Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 4-D Fantawild theaters

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Posted by Paul Salley (Member # 740) on 10-10-2003, 03:04 PM:

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20031010/1000987.asp

4-D theater strives to deliver just the right touch
By LISA HAARLANDER
News Business Reporter
10/10/2003

As the guillotine severed the man's head and blood spurted from his neck, audience members shrieked and wiped their faces. Welcome to the cutting edge of movie theaters: 4-D films.

In addition to a 3-D movie, the seats move and shake, wind blows through your hair, and audience members are squirted with water during bloody scenes. The movie theater, called Fantawild,opened this week in the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga.Fantawild is showing two films: "Escape From Bane Mansion," an animated horror film, and "Deep Sea Adventure," an animated underwater adventure for children.

"The scariest part is where the bats come flying at you," said 12-year-old Dylan Kulcher, who watched a free showing of "Bane Mansion" on Thursday.

"I jumped when the hand came out of the book," said his father, Kelly.

The films run 10 to 15 minutes, and tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for children under 12. "The price might be a little steep," said Kelly Kulcher of Ancaster, Ont. "You're approaching the cost of a full-fledged film, but it was good."

Many customers looked inside the 35-seat theater, located in the Galleria's food court, but few were willing to buy tickets.

"It's going to take some time for people to hear about us," said Zbigniew Wiszynski, a New Jersey businessman who owns the theater with his partner, Benjamin Kami, the owner of a traditional five-screen theater in New Jersey. The theater is one of only four in the United States and 24 worldwide. Each theater costs about $1 million, Wiszynski said.

Although this is the first time a Fantawild theater has opened in a mall, the attraction gives mallgoers something to do in addition to shopping.

"When you look at where the industry is going today, the emphasis is on entertainment and restaurants in malls," said James L. Soos, manager of the Walden Galleria.

Fantawild is the first 4-D theater in the Buffalo Niagara area, but one opened several years ago in Canada. Ripley's Moving Theater on Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, Ont., has been showing 4-D films since 1996 and gets more than 250,000 customers each year. The cost is $12.15 (U.S.) for adults and $7.23 for children under 12 for two films that last a total of about 10 minutes.

The theater is more of a ride than a movie house. Children must be at least 43 inches tall, and seat belts are mandatory.

"We have the same restrictions as a roller coaster," said Barbra Elbaum, marketing and group sales manager for the theater, which is across the street from Ripley's museum.

And in April, a 4-D theater is scheduled to open in Theater in the Mist on Prospect Drive in Niagara Falls, near the Hard Rock Cafe.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 10-10-2003, 03:42 PM:

I think this is the company:

http://www.hytch.com/funplex/funplex-4dtheater.htm

http://www.hytch.com/filmtitles/escapefrombanemanor.htm

Film-Tech's special venue expert Phil Hill may have comments.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 10-10-2003, 07:48 PM:

Iwerks and This Company co-developed and Trade Marked this concept back in 1998. There are several Iwerks "3D/4D FX" (TM) theatres in existence.

Two of my favorite EFXs are the "Leg Tickler", which gives the effect of rats/mice running around in the dark around one's feet/legs. The other is the "Neck Air Blast" which gives the effect of spiders and bugs crawling on the back of your neck. Lots o' fun!

>>> Phil

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 10-10-2003, 08:49 PM:

Phil,

Did this include the one at Busch Gardens Williamsburg?

(My brother is in charge of music there.)

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 10-10-2003, 09:19 PM:

Sorry Mark, I don't know. I think that was done after I left Iwerks... 2003?

Iwerks has done many attractions for Busch and their subs like SeaWorld, etc.

>>> Phil

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 10-11-2003, 01:56 AM:

I had always thought The motion bases used by Sea World in san diego for their "Wild Artic" and "Mission: Bermuda Triangle" rides were made by reflectone.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 10-11-2003, 02:15 AM:

Gosh Mike, they have more than one show there...

>>> Phil

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 10-11-2003, 12:29 PM:

Oh - I see - I misread your posts. You meant subs as in subsidiaries. I thought you meant literally the subs (submarines) for Sea World used in thier Bermuda Triangle ride.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 10-11-2003, 07:36 PM:

Mike, yes we both mis-read our posts... [Smile]

I should have been more clear as I indeed did mean subsidiaries... [Big Grin]

>>> Phil

Posted by Jeff Taylor (Member # 443) on 10-13-2003, 10:21 AM:

We installed the motion bases for the now-sadly gone World Trade Center observation deck theater in NY--what a job mating them to restored cast iron theater seating. I wish this guy well, but at $7 for a 15 minute film it sounds like a potential one-shot wonder. There's one going in at a Mall near one of my operations, though, so I guess I'll check it out.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 10-13-2003, 07:36 PM:

quote:
what a job mating them to restored cast iron theater seating.

So they were original theatre seats attatched to a motion base? Cool!

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-21-2003, 02:12 AM:

Let's see....everyone pretty much now agrees, 50 years later, that one of the major downfalls of the original 3D craze was that people could only take so much junk being hurled at them from the screen. It quickly (took less than 4 years) got painfully boring. Without a good story, how long can you be entertained by being made the target of whatever a director could conceivably find to throw at you? Even there, the supply of throwable goods quickly diminished and fell into variation upon variation of the same thing. And back then audiences got bored when the ticket prices were only $2 adults, $1.50 matinees. How fast do these two guys think it will take people to get tired of paying $12+ for a 15min film where they qet squirted with water? Not to mention, there are considerably less things you can actually throw at the audience than could be done in 3D illusion. Try driving a car out into the theatre.

Hmmmm, flash-in-the-pan is putting it mildly.

Frank