New Year's reflections: What does the future of cinema hold?

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Most of my articles are usually inspired by a pseudo-existential question regarding cinema I ask myself—unless I have seen a movie and want to express my feelings about it with an opinion. A few days ago, scrolling through Instagram, I came across a reel that showed how easy it is to create a film scene with AI in just a few minutes. Honestly, the images seemed to belong to some seventh art's mastermind, so I thought about how ironic it would sound to say: "how fast does technology develop and how slow do we develop" but doesn't technology develop this way because we are the ones who make it happen or am I missing something? TV, VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray, smartphones and then smart TVs. And here we are, 130 years after the birth of the greatest spectacle of all, debating its future.

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I have the sense that the easier the context provided regarding filmmaking, the lesser we go out to explore new ideas. Okay, I will explain this a bit more so my opinion doesn't sound vague. Let's think for a second about Taxi Driver's filmmaking process, just to mention an example I always recur to. A movie made with one million dollars, a scriptwriter falling off the edge in the middle of a moral and ethical debacle and a director who spent his time touring a chaotic city that later worked as the very heart of the movie… In a nutshell, if it had fallen in the wrong hands, nowadays this movie would be described as "so bad that it's good" or as one of those that only sticks in the memories of only a few.

Nowadays, Taxi Driver is studied in almost all film schools around the planet, it's a modern classic and, even though it has some flaws, its influence is undeniable. What have we lost since that time? What did we win in the last almost 50 years? Currently, cinema—or actually the experience of creating it in such a case—is much more controlled. Only a few dare to "get their hands dirty," as the expression says, since, in my opinion, they think history will judge them. But to look forward, one should look backwards to enumerate the elements involved that can make us understand the reasons behind these changes throughout time.

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THE DIGITAL ERA

There's a whole debate about the imminent digitalization cinema experienced. Many refer to Vertigo as the pioneer of having computer-generated special effects, some say that Westworld was the first one to incorporate the famous CGI and others argue that this era's first privileged work to do so was Tron (1982). But for me—and I suppose that for many more people—everything changed when Spielberg made the decision to present us with that brachiosaurus in 1993, just a couple months before releasing another masterpiece, which narrated the horrors of the Second World War. A huge 25-meter-tall dinosaur that, after several decades, I still find quite real. Probably from there on, the way cinema was viewed depended on how high good old Steven had set the bar with Jurassic Park. Later, Cameron presented Titanic, the Wachowski sisters released the revolutionary Matrix trilogy and Cameron once again premiered an immense blockbuster, Avatar—taking the 3D experience to another level—whether you like it or not… but in the last time, it can be affirmed that a change has been on its way.

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Still from The Brutalist, Brady Corbet's first film shot in VistaVision format

A PARADIGM SHIFT

As from a few years ago, with the excessive presentation of special effects, superhero films and the experience of watching things one gradually disbelieves, there was a subtle change that extends to present time and pretends to follow this path for an undetermined time: despite wanting to eat popcorn, the audience has demands, they want to feel cinema closer. For it to look real, like before. And with "looking real," I'm not referring to watching a blue alien riding a prehistoric flying animal and feeling like you are there due to some 4D, XD or IMAX experience. No, I'm talking about the most tangible and unrefined cinema of all, the one that easily questions and has always existed, but that nowadays is more needed than ever. With The Brutalist's recent premiere, which is an American epic starring Adrien Brody, and the imminent premiere of Paul Thomas Anderson's new work, The Battle of Baktan Cross, some filmmakers are making the decision to bring back old traditions to the current context.

Does this mean superhero films will "die" and be replaced as the most popular by another genre/subgenre? I don't think so. The source material is greatly vast and there are hundreds of stories with different angles to explore, it's just a matter of time for the adequate minds to take inspiration from these stories and transform them into big adaptations. In my opinion, DC Studios' restart with James Gunn's Superman is the most proximate one.

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This is nothing new, I'm not announcing any major news nor trying to solve an inexplicable mystery. As from cinema's first decades, experimentation, failure and success coexisted without damaging each other. There will still be all types of stories, for all sorts of audiences and in all kinds of formats. Nonetheless, there are still various key elements that have changed—and will change—the way in which we appreciate or consume cinema, series, etc. Streaming is one of them, a reality that arrived some time ago to stay since nowadays people meticulously and carefully choose that experience they want to be a part of in a theater. The economic factor is no excuse because why do people pay for so many platforms when they can go to the movies one, two, three or even four times with that same money?

Maybe this relates to a gravitating change in the audience and not cinema as such, maybe people no longer want to share two hours in front of a big screen with others, bearing annoying sounds, complaints and inappropriate situations. Why would I do this if I can sit on my couch with my PJs on, eating and drinking what I want? I repeat, I'm rephrasing something that doesn't belong to me—well, maybe it actually does a little.

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Another point I consider extremely relevant for this time period and onwards is filmmaking with smartphones. Our surrounding world is constantly changing every second. Three years ago, we thought it was impossible for a movie to be created with AI, but today we see it as a hopeful possibility for some and a scary one for others. The crack is slowly developing and adding the fact that shooting and editing a movie with just one device is as possible as it was for a kid in the 70s to listen to music in a Walkman or use a calculator sounds equally hopeful and scary. Where does imagination fit here? Everything seems unlimited, surreal.

But shooting with a camera, microphones and many people behind all the classic devices will still exist because there are those who believe in the power of collectivity. Cinema won't die, it will transform. Which direction will it follow? It's hard to know.


Posted on JANUARY 6, 2024, 14:16 PM | UTC-GMT -3


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