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"4-D" movies come to New York, despite potential hearing loss and nausea
By Carly PiferJuly 12th, 2011, 1:15 pmComments (6)
Everyone always wants more. And we got it. Ticket sales for 3-D movies have been waning, so an innovative Korean Company, CJ 4DPlex, invented the "4-D" movie experience, complete with rock-and-roll massage chairs, wind, fog, moisture, disco light shows, and a peculiar, Febreze-like mist shot into your face. The effects coincide with the action on-screen, and are meant to propel you (sometimes, in the case of rocking chairs, almost literally) into the experience.
CJ 4DPlex has opened an office in Los Angeles, where savvy programmers create the atmospheric accompaniment for the movies. Most recently in 4-D are Kung-Fu Panda and Pirates of the Caribbean. The plan is to build a 4-D theater in New York and if successful, continue spreading the good word of super cinematic effects across the globe.
However, despite business plans and the obvious enticement of such wonders as 4-D, not all fans are, well, fans of the experience. While watching Transfomers: Dark of the Moon, which created the 4-D world with extra-loud sounds and the sweet scent of burnt rubber, some movie patrons became nauseous and even went temporarily deaf. (Having experienced a 4-D film, straight from the source, in a Seoul cinema, I can attest to the jolting movements and detergent smells, which at once spilled and tainted the flavor of my popcorn.)
Despite all that, some people love it enough to spend an extra five dollars or so on a ticket. Which leaves only one question: where do we go from here?
Commentarium (6 Comments)
Fuck, "D" does not just mean whatever you want it to mean, it means "dimension." Making movies in the "third dimension" makes sense. Making feelies does not count as the fourth dimension, the fourth dimension is fucking time. Unless these films somehow allow humans to move through time at will -- in which case, god fucking damn is that worth $5 -- they are not 4D.
P.S. I know this is the company's bullshit and not Nerve's, that doesn't make it any less asinine.
Thank you for speaking the song that was in my heart. I read the title and was like, "Hell, YES, I'm about to time travel up in this bitch" and then had my soul shredded when I realised that it was some stupid marketing person's take on what it means to spray shit into my face or rock my chair around.
I thought the same Jess. But, at first I thought of more of the 4th dimension as like a 4 dimensional hypercube thing (http://schools-wikipedia.org/images/305/30534.gif) and I was like lol?
I believe technically the fourth dimension is time. So unless the movie can transport me back to before I made the stupid decision to go to it, I'm calling shenanigans.
That's it people, the 4th dimension is rocking chairs, fog, disco lights and shit.
But, srsly though, they think this will "put" people in the movie? No, cinema has been doing that with great writing and acting for years. Just putting more shit on screen and making it 3D (or "4D") doesn't make us project ourselves in the movie anymore. Just look at classic starwars. Still, when I watch those, even with the subpar effects compared to today's, I still feel like I'm there, and that it is happening. It is because I can project myself into the story because it is well written (or "well edited", if you know what I mean) and I can identify with the characters because I understand their motivations and struggles. Oh god, I'm talking about starwars again.
"Which leaves only one question: where do we go from here? "
Do you remember the "Last Action Hero"?