The Pretty Screens

I must admit that the IPhone excites me more than I wish it did. But it is so damn purty! And I love imagining all the ExpensiveUglyHandheldJunk.com CEOs freaking out over it. I also believe that this device heralds the actual arrival of the much ballyhooed 4th screen - the portable screen, (following the 3rd screen - the desktop, and preceding the 5th screen - the toilet-top). 

David Denby’s stick in the mud New Yorker piece on Hollywood and IPods (link) argues that these tiny screens are changing how we watch movies for the worse but I have consumed enough YouTube-sized content to concede that I do enjoy the small screen every now and then.  Perhaps size doesn’t matter when it comes to a treasure you have always wanted to see, and I could care less about most of the stuff on the big screens anyways – and the screens at my favorite cinema (Film Forum) are not what you would call ‘large.’ Two things did jump out at me from his piece:

Denby’s blow job of Los Angeles’ ArcLight cinemas (um.. this place costs 14$)

And this Quote from Focus Features’ James Schamus:  “You want to have sex with someone,” Schamus said. “You say, ‘Do you want to go the movies with me Friday night?’ Movies are a pretext for social interaction. So don’t think of the future in terms of technology. It’s not a question of platforms but of how people want to use social spaces, how given ethnic and age groups want to interact.”

If the Folks in charge of these next generation pretty screens keep this sort of wisdom in mind I think we could have some fun with the new formats and new possibilities. Many filmmakers already are. I am going to leave you with an excerpt from David Lynch’s amazing new book (the proceeds of which go to teaching young kids about Transcendental Meditation!) Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity (link).

"The video iPod and videos online are changing everything. A tiny little picture instead of a giant big picture is going to be how people see films… The whole thing is, when those curtains open, and the lights go down, we must be able to go into that world. And in many ways, it's getting very difficult to go into a world. People talk so much in the theaters. And there’s a tiny, crummy little picture. How do you get that experience?  I think its going to be a bit of a bumpy road. But the possibility is there for very clean pictures – no scratches no dirt, no water marks no tearing- and an image that can be controlled in an infinite number of ways. If you take care of how you show a film, it can be a beautiful experience that lets you go into a world. We’re still working out ways for that to happen but digital is here the video iPod is here we’ve just got to get real and roll with the flow."

Comments

[K]

I'm genuinely amazed that people can get excited over a telephone. Did I miss something? At what point did everyone receive a lobotomy?

I do admit though, I like the toilet top display. Seems like a perfect metaphor. The most technologically advanced method in the history of man to show you a piece of shit.

[bartelby]

I see people daily playing space invaders on their phone or watching a movie on their psp. The intellectuals are the ones reading the report backs from the latest publicist wars.
All these things are the result of choices people choose to distract themselves from their participation in a world system that is unsustainable.

Which is not to say that all the people on my reverse commute are reading the Bible or what the Jehovah's witness gave them in the parking lot. Some are, but fewer still are reading material not intended to distract.

Full disclosure-I have a sony discman to provide a soundrtack to the books I read. You can fit about 6 hours of mp3s on one CD.

[Krys O.]

Actually, the wave of the future would be flexible screens that are almost textile in nature. We can wear a veil and watch a movie from the inside. Or you can watch a movie on your friend's suit.

http://www.engineerlive.com/news/17040/flexible-screens-start-production.thtml

http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=20

[BenjamenWalker]

Obviously the veil will be the 6th screen.

[Station Manager Ken]

It's true that the experience of watching video on a tiny screen is a step down, as far as it being a great visual experience, but I dont really care, same as I dont care that MP3s will never sound as good as CDs which will never sounds as good as vinyl. The technical quality of the audio/video experience really seems like the least important thing to everybody involved - consumers, the industry, the government (the FCC was more than happy to allow TV stations to use their increased HDTV capacity for additional channels instead of a better picture).

-ken

[Steve PMX]

I personally never bought into the iPod craze. I still have my Nomad 6Gb mp3 jukebox thing - about the size of a Discman but way heavier. Lets you record digital audio w/ 1/8" input, unlike the stupid iPods. It's never let me down. And now that iPods are "cool" - they're not cool anymore.

However, I'd love an iPoop like in the picture. That thing's great. Looks super Japanese style.

[bartlebyvqf]

looks like I am missing a semicolon so, uh, here it is -- ;

[cheerios]

I have been enjoying digital media like this since 2004 on my trusty Sony Ericsson p910i. Its a great way to kill time during my commutes, I compress the latest Simpsons or American Dad down to a size and format it can play and away it goes.

I would never use it for anything else than cartoons tho, the quality is just too low..