On&Offline Cinephile Diaries (No. 2)
Working on my thesis has already exposed me to many cinematic concepts that I didn't know had a name. One of the more interesting cases is "beamering". As Biltereyst and Aboulaoula (2021) wrote in their amazing paper called "Corona Cinephilia", beamering is "the act of watching films at home by projecting the image onto a wall with a digital projector. The beamer is used to recreate the immersive cinema experience at home" and for the last couple of weeks, thanks to Noa, we were enjoying this phenomenon. I used to watch movies with others in places other than the cinema before as well. Back in Iran, I used to start a movie on my laptop at the same time as my friend from another town, or invite others to my apartment to watch something on TV. The disparity, however, is the quality of the experience. The duo of wall and projector obviously won't have the same screen quality as a TV or a laptop; however, beamering has a much closer feel to cinema. First of all, the way that the projector and wall function is comparable to the movie projector and the screen in the cinema. Besides, I believe people tend to pause the film during the beamering less than on TV or a laptop. This is much closer to the cinema experience, where the audience has no control over the screening. Also, the community factor is another important objective. Again, based on recent experience, I feel this kind of watching is a much more intimate approach, and even the pre-screen and post-screen have the identical feeling to the cinema. Beamering works like a special ritual, but the TV/laptop case feels less unique.
As an example, I watched many masterpieces on my laptop, but the experience of watching “The VelociPastor” was more "meaningful" not only because watching a B-movie is generally a fun experience, but the fact that I watched it on another night of beamering at Noa's with a group of friends made it special. Overall, I think beamering is one of those rare humane pleasures that Capitalism hasn't ruined yet, and hopefully will continue as long as cinema is alive (and not fully bought by Netflix).