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Author Topic: TITAN EXTREME CINEMA at Ward Honolulu Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 06-02-2010 10:41 PM                        A sixty six by thirty five feet screen will be installed in one of the four large auditoriums at Consolidated Ward 16 Theatres in Honolulu as part of a system called TITAN EXTREME CINEMA and will be the largest in Hawaii. It will utilize the EpanD 3-D system already in place and all of the theatres existing seats will be replaced by leather seating throughout the auditorium. The sound system will include all new massive speakers mounted throughout the hall including the ceiling with a power of 75000 watts. It will utilize Dolby's new 7.1 sound. The ExpanD 3-D system uses active 3-D glasses that allow the lenses to open and close in synchronization with the shutters on the digital two projection system and read an infrared signal reflected off the screen to achieve superior 3-D images. The system will have it's debut on June 18 with TOY STORY 3 Although the new system announced by Regal that is being discussed on another thread sounds like another marketing ploy, the system that was announced by Consolidated in this morning's Honolulu Advertiser sounds very exciting and I can hardly wait to check it out. When it is introduced, there will be both general and reserved seating. This is something new here in Hawaii and I am very curious how it will work out. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Todd McCracken Master Film Handler Posts: 263 From: Northridge, CA, USA Registered: Mar 2008 posted 06-05-2010 10:57 PM                    Wow, that does sound interesting. Please let us know how it is (as I'm sure you will take a peek when it go's live)  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 06-05-2010 11:35 PM                        Todd, You can read the full article that was published in the Honolulu Advertiser about Consolidated new system at Cinema Treasures at http://www.cinematreasures.org Some have commented negatively at Cinema Treasures about the article stating the size of the screen Consolidated will install is nothing new. That could be true for people who live in large cities like New York or Los Angeles that might have theatres with screens larger than the one Ward will get but Honolulu is not N.Y. or L.A. For a remote city like Honolulu to get what Consolidated call Titan Extreme Cinema is welcome news for everyone who loves movies. I do not ever recall anyone mentioning surround speakers mounted in the ceiling in theatres in their area but the Ward will have a total of 14 speakers above the audience's head and 18surround speakers mounted on the walls. The subwoofers will be double the number and size. The 3-D projection will be with two NEC projectors as part of the EepenD system already in place at the theatre. The system Consolidated will debut with TOY STORY 3 on June 18th is something I am really looking forward to seeing and hearing. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-06-2010 01:39 PM                     Ha! They named it after a Nissain pickup truck???  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 06-06-2010 05:30 PM                     Oh brother.. Oh wait, someone is going to come up with the "Hercules" or "Zeus' large screen system now ... ..and worked in a 21 plex that had a 33 x 65 foot screen to shoot regular movies on.  |  IP: Logged John Walsh Film God Posts: 2490 From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way Registered: Oct 1999 posted 06-06-2010 06:07 PM                     66 x 35 works out to 1.85 (actually 1.88) so I guessing the top masking comes down for scope ....  |  IP: Logged Caleb Johnstone-Cowan Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 593 From: London, UK Registered: Mar 2006 posted 06-08-2010 09:35 PM                     If they bother with masking. I saw a new thing for me today where the scope image was letterboxed on a 1.85 screen which was wall to wall, floor to ceiling.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 06-27-2010 07:57 PM                        I finally got to see TOY STORY 3 at the Ward Centre 16 in their new Titan Extreme Cinema auditorium and here is my report. Because I have had good personal relations with several people at the old Consolidated Theatres when they were controlled by Pacific Theatres and the current projection and sound technician is a good friend, I really wanted to be totally impressed with their new system but I am very sorry to say- I was not. Except the sound, Titan Total Extreme at the Ward was totally overhyped. When my friend told me about the new Expand 3-D system that was just installed at the Ward in April, he told me it is a two projection system but I discovered it was not. The image from a NEC digital projector is nice and bright without the 3-D glasses but it loses about fifty percent of light with the glasses and I was bombed out about that when I watched the movie. THe glasses themselves were very very uncomfortable and there were times when my eyes had difficulty adjusting to the 3-D. As a lifelong 3-D junkie, I have never had this problem with any other 3-D process before. The new 66 X35 foot screen was big but it did not look impressive at all like the IMAX screen at the Dole Cannery. Although the Dole screen is slightly smaller, I think it