures. The magic of cinema is best captured in IMAX theaters, where movies are often two-dimensional, 3-D images made possible by the large screen and the effects of motion sickness. It is no wonder, then, that Hollywood studios regularly put ads for IMAX cinemas outside movie theaters, on television, in newspapers, on billboards, and on the radio.

The advent of cinema has changed greatly since its inception. While still largely dependent on film projectors, the first big break for cinema came with the invention of the sound projector, which allowed audiences to hear each other's voices; this major step toward improvement sparked the invention of motion pictures. From there, it took another major leap forward with the invention of the medium of celluloid, which allowed audiences to see movies on huge, celluloid-covered screens.

The golden age of cinema did not last forever, however. The dawn of computer technology gave filmmakers the opportunity to manipulate and stage their films in new ways and to make movies that were more interesting and accessible to a larger audience. Video games also presented new possibilities for cinema, as they allowed audiences to control the plot and characters through the use of computer software. In short, the dawn of the digital era ushered in the "age of cinema," a period that saw the resurgence of interest in classic films as well as new films that were meant to be available to more viewers.

As the age of cinema progressed, so, too, did the techniques with which movies were filmed. For example, the advent of 3-D technology allowed for a greater sense of realism in movies, and movies became much more "artistic" in how they were filmed. The advent of digital cameras also allowed for an unprecedented level of precision and accuracy in the quality of the images that were captured. As a result, the once "cinematic" style of filmmaking has been steadily declining, to be replaced by low-budget, high-quality movies that have been shot on a smaller scale, and with a greater number of practical effects. Modern cinema is, at present, largely based around computer-generated visual effects, and almost all modern movies are filmed on high-definition televisions.

Moving picture technology is also responsible for changing the way we experience video, in that we no longer sit in the dark to enjoy a motion picture. Nowadays, we can choose between a wide array of quality formats, from high definition (HD), to standard definition (SD). We can choose between watching a movie on our TV in the comfort of our home (i.e. our living room, etc), to watching it on a theater screen in a real cinema, with real seats, and with the added convenience of audio-visual services (i.e. popcorn, coffee, etc.)

Another factor responsible for the decline of the traditional cinema is the impact of video cameras on the economics of movie theaters. Videoconferencing and its offshoots, including HDTV and DVR (digital video recorder) technology, has made movie theatres more expensive to operate. The advent of video screens in the outdoor area of cinema theaters has also reduced the cost of running a movie house. It no longer makes economic sense to show a film outdoors for several days or weeks, since the cost of running a theater and maintaining the lights and sound equipment (i.e. sound proofing the outdoor area) is much higher than showing the film inside a home or any other location.