New technology can change an entire industry. In the entertainment industry, the invention of the camera, and then the video camera changed the way that people consume there entertainment. The most popular form of visual entertainment used to be plays, until the video camera came along and people became fascinated by movies. Technology has changed the way that people consume media throughout time.
For a long time the most popular form of live entertainment was plays, and operas. People would go to a theater to have a day of entertainment of long plays by Shakespeare or other famous playwrights. Once the video camera was introduced, plays and operas declined. The general public was fascinated with the new medium of entertainment that the video camera brought. Plays and operas eventually found their niche audience, and have stayed in the spotlight. The niche group that plays and operas found was an elite group of people. Plays were for the highest class of people and not very accessible the general public. This stigma is still attached to plays and operas, but it is smaller than it once was. Now plays will travel around the world so that everyone has an opportunity to enjoy their work.
Video cameras were a huge development in the entertainment industry. Movies became very popular for the entire public, not just one demographic. Movies popularity grew with the number of movie theaters that were added around the world. Movies were much more accessible than plays were because people only had to travel to their local movie theater and not the nearest performance theater. Movies were also much less expensive than plays so all types of people had the opportunity to enjoy them. With the innovations of video cameras also kept movies in the limelight. From silent films to speaking films, then from black and white to color, and then the video quality continually improving, and finally with the introduction of the 3D movie. These innovations kept the movies new and exciting for everyone. The theater didn’t have as much innovations as movies, which could contribute to why its popularity did not grow like the popularity of movies did.
