Imagine how famed director and cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld feels when his team spends months and millions of dollars filming, editing and scoring a single movie scene … only to have it played back in commercial cinemas with broken speakers, in bedrooms on iPads, or even in the living room on big screens with poor audio and video quality.
He doesn’t like it one bit, he’ll tell you at CEDIA Expo 2018. As the guest of high-end movie-server manufacturer Kaleidescape, Sonnenfeld will speak about “The Home Cinema Experience” at the big home-technology tradeshow.
Kaleidescape
The Men in Black franchise director is “so incredibly aligned with our belief in the purity of the experience,” says Kaleidescape CEO Cheena Srinivasan, “to make it the richest it can be without complexity.”
In a pre-CEDIA interview with CE Pro, Srinavasan said Sonnenfeld will discuss his “vision for an amazing home cinema experience.”
As the session description explains, the director believes that movie playback is the “most crucial part of the filmmaking process”:
Barry Sonnenfeld discusses how the playback of a movie-whether in a theater or at home-is the most crucial part of the filmmaking process, and how a luxury home cinema can be the only way to see a movie the way its creators intended. He will also talk about the impact of streaming and the Internet, his personal passion for home cinema, and the inevitability of day & date movie delivery.
Home Theaters Now Rival Commercial Cinemas
The timing for Sonnenfeld’s appearance couldn’t be better. It’s the first time in history that home cinemas can surpass the local movie theater in terms of A/V quality and customer experience, says Srinivasan.
“Somewhere in the last three years, we hit an inflection point,” he says. “You can now have a better home-theater experience than in your neighborhood cinema.”
BARRY SONNENFELD at CEDIA Expo 2018
Kaleidescape Presents
“The Home Cinema Experience: From Camera to Couch”
Thursday, September 06, 2018
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Room: 7A
Barry Sonnenfeld discusses how the playback of a movie-whether in a theater or at home-is the most crucial part of the filmmaking process, and how a luxury home cinema can be the only way to see a movie the way its creators intended. He will also talk about the impact of streaming and the Internet, his personal passion for home cinema, and the inevitability of day & date movie delivery.
For its part, Kaleidescape is already the go-to manufacturer in the home-technology channel for the highest-quality audio/video servers and most expansive online movie library, with 29 studios supplying pristine versions of their movie and TV titles.
Now that the A/V stars have aligned – 4K content, object-oriented sound, HDR, easy-to-operate control systems, outstanding displays, smaller projectors, more screen options and all the other trappings – it’s time to evangelize luxury home theater with the same gusto as builders and remodelers promote outdoor kitchens, luxurious bathrooms and elegant light fixtures.
Enough with the overemphasis on technology and product features, Srinivasan says, “Let’s step back and say all this jargon, all this garbage, is technology for technology’s sake … unless someone is going to do something about it.”
Kaleidescape is doing something about it by shifting its energy to the luxury home-theater experience in general, rather than the particulars of its own movie servers and vast online library.
“If we want to go to market as a premium home-theater experience, we need to promote the category,” Srinivasan says. “The best future for Kaleidescape is for Kaleidescape to be the brand of luxury home theater.”
He’ll have some cohorts in the endeavor. Srinivasan says Kaleidescape is assembling partners that represent the best of home theater – whether the “theater” is a dedicated room or multipurpose space where family and friends expect the best possible viewing and listening experience.
In addition to the Sonnenfeld session, Kaleidescape is hosting two other events focused on the luxury home cinema experience.
“CEDIA needs to be about putting smiles on people’s faces,” he says. “It’s not about technology for technology’s sake, but about emotions that just rip your heart out.
About Barry Sonnenfeld
Director Barry Sonnenfeld has found commercial and artistic success with such films as Men In Black I, II & III, Get Shorty, The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, Wild Wild West, Big Trouble, Nine Lives and RV. He has produced or executive produced Lady Killers, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Out of Sight, and Enchanted.
He is currently completing post production for Season 3 of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, for Netflix which has been nominated for two Emmy's for the 2018 season for Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes and Outstanding Children's Program.
Sonnenfeld began his career as a cinematographer, collaborating with the Coen Brothers on their first feature film, Blood Simple, and continuing with Raising Arizona and Miller's Crossing. In addition, Sonnenfeld served as Director of Photography on Penny Marshall's Big, Danny DeVito's Throw Momma From the Train, and two Rob Reiner films, When Harry Met Sally and Misery.
An elected board member of the Eastern Directors Council of the Directors Guild of America, Sonnenfeld lives in Telluride, Colorado with his beautiful wife, Susan and worries about his strong willed daughter, Chloe.
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