Our Emerging Community’s Year In Review
Forward
During our inaugural year, we have become a community – connecting and caring while celebrating life’s triumphs and bearing challenges together. A community continually growing and maturing through support and mutual strength, we emerge with a renewed sense of belonging, committed to standing side by side and embracing our bond. Who would have thought a single room in our homes could have such importance? We did! At The Cinema Connoisseur, we are committed to elevating the home cinema experience to assure all private cinema owners enjoy the experience nonpareil and to grow our community to enhance the lives of all. We hope you enjoy this retrospective of the stories and inspirations from this first year and will be moved to share The Cinema Connoisseurs with others. Shared experiences are truly experience’s nonpareil!
Cinema Sommelier
Our Cinema Sommelier feature playfully enhances the personal cinema experience by equating the flavors of a film with perfect wine pairings. In A Quiet Place, the absence of sound was the perfect white space allowing viewers to become immersed by relying on other senses. We discovered that as one part, sound, is withdrawn, others must compensate. In Unbroken, we are strengthened through experiencing the challenges of war and the circumstances of life. We were submerged in the sounds of war – battle, pain, isolation – and yet, emerged stronger. As we blast into tomorrow with Rogue One, we travel from lava laden landscapes to tropical blues and sleek futuristic spacecraft – visually tasting each location on a journey to the next generation. Our next stop takes us to the fantasy land of superheroes and villains, celebrating the strength of our sisters with Captain Marvel. Through quick wit and lighthearted banter, the heroine instills confidence that through it all, we will survive and even thrive.
Cinema Stories
In Cinema Stories, you opened your homes, welcoming us to share your personal cinema experiences. In a Tale of Two Theaters, we journeyed with one private cinema aficionado whose connoisseurship has grown and who values the “particularly beautiful, shared experiences” his theaters offer. Faced with design restrictions and roadblocks, the owner was not deterred but determined, settling for nothing less than excellence, proclaiming, “There’s this unbelievable attention to detail, but then it gets covered up,” resulting in a beautiful balance of high tech and aesthetics. A budding family, inexperienced in the private cinema arena, realized that Dreams Do Come True after waiting two decades for their theater. Each family member relished involvement in the process resulting in a cinema escape designed to meet their particular needs. Emoting “Isn’t it grand!” on opening night.
In the Buffalo Run Cinema, we met a couple with 30 years of private cinema experience looking to build their forever theater and ensure it would be their best. Communication was key, and the theater team became a community, working together and meeting challenges that resulted in the owner’s “ultimate electronic amenity.” From a location where the buffalo roam to a hi-rise renovation, each private cinema needs to be perfectly designed for the family it engages. In the Minema, a soon-to-be-retired couple moved from a small, dark “screening room” to “a haven, a different kind of experience from the rest of our daily lives.” Collaboration was key to the process of producing an exquisitely intimate private cinema designed to screen the latest blockbuster, immerse in music, connect in a videoconference, or unite far and wide for a fabulous mid-pandemic wedding. While the stories differ, the result should always be the perfect private cinema for every cinema connoisseur family.
Cinema Intelligence
These private theaters have a personal impact. Have you ever found yourself dodging and weaving during a cinematic fight scene? Maybe pursing your lips during a romantic kiss? Or forget you are sitting in a theater after becoming so fully immersed in a film? Such perfection can only be achieved when each professional member of the cinema community brings their specific area of expertise to collaborate on your uniquely perfect private cinema. That’s Cinema Intelligence. Each location is assessed for its unique challenges and addressed by the appropriate team of professionals, your A-team of unsung heroes.
Coordination and balance are critical when managing acoustics, engineering, aesthetics, or functionality. Requisite is the unique skill set of your project manager, whose primary goal is to make your vision a reality. As technology advances, the industry must respond. No longer just a sweet spot to share a film, your private cinema is also a retreat for fully immersive musical experiences transporting you from the symphony hall to an intimate acoustic venue. In pursuing experiential perfection, industry leaders are working together to identify standards not driven by marketing but by the cinema connoisseur community’s demand for excellence. The goal is to share knowledge with private cinema owners to make informed decisions for optimum personal investment. No longer is the personal cinema owner simply an observer, but a full participant in creating their cinematic utopia.
Cinema Currents
Cinema Currents celebrates just what makes your private cinema incredible – the elite of film. From the visual brilliance of Encanto, thrilling Bond action sequences, and sounds of America, to the emotional impact of a suspense-filled rescue in Dune, film, the seventh art, deserves a suitable edifice to house such masterpieces. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures sets a standard par none. But who is to say the private cinema owner cannot follow suit? Just imagine your theater as your private gallery of film right in your home. Within this family of film, we not only recognize Oscar-worthy movies but the individuals who wrench our heart strings and then send us soaring. Composer John Williams is the epitome of excellence. And while music lifts the soul, your private cinema is the perfect retreat to escape fast-paced society. A place to connect with one another without distraction while creating traditions and building deeper connections. Perhaps not as much a luxury anymore, but a necessary component of a healthy life.
Cinema Inspiration
And who decides what is luxury anyway? In Cinema Inspiration, industry leaders guide owners to luxury redefined. No longer is simply obtaining what others proclaim is sufficient enough, but rather discovering and having what has personal meaning and fulfillment. As members of the diverse private cinema community, you get to decide. What inspires you? Brings you joy? Settles your spirit? These will determine your perfect private cinema. Is fine art your vibe? Maybe consider collecting pieces of digital art. Does your heart race to leave your fingerprint on our world? Film impacts social change and might inspire a family member to change the world. And don’t we all aspire to impact others? To inspire and leave a legacy. A community cannot grow standing still. It grows, matures, and changes with mentors. Always reflecting and learning. Ever evolving. In our pursuit of perfection, our individual brilliance, shared, creates the next level on which we will build. For now, we aspire for every cinema connoisseur to achieve the perfect private cinema experience, the one designed expressly for you, without compromise.