|
Movie Gimmick
A movie gimmick is an unusual idea intended to enhance the viewing experience of a film, and thus increase box office sales. Many of these have been used for just a few films, proving unpopular with either audiences or cinema owners. Smell-o-vision, which involved releasing relevant odors during the film, only appeared in the film ''Scent of Mystery'' as audiences did not enjoy the experience. Sensurround, a method for enhancing sound pioneered for the 1974 film ''Earthquake (1974 film), Earthquake'', was abandoned as it sometimes resulted in damage to movie theatres. Other 'gimmicks' have gradually become more common in cinema, as technology has improved. Examples include 3-D film and the use of split screen (filmmaking), split screen, which was originally achieved through the use of dual projectors in cinemas. William Castle Horror film director William Castle had a particular reputation for gimmicks, being termed 'King of the Gimmicks' by John Waters. For the 1959 film ''The Ting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Box Office
A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is frequently used, especially in the context of the film industry, as a synonym for the amount of business a particular production, such as a film or theatre show, receives. The term is also used to refer to a ticket office at an arena or a stadium. ''Box office'' business can be measured in the terms of the number of tickets sold or the amount of money raised by ticket sales (revenue). The projection and analysis of these earnings is greatly important for the creative industries and often a source of interest for fans. This is predominant in the Hollywood movie industry. To determine if a movie made a profit, it is not correct to directly compare the box office gross with the production budget, because the movie theater keeps nearly hal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fox Grandeur
70mm Grandeur film, also called Fox Grandeur or Grandeur 70, is a 70mm widescreen film format developed by William Fox through his Fox Film and Fox-Case corporations and used commercially on a small but successful scale in 1929–30. Filmography In 1925, with the advent of television on the horizon, William Fox of the Fox Film Studio empire envisioned a "grand" cinema experience to keep the public coming to the movie theaters. As such, he soon put full efforts behind enhancing the silent 35mm film showings by the addition of sound to be coupled to a wider than 35mm end product, with the hoped for result being a grand and lifelike experience for the viewers. This wide screen vision of William Fox soon resulted in his creating a partnership with Theodore Case and his assistant, Earl Sponable, pioneers of Sound on Film, with the partnership to be named the Fox-Case Corporation. The result was, first, the advent of Movietone Sound, then soon combined with the 70mm "Grandeur" wide scree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hypnotic Eye
''The Hypnotic Eye'' is a 1960 horror film, released by Allied Artists on February 27, 1960, starring Jacques Bergerac, Allison Hayes, Merry Anders, Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, and Ferdinand Demara, billed as "Fred Demara". Plot A beautiful young woman comes into her kitchen rubbing shampoo or product into her hair, lights a gas burner on her stove and bends over it as if it were the sink, then rises up screaming with her hair on fire. Later, doctors and police tend her, and Detective Dave Kennedy ask her why she did it. She does not remember. He lies that her looks will be restored, and she thanks God and dies. She is the first fatality of eleven women, all beautiful, who have mutilated their faces in the past few months, and the police are baffled about whether there is a common cause. Dave consults his psychiatrist friend Dr. Philip Hecht, who is an expert on hypnosis and disapproves of its use on the stage. Dave, his girlfriend Marcia Blaine and her friend Dodie Wilson go to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House On Haunted Hill
''House on Haunted Hill'' is a 1959 American horror film produced and directed by William Castle, written by Robb White and starring Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Carolyn Craig and Elisha Cook Jr. Price plays an eccentric millionaire, Frederick Loren, who, along with his wife Annabelle, has invited five people to the house for a "haunted house" party. Whoever stays in the house for one night will earn $10,000. As the night progresses, the guests are trapped within the house with an assortment of terrors. The film uses many props used in carnival haunted houses to generate fear and terror. The film is in the public domain. Plot Frederick Loren, an eccentric millionaire, invites five people to a party he is throwing for his fourth wife, Annabelle, in an allegedly haunted house he has rented. He promises to give each guest $10,000 with the stipulation that they stay the entire night in the house after the doors are locked at midnight, all the window ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horrors Of The Black Museum
''Horrors of the Black Museum'' (1959) is a British-American horror film starring Michael Gough and directed by Arthur Crabtree. It was the first film in what film critic David Pirie dubbed Anglo-Amalgamated's "Sadian trilogy" (the other two being ''Circus of Horrors'' and ''Peeping Tom''), with an emphasis on sadism, cruelty and violence (with sexual undertones), in contrast to the supernatural horror of the Hammer films of the same era. Plot A package is delivered to Gail, a young blonde woman with a roommate named Peggy. Gail opens the package to find a pair of binoculars, but when she uses them to look out a window, she screams and collapses, dying. The binoculars are revealed to have two spikes emerging out of the eyepiece. Peggy is being interviewed by Superintendent Graham and Inspector Lodge when journalist and crime writer Edmond Bancroft enters the room. He wishes to see the binoculars for himself, and Graham remarks on their similarity to binoculars in Scotland Yar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smell-O-Vision
