Table Of ContentLive To Your Local Cinema
DOI: 10.1057/9781137288691
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DOI: 10.1057/9781137288691
Live To Your Local
Cinema: Te Remarkable
Rise of Livecasting
Martin Barker
University of East Anglia, UK
DOI: 10.1057/9781137288691
© Martin Barker 2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-28868-4
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Safron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Te author has asserted his right to be identifed as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifh Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–1–137–28869–1 PDF
ISBN: 978–1–349-44995-8
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
www.palgrave.com/pivot
doi: 10.1057/9781137288691
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements vi
Introduction: Te Success Story
with No Name
Te Aesthetics of Livecasting
A Portrait of Livecasts’ Audiences
Te Many Meanings of ‘Liveness’
Livecasts’ Audiences Talk about
‘Livenes’
Te Cultural Status of Livecasts
Te Next Research Tasks?
References
Index
DOI: 10.1057/9781137288691 v
List of Illustrations
Tables
3.1 Relationship between sex and frequency
of attending 29
3.2 Relationship between number of
experiences and judgement of event 29
5.1 Average number of words in answers
to four open-ended questions 62
5.2 ‘Immersive’ v. ‘Expert’ orientations
to livecasts 67
Figures
3.1 Age of audience 27
3.2 Overall ratings of quality of event 31
3.3 Approximate time to reach event 31
vi DOI: 10.1057/9781137288691
Acknowledgements
I frst became interested in the phenomenon of livecasts afer
attending an NT Live presentation in Aberystwyth in 2009.
Loving the show (Phèdre), I was intrigued by the hesita-
tions I and friends sensed among the audience about how
they could take part. Should they dress up as if going to the
theatre? How should they respond to seeing the audience at
the source-event? What would it mean to laugh, when the
actors couldn’t hear? How should they use the interval, when
there was no programme? Was it OK to clap at the end –
was it worth doing so? Long fascinated by the challenges of
researching audiences, I began to devise a project, and ulti-
mately – afer a pilot in Aberystwyth – approached a number
of the companies associated with livecasting to ask whether
they would be interested. I would do the work for free, asking
help only in publicising a web questionnaire. Eventually, one
company – Picturehouse Cinemas, which owns more than
20 cinemas and provides the transmissions to many others –
took up my proposal, and the research took place in 2009.
I only subsequently realised that among the reasons others
might have backed away was that they were already doing
their own research. Indeed, the more I looked, the more I
realised that this phenomenon had ramifcations far beyond
my initial interest in the audience. Like Topsy, this research
kept on growing. I like that. I tried out my frst thoughts
and results in a number of conference presentations. Some
acute critical feedback helped me refne what I felt I could
confdently say. I now ofer this book as a ‘come-on’ to other
researchers who have skills and knowledges that could throw
a whole new light on this phenomenon.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137288691 vii
viii Acknowledgements
Tis book has been greatly aided by helpful responses from a wide
range of people who ofen didn’t know me at all, from a variety of places
and felds of work. I believe that I have thanked them all individually,
but I hope, more importantly, that if they read this they will all feel that
I have made fair use of their ideas, even where (sometimes) I have not
agreed with them. I owe especial thanks to three people: Gareth Bailey,
Cinema Manager at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, who has unstintingly
responded to my queries and requests; Alastair Oatey at Picturehouse
Cinemas, who took the chance of enabling me to carry out my audience
research, when he could not be sure what benefts there might be; and
Paul McDonald of Nottingham University, who chucked a tough yorker
of a question at me when I presented a half-formed version of this book’s
central ideas. I’m delighted, fnally, to be a part of the launch of Palgrave
Pivot initiative, and my thanks go to Felicity Plester for making my jour-
ney to here smooth and pleasant.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137288691
1
Introduction: Te Success
Story with No Name
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. Te frst successful
events were in 2006, when the New York Metropolitan Opera,
driven by difcult fnancial circumstances, took things in an
unexpected direction. Te 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.
Barker, Martin. Live To Your Local Cinema: Te
Remarkable Rise of Livecasting. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2013. doi: 10.1057/9781137288691.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137288691 1
