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People are really into MoviePass’ unlimited cinema subscription
MoviePass, the deal that eliminates the eye-watering cost of going to the flicks, has passed the one million mark in paid subscribers -- not bad for a service that movie chain AMC lambasted as "unsustainable" earlier this year. Film fans can see a movie a day for $9.95 per month, or $6.95 if paid for the year in advance.
MoviePass offers an even bigger discount if you pay for a year upfront
MoviePass is dropping its price point yet again. In August, the company reduced its subscription cost to just $10 per month -- down from $15 to $21 depending on where you lived -- and upped the amount of movies its subscribers could see from two per month to one per day. Now, if you're willing to pay for the whole year up front, you can snag the no contract, subscription for $7 per month.
AMC wants to opt out of MoviePass' one-movie-a-day deal
You and your friends might be thrilled at MoviePass' new $10-a-month subscription service, but AMC sure isn't. According to Variety and Deadline, the theater chain is trying to find a way to block the service's users from using their subscription at its cinemas. MoviePass' revamped plan allows subscribers to watch one 2D flick a day in participating theaters, which the company says covers 91 percent of all theaters in the US. The service previously cost between $15 to $21 per month, depending on location, for only two movies a month.
James Cameron: High frame-rate cinema is 'a tool, not a format'
Sadly, James Cameron is going to probably retire making Avatar sequels that focus more on technology than story or his trademark action-flick set-pieces. Armed with $2.8 billion in box office receipts from the first movie, Cameron's been on a technology sojourn. He's been extremely vocal about his support for high frame-rate (HFR) cinema and stereoscopic 3D for filmmaking in the past, but it seems like he's changing his tune slightly these days.
Razer's THX purchase means cinema-approved VR and laptops
Longtime cinephiles might be disappointed by the following news: THX will now operate as an "independent startup" under the Razer banner. Yep, the gaming PC and peripherals company. The cinema certification outfit founded by George Lucas will keep its management and employees (phew) and will continue to operate as it has for the past 33 years just under a new owner, according to a prepared statement. "With their focus on quality, design and innovation, Razer supports our vision to optimize and deliver the best audiovisual experiences to audiences worldwide," THX CEO Ty Ahmad-Taylor said in a canned press release quote.
Chemicals in our breath can reveal how we feel about movies
The air inside movie theaters apparently reek of popcorn and suspense, though our noses can't exactly smell the latter. According to researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, audiences exhale chemicals that can indicate whether movies are funny or exciting. The team attached a mass spectrometer to a movie theater's air duct, which measured chemicals in the air every 30 seconds. Think of it as a big breathalyzer. Thanks to that instrument, they were able to collect data from 108 screenings (and 95,000 people) of 16 movies, including The Hunger Games 2, Carrie, The Hobbit and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
Lytro's first pro movie camera is designed for visual effects magic
While there are plenty of advanced digital movie cameras, most of them aren't really designed for the modern realities of movie making, where computer-generated effects are seemingly ubiquitous. You'll still have to bust out the green screen if you want to put those real actors in a digital world. Lytro might have a better way, though. It's introducing the Lytro Cinema, a movie camera built with digital effects in mind. Since Lytro's light field technology captures a massive, 3D picture of the environment (755 RAW megapixels at up to 300FPS), you might never need a green screen again -- you can accurately determine the objects you want to keep in a given scene.
Flix Premiere is the online cinema for forgotten films
Major film studios have much of their production schedules mapped out years in advance. By default, cinemas have pretty full calendars themselves. With a finite number of screens, theaters can only take so many movies from other distributors. Competition for these slots is fierce, and when film festival season draws to a close, some flicks simply don't get picked up. Even big names and moving stories can't save them from limbo. Flix Premiere, however, wants to do just that, by being an online cinema for overlooked films.
Vue wants you to crowdfund film screenings with your mates
Unless you've invested heavily in your own home theatre setup, it's unlikely that you're going to match the experience of watching a film at the cinema. UK movie chain Vue knows this, so instead of just letting you pay to go and see new releases, it wants you to you club together with your friends and family to put on a showing of your own. Think of it as Kickstarter, but for your favourite movies.
'Guardians of the Galaxy II' to be shot with Red's 8K Weapon
Red and director James Gunn revealed that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be the first movie shot on the company's Weapon 8K digital cinema camera. The original film, which grossed nearly $800 million worldwide, was captured on Arri's Alexa XT camera. While directors like Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan still demand celluloid film, digital cameras haven't exactly been sitting still. Red's 8K Weapon arguably rivals the resolution of 70mm film, even though the Vista Vision-size sensor is smaller. Arri, meanwhile, recently released the Alexa 65, a 6K cinema camera with a huge 65mm sensor.
Over a million Brits have reserved seats for 'Star Wars'
If you hadn't noticed already, the world is riding a megatsunami of hype over the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens -- or every nook and cranny of the internet is, at least. The movie has just premiered in the States, and will be debuting in the UK this Thursday to a record-breaking audience. Last week, cinema chain Vue said it'd already sold 290,000 tickets for the flick, but new figures from The Hollywood Reporter now put that total at over 355,000. Odeon has also fielded around 500,000 bookings, according to the UK Cinema Association, and taking other theatres into account the new Star Wars has definitely smashed the UK pre-sales record with "way beyond 1 million" reserved cinema seats.
