Tuesday, June 8, 2010

#27: Smell-o-Vision


Somewhere in the 60's the movie industry came out with this new gimmick called Smell-o-Vision.  The technique involved adding smells and odors to the experience of movie watching with the intention of making it more life-like.  Maybe that's why NYC feels so "real".  

I wonder if the MTA (the New York City transportation authority) still uses this technique.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Smell o vision? Never heard of it! How would they add smells to movies?

HowISee said...

Some theaters installed these compressed air systems in their walls that would inject the smells into the space in certain moments of the movie.

Another method was this card they gave you at the door as you walked in. It had these little cutout window flaps with letters or numbers on them. In certain scenes during the movie, a letter or number would appear in the corner of the screen prompting you to open that corresponding window flap on the card and you would just stick your nose in it to get the smell. My sister went to one of those and at some point one of the characters in the film farted and everybody in the theater started yelling "Noooo!!!!!" :) It must have been a fun experience.