Miscellaneous Movie Musings the Sequel

[flippyshark]

Already this same issue has reared its head at live theater as well. Some theaters are encouraging patrons to text and tweet during the show, presumably by way of interacting with and commenting on the performance. This is happening at the Broadway revival of Godspell, for instance, and the textors are seated in one specific area. i'll be seeing this in a few weeks, so I can comment then as to how distracting this ends up being. (The theater is in the round, so I can't help but think that the text-section will be noticeable from just about anywhere.)

There just might be some way of creating meaningful and engaging theater pieces that include live social networking, but if an audience is simply texting away during a traditional musical, it would be hard for the performers not to feel like their audience is bored and distracted. We actors usually want to weave a spell. Texting and tweeting feel to me like awfully mundane activities, inimical to surrendering to the spirit of a performance. But then, I'm instructed by the media to feel more out of touch and useless every day. (Maybe I'll write an interactive multi-media show about it.)

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by flippyshark

Already this same issue has reared its head at live theater as well. Some theaters are encouraging patrons to text and tweet during the show, presumably by way of interacting with and commenting on the performance.

The main issue with texting at a movie theater is the dark environment. At concerts and many plays the room is not as dark so someone near me texting (especially on a nearly silent touch screen) would not bother me at all assuming they had it on silent so it's not buzzing and binging with each received message.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

Historically younger people go to more movies. According to the article that's no longer the case. If not being able to text is the real reason behind the drop in ticket sales then theater owners would be pretty much forced to embrace texting, taking, or whatever else the core audience wants.

I wonder if we are going to end up segregated. Texting/non-texting/etx/non-etx/2d/3d/2d texting/3d texting/2d no texting/3d no texting/48fps/24fps/48fps 3d with texting/48fps 3d with no texting, etc.....

I already don't want to see movies in a theater very often; this will continue to keep me away. I find texting very distracting and I don't want it around me when I'm trying to pay attention to a movie.

Originally Posted by flippyshark

Already this same issue has reared its head at live theater as well.
::snip::
but if an audience is simply texting away during a traditional musical, it would be hard for the performers not to feel like their audience is bored and distracted.

I would read someone texting during a show as bored, yeah. I've heard about some theaters doing this, setting aside a section where you can tweet or text to people who will tell you about the show, but I can't see myself doing it. Totally takes me out of the mood.

[lashbear]

Originally Posted by flippyshark

(Maybe I'll write an interactive multi-media show about it.)

That would be interesting. Get all the audience members to subscribe to your tweets prior to the performance, and then during the show, using twitter as a means of doing mental asides inbetween lines of dialogue: "That's funny... John never has a second cup of coffee at home..."