Author – Cody Smith

How I’ve seen the movie industry change over the past 20
years.

VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray, 3D… the world of movies is changing fast.
Just in the 20 years I’ve been on this earth (not to imply I was somewhere else
before that…), I’ve seen incredible leaps and bounds in the “moving picture”
industry. Growing up in the 90s, I remember when DVDs didn’t even exist. Many
classics like The Lion King, Toy Story, Saving Private Ryan, Braveheart,
Titanic, Forrest Gump, and Jurassic Park were being created in what
you could almost call a film revolution.

Then came the day we walked into our local video rental
store and there it was: a single rack of shiny new DVDs sitting near the
entrance with a conspicuous sign pointing them out. The rest of the store, of
course, was still VHS, which is what we rented since we wouldn’t get a DVD
player for some time yet. But DVDs were a mega hit (obviously), so it didn’t
take long for ALL the racks to be filled with DVDs, and the VHS tapes thrown in
bins to be sold. At the time it was very exciting, but looking back, it was
really a sad day to see VHS tapes become outdated. The benefits of DVDs seem to
outweigh their drawbacks, though, so I suppose it was a good tradeoff.

Then came HD-DVD. There were more features (part of the
advertisement, I’m guessing, since HD doesn’t have anything to do with the
features offered), the quality was better, the picture was clearer, and
high-definition became the new “normal”.

The next big thing? 3D! I remember going and watching my
first 3D movie – one of the first of its kind. It was big, it was realistic, it
was a little freaky, and it seemed the entire movie , including movements of
the characters, etc., were specially directed to look cooler in 3D. I’ve never
been a big 3D person, but the fact that you could now feel a little more like
you’re there in the movie became HUGE. It seemed for a while that nearly every
new movie to come out was in 3D – but only in theaters. It wasn’t until not so
very long ago that 3D viewing became something you could do on the couch at
home.

And finally in more recent years came the biggest advance
since the DVD… Blu-Ray. To be honest, I’m not 100% for sure what all the
differences are between plain ol’ DVD and Blu-Ray, but I’ve heard they’re
supposed to be clearer, have a lot more features, and are more scratch
resistant… if you have the Blu-Ray player to watch them on, of course. I’ve
only seen one Blu-Ray movie ever, so I can’t really give an opinion on what I
think about them yet.

Since the beginning of movie time, they’ve been filmed in
24fps (frames per second). This is what sets the big production Hollywood look
apart from the home video look. Most personal camcorders film in 48fps to
60fps. This gives home movies a very clear crisp realistic look that is usually
associated with “cheap”. But Peter Jackson, producer of The Lord of the
Rings trilogy, may change that very soon. His new trilogy, based on the
first Lord of the Rings book, The Hobbit, is filmed in 48fps, which could
potentially revolutionize the filmmaking industry if all goes as planned. Since
a lot of people are very against the switch to 48fps, though, he will be
offering The Hobbit trilogy in 24fps, 48fps, and 48fps 3D. He claims
that combining the realism of 48fps and the realism of 3D gives the incredibly
unique feeling of actually being there in the movie.

But regardless of all the external changes I’ve seen
throughout the past 20 years, the stories never change. Whether I’m
watching Jurassic Park on VHS, or watching it on 3D Blu-Ray (which
will be coming out July, 2013), it’s still a great movie. A bad movie is going
to be bad no matter how you watch it, and an awesome movie is still going to be
awesome no matter how you watch it.

Check out 16 of my all-time favorites below. If you haven’t
seen all of them yet, don’t feel bad (although you probably should), just click
“watch now” or “buy” to stop being jilted today…