Immersive Cinema Company ICE Theaters Sets Firm Standards
variety.comBen Croll At CinemaCon this past April, and now at CineEurope in Barcelona, international exhibitors have cast a curious eye toward the immersive brand ICE Theaters.
A relatively new player on the premium field, the ICE (Immersive Cinema Experience) format adds six panels on either side of the screen and fills them visual extensions done in-house at the company’s facility in La Rochelle, France.
The rooms also adhere to strict technical standards, all sold as part of a package deal.Encoding Requesting the content at minimum three weeks before the release date, ICE encodes each and every title from a secure facility nicknamed “the bunker.” There, teams of graphic designers create visual embellishments for every frame while choosing suitable effects for each scene. “We do a lot of films and the work takes a lot of time,” says ICE Theaters sales exec Guillaume Thomine-Desmazures. “We’re dealing second by second, frame by frame, so we need to be very precise.” Approval Studios and distributors are invited to ICE Theaters’ Los Angeles facility to screen and approve the fully encoded film; the graphic team then retools around their feedback.
Once fully approved, and after one last quality control, the script is locked and the files sent to all ICE-equipped theaters.Visuals While the film plays onscreen, the action extends onto 12 LED panels divided between both walls of the auditorium.
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