What will the state of films be 20 years from now?

Something I got to thinking about today. Just how much will films and the industry in general change in 20 years?

Do you think they will still be made the same way? Will there be some groundbreaking innovation that will forever change the film making landscape? Will there be anymore failed experiments/passing fads like 3-D? Will there still be a ton of remakes? And just how much more CGI will they put into the films?

My prediction is that they're gonna try to capitalize on streaming and do some mega-premium service where, for a pretty hefty sum, you can be able to stream films that just got released theatrically.

I think there's also a chance that there will be some kind of "renaissance" where many filmmakers will start incorporating older techniques into newer films (no cgi, shooting in film over digital, black and white etc.)

Your thoughts?

I have a feeling that theaters will be a thing of the past; they will still be around just for nostalgia's sake (apparently some "drive-in" movie chains still exist) but streaming will be the #1 medium eventually rather than the box office.

It will be a sad day if/when that happens.

Great post - definitely something to think about. I don't think the cartoons are going to be fads; they seem to make a lot of money, so they'll keep making them. I think as the theaters and video stores keep going out of business, they'll make more money online. Amazon for example... Even youtube has a ton of full movies, with ads of course.. I just think people won't get the same experience, watching a film on a little phone, or a laptop.

I don't know any serious filmmakers, though I would wanna know what their favorite movies are. I doubt they're being exposed to the various films we're exposed to. Instead, people will watch whatever is on TV, or whatever is 2015.

I think we have a responsibility to try to for some kind of renaissance. If there's a film you truly love, pass it around, not just on here, but to people. In the last week, I had a couple of local events, and I mentioned "Birdman of Alcatraz"- no one had even heard of it, including a woman and a few men who are in their 50's and 60's...

Got nothing to lose. Maybe we should organize better.. Infiltrate Craigslist, Imdb, etc etc...
Even just to get a few more of the general population to at least give other movies a chance. Hell, even if it's your friend or neighbor, at least after they watch you'll have something to talk about. I watched "There Will Be Blood" with this couple next door, and we talked about it for an hour. I remember they would rent films from OnDemand (I remember when they rented "Her")... Do it for music, comedy, etc etc...

__________________
https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

I agree matt that watching a movie on a laptop or phone will never ever give you the same experience as a theater. I think the theater or cinema or whatever you wanna call it should never go away. It is something that's been around since the very beginning—when the Lumière brothers debuted the first ever cinema showing in the 1890s. Losing the theater would be losing tradition.

I can certainly see more streaming at home, with TV screens and surround sound now almost standard in film fan's homes, the home experience is becoming more and more like a cinema, without the endless annoyances.

I can see cinemas becoming more interactive, they already project most new films digitally now, I imagine it won't be long before cinemas are projecting streamed films allowing them to instantly react to audience demands. This would be a big boon to smaller, independent and classic films - people could get enough friends together and pick from a huge database of films they want to see on the big screen.

I think more money will be devoted to making TV series and they could soon match film for prestige; competition between streaming firms could match the old film studio rivalries, until the inevitable anti-competition laws come into effect.

As mentioned above, I think a retro trend to using 'real' film and eschewing CGI effects is likely, but mostly in art-house circles. Mainstream film will continue to develop CGI effects until they are impossible to detect and I wouldn't be surprised if technology is good enough to make CGI people look real by then. This opens the possibility of making films using real people who are no longer with us - making a Dirty Harry sequel with a computer generated 50 year old Clint Eastwood for example - although how people would react to this is hard to say, I imagine it would be more of a gimmick than an actual practical film making technique.

3D may come and go a few times by 2035, but I doubt it will ever really catch on for simple fact that the glasses are a pain in the ass.

__________________
@MondoEsoterica - an insight into my world of seriously obscure cinema.

Never thought about that possibility, interesting... I'm not sure how I would react to something like that. My prediction though is that it would be neat the first time but people will become jaded of it and it won't become practical but rather a gimmick like you said. I can picture John Wayne being one of the first deceased stars they do that to.

People already are watching things on their phone... I know a few people who will watching a streaming film on work, when they're not busy, so they're pausing, restarting depending on if they have customers. People at the library do the same thing, when they're not on facebook or playing games. Even on a computer, the streaming stuff buffers a lot, and commercials and ads are bad enough.

I didn't discover this until I was at my cousin's a few weeks ago. If you go to youtube.com/pair (and if you have an xbox), you can watch certain youtube videos online, since there are a lot of videos you can't access on a phone.

Didn't George Lucas consider doing something like this to put a Tarkin cameo in the prequel trilogy? Can't say I like the idea much. It seems kind of disrespectful to use the images of dead actors/actresses instead of recasting or just leaving the character out of the film. Maybe if the actor were still alive and willing to allow their image from a previous film to be used then it would OK but using someone after they're dead seems kind of creepy to me.

__________________
You will find that if you look for the light, you can often find it. But if you look for the dark, that is all you will ever see.
Iroh

In twenty years movies will just be downloaded directly to the microchip implanted in all of our brains.

__________________
I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

I don't believe technology will advance that far in 20 years. Could be wrong but I'd say that would probably be more like 50 years.

We need something where you can KNOW a movie without actually having seen it.

Like, it gets downloaded to the microchip in our brains, and it feels like we've actually seen it. Automatically. Not "gets downloaded and we watch it from there." I want "gets downloaded and presto, we've seen it." In an instant.

It would really help everyone here with all these damn countdowns and Hall of Fames. We could speed through them so much faster. We could watch all of the films in a day. Every movie in existence.

Rekall - fake memories?

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

I don't think the microchip implant is going to happen in the next 1000 years or something.

We're not even remotely close at this moment.

__________________
Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

Right. Artificial, implanted memories so we believe we've seen the movies and know everything about them.

Who knows? Someday in the far future, that kind of thing might be a reality. You could BUY fake memories. The richer you are, the more artificial memories/artificial knowledge you have.

You could buy memories to make you believe you've done all sorts of things. Trade in your boring real life for a fake life. The mind is the future. We're obsessed with plastic surgery and bodybuilding right now, but in the future, the mind will be the thing to control. We do it now already prehistorically -- going to school and using the internet are our caveman tools right now to getting a faster gratification of things for our minds. Movies and video games are the same thing.

But one day -- it's gonna be delivered to us faster. We won't waste years going to school. We won't waste time watching movies. These experiences are our future drugs. We will be taking a pill called Blade Runner. A pill called Forrest Gump. A shot of Fifty Shades of Grey!

I want an injection of Sexy Celebrity.

__________________

^^ Tarkin was in the prequel trilogy. But played by another actor rather than a CG facelift.




With all the racelifting going on I can see an A-Team incarnation with 3 black guys as Hannibal, Face and Murdock... and B.A Baracus is played by a Mexican.

__________________

Yes, that's exactly the idea I was going for.

By not even remotely close, I assume you mean scientists have already started experiment with brain implants, right? Once they make the initial breakthrough, things will progress quite rapidly. My comment was mostly a joke, but there's a good chance these things will eventually be a reality, and probably quicker than people can now foresee. Sort of like someone from the 80s scoffing at the idea of a cell phone being also a supercomputer.

Now the question... do I report this as Spam?

__________________

No, you eat it.