 | = Dolby Digital 3D Cinema Theater |
 | = IMAX 3D Cinema Theater |
 | = RealD 3D Cinema Theater |
Digital Technology Spruces Up Local Cinema
July 2009 - Visitors to Nyali Cinemax have more reason to find their way to the cinema hall starting this month to experience its recently launched technology.
Once more, the firm has come up with an attraction to excite its audience, and raised the bar for quality entertainment in not only Mombasa, but also the whole of East Africa.
Cinemax is the first movie hall to adopt the latest cutting edge digital technologyict the introduction of East Africa's very first 3D digital cinema. This goes to show just how the use of technology has led to new innovations.
Initially, images were captured and stored on a single reel, and led quickly to the development of a motion picture projector to shine light through the processed printed film and magnify these "moving picture shows" onto a screen for an entire audience.
Now the advent of digital cinema projection systems has brought about a rebirth of 3D efforts on the part of the movie studios.
Nyali Cinemax marketing manager Sapna Sachania says that with this new development, the audience enjoys a richer, more gripping 3D experience with colour sharper and image clearer each time you take a seat in the auditorium. "It is a whole new experience that brings out a new level of audience excitement," she explains.
The computer-animated film -- the ICE- AGE 3 Dawn of the Dinosaurs, which is the latest instalment to the hit the ICE AGE franchise premiered on July 1 worldwide -- was produced on 3D and was the first to be screened at the movie hall using this new technology.
The same is designed to deliver the highest quality and most faithful productions, and makes it easier on the eye of the audience. Other films to follow are Disney's UP at the end of July and then G-FORCE soon after.
A pair of special state-of-the art 3D glasses is given to each viewer that will, in conjunction with the latest cinema projection technology enable the person to see the film in a three-digit dimension.
Samtchi Patel, 10, a fan of animated films, was on a stroll with his guardian, and could not miss the incredible moment and got himself a ticket. "For just a moment, I removed my 3D glasses, and the screen flattened.
What was so near me suddenly disappeared, and the animated images blurred and looked like ordinary," he said. Sapna says that the glasses can be worn above the normal ones, but if misplaced or damaged, a fine of Sh5,000 is payable to get a new pair.
Currently, there are only 300 pieces, and although the auditorium fitted with this technology can accommodate many more, an audience exceeding that number cannot be allowed inside.
There is also an added advantage as there are no additional charges for the movie. "The idea is to entertain and attract more audience," she notes. Another movie enthusiast, Jabez Odero, says that he was curious to see the difference and took the opportunity on Thursday.
I have watched all ICE AGE with my kids and when I saw the weekly pamphlet and noticed the latest release was to be screened, I bought the ticket.
Although I was not sure what 3D, is all about, I am impressed by the difference on the screen. The technology is interesting, looks good and is worth trying. I do not regret coming at all," says the advertising executive father of two.
Shitul Sachania, the general manager, says digital 3D cinema is based on the same principle as human visual perception. The movie is simultaneously shot with two digital cameras, which just like the eyes, are a few centimetres apart, with each camera recording a slightly different perspective of the image.
At the theatre, the two images are synchronously projected to the screen and the resulting picture to the naked eye is blurred, but with polarised 3D glasses, the image is a brilliant and perfectly focused three-dimensional pictures.
|
South Africa Avatar Day
August 2009 - While there's not much info available on the Numetro site regarding their Avatar Day, it does provide the required minimum of date, time, where, and how to obtain tickets.
Avatar Day message on Numetro: Be the first to see 3-D footage of James Cameron’s new movie – AVATAR – Free of Charge!
