DOI

https://doi.org/10.25772/6ZK6-TM81

Defense Date

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

Design

First Advisor

W. Camden Whitehead

Second Advisor

Christiana Lafazani

Abstract

In the past, going to the movies was an event. The grand lit marquee made a statement, ushering you inside. The elaborately decorated lobby transported you to a place in your dreams where riches and opulence abound. The curtained screen marked the start of a true storied spectacle as you sat close to your friends and neighbors dressed in their Sunday best. There was no denying that the cinema was the place to see, be seen and to socialize. In contrast, today’s movie-going can be classified as more of a singular experience. You wait in long, solemn cattle lines to enter a cluttered lobby with loud video games, tacky candy machines and tunnel-like hallways. You sit in plush recliners in a sea of strangers and rush out of the theater before even the lights come up. In response to this cultural shift, my proposed design solution will challenge the isolation of today’s cinema by recreating the procession associated with neighborhood movie-going of the early 1900s. I will reinvent a cinema built in 1937, the Bellevue Theater, and develop a design that is contemporary, incorporating both modern technology and interests of today. The design will explore the spatial connections between one and many, fostering both the individual and group experience associated with the big screen – the cinema procession of the past.

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

May 2011

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