looks more impressive than the Wards large screen. The original seats in the auditorium were very comfortable but the new leather seats were not! The new seats recline and that is one of the reason I did not not like them. The new reserve seat policy is the biggest joke of all. When I saw TOY STORY 3 the other day during a matinee showing, there were only about fifty people in the 455 seat auditorium and WE WERE TOLD WHERE TO SIT by the seat number on the ticket. When the show started, all of the choice seats were unoccupied. Almost everyone in the auditorium were seated off to the side including me. There were even a few people seated in the orchestra section about forty feet from the screen. I got there about ten minutes before show time and when I learned where I was going to be seated, I complained to the usher. He told me everyone will be free to find a better seat after the movie had started but I did that before the lights went out. To my surprise no one else got up and looked for a better seat. Can you imagine how distracting that will be if fifty people got up to find a bette seatr after the movie had started? Can you imagine if there were much more than fifty people and they all decide to change seats in the dark? I have no intention of seeing that ever happen because I will never see another movie in that auditorium again. I loved the original 15/70 IMAX film process and missed it very much after Consolidated closed Honolulu's only commercial IMAX theatre a few years ago. Although the new Digital 3D IMAX many refer as fake IMAX is no way way as good as the original process, I like it very much. I saw AVATAR in 3-D in that format and was very impressed with the presentation and enjoyed the movie very much. I am very sorry I was pretty uncomfortable and upset when I saw TOY STORY 3 at the Ward with their terrible new system and is now thinking about seeing it again in 3-D Digital IMAX at Regal's Dole Cannery. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-27-2010 08:57 PM                        I have to agree, Claude, I haven't seen any digital 3D that has looked as good as DUAL digital IMAX. As much as we all lament the passing of 15/70 IMAX, their operations, at least the ones that actually do use two digital projectors give a really fine 3D presentation -- brighter than any other standard 3D digitals I have seen so far. And with dual projection IMAX, there isn't the temporal displacement that bother some folks. Both imgages are on the screen at exactly the same time and polarization keeps them separate just like in dual projection 35mm 3D. 3D aside, I will also reluctantly give LIEMAX kudos for the quality of their presentation over most multiplex operations. Althought their screens ARE bigger than the average multiplex and their sound systems are always impressive, no, they are not "real" IMAX but they are fairly consistant in presentation that is quite a few ticks higher than your average multiplex. They are kind of like what 70mm houses in the 80s were to the average 35mm theatre -- you sought out the 70mm cinema because your chances of getting better presentation were much higher. Perhaps IMAX will retain their image as a premiere venue over the single projector operations by the quality of their presentation and overall stellar plant operation. But that will get shot to hell if they start cutting corners like every other exhibitor, like using single projectors instead of two. Then they will just be a theatre exhibitor indistinguishable from any other...oh, no wait...you will still be able to distinguish them by their freakin $20 ticket price.  |  IP: Logged Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 06-30-2010 06:09 PM                        Was the presentation of Toy Story 3 letterboxed? I got the impression from the press release I read that the screen was going to be constant-width, and that scope pictures were going to need to be letterboxed and (hopefully) vertically masked. This was a concern I raised in the article I wrote about the Titan XC installation, as I don't think that movie theaters should have constant-width projection. I'm hoping that I read it wrong, so it would be good to get some confirmation on that.  |  IP: Logged Ian Parfrey Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1049 From: Imbil Australia 26 deg 27' 42.66" S 152 deg 42' 23.40" E Registered: Feb 2009 posted 07-01-2010 04:35 AM                     quote: Scott Jentsch I don't think that movie theaters should have constant-width projection. Agree 150 % Constant width defeats the whole purpose of the widescreen image and cheapens the movie-going experience... and basically just looks  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 07-01-2010 02:51 PM                        I bet the auditorium and presentation would have been more impressive had they spelled it "T1T4N XTR3M3 C1N3M4".  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 07-01-2010 03:14 PM                        Scott, TOY STORY 3 was projected full screen at the Ward. Although the screen in that theatre is sixty six feet wide by thirty five feet high, it did not look too impressive to me because I sat at the last row in the auditorium in the centre and that might have been the reason. Some trailers were shown in 'scope' and in 3-D and shown letterboxed. -Claude  |  IP: Logged

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