The Science of Theater

A theater has gone a long way since its early days of the Roman amphitheater and the bonfire plays of the gypsies. Now, movie houses have state-of-the-art surround sound audio equipment, transporting the viewers into the thick of the action. With digital and IMAX cinema technology, the screen comes to real life through 3-dimensional (3D) views, providing an even more spectacular experience. Growing in numbers are 4D theaters, where aside from the visual and the audio, there is another element added into the fray – that of the sense of touch. Viewers can actually get wet when the characters of the movie dive head first into the sea.

There are many more technologies being churned out by laboratories all over the world like interactive theaters or customized movie selections. Building one’s own exclusive and state-of-the-art movie house inside the house is even more affordable and doable for some. Perhaps the most exciting technology that should hit the mainstream industry is the 360-degree cinema, where viewers can actually turn their head around and see events that are happening around them, all the time.

Indeed, theaters had gone a long way. Prices too have gone way up. Avatar may have beaten the Titanic but naysayers say it is partly because cinemas charge more than double what they used to charge during the days of the showing of the unsinkable ship that, well, sunk. While technology has allowed movie makers to cut on costs -- they can just shoot actors in front of a green wall and add the terrain of a an alien plant via computer graphics rather than build a whole set like the old days – actors have also cost more and so did equipment and computer effects. The science of economy has also taken roots in Hollywood.

Advertising has even gotten its way into the movies. Companies pay millions of dollars just to become the place where Tom Hanks work in the movie. Car companies would kill just to be driven by the next action star.

Indeed, movies have grown far more than just the good old art of acting and acting believably. It is now a race of technical innovation, of creativity in terms of story, characters and location. It is now a battle of ideas and of marketing. It has evolved much into the science side even more than it moved into the art side of things.

However, movies have to cope up. They face tough competition from cable and satellite television, Internet and yes, the movie pirates. Unlike before when movie houses become the primary source of news (yes they have news just before the movies), movies these days have more become a past time and a recreation and to fight for the consumer dollar. That is why the race is on to Movie Theater into the next level – making it more of an experience, an emotional decision. Movies are now meant to satisfy the curiosity and becoming more of a necessity.