A recent article about the sad state of our commercial movie theaters read to me like a parable about media work in the digital age.
The problem is not simply that no one goes to the theater anymore for movies. It’s that commercial theaters no longer know how to project them correctly… because they fired all their projectionists.
They fired all their projectionists because digital projectors were supposed to eliminate the need for labor to operate them. And while that might be true to some degree, it turns out digital projectors – like everything else in this entropic world - need at least some attention to run correctly. Attention that is no longer anyone’s job at commercial theaters.
“Now that multiplexes use automated projection, problems fall to house managers, who, in this age of austerity, may be the same overworked employees ripping tickets and selling popcorn,” explains Lane Brown. Those problems include such basic issues as changing projector bulbs in a timely fashion, adding and removing filters for 3-D, adjusting masking curtains to suit different picture formats, and simply keeping the projector lens and the screen clean. Maybe not as skilled labor as traditional projectionists, but crucial labor nonetheless. And no one is doing it.
The result is the opposite of a movie palace. The projected pictures at multiplexes are dim, dirty and flawed. Why would anyone go?
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