'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' is breaking UK pre-booking records
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still a little over a week away from premiering in cinemas, but already the movie has broken some UK ticket sales records. Theatre chain Vue announced today that the film has now sold 290,000 tickets at its UK venues alone, overtaking the previous record of 284,850 tickets held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, which hit screens back in 2010.
'Uncharted' borrows from cinema to sidestep clunky game design
Developer Naughty Dog's games have always had a flair for the cinematic and that's due in large part to their presentation. The studio takes a minimalistic approach to how it delivers information to the player, eschewing ugly on-screen means of directing you where to go by using filmic techniques like smart scene composition and color to subtly guide the players from one area to the next. In the video below, YouTuber Mark Brown explores Uncharted 3's opening, breaking down how Naughty Dog pretty masterfully keeps players on the right track during the rooftop chase sequence without it feeling claustrophobically linear.
'Oculus Cinema' will let friends watch movies 'together'
If you've ever peered into a VR headset, you'll know it can be a pretty lonely experience -- much like going to an empty cinema in the real world. VR heavyweight Oculus will kill these two birds, with a forthcoming "multiplayer" mode for its virtual movie theater app Oculus Cinema. The update for the app lets friends enjoy films at the same time, and see them next to you in the same virtual cinema. Features like this are part of the push to make virtual reality a little bit more social, something Oculus-owners Facebook has been eager to do ever since it snapped up the virtual reality hardware company.
George R.R. Martin and indie cinemas want 'The Interview' to live on
Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin has called the cancellation of Sony's The Interview "a stunning display of cowardice," and says he'd be glad to show it in his own theater, the Jean Cocteau Cinema in New Mexico. Like other celebrities (including George Clooney), the Game of Thrones author is critical of both the chains and Sony itself, but the comments posted to his blog are particularly pointed. He says "it's a good thing these guys weren't around when Charlie Chaplin made The Great Dictator. If Kim Jong-Un scares them, Adolf Hitler would have had them shitting in their smallclothes." He ends the post saying "come to Santa Fe, Seth [Rogen], we'll show your film for you."
Dolby is launching its super-vivid IMAX theater competitor in the Netherlands
Dolby has just announced a huge new project, but it's not about audio as you'd expect -- it's about the upcoming launch of its IMAX competitor called Dolby Cinema. This giant screen format will be able to project movies using the "Dolby Vision" technology (something it's been working on for years), which combines high dynamic range videos with something else that the company's keeping a secret. High dynamic range or HDR videos, as you might know, can show shadows and light as you'd see them in real life (take this Disney Research video, for example). Dolby goes as far as to claim that its technology's "contrast ratio far exceeds that of any other image technology on the market today."
Panasonic and Red hope to replace photos with frames of video
If you're worried about missing a once-in-a-lifetime photo op, Panasonic and Red have a proposition: Why not shoot ultra high-res video and just grab still images? Both companies had the same idea at Photokina 2014 (though Red had it long before that), albeit with wildly different thoughts about price and quality. Panasonic's system is called "4K Photo," and allows you to extract a still from its 4K, 30 fps, 100 Mbps video stream, for as little as $900 on the new LX100 compact camera. Red, on the other hand, has got a more extreme plan: Capture up to 100 fps, 19-megapixel RAW stills starting at $17,000 for its Red Scarlet Dragon cinema camera.
Russia wants to ban films that make it seem oppressive or silly
Russia's recent crackdown on "things it doesn't want to hear" may take a nostalgic turn if culture committee member (and kickboxer) Batu Khasikov has his way. He wants to invoke the USSR days by banning foreign films that "demonize or present Russia in a primitive, silly way." He said films showing the nation's citizens as a "threat to mankind" should also be a no-no -- like A Good Day to Die Hard and other recent flicks with cliché Russian baddies. Fortunately for Russian action fans (or not, depending on your taste) that film and others would remain, as any ban passed would only apply to new titles. Oddly, the cultural ministry recently made a list of its top foreign film picks, including Apocalypse Now, which it ironically called a critique of "capturing foreign territories."
Martin Scorsese voices support for preserving the future of cinema on film
Saving celluloid film is a big deal for many reasons, and the movement recently got another major voice in its corner. Legendary director Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino) has come out in support of the Hollywood coalition to save Kodak. In a statement spotted by First Showing, Scorsese notes the advantages of shooting digitally (like lighter and cheaper cameras), but fervently details why film needs to continue to exist, likening the medium to paintings. "Would anyone dream of telling young artists to throw away their paints and canvases because iPads are so much easier to carry? Of course not."
UK cinemas to ban Google Glass over piracy fears
The UK's data regulator may have clarified that Google Glass shouldn't be singled out for special measures over personal use, but that isn't stopping domestic companies from enforcing their own rules. The Independent reports that just a week after the Google wearable finally went on sale in Britain for a hefty £1,000, UK cinemas are banning it over fears that "Explorers" could use them to pirate movies. "Customers will be requested not to wear these into cinema auditoriums, whether the film is playing or not," says Phil Clapp, chief executive of the Cinema Exhibitors' Association (CEA), which offers guidance to 90 percent of the UK's cinema providers. Movie chain Vue is enforcing a ban, asking users to remove their eyewear "as soon as the lights dim," while Odeon requests that "guests and employees do not wear Google Glasses [...] capable of recording images and video within the cinema auditorium."
