Odeon Luxe London Leicester Square

CF100: At least the Odeon’s refurbishment has given us no end of things to discuss! On my last visit to what was then the Empire Leicester Square, the lighting colours in the IMAX auditorium included the secondary colours of magenta, cyan and amber, given what you say about the primary colours (RGB) which produce the secondary hues as well as a “tinted” white, I assume these appear during the fading of one primary and rising of another i.e. as red begins to fade and blue begins to rise, magenta appears – first as a bright cerise while red remains the stronger and finally as more of a violet/purple as blue overpowers the dying red. Principally the mixing and blending of RGB was at the heart of what Holophane was doing in the ‘thirties so little has really changed chromatically only in the light source. Blues brighter than primary were often used particularly in larger cinemas and green was often replaced by amber or pink while primary red, in my experience, was almost always retained. Such combo’s, whilst unable to produce the number of colours available to RGB installations could nevertheless be most eye-catching. OLS used Primary Red, Bright Blue and Medium Amber in their 3 x 6 2k Strand Electric Fresnel lanterns both before and after the 1968 modernisation. Ten years later, the 2k lanterns gave way to 1k profile spots and some of the “fireworks” were lost. Profiles were not the way to illuminate the Odeon’s expanse of curtain and it was necessary to add a light frost gel to the filters which further lessened the reflected brilliance but at least got rid of the appearance of a bunch of sharp edged balloons projected onto the curtains.

The blue lighting in darker auditoriums is even more an Odeon than a Dolby policy and has been in new/refurbished Odeons since 1998.

I’m told Odeon like to mask the image properly and with adjustable masking “…wherever space permits”. Given how small some of the cinemas in multiplexes can be these days, the space proviso makes at least some sense.

As far as I’m aware, the 1937 coving from one cove forward of the balcony remains to confound many who, after the 1968 modernisation were sufficiently shocked by the transformation to say that all traces of the original décor had been swept away! Only the coving between the balcony and the proscenium arch was removed and I for one preferred the plainer forward ceiling and splay walls. Many of the same people said the golden ladies had been “plastered over” which was equally inaccurate.

As you say, what a Christmas present for us to unwrap! “Stan and Ollie” is due to open in the UK around the 10th January so the 20th December performance at OLS will be a real preview.

terry: The Vue West End still has tabs and moveable masking, all operating on my last visit to Screen 5—and, these days, I don’t think any other Vue location includes tabs?

‘Mary Poppins Returns’ would have been a great Premiere/Opening Attraction especially with a medley of the musical numbers played on the Compton organ beforehand; even more atmospheric with houselights dimmed and just the house tabs and ‘flying ladies’ illuminated. I do hope that AMC make an exception for OLS with their ‘no curtains’ policy…..

Odeon Leicester Square opens 20th December 2018 with “Stan and Ollie” at 17.45 and “The Favourite” at 21.00.

Sounds like a “soft” opening, something of a trial run before, I suspect, something much bigger comes in for the Christmas holidays. A well considered price range in my opinion with ticket prices reflecting both type of chair and position in the house.

All the signage is physically new although, as has been said, the design is not – the 1998 rebranded and vertically enhanced characters spelling ODEON are retained, the style with “razor blade” shaped ‘O’s having been considered one of the most successful devices to come out of the rebranding according to one of Odeon Cinemas Ltd.’s directors. The main reason for the sign replacement was to rid the façade of conventional neon and replace it with the LED equivalent (same applies to the considerable amount of former neon outlining of the whole frontage – some of whose tubing was literally dangling from broken brackets at the beginning of this year!) The main ODEON sign atop the glass box will have an entirely different mounting to that which formerly stood on the edge of the balcony – and gave me a tiny electric shock when I leant over and touched the steel backing to the initial 'O’ in 1999! LED is widely replacing conventional neon these days and in the case of the Odeon Theatre will replicate the silver outline of the name signs and, where appropriate, also the blue halo backlighting of the signs.

The Royal Albert Hall is neither a cinema nor a theatre and I wish the Royal Film Performance and Royal Variety Performance had stayed where they looked at their best i.e. the Odeon Leicester Square and Palladium Theatre respectively. Although the latter is once again staged mainly at the 2,000+seat Palladium, the R.F.P. is unlikely ever to return to an 800 seat West End cinema – even one as top notch as OLS. It’s just plain greed, albeit on the Charities part, against which inferior presentation is likely considered a price worth paying.

