Blockbusters are sweet.

I saw every single one of the Star Wars prequels.

I saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

I saw, and enjoyed, Ocean’s 12 because European locations look amazing on film. And yes, you can mock me.

I enjoy text messaging my friends during important dinners to find out what happened on my favorite TV shows.

I love the fact that thousands of other people each year go to the Big House in my lovely home state of Michigan to cheer on U of M and consume large amounts of alcohol.

The experience when massive numbers of people come around and enjoy giant events is great for a huge host of reasons.

But I also have loved going to AYSO soccer games with the dads holding the tupperware containers of sliced oranges during the quarter breaks.

I loved playing a  concert in a barn with my highschool rock band and stealing glances at the girl I had a crush on hovering off to the side with her girlfriends.

I loved cramming into a theater in a college basement and watching all the film projects from a semester. I remember getting a tingly feeling when the last frame ends on a particular film because it was just so true and I felt I could make something true too.

Maybe what I’m talking about here is the difference between a big sort of “rah! rah!” event and a smaller, intimate event. At the big event I feed off the collective enthusiasm of thousands of people. At the small events I get moments that are personal to me. It’s a cliche because it’s true, but I get the “little things” that make my life sweet. Sometimes I want to feel a part of something huge. Other times I want to feel something very small but very personal for me.

The huge events are easy targets for big business to hit. A studio is always going to gravitate toward a big blockbuster over a small, personal film. But I think there is room in the world for both to exist. Why don’t we see more people creating their own small venues for films? Especially between the coasts where small film venues are all but obsolete?  In my opinion (sorry, no hard data to back it up right now) it comes down to huge costs of space and marketing.  Theater buildings here in the midwest are expensive to heat in the winter and cool in the summer.  It costs money to get people in the theater seats–something indy distributors don’t usually have much of, and the theaters even less.  I’ve stated before that HD-DVD is great for the filmmaker because it allows work to get out there that much easier, and makes the film-watching experience even better from the home.  I fully believe that, but I also believe that the home viewing experience is augmented and enhanced by the community film-watching experience.

This last summer a guy here in Grand Rapids started showing films on a portable movie screen in parks and parking lots around the city. I don’t think more than 100 people came to any of the showings, but that was the point. The experience was small and intimate. It was a safe place to watch smaller and more intimate movies, like Jarmusch’s Mystery Train, while it played next to the railroad tracks.

I guess I’m puzzled as to why we can usually name half a dozen big multiplexes within driving range, but not name a few more intimate venues for watching a film. Like I said, this a larger problem in smaller cities, but I think it’s a problem anybody can solve with a little organization and some get up and go in them.

One of the things we’ll be working on in the future of Spout is a simple, effective way for people wanting that more unique and intimate film-watching experience to coordinate easily.  Kind of a DIY (do-it-yourself) distribution.