Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/957795
DGA QUARTERLY 73 SVOD that don't have a theatrical window is that a director's work can't be seen by any- one other than that streaming platform's subscribers and thus may lose the oppor- tunity for non-subscribers to discover the work. As Roth puts it, these movies sit in "a walled garden. If there is no opportunity for the fi lm to ever be experienced by the rest of the world on ancillary platforms—isn't that a concern for fi lmmakers?" Director Jon Favreau, whose The Jungle Book raised the bar in VFX technology and is further pushing the envelope with his upcoming live-action remake of The Lion King, is clear on how he'd like such fi lms to be seen. "The best way to see it is with a crowd in extended dynamic range like Dolby Vision or IMAX laser projection," he tells the Quarterly. "I am aware, however, that it will live on on a 16x9 [TV ] screen and most people will see it that way. I embrace that format as well. Home-theater qual- ity is improving constantly. As long as the material isn't edited for broadcast, the home-viewing experience is also great. That being said, sitting in a full house with high-quality projection and sound is my favorite. Movies work best as a communal experience." Favreau also concedes that "that the vast majority of the audience hasn't seen my movies in theaters but further down the pipe in di erent platforms. That's actually been the case as far back as Swingers and Rudy, when most people saw both of those on VHS. The secondary formats keep the theatrical movie going, certainly in the in- dependent sphere. Where home video used to support theatrical, now streaming does. I view it as an ecosystem rather than a zero- sum game." Part of the debate about fi lms made for theatrical are the challenges faced by the- ater owners to enhance the big-screen ex- perience and cultivate future audiences. Albert Berger, a member of the Motion Picture Academy's Board of Governors and head of the organization's "Future of Film" committee, observes that "younger people embrace the new ways that fi lms are seen on streaming and nontheatrical platforms. Older members are more enamored of the theatrical experience. There's the view that holds that theatrical as the superior option is an elitist view, and that diverse voices have been kept out of the majors and the- atrical, and that we should embrace the op- portunities opened up by such distributors as Netfl ix." But beware of simplifying the matter by age, Berger adds. "That isn't to say that young people don't want to see movies in movie theaters. They do. Movie theaters align with what millennials value for a feel- ing of community and not owning things." Young audiences are becoming the core patrons at cinematheques, confounding doom-and-gloom predictions of just a de- cade ago. " We have the audience," says American Cinematheque programmer Gwen Deglise. "We're packed, and with a lot of young people," she says. "I see it every day when audiences come and experience a movie on the big screen and they're get- ting something for what they pay for. But it needs to have a brand, an identity. Today, if we show the obscure, they stay home." T h i s g e n e r a l p a tt e r n i s c o n f i r m e d by David Schwartz, chief curator of the Astoria, N.Y.-based Museum of the Moving Image, whose large portfolio comprises exhibitions of the whole range of moving- image media and theatrical screenings CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31 and programs, such as their hot-selling "See It Big!" series that emphasizes movies that can be fully appreciated only in a cin- ema, such as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's Black Narcissus. "We're getting a younger audience than before, and it's not a nostalgia thing," says Schwartz. "They often want to see movies that they first saw on television or home video," repeating an old pattern of past generations fi rst encountering classics on TV and then rediscovering them again on the big screen. Luring Audiences Back Into Theaters These distinctions can't be made without considering the threats to the complex sys- tem that sustains the theatrical experience. Academy president John Bailey is both a strong defender of big-screen audience en- gagement and a strong critic of the current state of theatrical exhibition, describing the quality of movie houses as "atrocious" and citing the unruly quality of theater-going. Bailey notes that he's observing the current public exhibition situation from the stand- point of a working fi lmmaker when he says that "we're all compromised by bad projec- tion and presentation." Soon after he became Academy presi- dent, Bailey met with NATO officials. "I think they got it," he says. "They're going through their own internal review of qual- ity and standards, but we need to continue the discussion." PHOTO: PETER AARON The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, NY, features a "See It Big!" series.