Abstract
Introducing the phenomenon of ‘livecasting’, this chapter recalls its history, and the range of contributory forces which shaped its emergence. Originally known only under its industry name, ‘Alternative Content’, the idea of beaming live performance events into cinemas had been conceived some years earlier, but primarily as a means of promoting the sale of expensive new digital projection systems. The first successful events were in 2006, when the New York Metropolitan Opera, driven by difficult financial circumstances, took things in an unexpected direction. The surprise success of these events led other arts organisations to develop the format, and to begin to create institutional infrastructures for these events. But the issue of a public ‘name’ for them remains unsettled.
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Notes
The Met does in fact have ‘previous’ with respect to transmitting its performances. As early as 1948 ABC Television filmed the opening night of Otello. Technically rather naïve (there were real problems with lighting for early cameras, and synchronisation of action and camerawork was reportedly poor), it did well enough that opening nights were transmitted for the next two years, until cost considerations killed the experiment (see Citron, 2000: 43–50). Met performances were again relayed, to TV sets in the late 1970s, under the title ‘Live From The Met’, under seasoned television directors such as Kirk Browning. But again early excitement was not sustained. An interesting essay by Richard Kirkley (1990) explores a related history for Canadian television’s experiments with Electronic Theatre.
Hancock’s presentation also demonstrated the greater income per head from 3D, because of the higher attendant prices.
‘“116 digital screens out of 130,000 does not constitute a commercial roll-out,” said National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) head John Fithian at the annual Cinema Expo exhibitors’ conference in Amsterdam this week. “We are still in a testing phase”’ (Forde, 2002b).
Intriguingly, some of those involved in developing Alternative Content were keen to draw upon the work of academics such as Gomery. The European Digital Cinema Forum borrowed from his and others’ historical work in their ‘The EDCF Guide to Alternative Content in Cinemas’ (n.d.).
In America, regional opera houses were also soon expressing nervousness about threats to their own audiences.
I am grateful to this book’s anonymous referee for pointing out that in 2009, a year before NT Live’s launch, the UK’s Royal Opera House screened Don Giovanni. But certainly NT Live’s large-scale thrust gained far more public attention.
A good idea of the range of kinds of event now digitally flowing to cinema screens can be garnered from a visit to the Digital Cinema Report website: http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/taxonomy/term/20?page=4.
There have certainly been misjudgements. Although I have not been able to obtain figures, insiders have told me, for instance, that the beaming of Jamie Cullum’s Cheltenham Festival performance flopped badly, probably because Cullum does not have a strong following among jazz aficionados.
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© 2013 Martin Barker
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Barker, M. (2013). Introduction: The Success Story with No Name. In: Live To Your Local Cinema: The Remarkable Rise of Livecasting. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137288691_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137288691_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, London
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