Future of Cinema - Going towards darker and unclear senses.

Cinema is entertainment. TV is an idiot box. Only this much information is unconsciously set in everyone's mindset automatically. In more depth, no one wants to reach.

In terms of discussion, the elder ones say that old is gold and that cinema has a golden period of cinema. Whereas youth now think today cinema is cooler, high tech and similar to Hollywood range.

Everyone nowadays has become so selective in watching TV series, web series, and movies. They need reviews to watch them without it, and they can't invest their time and money fair enough until reviews of reviewers don't fail their desires. But what about screen quality, visibility, and sound clarity?

Has any reviewer reviewed it?

Stories and acting don't irritate you. These kinds of elements of cinemas from which you are unaware make you more irritated while watching a good blockbuster movie. Have you ever compared old films in the cinema hall with the latest movies in the cinema hall? Don't try to skip this question by whispering you don't watch movies or cinema or are not interested in it.

It is a very crucial thing that we never think about.

Technologies are changing, and resources also. But time, dedication, and money?

I am not blaming directors or production houses here, but it's a long process, and many technicians are involved, so it's not so easy to find loopholes in the cinematic system.

Screens

Do you know it is prime to clean from time to time the screens on which we watch movies in cinema halls?

We mostly say cinema or silver screens but, there are two types of screens:-

1st Silver screens used to view 3D projections.

2nd White screens operated to show 2D projections.

To clean these screens, one should use dry-microfiber cloths in addition to the equipment we call telescopic poles and tee-piece heads.

If screens don't get cleaned in time, it results in low-quality image formation and less sharpened images that would decrease its brightness. It could be one of the reasons why cinemas nowadays get darker screens.

Sound technologies

Cinema made an impression on us through surround sound quality that we can't listen to on TV. That's why, having all the platforms on our Android TV or mobile, we miss the effect of cinema hall while watching movies at home. Once a month, we get newly released movies on Prime, Netflix, Zee5, and Disney HOTSTAR. Still, we want to watch them at the theater. That magic lies within its surround sound effects.

These technologies are Dolby Cinemas, IMAX, RealD3D, and Regal RPX. This choice also affects your movie, which sound technologies suit which screen.

If you seek to enjoy movies on big screens, go where IMAX surround sound operates. For more than 50 years, we have listened to our cinema through this surround sound when the screen is used singly in every theater, and from my childhood, I never found sound clarity issues in cinema.

You also noticed these sound issues as the theater and screen became small-scale compared to before. You watch four movie screens at a time in a multiplex cinema hall, and in that space, we have viewed a single screen, so imagine how big that area and screen were. Since the decade, this issue has arisen because IMAX has not been a part of our cinema surround sound system. Dolby atoms take place in most theaters.

These are good sound effects, but more of their impact comes in a home theater or live concert as it throws loud sounds as in cinema, it impacts us through many speakers, even speakers on the ceiling around us, and due to loud sound which I think it most of the time don't reflect clarity of dialogues.

Movies like Avengers, Bhramastra1, PS1, and Dhoom3 are typically for IMAX screens. If you view these movies on Dolby, it will result in not suiting those sounds with screen images, or you are unaware while watching many of its frames projection skips, which shows no clarity in image formation or surround sound and results in darker screen, another kind of reason for it.

Is it fashion or digitization?

It's not my observation, but it is a complaint from several regarding why films nowadays become darker. It's the complaint by the audiences that not even in a cinema hall but why TV is showing darker projections. It has become either fashion no one cares or listens to this issue. It could be a problem for animated movies as the lighting is not in the real sense they are using. When they make live-action movies like Little Mermaid, they utterly disappoint audiences' hopes because of their darker projections. You would expect such movies to be bright and colorful projections. But it looks more like a muddy, polluted river than a pristine ocean. This kind of experiment felt like it became a fashion, style, or status symbol for having darker compositions no matter what light was coming, but they wanted to show only the tunnel.

Vox media master video creator Edward Vega wrote with the help of digital cameras and digital monitors. It became easy to see what the final product would look like. That gave courage to the cinematographers to film scenes darker and darker. They shoot darker rather than being overexposed, so they found it safer to do underexpose. The practical reason is dark composition makes it cheaper for a cinematographer to shoot. Dark aesthetics now become trendy, at least for those who work within media. Audiences want to see what is easy to see. They show evening, late night, or early morning scenes with fewer lights and cheaper tricks to shoot. Dark scenes mean a sense of distance and dishonesty with modern media shooting, so dark scenes are sometimes the viewpoint.

