Seeing the Big Picture
by Helen Wells

July 2000

We’ve all heard the bitter complaints about watching movies stutter and stagger around in postage-stamp-size screens. And some of us may have even pondered the grave sociological impact of the segregation of American citizens into separate, isolated homes, in front of their separate, isolated computers, far from the heady interaction that takes place in a crowded movie theater.

Well, Mark Stern wants to correct these dire attacks on the grandeur of cinema with his new theater, Big Picture. Billed as “Seattle’s only luxury Internet theater and lounge,” the recently opened venue is designed to showcase digital filmmaking, Web sites and streaming media of all kinds in a plush theater setting, and Stern, whose background is in theatrical exhibition, promises that this sort of venue is the future of digital filmmaking.

“E-cinema will be to contemporary filmmaking what the talkies were for silent cinema earlier in the century,” he says vehemently. According to Stern, Big Picture offers several attributes that will make it the determining factor in the future of cinema.

Big Picture’s Features

First, Stern points out that the existing media technology has produced an abundance of content creators. “But no one has thought about the real venues for all of this content,” he explains. “Right now, everyone is watching content on the Internet. But a moviemaker can’t possibly be complete without theatrical exhibition. If you’re a filmmaker you want your movies playing in a theater. So we have created what we think will be the venue of the future. And it’s a real venue--we’re not some bar or nightclub. We’re the best possible theater.”

The theater.

In addition to fulfilling the essential needs of filmmakers, the theater also boasts top-notch technology, much of which is simply unavailable to home viewers. “We went over the top,” says Stern. “There are T1 lines and a Dolby Digital AC 3 surround sound system. Here, you’re seeing the best picture and getting a sound system that is unreal so we’re giving you all the tools to make your film look and sound great.”

To complete the experience, Big Picture serves alcohol, and will help cater your event “so you have a great dinner party, and after the movie, you’re having drinks and dessert.” And the décor? Think oak, chenille, bamboo. Companies that have used Big Picture thus far include Honkworm, Microsoft and Starbucks.

Daytime rates for renting the theater are $175/hour, with a cap at $525; nighttime rates are $450/hour, with a cap at $1,800.