“Mary Poppins Returns” would be a great opener for OLS and, in any event, booking will be opening any day now so our curiosity should soon be satisfied.

joeswin: I may well be mistaken and “over-excited” in stating that the Odeon signage is “new!”—d'oh!

I’m not sure it makes sense sequencing-wise, presumably the signage subcontractor will be on site later.

Light leakage from the “Christmas in Leicester Square” fair in Leicester Square Gardens may have been reflecting off the signs last night, making them look misleadingly bright and new.

Albeit, the relevant proposed signage elements don’t look particularly different in the planning application, and I notice from other photos taken during the works that those signs were not removed, so perhaps the existing is simply being kept?

cultman1: Appears to be on track with the glass box closing off access from the square and soon ready for the finishing (aka loosely “Cat B”) stage of the foyer fit-out. My guess is that the auditorium is further advanced not being open to the elements and the sequencing seems to be from the stage house/auditorium end out to the Leicester Square facade.

IOW, it might not look like it, but one might say that the project is actually pretty much done, it “just” needs “decorating.” The site should soon be buzzing away with the final race on for the stated opening! Exciting times… :–)

is the Odeon opening before Christmas?

CF100: Tantalisingly, the stage end is being kept under wraps! The oft changed curtains have always been part of the Odeon’s charm which the Company say they are keen to preserve and I can’t imagine why having at least one set/track would be a problem. There is sufficient wing space for centre-opening tabs to clear the arch completely and effectively disappear if a longer track were being used – thus no compromise on the widest image possible. For some years now, OLS has been the only Odeon to retain operative tabs – in all other Odeons tabs have either been removed, motors isolated or new builds not having tabs at all. Given the number of occasions when people are presented on the OLS stage, it would seem a retrograde step for such presentations to take place before a naked screen. One thing the Odeon has lost is the “pageant box” which has been an intrinsic part of the balcony front since the theatre was built. The lanterns inside the box and mainly focussed on the tabs have been changed over the years as stage lighting technology has evolved. The lighting has never been as striking since 1998 when the three colour circuit arrangement allowing the mixing and blending of three basic gel colours (usually 6 x red, 6 x blue and 6 x amber but there were sometimes exceptions to the colours used, most commonly when amber would be replaced by pink)was combined into one circuit of 18 profile spot lanterns and therefore restricted to one colour. Guess LED stage lighting could reintroduce the spectacular effects but any lighting of the tabs is going to be more local i.e. replicating footlights or overhead batten (both of which the Odeon has always had but not used for some years. I just hope they don’t go for the unimaginative “Christmas tree” cycle where the LEDs pedal through the predictable red/green/blue/magenta/cyan/amber ever changing scheme as across the square in the Cineworld at the Empire Leicester Square carve up.

Moveable masking – another closely guarded secret! I certainly hope OLS will retain the capability of correctly framing whatever ratio the feature film is presented in. Not to do so would surely be the proverbial ha'porth o' tar when so much money has been spent.

The flying ladies…I gather there was some debate earlier in the year about whether much plainer/flatter splay walls would be more conducive to the sophisticated sound system achieving its optimum effect. The 1998 replica ladies were to a degree three dimensional. I don’t know what the outcome was.

There is much for us to “wait and see” still; I hope we’re not disappointed.

FAO

A Dolby Cinema page has been posted on Odeon’s website.

Specific to the OLS, to quote:

• “It combines state-of-the-art audio and visual technology with the grandeur of deco architecture to create an unforgettable cinematic experience[…]

• “This debut Dolby Cinema introduces the UK to the combination of Dolby Vision, the dual-laser projection system which offers spectacular, high-contrast, dramatic imaging[…]

• “Four hundred meticulously aligned speakers project sounds that can explosively fill the entire space or flit quietly overhead as the story unfolds[…] (Comment: 400?! Presumably, by counting every last driver?)

• “Carefully preserving the historical significance of the auditorium, including the classic Royal Box balcony, the largest Dolby Cinema to date is thoughtfully designed to eliminate visual distractions, with clear sightlines for all premium seats and acoustic isolation construction.”