Side effects of Covid19:

Lockdown is that period of life where we are all stuck in one thread that stays at home, and most of us watch only TV screens in bright light. At that moment, psychologically, we all thought about whether we would be able to watch theater again or not. At that moment, movies like Arrival were featured in cinemas exclusively, which was for cinema, not for other platforms or TV screens, which felt your TV screens were too dark that you were incapable of understanding anything. Tenet movie is condemned for the sound mix by Christopher Nolan. The audience complained that they could not accurately hear dialogue over and above the explosions and action sequences.

The main reason is he never mixed sound with perspective to DOBLY ATOM sound system. He always mixed sound, which suited the system of IMAX.

Why could not I see what was happening on screen?

Its most common question emerges in everyone's heart while watching new cinema, but no one gets this answer.

Use of digital cameras:

In old cinemas, all shoot from analog cameras. Now, digital cameras are in. Firstly, AEROSPACE 1909 TILL 4K CANON EOS 2018, many changes in the standards of cameras. Old cameras captured night scenes with many lights. You have noticed also that in older movies, during night scenes shoot, there was always the effect of moonlight as bright. And now, with digital cameras, it becomes easier to capture night scenes without any light. Just have a look on your mobile and capture a picture in night mode. You will understand without light how shoots are going on without. In not-so-advanced cameras, the night view is captured dull, blurred, and grained. Nowadays, lenses are more sensitive than our eyes.

Vision issues:

Working on computers, laptops, and mobile is our need, and watching TV or OTT is our necessity. We want to do such stuff in dim light, and most of us got scolded not to watch TV with switched-off lights. But if we watch cinema in darkness, why it's so?

Lighting Research Centre conducted one experiment and stated that, in darkness, eyes got less strain, less blinked, and less fatigue compared to watching the screen on an illuminated wall.

Thailand studied that infants watch TV in the evening, which prompts infants to get less sleep overnight.

Your eyes dry when staring at a screen for far too long in the dark. Dr. Garry Treacy of The Irish College of Ophthalmologists said that staring for too long at anything, not just a screen, can make your eyes dry and sore. So, if you allow your eyes to be moisturized by possibly blinking often or using eye drops, your eyes should be all right. So, watching too many screens without relaxing your eyes, watching darker screens, or watching in darkness without light involvement is not ethical for your eyes.

This darkness is so impactful most youth can't use their phone and social accounts without dark mode. They are afraid of light, it's a crucial thing.

Audible issue:

We go to the cinema and enjoy it at what cost too much explosive noise because of too much violence and crime scenes nowadays in cinema. They whisper dialog in explosive scenes in the cinema and can listen to it. If you concentrate on hearing in your home theater, most of the conversation becomes negligible in home theater.

Due to the variation of soundtracks, most of the time, while watching a movie, you have to adjust the volume. Either you can't listen to dialog delivery, so do high volume, and if suddenly the scene changes with explosive voice, it will irritate you and jingle your walls. Due to this, neighbors get disturbed walls are single right. You can adjust your sound system. You can't control the sound mixer who created that soundtrack. In your home, speakers reflect surround sound and music clearly, but the dialog channel becomes lower in that system.

In an interview, an audiologist, Charlie Hare, said that the Dolby atom sounds good through you, but its loud sound is dangerous. It peaked at 88.8 decibels, and it's risky for us if we continuously hear above 80 decibels. He advised viewers to make earplugs when they face the silver screen.

Conclusion:

Screen projection becomes darker, and the light you loved and through which you connected with screens becomes stiff to find now. That was till the era of the '90s when showers immense natural lights while recording and reaching out in our hearts till now. Those projections, clarity not in 4k or 8k, but at least we observed what scene a filmmaker shot. In that cinema, directors directly connected to our hearts, but new cinema has become a mind game. Watch what you can see and listen if you can. In TV and home theater, sometimes it becomes placement, and the environment of a room with too much light also distorts the image and affects the audible quality. Filmmakers have leaned into the rise of special effects, making explosions, fights, and gunfire significantly louder. That makes the dialogue seem that much quieter. They reach heights but lack prime elements in dialogue clarity and natural light. In India, there are only 23 IMAX screens left now. In cinema, actors whisper, but in theater, artists know how to speak louder.

There were many complaints regarding the Game of Thrones last season. Why it was too dark and unclear audible might be a technical issue because, in Hollywood, they never shoot and deliver. They always see what kind of projection it has on different screens.

It is now a habit of actors to deliver their dialogs softly, which the recorder can't record accurately. The main reason why Tollywood has become so popular in north India is that its Hindi dub and audio are understandable.

Cinemas are now not just for entertainment. It makes our relaxing and entertaining time fully alert and concentrating with frustrating vibes.

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