As I posted about previously, I'm excited about the potential for Second Life to enhance the movie and television-watching experience by adding more social interaction. It looks like the Sundance Channel is going to be the first television channel to experiment with showing their programming in-world. This Tuesday, January 9, at 8PM EST, the Sundance Channel is sponsoring an in-world showing of the independent film "Four-eyed Monsters" on their new "Sundance Channel" island sim (teleport SLURL). The film will be simulcast on several other sims in case the Sundance sim fills up, which is quite likely.
Meanwhile, this week's New Yorker features a fascinating article on the future of film production and distribution in the digital age called "Big Pictures" by David Denby. Denby asks how, in the era of video iPods and movies-on-demand and HD televisions, do you preserve the magic of the movie-watching experience?
One answer is to look to virtual worlds to enter that space between more solitary television or small-device viewing and the communal experience of going to a movie theater.
Virtual worlds have some clear advantages over other forms of video viewing. For example, "Four-eyed Monsters" filmmakers Arin Crumley and Susan Buice will appear in-world to introduce their film and answer questions from the audience. This I think demonstrates a clear "value-added" of virtual worlds to the movie-watching experience -- opening up a new channel of communication between artist and audience.
More importantly, the immersiveness and interactivity of virtual spaces creates a more communal experience than simply watching a DVD or video-on-demand. Nothing will replace the experience of watching a blockbuster film in a packed audience of enthusiastic filmgoers. But the future of films I hope is not millions of us sitting alone on the train straining at tiny screens on our iPods.
The Sundance sim has potential, with several viewing screens
and a cafe for the film-geeks to socialize in. There's interesting
possibilities for the future, such as audience feedback viewings of
works-in-progress, panels on the future of independent film-making,
machinima showings, and workshops on becoming a film-maker. And there are lots of other niche channels and production companies out there that I hope see the opportunities of virtual world viewing.
To sum up, here's a little chart that compares the virtues and limitations of the various viewing / distribution models out there:
| Video Distribution System | Time Limitations | Space Limitations | Solitary or Communal |
| Portable Video Device | anytime | anywhere | solitary |
| Video-on-Demand | anytime | anywhere | solitary |
|
Broadcast/CableTelevision |
scheduled | anywhere | solitary |
| Internet Viewing | anytime | anywhere | solitary |
| Virtual World Viewing | scheduled (or not) | anywhere (limited locations virtually) | communal |
| Movie Theater | scheduled | limited locations | communal |
So I'll be there on Tuesday evening, throwing popcorn, wooting and applauding the credits with lots of other wacky avatars. And then on December 1st I'll head over to the real-world theatrical showing of the film in New York City to do it all over again in meatspace. That's really the best of all worlds.