I can’t say I ever noticed any problems with acoustic isolation in the auditorium as it was, albeit the HVAC may have been somewhat too audible. It would, of course, be churlish to complain about a high degree of auditorium isolation being reinstated or improved upon!

(As previously noted, viewed from Leicester Square, it looked as though British Gypsum SoundBloc plasterboard has been attached under the circle, the colour of the paper facing matching that product line.)

Thank you FanaticalAboutOdeon, that resolves some previous discussions on this site on the screen width.

Regarding sightlines to the top of the screen from rear stalls, I took dimensions from the new licensing plans and scaled them onto the wonderful 1930s cut-away diagram. It’s possible that this wasn’t drawn to scale—but assuming it’s close enough, and also assuming an increased rake for the new stalls, it is an improvement over previous which was within a hair’s breath. Nevertheless, it still very much constrains the maximum screen height possible, precluding a “giant” screen ahead of the proscenium.

Odeon’s renderings suggest predominantly dark—if not black—coloured side walls/ceiling for the auditorium; do you know if this is the case?

Giles: The screen is shown as still being 48ft. wide in the planning documents, albeit it might have been moved further forward to the proscenium opening.

I’ve previously posted “pie in the sky” ideas for what might have been possible, but—for whatever reason—it’s clear now that they aren’t going down that path, and various structural constaints have been mentioned here by FanaticalAboutOdeon (girder above the proscenium opening, for instance.)

The poor sightlines from the rear stalls are well known, with the top of the screen only just being visible from the last row. It is clear from the plans that the stalls have been “restepped” for the recliners and as no steps nor level change is shown between the ground floor foyer and the rear of the stalls, i.e. the new rear of the stalls is presumably at the same or about the same level as the previous.

Thus, it is likely that the last row of the stalls will still have very tight sightlines—this alone would constrain the screen height (and thus width.)

48ft. wide for an auditorium of that size is definitely too small with the last row of the circle being ~2.75x screen width away from the screen. (Max. 1x for IMAX—or at least a “classic” IMAX!) However, the front stalls should be OK (~0.4s screen width away), or the front circle (~1.3x screen width away) for those not inclined to recline (!) and prefering a more traditional distance, as well as a better optimised vertical position and viewing angle in relation to the screen.

I’m not up to speed on all the requirements for a “Dolby Cinema,” but, I don’t think having an “immersive” screen size (in the IMAX or “giant screen” sense) is mandatory. Rather it is focused on picture/sound (including a black auditorium to optimise contrast.) Additionally, the “classic” IMAX requirements have been set aside in certain cases (TCL Chinese Theatre being an obvious example, where the last row is much further than 1x screen width away from the screen.)

I have just revisited the licensing application previously linked to, and it is not yet shown as approved. However, an additional “POLICE CONDITIONS” document, dated 14th November 2018, has been added; of the new conditions, of note (to quote):

• “There shall be a minimum of two SIA door supervisors on duty from 20:00 until 02:00 Thursday Friday and Saturday. They shall display their licences in yellow hi viz arm bands. At all other times the premises shall risk assess the requirement for SIA security and document their assessment, which shall be made available to the Responsible Authorities upon request.

• “On Thursday, Friday and Saturday between 22:00 and 02:00 hours, all bags shall be searched. At all other times the requirement to conduct searches will be on a documented risk assessment basis.”

I shall avoid any political comment on this other than to say it all sounds like a lot of intrusive “security theatre” and seems highly inappropriate to the cinema experience! :–(

Update: Quick visit to Leicester Square last night—conditions were not ideal due to the wet weather!

There was no sign (visually or aurally) of building work being underway, but the foyer areas were well lit.

There was very little externally visible progress, with some additional services (ducting, pipes, cable trays, etc.) added to the circle foyer ceiling.

Lest anyone think that the works are far from complete, it is instructive to review Zappomatic’s photos of the Cineworld (Empire) Leicester Square foyer works undertaken earlier this year.

Whilst that project had a different scope and set of constraints, it can be seen that from the end of February 2018 to ~6 weeks later, the public areas had been transformed from plasterboard to a finished state.

Cropped photo of the view in from LSQ uploaded.