"Going to the feelies this evening, Henry?"

March 19, 2009 5:53 AM

D-Box seating is now installed in 2 American cinemas.An obvious choice for debuting the motion-controlled seating, The Fast and The Furious promises movie-goers in LA and Surprise (!), AZ a racing, whiplashing good ride.

There have been many clever connections made to Aldous Huxley's Feelies, but I suspect that the experience will be more like the "rides" at the mall where you watch a roller coaster video and the seat moves. Not exactly the technology Huxley describes:

"There's a love scene on a bearskin rug; they say it's marvelous. Every hair of the bear reproduced. The most amazing tactual effects..."

posted by njbradburn (25 comments total)

Ah. With all the advances in home theater recently, I had been wondering what the next Cinerama would be.
posted by scrowdid at 6:09 AM on March 19

I do this with my washing machine.
posted by stavrogin at 6:17 AM on March 19

They do this at some theme park rides, but to see it cross over to mainstream cinema will be fantastic. Ah, Experience Economy, come on...!
posted by Weighted Companion Cube at 6:24 AM on March 19

Eh. I'd still rather see a William Castle movie.
posted by JoanArkham at 6:26 AM on March 19 [2 favorites]

Sensurround, anyone?
posted by Thorzdad at 6:28 AM on March 19

Sensurround, anyone?

Zackly. The lawsuits over molten cheese spilled on crotch during chase scenes or teeth chipped when teenagers are making out just as the hero gets slammed to the ground by somafied serial killer...
posted by njbradburn at 6:37 AM on March 19

D-Box sounds more like truncated "douche box."

"What are you doing this weekend?"
"Oh, heading over to check out the new d-box experience."
"You mean hang out with Sally and her douchey boyfriend?"

I'd like to small warnings flash before high-action scenes: "brace yourself for a c t i o n!"
posted by filthy light thief at 6:58 AM on March 19 [1 favorite]

Kentucky Fried Movie had John Landis' ubiquitous See You Next Wednesday presented in "Feel-Around".
posted by Cookiebastard at 7:16 AM on March 19 [1 favorite]

I have this radical idea for boosting box office that involves just making movies that don't suck.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:53 AM on March 19 [4 favorites]

That theater way out in Surprise seems like it's on the cutting edge of all kinds of interesting stuff. I believe they showed the Allstar game in live 3-d, as well.
posted by ph00dz at 8:22 AM on March 19

Oh god, it's like sitting through a movie where the asshole behind you kicks your chair for two hours, but on purpose. No thanks.
posted by mudpuppie at 8:43 AM on March 19

I could see something like this being great for messing with audiences heads; in a suspense or a horror film, you could have the seats subtly vibrate as the tension ratchets up and then give you a small jolt when the monster is revealed. It could be the equivalent of someone poking you and going "Boo!" during the scary scene.

But that's obvious, what would be more fun is rigging up theaters where all the seats fire at different times, so that some people are getting the jolt before the scene has actually played out, causing them to scream, scaring the other people around them.

Or in non-scary movies, you could have the seats provide tension causing vibrations during really mundane scenes like family dinners, and people would leave completely unsettled in a way that would be unreproducible for home viewers.

Yeah, I can never be given access to the controls to something like this. I would turn every audience into my personal lab subjects.
posted by quin at 8:57 AM on March 19 [1 favorite]

A Night At The Feelies
posted by The Whelk at 9:07 AM on March 19 [1 favorite]

The new movie is "Fast & Furious", minus the "the"s.
posted by asfuller at 9:11 AM on March 19

Why settle with wiggly chairs when you can have the movie experience embrace you with a special jacket, featuring 64 independently controlled actuators distributed across the arms and torso, which are arrayed in 16 groups of four.

This reminded me of the hug shirt, which lead me to the heartbeat pillow, and the rather spooky gilfriend's lap pillow. Damn you internet, and your endless distractions and disturbances!
posted by filthy light thief at 9:20 AM on March 19

Surprise, AZ makes for some great headlines. "Surprise car accident injures five." As opposed to the expected car accident. "Surprise murder suspect arrested." Well, that's a nce how-do-you-do.

As for the seating, meh. I wonder how many people are going to get motion sickness. And if the movie is any good the motion will probably be distracting.
posted by azpenguin at 10:18 AM on March 19

I'd like to small warnings flash before high-action scenes: "brace yourself for a c t i o n!"

Presented in SUPERMARIONATION!
posted by JHarris at 10:55 AM on March 19

Oh, the article! I'm sure this will add just as much to the movie-going experience as did 3-D and Odorama.
posted by JHarris at 10:58 AM on March 19

A nurse, specially trained in the treatment of TERROR, will be present at each showing of ... THE BLOODENING!!!!!
posted by WPW at 1:42 PM on March 19

This isn't motion simulation is it? The article says that it just simulates 'rumble'.

Sounds kind of like Percepto, just in time for a remake of The Tingler.
posted by eye of newt at 1:48 PM on March 19

I totally saw Midway in Sensurround, at the Capri Theater in Charlotte, NC, when I was 10. I remember they had to remove the first row of seats, I guess because they'd be too close to the speakers. Is this really any different?
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:04 PM on March 19

This isn't motion simulation is it? The article says that it just simulates 'rumble'.

I'm into home theater setups and this is one of the high priced, "I don't have anything else I can buy ... so let's um, what else can we do?" kind of things. Here's some video from CES2009. A lot of DIY home theater types have been putting rumble seats in for years, but this is just a big subwoofer underneath your ass. I never really got the appeal of DBox, I'd much rather have the new 3D DLP, I'd think the moving chair would be incredibly boring after an hour or so. For the cost, I think this is really absurd, you're talking about $10k, at least, for the chair that runs this proprietary movement algorithm. I realize when you're talking about rich boys and their theaters, $10k is the left, front speaker, but I still think it is way overpriced.

Me? I'd rather have a moving wall to mask the screen when the aspect ratio changes, and perhaps a lens in front of the projector to get that super widescreen mode.

Or maybe, I'd like a custom built theater with a curved screen and calibrated projector for my south Florida second home.
posted by geoff. at 2:18 PM on March 19 [1 favorite]

Citizen Kane would be awesome on this. Going down the sled. Slapping a lousy tramp. Impotently raging at a knick knack shelf.
posted by Smedleyman at 2:40 PM on March 19 [1 favorite]

.I have this radical idea for boosting box office that involves just making movies that don't suck.

I don't think that actually works. The issue isn't whether or not movies suck, it's that no one wants to spend $10 a person to see it in a theater when you can see movies at home for the cost of a Netflix subscription. The only way to get people to go to an actual theater is to have a better viewing experience --- a good screen and sound system is no longer an enticement for many people who have HDTVs and surround sound systems, which compared to a decade ago is quite cheap. So they are trying things that only work in cinemas --- 3d, motion, etc. (Although 3D should be available on home sets pretty soon, and technically already is but not in an accessible way).

Same thing the arcades went through in the 90s. And just like the arcades, it's a losing battle, as the time-lag between actually interesting improvements in the arcade/cinema and the home version shrinks. Then you're just left with impractical-for-the-home gimmicks like big motion setups... and that didn't work for arcades (which are effectively dead), and it won't work for movie theaters either.
posted by wildcrdj at 3:40 PM on March 19

Isn't it acknowledged that one of the forces pressing down movie quality is the need to pander to teenage popcorn eaters? If the box seats come with champagne chillers, foie gras appetizers, and hot scented towels, maybe movie quality can be re-targeted.
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:19 PM on March 20