Megaplexes, IMAX films waves of big-screen future

In the grand scheme of the millennium just past, the movies existed on only about one-tenth of the total timeline. It's been slightly more than 100 years since Louis Lumiere showed his motion picture of a train pulling into the station at Ciotat. Since that time and back then, Lumiere's images were considered frighteningly real the technology and art of filmmaking have come a long way, relatively quickly.

While some folks screamed in terror as Lumiere's train seemed to be coming right at them, audiences today take for granted that dinosaurs are still roaming the Earth, Wookies walk among us and the folks aboard the Titanic looked like Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

While technology will keep moving ever forward, the art of film encompasses much more than cutting edge special effects or even the latest "standards" in sound, lighting, film stock and cameras. The basic purpose of a film (a good one, anyway) is to tell a story; and storytelling is an art as old as the human race. Spoken words, books, plays, movies: The means change, but the end remains the same.

What lies ahead for the movies is surely what has always faced them. Technological advances, sure, but it is hoped that wielding this technology will be people compelled to tell a story and to affect our lives.

Another side of the business, the companies that show the movies, is facing major changes, as well, most notably another round of "upsizing." The last of Springfield's single-screen theaters closed a few years ago, and the latest trend nationwide is a step up from the "multiplex" to the "megaplex."

Sixteen screens is a minimum, and the fact that we've recently seen the closing of the Northtown Four and the Fremont bears witness. Along with upsizing, theater corporations seem to be following a rather disturbing trend: downscaling. Smaller theaters that aren't making scads of money are finding their budgets and staff cut to a bare minimum.

Poorly run theaters are becoming frightfully abundant. Shows not starting on time, films out of focus and scratched, bad sound and weak projection lamps are just a few of the problems rearing their ugly heads. Poor customer relations are also on the rise, but what can one expect from a high-school kid working part-part-time for sub-minimum wage at a place that might close next week?

To be fair, Springfield is blessed with two top-notch theaters. Wehrenberg's Campbell 16 is well staffed and always on top of the presentation. If I have a choice of where to see a movie, this theater is always my first.

For a "sub run" theater (these places show films that have been around for a few months, at a reduced price) The Palace can't be beat. Staff and management really seem to care about what they're doing and technical problems, thanks to having full-time projectionists, are minimal. The Palace has the area's only THX certified rooms, state of the art when it comes to sound.

Scratchy, worn prints may become a thing of the past (although not this year) when a new delivery system comes online. Much ado is being made about "printless" movies, which will be digitally fed to the individual theaters, decoded and projected onto the screen. Disney apparently had a test screening at the El Capitan in Hollywood with its "Toy Story 2."

OK, it'll be nice to have a clean image without the bad splices and scratches, but anyone who has worked with a computer, especially trying to stream audio and video, surely realizes a whole new set of problems will be coming. "No, the film didn't break! We just have to reboot."

While the megaplex trend is inevitable, I can see a flip side already coming to pass. As screen sizes get smaller, the urge for a big-screen thrill gets ever stronger. Enter the already up-and-running IMAX theaters. Once, these huge-screen houses showed only short, special-interest films, but check the current listings for Branson's Discovery IMAX.

You'll see they're showing the latest James Bond movie as well as "The Omega Code." Disney released its updated animation classic, "Fantasia 2000," at IMAX theaters worldwide Jan. 1.

Home video's immediate future is spelled DVD. Already the players can be had for less than $200, and a great number of titles are available for purchase or rent. The picture, sound and special features are miles ahead of VHS, and the price is already right.

Another interesting device, from Philips, is called Personal TV. It's a tapeless video recorder/receiver that holds up to 14 hours of material. You can sign up for a service called TiVo that records programs you've specified.

It uses the phone lines to find out when the shows are on, no programming necessary.

(Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.)