Sound familiar? This is what we’ve all grown up with when watching a film in theaters. It’s not just about watching the 120 minute film on the big screen but it’s the collective social experience that movies offer us. The cheering for the hero’s entry, the whistling for the ultimate showdown between hero and villain, the collective gasps when a beloved character dies, the sniffles heard when lovers part and the clapping when the credits roll – all of it is what makes a film, a film worth watching.
The uncertain times the pandemic has thrown at us has forced us to downsize our film watching from 30 x 45 feet to a meek 15.6 inches of our laptop screens. Needless to say that affects the cinematic appeal of the films we watch.
Films especially in the genre of sci-fi dystopia or historical period dramas deserve the big screens to do justice to their sheer magnitude and beauty it offers. The climax from ‘The Pianist’ might’ve not left the same impact had we watched it on our laptops or the beauty of ‘Innception’ might’ve not left us as mesmerized at its sheer brilliance or even the grandeur of ‘Bajirao Mastani’ might’ve diminished had it chosen a digital release.
Films when watched in theaters set an ambience and tone for the audience that’s hard to replicate at home no matter how fancy your 4k display TV is or the surround sound system you have. When we watch films there’s a bond we share with our fellow movie-watchers, an unspoken collective pact, if you will, to ride the highs and lows of the film together. This social bond is what makes people “shush” disrupting conversations during a pivotal moment, chuckle at the stupidity of a scene or clutch your partner’s arm during the climax. These little moments in the grandeur of the screen is the ultimate endorsement of traditional cinema halls over theaters.
These are just facts – the size of the screen is directly proportional to its impact! If one wants to truly feel and take in everything the film has to offer then OTTs just won’t do.
This is not to dispute the benefits OTT offers over traditional theaters with the diverse content it offers but one can neither quantify nor reduce the influence of cinema and its emotional potentiality to mere numbers.
Let’s be honest, even with OTT and theaters co-existing some will always prefer one over the other and while there are no clear winners, I’m sure that once theaters reopen we will see throngs of people (social distancing, of course) lined up for the first day first show of a tentpole release cribbing about the over-priced popcorn but relishing the experience nonetheless!