Smell-O-Vision was a system that released odor during the projection of a film so that the viewer could "smell" what was happening in the movie. The technique was created by Hans Laube and made its only appearance in the 1960 film '' Scent of Mystery'', produced by Mike Todd Jr., son of film producer Mike Todd. The process injected 30 odors into a movie theater's seats when triggered by the film's soundtrack. Roughly similar concepts of integrating odor experiences into entertainment performances have dated back to at least 1868 for live theatre, with the first usage for film being in 1906, and other similar approaches were used in the same era, such as General Electric's "Smell-O-Rama" of 1953 and the competitive system called "AromaRama" in 1959. Various similar concepts have also been used since then, such as John Waters's "Odorama" enhanced version of his film '' Polyester'' in 1982. History In 1868, a novel effect was used at the Alhambra Theatre of Variety in London wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psychorama
Psychorama, also called the precon process, is the act of communicating subliminal information through film by flashing images on the screen so quickly that they cannot be perceived by the conscious mind. It is a subset of subliminal messaging that is applied only through non-verbal messages in film. The name most commonly refers to a "gimmick" in commercial movie production (sometimes using the marketing phrase "filmed in psychorama" as a play on the more common " filmed in Technicolor"). History In 1958, a film called ''My World Dies Screaming'' (later retitled '' Terror in the Haunted House'') marked Hollywood's first attempt to make use of this technique. At different points in this film, a skull is flashed to inspire terror, a snake to inspire hate, two hearts to inspire love, and large letters spelling out "blood" to create fear. It was produced by William Edwards, written by Robert C. Dennis, and directed by Harold Daniels. It starred Gerald Mohr and Cathy O'Donnell. Makeu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macabre (1958 Film)
''Macabre'' is a 1958 American horror film directed by William Castle, written by Robb White, and starring William Prince and Jim Backus. The film falls into both the horror and suspense genres. It involved one of Castle's first forays into using the promotional gimmicks that later made him famous. A certificate for a $1,000 life insurance policy from Lloyd's of London was given to each customer in case they should die of fright during the film. Plot The film is set in the small town of Thornton, California. The plot consists of a frame story set in the present (c. 1958), an extended flashback to 1955, and an extended flashback set months before the present story. Below the events are given in chronological order. Before 1955, Jode Wetherby is the wealthiest man in town. His two daughters, Alice and Nancy Wetherby, are the heiresses to his large fortune. Alice dates police chief Jim Tyloe, but fatefully marries Rodney Barrett. This starts an enmity between Tyloe and Barrett. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyvision
Polyvision was the name given by the French film critic Émile Vuillermoz to a specialized widescreen film format devised exclusively for the filming and projection of Abel Gance's 1927 film '' Napoleon''. Polyvision involved the simultaneous projection of three reels of silent film arrayed in a horizontal row, making for a total aspect ratio of 4:1 (1.33×3:1). Polyvision's extremely wide aspect ratio was the widest aspect ratio yet seen, even though it is technically just three images side by side. In 1955, the Walt Disney Company developed Circle-Vision 360° for use in Disneyland theme parks which used nine 4:3 35 mm projectors to show an image that completely surrounds the viewer. This configuration is considered to be a similar precursor to Cinerama, which would debut a quarter of a century later; however, it is unlikely that Polyvision was a direct inspiration for later widescreen techniques, as the triptych sequence of ''Napoleon'' was cut from the film by its distri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Napoleon (1927 Film)
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. He was the ''de facto'' leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814 and again in 1815. Napoleon's political and cultural legacy endures to this day, as a highly celebrated and controversial leader. He initiated many liberal reforms that have persisted in society, and is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history. His wars and campaigns are studied by militaries all over the world. Between three and six million civilians and soldiers perished in what became known as the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica, not long after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IMAX
IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, Robert Kerr, and William C. Shaw were the co-founders of what would be named the IMAX Corporation (founded in September 1967 as Multiscreen Corporation, Limited), and they developed the first IMAX cinema projection standards in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Canada. IMAX GT is the large format as originally conceived. It uses very large screens of and, unlike most conventional film projectors, the film runs horizontally so that the image width can be greater than the width of the film stock. It is called a 70/15 format. It is used exclusively in purpose-built theaters and dome theaters, and many installations limit themselves to a projection of high quality, short documentaries. The high costs involved ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Todd-AO
Todd-AO is an American post-production company founded in 1953 by Mike Todd and Robert Naify, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. For more than five decades, it was the worldwide leader in theater sound. The company now operates one facility in the Los Angeles area. Todd-AO is also the name of the widescreen, 70 mm film format that was developed by Mike Todd and the Naify brothers, owners of United Artists Theaters in partnership with the American Optical Company in the mid-1950s. Todd-AO had been founded to promote and distribute this system. History Todd-AO began as a high resolution widescreen film format. It was co-developed in the early 1950s by Mike Todd, a Broadway producer, and United Artists Theaters in partnership with the American Optical Company in Buffalo, New York. It was developed to provide a high definition single camera widescreen process to compete with Cinerama, or as characterized by its creator, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
