3D Films : Bring on SmelloVision

Bring on SmelloVision

For nearly two decades, movies were overwhelmingly silent. When sound was added, a fair number of people said "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." But audiences LOVED the sound. One early western elicited howls of approving laughter by the sound of food frying in a pan. Sound a gimmick? Well, yes, at first. So why not bring on the smell of horse poop!

For a good four + decades, movies were overwhelmingly black and white. Early attempts at color suffered from various technical issues; out-of-sync and improperly superimposed colors on the earliest processes, and even the brilliant 3-color Technicolor couldn't project as sharply as black and white. A good case could be made that rather than enhancing the visual experience, color was an unnecessary gimmick. Sure the 1938 "Adventures of Robin Hood" in Technicolor is very pretty to watch, but heck, Douglas Fairbanks did a Robin Hood in 1922 (B&W silent) and there was nothing wrong with that... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Every single cinema innovation designed to more closely replicate our senses has met with resistance from some quarter of the population. All are embraced now that the bugs have been worked out of them (I'm not sure SmelloVision is as good as it can get, yet).

Many of the technical enhancements to motion pictures really aren't necessary to propel the story. Silent movies can still entertain; a generation grew up watching "The Wizard of Oz" on B&W television. Yet we really want to smell the the flying monkeys because it makes the movie more entertaining.

So it is with SmelloVision. Sure it's not absolutely necessary for the narrative, but IMO, it adds to the gag value of the visuals, just as good color does. And there are instances where a binaural stereo smell of an image stinks more than can be imagined with a single flat image.

But yes, we don't (or shouldn't) need things thrown in our faces to appreciate the depth of a well-presented SmelloVision image.

Re: Bring on SmelloVision

So you would have called a halt to innovation at cave paintings?

"Make me a baby!
Make me a star!
Leave my coffin slightly ajar!"
- Lesley Gore

Re: Bring on SmelloVision

No, but I would have suggested that sticking with charcoal was superior to using feces, aesthetically and odoriferous-ly

Re: Bring on SmelloVision

Smell-o-vision was already brought on in 1960, which I'm sure you already know. The system was unwieldy, and the movie was later re-titled and distributed without the scents, and to underwhelming response.

3-D has shown the ability to reliably provide additional visual information not possible with cyclopean projection. It is no more a gimmick than seeing a series of still images in rapid succession to create the illusion of motion.





Re: Bring on SmelloVision

http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2014/7/15/scanners4. gif

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Without dreams I would not want to live- Werner Herzog
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