• Home
  • Musicals
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Press
  • Support
  • About
  • Contact
FILMED LIVE MUSICALS
  • Home
  • Musicals
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Press
  • Support
  • About
  • Contact

Hello, My Name Is...

6/22/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
​With the introduction of sound on film, cinema underwent an identity crisis. What to call these new fan-dangled talking pictures? In 1928, film trade newspaper Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World led a campaign to try and come up with a new name. Common labels included “talkies,” “soundies,” “lispies,” “synchronized pictures,” and “audible pictures.” Suggestions ranged from “audien,” “cinelog,” and “dramaphone,” to “pictovox,” “viewvoice,” and, my personal favorite, “vivavox.”

For the purposes of this site, I define a filmed live musical as a stage musical that has been legally captured and distributed to the public. The deeper question I would like to look at today is, what is the final product that is distributed? Is it theatre? Is it cinema?

Filmed live musicals are distributed and advertised under different names, including “filmed live theatre,” “live cinema,” “transmission,” “HD transmission,” “cine-cast,” and “live capture.” Makers and distributors of filmed live theatre, including The National Theatre and Digital Theatre, describe filmed live theatre as a hybrid of theatre and cinema.

“Filmed live” can be a confusing label. How do we distinguish between a musical that is broadcast live, and an encore screening of that live broadcast? Is it still “live” if the screening takes place months, or even years, after the actual event? 

I would love to find a new name for filmed live theatre that reflects this hybridity.

Several studies show that audiences see attending filmed theatre at the cinema as an equally authentic way to experience live performance as going to the theatre. Recent studies also suggest that audiences have more emotional responses to filmed live theatre than they do in the actual theatre.

As evidenced by the success of National Theatre Live, Met Opera Live, the growth of theatre streaming services like Digital Theatre, and BroadwayHD, and the persistence of bootlegs, audiences are craving filmed live theatre content. We need to clearly define filmed live theatre, and label it, to make it accessible and searchable.

For now, “filmed live musicals” is the term I’m going with (hence the name of the site!), but I think it would be fun to come up with other terms that help filmed live musicals reach new audiences.

What do you think? Share your suggestions on the Facebook page or on Twitter!

Filmed Live Musicals is financially supported by the generosity of patrons
Mercedes Esteban-Lyons, Jesse Rabinowitz, and David and Katherine Rabinowitz.
Become a patron today and support original research into filmed live musicals.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018

    Categories

    All
    AAPI Rep
    Accessibility
    BIPOC
    BIPOC Rep
    Broadway
    Cinema
    Coronavirus
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Database
    History
    Interview
    Jason Robert Brown
    Languages Other Than English
    LGBTQI
    Libraries
    London
    New Musicals
    News
    New Technology
    NT Live
    Off Broadway
    Off West End
    Podcast
    Research
    Sondheim
    Streaming
    Television
    Ticket Sales
    West End
    Women

    RSS Feed

© 2023
  • Home
  • Musicals
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Press
  • Support
  • About
  • Contact