Cinema as an Attraction

In the past cinema was simply an attraction, a way to amuse people and grab their attention. Over the years, cinema has grown to be much more than a few amusing pictures in sequence, it has the capacity to tell full narratives and deliver important messages to the audience. However, even though cinema today has the capacity to tell important stories, it doesn't mean cinema is no longer used as an attraction. Feature films such as Pacific Rim or Avatar show that cinema can still be about amazing the audience with special affects and aesthetics. With the technology we have available, movies can center around affects to captivate an audience while simultaneously moving along a narrative. Aside from full feature-length films, social media provides their own type of cinematic attraction. Videos on facebook, instagram, youtube and vine are usually very brief. Vine has a maximum length of 6 seconds, instagram 15 seconds. These short videos are very similar to the early versions of cinema in that they provide only a quick fix of entertainment. They are novelties, meant to amuse and grab attention, whether for a nickel in a Kinetoscope or through facebook for a like.