The Future of IMAX is… Lasers!

  by Jen Yamato

from http://www.movieline.com/

By the year 2013, IMAX theaters and Kodak will bring digital theatrical projection to the next level with a single, exciting, futuristic-sounding concept: LASERS! The companies announced their partnership today in a statement promising advances in quality projection in large-scale IMAX and dome theaters in the coming years to benefit moviegoers, theaters, and investors. Win-win-win?
“This Kodak intellectual property is truly cutting edge,” said IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond in a press release today, “and will be used by IMAX’s esteemed Technology Group to enhance the cinematic experience for consumers, enable the application of digital technology in our larger and institutional theatres, and make being in business with IMAX even easier and more profitable.”
IMAX is exclusively licensing over 50 Kodak laser and digital projection-related patents and technologies that promise to enhance the visual experience and light quality of the IMAX experience, as well as make content distribution within the IMAX network easier.
“Because this technology produces the deepest blacks, and the brightest 3D of any system demonstrated to date,” said Kim Snyder of Eastman Kodak Company, “it will truly make the movies more exciting for consumers, and that creates a strong value proposition for the studios and exhibitors as well.”
Meanwhile, Kodak has in recent years been developing laser projection technology, which previously fell under separate laser-specific regulations. In February, the company got the go-ahead from the FDA to bring their technology to cinema theaters (vs. specialized laser shows, etc.). According to Kodak’s website, the features of their Laser Projection Technology include combined 2-D and 3-D projection,” 3-D images “twice as bright” as those used in standard industry practice, and 2K resolution scalable to 4K. In a statement last spring, Kodak explained the initiative:

Typically, digital projection systems using high power lasers fall under the definition of a “demonstration laser” and must follow existing regulations for conventional laser projectors, such as those used in laser light show displays. Kodak has been working in conjunction with laser safety consultants and the FDA to address potential safety issues.

KODAK Laser Projection Technology promises to bring vastly improved image quality to theater screens, including significantly brighter 3D viewing, and to dramatically reduce costs to digital projection in cinemas through the innovative use of long-life lasers, lower-cost optics and more efficient energy usage.

Could lasers be the key to the future of theatrical moviegoing? Will it make the sucky peripheral IMAX seats you get when you arrive late suck any less? Would Jim Cameron approve? Stay tuned…
[Press release, Kodak]

Now it's 4D film: The high-tech cinemas which will make you feel sick, damp... and punched

By Daily Mail Reporter
From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Hollywood is converting blockbuster films into 4-D because cinemagoers are shunning pricey multi-dimensional 3-D versions


But the experience has left some fans feeling sick, damp and pummeled after watching movies like Kung Fu Panda 2 and the latest Pirates of the Caribbean box-office hit.

A Korean company has built cinemas with seats which rock and special effects like wind, fog, strobe lights and scents are synchronised with the on-screen action.

Success in 4-D: Kung Fu Panda 2 with the voice of Jack Black as panda Po

The company, CJ 4DPlex, has opened an office in Los Angeles where computer programmes are written for the action films.

It plans to build America's first 4-D screen multiplex in New York and if it is a success, they will expand into Europe.

The biggest 4-D film in Seoul last week was Kung Fu Panda, the martial arts cartoon adventure with the voices of Jack Black, playing panda Po and Angelina Jolie.

 

A Korean blogger called Prof Miscreant reported in the Sunday Times: 'The seats have massage chair motors so that they punch you (lightly) in the kidneys or bottom when Po gets hit or falls down.

'At the end bubbles floated down from the ceiling to simulate fireworks - hilarious and well worth the 18,000 won (£10) ticket price.'

Blockbuster Avatar: Special 4-D audience effects were a huge hit with Korean movie fans

But not every movie fan is happy with the physical effects. 


Some customers complained of feeling damp from the water effects after watching Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides but 'smelling sweet' like Captain Sparrow star Johnny Depp.

And there were reports of people becoming nauseous and going temporarily deaf after watching Transformers: Dark of the Moon where the major smell is the scent of burnt rubber.

CJ 4DPlex was the first company to make a 4-D version of James Cameron's 3-D futuristic blockbuster Avatar. 


Audiences lapped up the smell of explosives and the howling wind effects so much so that the company is opening another three 4-D cinemas with seats that bend backwards and fly into the air.

A Seoul film distributor told Variety magazine: 'They are in a niche right now, like Imax giant screens a decade ago.'