Where:
Montecasino, Canal Walk,
Menlyn Park and Pavilion
Date:
Friday 21 August 2009
Time:
6:00pm, 7:00pm & 8:00pm
How to Obtain Tickets:
Add Nu Metro as a contact on MXit by visiting Tradepost>MXit Mix> Entertainment
Get full details on the competitions section
Click on the source link above to follow their instructions for obtaining tickets.
|
|
 SOUTH AFRICA |
| Durban - Nu Metro Pavilion, Shop 77 The Pavilion, 3 Jack Martens Drive, Westville |
|
| Fourways - Nu Metro, Shop No 26, Retail Centre, Cnr William Nicol Dr and Montecasino Blvd |
|
| Pretoria - Nu Metro Menlyn Park, Shop UF 12-14 Shopping Centre, Cnr Atterbury Road & Lois Ave |
|
| Tswane - Sterkinekor Brooklyn Commercial Cinema 2, Brooklyn Mall, Veale & Fehrsen Streets, Brooklyn |
|
| Umhlanga Rocks - Sterkinekor Gateway, Gateway Theatre of Shopping, 2nd Level, 1 Palm Blvd, KZN 2001 |
|
| SOUTH AFRICA - CAPE TOWN |
| Century Boulevard - Nu Metro Canal Walk, Shop 476 & 479 Canal Walk Shopping Centre |
|
| Claremont - Sterkinekor Cavendish Commercial Cinema 4, Cavendish Square - upper level, Dreyer St |
|
| SOUTH AFRICA - GAUTENG |
| Johannesburg - Sterkinekor The Zone, Cnr Oxford and Tyrwhitt Roads, Rosebank |
|
| Sandton - Sterkinekor Sandton Cinema 9, Sandton City, Rivonia Rd |
|
An undauntable film critic rescues "Avatar" in Egypt
By Roger Ebert | Excerpt: suntimes.com
December 22, 2009 - Dear Roger,
It all started the morning of December 17th. I had already written my review for "Avatar" the night before and about an hour before I submitted the review I got a phone call that changed everything.
It was from a scholarly friend of mine. He was furious and complained about the version of "Avatar" that was in theaters at the time.
"Something has to be done about this nonsense. We can still save the movie. After all the matter has nothing to do with censorship," he said.
I was shocked and in disbelief. I told him to meet me at my place around 1 a.m. Meanwhile I went to the theater to witness this butchered version of "Avatar". He was right. The movie was a mess. The Arabic subtitles were positioned in he center of the screen! The brief sex scene was missing. The audience was just as angry as I was. At least half of the people walked out. Many even threw their 3-D glasses at the screen before leaving. I made sure to stay until the end as I wanted to make sure I knew everything that was wrong with the movie if I wanted to fix it.
As I left the theater I could see that the manager of the cinema was very busy trying to calm down dissatisfied customers. I tried to explain to the crowd that all of this isn't his fault but they wouldn't listen. They wanted their money back. I don't know what happened afterwards, for I wanted to leave and fix this as soon as possible. Once back home, I made a few phone calls to friends, editors and critics. I told them about the matter at hand and asked for their help. Some accepted, others refused, and some came up with lame excuses. The meeting was to be held at my place at 11:30 p.m.
By 11:45 p.m. only seven showed up, not as many as I expected but still better than two. We discussed censorship in Egypt and then exchanged some stories about some "random" kidnappings and exiles of famous journalists by Egypt's Internet Police. We decided to stick to the subtitle issue instead of arguing against the exclusion of the sex scene. As far as we knew, the matter didn't seem like it would cause any fuss. Around 1 a.m. we went into our cars and headed towards the censorship office (open till 3 a.m. during weekends).
It was a long drive and I arrived there around 1:45 p.m.. I waited for the rest to arrive and once we gathered up again, we walked towards the main entrance of this old building. A man approached us and asked if he could be of any assistance. My friend told him, "there's an issue with the subtitling of a new movie and that we would like to make sure the mistake is corrected as soon as possible."
For some reason the man started laughing out loud. After a few seconds of laughter he turned his back on us and said "You've got to be joking. Wait here for a second." We waited in front of the building for a few minutes in complete silence. The man came back only this time he brought his superior with him. They were both laughing as they walked towards us. The superior or higher ranked guy asked what the problem was, and my friend repeated his previous lines.
Both men didn't take us seriously and told us that they don't have time for "this shit." My Friend #1 moved forward and gently told the guy that the matter wouldn't take a minute and that we had some editors with us who could do the job for them. For some reason the second he uttered the word "editors," the higher ranking guy got all angry and yelled "You're not here for subtitles, you're here to mess with censored scenes! Get out of here before I call security!"
