Streaming and Snapping: How Smartphones Are Rewriting Entertainment’s Rules

The smartphone-driven digital revolution is fast changing the face of photography and entertainment. Formerly thriving photo studios and cinema theaters are now struggling to stay in business as individuals resort to their mobile phones for instant, high-quality photographs and on-demand programming. In Delhi, former bustling photography shops where families used to throng are now visited by only a few customers, mainly for official photographs. Studio owners have expanded into photocopying and printing services to remain viable, but most are shutting down or going freelance as foot traffic reduces.

 

The trend finds its way to the cinema as well. OTT platforms and the ease of watching films on mobile phones have resulted in theatre visits plummeting. The social experience of the cinema is dying out, to be replaced by individual screens and digital memberships. Filmmakers and studios have to change their tack, and most of them are turning attention to content for streaming and social platforms. As the technology develops, the former lively centers of visual narrative—studios and theatres—are fading into obscurity.

 

Source: The Patriot, Hindustan Times