The First IMAX 3D Porn Movie Is Here (Yes, IMAX 3D Porn)

From: http://gizmodo.com/

I can understand 3D porn movies at home, but IMAX 3D porn? Who wants to sit through two hours of explicit 60-foot tall 3D sex scenes, no matter how engrossing the plot could be? With other people around, I mean.

But that's exactly what Stephen Shiu is proposing for his 3-D Sex & Zen: Extreme Ecstasy, the first IMAX 3D pornographic film. An erotic fantasia set in a subterranean sex lair from ancient china. It's based on a classic Chinese erotic story called The Carnal Prayer Mat, the tale of a man who meets a duke that introduces him to a world of luxurious orgies.

The director says that the $3 million film, which is being produced in Hong Kong using IMAX cameras, will be explicit:

The sex scenes are explicit and sometimes violent, but the main theme of the story is love. There will be many close-ups. It will look as if the actors are only a few centimeters from the audience.

He claims that people don't want "just erotica, they want some wow factor!" I think he may be right, but I don't know how many people would like to watch a gigantic penis waving in 3D a few centimeters from their faces. Anyway, at least the 3D glasses will also serve as protection.

Whatever happens with this, I really want him to set cameras in the IMAX theater, just to see the reactions of crowd. [Reuters]

Send an email to Jesus Diaz, the author of this post, at jesus@gizmodo.com.

Forget Avatar: Hubble 3D Is a Religious Experience

Posted by FredPasternack
From http://www.motherboard.tv/



In the spirit of full disclosure, I must confess at the outset a certain prejudice about Hubble 3D. I have known an astronaut who flew on shuttle missions STS-9 and STS-45. I have been at the Cape for several Shuttle launches and landings (including both the launch and tragic non-landing of STS-107, Columbia). I have sat in the shuttle simulator. I have heard Story Musgrave talk about his repair of Hubble in 1993. And, in a heartbeat, I would jump at an opportunity to be shot into space myself.

Also in the spirit of full disclosure, I have issues with what at times seems to be a gratuitous use of computer technology in the movies. Having been around for the old days of headache inducing 3-D, the current technological breakthrough is interesting. Avatar was interesting.

But, in IMAX 3-D, Hubble 3-D is a religious experience. It is hard to find fault with the 45-minute documentary that details the history of Hubble, its near abandonment, and its resurrection on more than one occasion. The IMAX format in conjunction with 3-D virtually places the viewer in the shuttle, thanks to the camera work of the astronauts and the guidance, from Earth, of director Toni Myers. Yet it’s not just the photographic technique. It’s the entire experience. It’s about being there.

The launch of STS-125 is shot from several vantage points. The visual impact of the flames and exhaust from the shuttle’s rocket engines has been photographed frequently. The experience of those images in IMAX 3-D in conjunction with the sound of those rockets captured by what the filmmakers have called ”sacrificial microphones” is, pardon the expression, awesome, as is the popping sound of the shuttle passing through maximum dynamic pressure.



After Hubble’s preventative maintenance by the crew of Atlantis, Leonardo DiCaprio takes the moviegoer for a tour of the Cosmos. Courtesy of Hubble, the telescope and virtual time machine, we get a view of the edge of the visual universe and celestial bodies whose visual emissions started their journey to Earth over 10 billion years ago, before Earth was formed. We peer through space dust to view both the destruction and creation of planets and stars. Courtesy of Hubble’s cameras – capable of rendering stars emitting light of various wavelengths that reflects their life-stages — we are presented with a far-reaching mosaic of the cosmos, an image threatening in its beauty to Van Gogh.

Hubble 3-D is a must see.

The film opens in IMAX and IMAX 3D theaters worldwide on March 19

Imax books 'Spider-Man 4' for 2011

Action pic opening in early May slot

By Carl DiOrio

In less than 19 months, Spidey again will be slinging webs around Imax theaters.

Sony said Tuesday that "Spider-Man 4" will be released in Imax's specialty venues simultaneously with the comic book actioner's worldwide bow in conventional venues on Thursday, May 6, 2011. The scheduled opening gives the film a one-day jump on the first frame of the 2011 summer boxoffice season.

Imax also participated in the theatrical release of the past two "Spider-Man" pics.

"The 'Spider-Man' franchise has been so important to the growth of our network and fan base over the years," Imax Filmed Entertainment president Greg Foster said.