Small Town Outdoor Movies a Throwback to the Days of Social Cinema
In my Silicon Valley town of Campbell, a local arts organization has been producing Sundown Cinema, a movie series of classic films shown outdoors in a parking lot in Downtown Campbell. Last week's movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) was teamed up with Social Wave's one year anniversary party resulting in a record turnout for the weekly Sundown Cinema events.
Over 400 people came out to watch a movie outdoors where they had to bring their own chairs, tough out a gravel parking lot, put up with charging motorbikes every twenty minutes, and deal with numerous other viewing annoyances. There's no actual "screen" for the movie to be shown on. The movie is projected onto the pock marked yellowish wall of a building using a standard laptop video projector connected to a DVD changer owned by the producer of the events.
Needless to say, the excellent viewing experience isn't the reason why this small town movie series with no budget is producing viewership worthy of a small multiplex. Its success is even more surprising in light of a recent poll from the Associated Press showing that the majority of Americans go to the movies once or zero times a year.
What's happening here? Why is this word of mouth affair continuing to grow against reason? I personally believe that it's growing because it's offering a taste of something that's harder and harder to get in American cities. Sundown Cinema is a throwback to the days when movies were a more social experience and single screen theaters were an anchor of community life. As the event has grown in popularity, it is no longer just about the movie, but it's about the communal experience.
Although the communal nature of the Sundown Cinema series have been building with each screening, it really became obvious when we paired it with Social Wave's anniversary party. Before the movie, kids played with other kids, people were talking to the people sitting next to them, and throughout the crowd you could see people sharing candy and snacks with their neighbors. When was the last time you were at a movie and the person next to you asked if you'd like some chocolate? Even more remarkably, the demographics of Sundown Cinema is widely spread across all age ranges capable of enduring an evening sitting outside on lawn chairs.
Despite all the market testing and social engineering that goes into the production of Hollywood blockbusters (and the theaters themselves), American cinema has been in a steady state of decline in the past two years. Could it be that in the age where corporations take no chances and every decision is market researched to death, that we've engineered the soul out of the moviegoing experience?
Of course, I'd be hasty and foolish to say that the reason why Americans are shunning new releases is because they can't meet their neighbors at the movies anymore, but I do want to shine a light on how our highly researched world may be producing experiences in which any single consumer experience is technically flawless, but completely repulsive when considered as a collection of experiences.
Perhaps there's something intangible in the imperfect experience that many of us are secretly after. We may not like noise distractions when we're trying to watch a movie, but against the simple charm of sharing candy with the adult next to you, it's an easily forgiven annoyance. We want cushioned high back chairs, but may be willing to settle for a lawn chair if it means having a more genuine experience in which we go home satisfied even if we didn't like the movie.
Here's to the continued success of Sundown Cinema, a perfectly flawed perfect experience
