Here at plugincinema we have chronicled the rite of alternatives to the cinema and TV as platforms for showing films; and that rise has been dramatic. However, we've never lost our love of cinemas – the popcorn, the big screen and surround sound! So we were charmed to learn that research backs up the vibe you get in the cinema ;

"...new research suggests that the presence of other people may enhance our movie-watching experiences. Over the course of the film, movie-watchers influence one another and gradually synchronize their emotional responses. This mutual mimicry also affects each participant's evaluation of the overall experience -- the more in sync we are with the people around us, the more we like the movie....In a series of experiments, the researchers had participants watch a video clip. Some of the participants watched alone, some with other people whose expressions could not be seen due to the presence of a partition, and some with other people whose expressions could be seen...While assessments did not line up by second--people liked or disliked specific scenes in the film according to their own tastes-- the researchers found that people watching a film together appeared to evaluate the film within the same broad mood, generally tracking up or generally tracking down.”

Very interesting, and should be of note to cinema owners and those who run film-festivals; what ever the Internet throws at you, if you get people together, you've got a Unique-Selling-Point! (USP) This is an interesting finding and reminded us of the 'illegal' cinema found underground in the Paris catacombs ;

"In 2004, police found the remnants of an underground cinema in the Paris catacombs. It had been used by a group called Perforating Mexicans, who hijacked public spaces for art. They left behind a note, which asked its finders: 'Don't try to find us.' Underground, when truly underground, goes deep. Checking Perforated Mexicans' film schedule, I expected to find snuff, graphic porn, or at the very least cock-fighting, but discovered instead a cinephile's dream: the Japanese animation Ghost in the Shell, Coppola's Rumble Fish, and David Lynch's Eraserhead. In other words, this underground experience was less about the actual films shown, and more the radicalism of illegal cinema itself.”

Clandestine popcorn! Another USP? This 'group illegal vibe' is also harnessed by the idea of 'guerrilla screenings', made possible by using accessible digital technologies such as laptops and digital projectors, the curators pick an outdoor spot, such as a park or abandoned building and simply set up a cinema (see example ). The future may be digital; but nobody said it had to be alone...