This week Neil Calloway looks at two new technologies that could change our film-going experience…
If you go to watch Kingsman: The Secret Service in Milton Keynes this weekend, you might be in for a surprise if your seat starts shaking. Don’t worry, it’s not an earthquake, but you’re watching a 4D release of the film.
“4D” features hydraulics fixed to every seat so you move with the action, as well as smoke, water, wind or even bubbles being released into the cinema while you watch the film, as well as various scents, has been around for a while and is used in attractions at theme parks and museums, and is now in 150 screens around the world. Of course, this is a small drop in the ocean; American Sniper opened on more than 3000 screens in the US alone, but it is significant.
Cinema chains are facing a battle on two fronts; pirates and streaming services. Why schlep off to a multiplex in an out of town retail park when you can stream a film legally in the comfort of your own home for a fraction of the price? The cinema owners need a reason for us to get off our sofas, and 4D is the latest way of doing that.
It costs up to £1 million to convert a cinema to 4D, and tickets naturally cost more as a result, but it’s a way of turning going to the cinema into something more than simply watching a film; it is an attempt to turn going to see a movie into an experience that cannot be recreated at home. It can’t be used in every film – what would having your chair move add to watching, say, a Mike Leigh film? But I see no reason why it couldn’t be a good thing for many films, with an interesting line in re-releases; imagine your seat moving as you watched the car chase in The French Connection, or having dry ice blasted into your face when Han Solo gets frozen in carbonite in Return of the Jedi. Think how much more personal American Sniper would be if you felt the recoil every time Bradley Cooper took a shot.
Another new development this week was the announcement from Oculus about their own film making studio, a team that will make films for their virtual reality equipment. Their first film, a short, was shown at Sundance this week. Called Lost, it is a short created by former Pixar animator Saschka Unseld. Now here’s the thing; it doesn’t have an exact running time. As you are immersed in the film, it moves at your pace – it can be as long as ten minutes or as short as three.
Obviously we’re a long way from a feature film being produced for Oculus, but both this and 4D are ways that studios can attempt to pirate proof films; you can’t watch 4D films or immerse yourself in an Oculus virtual reality experience at home.
The timing of the two announcements got me thinking – what if we combined the two technologies? What if instead of going to your seat that’s slightly too low for you to sit comfortably in next time you go to watch a movie, you sit strap yourself into a full bodysuit, put on your virtual reality visor and spend the next two hours as a Colonial Marine looking for Xenomorphs on some distant planet? It’s the 21st Century, immersive, interactive version of those choose your own adventure books you read as a kid. The success of Secret Cinema events has shown us that sometimes people want a little more from films they are going to see, and are willing to pay more for an interactive experience.
I wouldn’t want 4D for every film I go to see, and I’m not sure how feature length Oculus movies would work, but imagine exploring a world created by, say, Terrence Malick, or being dropped into the middle of the shootout in Michael Mann’s Heat. Studios will definitely be looking into this to protect their investment in films, and we can be sure to see more of it soon. It might be the new smell-o-vision, but it might be the new technicolour.
Neil Calloway is a pub quiz extraordinaire and Top Gun obsessive. Check back here every Sunday for future installments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqtW2LRPtQY&x-yt-ts=1422579428&list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E&x-yt-cl=85114404&feature=player_embedded
Originally published February 1, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