We all responded at once, everybody was shouting and yelling over each other's words and before we knew it a line of security guards and some police officers were between us and the two censorship guys. One of the guys told the security guards "Don't let them in...they're liberals."
Again people started talking over each other's arguments and by the time we were done arguing, the two guys left us and entered the building. The security guards and police officers were still there though. We tried to convince them to get both of the men back outside, and that "it's only a matter of relocating subtitles." This went on for about an hour and every time we tried, we were rejected. One critic gave up and left us. As time passed both we and the guards started to get more and more frustrated.
I told the rest of the group that we had to act more civilized and talk one at a time if we wanted to sort this thing out. They agreed and so I went up to the head of security (standing in the middle of the line) and tried to talk to him. I put my hand on his shoulder. He pushed me and I fell to the ground. "Keep your hands off me, you sushi eating testicle!" he said. (by "sushi eating" he meant I was a rich kid and "testicle," well, that's a swear word here in Egypt.
Anyway, as my scholarly friend helped me back up to my feet, Critic 2 (a very close friend of mine) was raging with anger and ran towards the head of security in an attempt to punch him. The editors stopped him before he could reach the man (thank God) and before we knew it, the number of police officers doubled.
They roughed up Critic 2 a little bit (pushing, pulling, and shoving him around) and I pulled him out of the crowd before matters got out of hand. My Friend 1 tried to calm the head of security by apologizing for Critic 2's behavior. Meanwhile I told Critic 2 that I appreciated him defending me and respectfully asked him to leave.
"When has violence or shouting ever solved anything? I know you want to see this through but we won't be able to get in as long as you're with us. I appreciate everything you did but they won't listen to us after what happened. Go home, rest it out and I'll call you and let you know if there's any progress," I said. He was back to his normal self and felt kind of embarrassed. He apologized for his behavior and left. Now it was just me, two friends and the three editors.
After more of the same (waiting), time was running out. It was approaching 3 a.m. and nothing seemed to have happened inside. At one point an officer overheard one friend telling the other that he ought to just write a book and give censorship a hard time the way they were giving us a hard time. The officer suddenly asked in a threatening tone: "What did you say?" My second friend looked over to the officer and said, "You heard me."
This is the exchange of words that followed:
Officer: "Oh yeah? What good will that do you?"
Friend 2: "I don't know, maybe it'll put you out of a job. Have you ever heard of the expression 'the pen is mightier than the sword'?"
Officer: "So you're a writer.. eh?"
Friend 2 didn't reply.
Officer: "Watch what you're saying there, fellow. Don't tempt me to walk over there, break your fingers and put YOU out of a job."
Anyway, back to the time approaching 3 a.m. The entire attempt began to seem like a waste of time and effort. Friend 2 felt sleepy and told us that he'd leave. "At least we tried, eh?" he said. Seconds later Editor 1 left as well (he was the only professional editor present). I began to lose hope, so I turned to Plan B. I called my grandfather, who was a prominent man, and told him about the situation. After some "What time is it?" and "Are you in trouble?" I assured him that I was OK but needed his help.
Friend 1 and the remaining two editors were waiting patiently for me to finish my last attempt to save "Avatar". "Why is this so important to you people? I mean why now? What's so special about THIS movie? I've never seen you act that way. I'm proud of you but I'm also curious," he said. I tried to explain to him that this James Cameron movie is more than just a theatrical release and more like an event in film history. I explained the importance of seeing it on the big screen and all.
He joked a bit and said "Why don't you ever tell me about these movies? You know I enjoyed 'Titanic'..." I smiled and he continued, "I'll see what I can do. Stay there. I may just get you guys in as long as it's just a subtitle issue." A few minutes later, the two "censorship" guys from earlier on came out of the building. "Let them in." He gestured us to walk into an office. We all smiled and they (friend 1 and the the editors) patted me on the back.
As soon as we walked into the office the superior apologized and asked "Why didn't you tell me who you're connected to?" I replied, "I didn't think it was necessary." The truth is I hate asking my relative for favors and prefer going through life without leaning on him too much. Still, his helping hand was a necessary one and our last hope. After a few minutes of friendly exchange of words, the man asked "So., where did the rest of you go? I hope you didn't send away the editors." Click on the source link above for the complete article.
|
|
