This past Wednesday I attended a reception held by D-Box Motion Code and the Galaxy Highland 20 Theaters in Austin celebrating the installation of twenty D-Box motion seats in one of the theater's auditoriums. The seats use three motors and "intelligent vibrations" to bring a new element to movie watching: coordinated motion and vibrations timed to the picture's soundtrack. The result is something like those flight simulator rides at amusement parks (MGM's Star Tours comes to mind), which use the power of visual suggestion combined with motion to convey a moderately intense physical experience.

The reception included both a standalone demo unit (the two seats pictured together) and a full-immersion experience using about fifteen minutes of the new film Terminator: Salvation. While the seats deliver the expected bumps and rolls during explosions and car chases, there are a few more subtle touches that I actually found quite clever. When one character starts a car, the seat vibrates slightly to the purr of the engine while the characters hold a conversation.

The first summer holiday weekend is upon us, as well as UT's commencement weekend. While that may tempt you to get out of town or stick to your own backyard, there are some film events around Austin this weekend that may catch your eye.

First and foremost, this is the opening weekend of the Paramount Summer Film Series, an annual event that brings vintage classics to Austin audiences in a classic old theater. The Summer Film Series has a Film Fan membership option that gives discounts and reserved seating to members, as well as free popcorn. Single tickets are good for all shows that day. This weekend's films include Mary Poppins, Casablanca and From Here to Eternity.

But wait, there's more. Lots more.

You may think Austin has plenty of filmmakers, actors and crew in town now ... but just you wait another dozen years or so, and we'll be even more packed. That is, if you're judging by the number of summer day camps for kids interested in making movies. The camps cover everything from screenwriting to acting to claymation. At the end of many of them, your children attend a screening of the movie they helped make, or bring home a DVD to hold their own private screening party. All I ever brought home from summer camp were lanyards and painted rocks, so I'm envious.

Here's a list of all the summer movie-related camps and classes in the Austin area that I could find. The descriptions are pretty much verbatim from press releases or websites, since I haven't attended any of these camps personally. Sadly, they're for kids and not adults, although you'll find a couple of options for grownups at the end of the list. At least we can all go to the free summer movies, regardless of age.

Update Fri. 5/21: Austinist has published an excellent in-depth look at the situation, with details about the script that had not been previously mentioned.

Update: Ealy and Garcia have written a comprehensive article about the issue for the Austin American-Statesman.

Yesterday, the Texas Motion Picture Association proudly announced the latest film incentives rules, while at the same time, a controversy started brewing over the denial of incentive funds to a production for a film about the Waco Siege of 1993.

Austin Movie Blog's Charles Ealy blogged on Sunday about an action movie production called Waco that was denied film incentive funds. Initially, Ealy reported that an unnamed state senator blocked the funding for the Entertainment 7 production.

Chris Garcia followed up on Ealy's story after learning that the decision to deny incentives was made entirely by Texas Film Commission Director Bob Hudgins, pictured above at the recent signing of the newest film-incentives bill into law. Among the details on Austin Movie Blog is a statement from Hudgins that "...there was criteria put in the statute for that money. That criteria states that anything that shows an inaccurate portrayal of actual events (in Texas) and comes down to that narrow definition."

If you're at odds for something to do this weekend before the Memorial Day barbecues, the (Original) Alamo team has been thinking of you. The next Rolling Roadshow event in Austin is going to be a "bike-in" screening of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure downtown on Saturday night, May 23, at 8 pm.

As the event description says, "Fun didn't exist until Pee-Wee invented it, and now the most funrocious, funtacular, fungorious funsplosion in the history of FUN will be presented on the big BIG screen in a gorgeous 35MM print!"

Bicycles are optional. The screening will take place outdoors in the lot by Progress Coffee.

Check out the latest movie news from Austin and Central Texas:

• Kelly Williams at Austin Film Festival has written a lovely remembrance of Bud Shrake that also contains an exciting piece of news: Before he died, Shrake had recorded a commentary track for an upcoming DVD release of Kid Blue. You know we'll keep you posted when more info becomes available.
• More on Shrake: the Austin Chronicle has republished Louis Black's excellent interview from 1985 with the Texas author and screenwriter.
• Galaxy Highland is installing "motion-enhanced seats" -- about 20 in one theater -- in time for Terminator Salvation to open this weekend. Austin Movie Blog tells us that tickets for these seats will cost about $8 more. My first thought was that such seating will make it even harder to get through a long movie without a bathroom break; a colleague of mine noted that vibrating seats might be more appropriate to certain other genres of film.

I've heard people argue that Grindhouse, which was shot in Austin, was so overhyped and underattended that it actually crippled the local film production industry in some way. I'm not sure I agree with that -- I think that better film incentives in other states was a much bigger factor. I admit I wish that Grindhouse had been made with a much lower budget, rather like the Masters of Horror series on Showtime, and then it might have built more of a cult following instead of ending up a box-office flop. But we'll never know.

I do know this: I use my SXSW Film 2007 canvas bag, the one with the Grindhouse picture splashed on it, as a grocery bag. And every time a cashier under 40 sees it, they grin at the bag or tell me how they loved Planet Terror, or they can't wait for Quentin Tarantino to make another film. (Then I cheer them up by telling them about Inglourious Basterds -- my inner film geek wants to see it, but my inner grammar geek HATES the title.) There are still a lot of fans of this movie, and filmmakers Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, here in town.

Controversy has been brewing about IMAX movie theaters this week, and what constitutes an official "IMAX" theater.

When we go to a movie theater that has the IMAX name on it, we expect to be immersed in a gigantic 72-foot image. Except IMAX has been lending its name to some Regal and AMC theaters that don't do that. The "IMAX-D" theaters have screens that are only slightly larger than usual, with digital projection and sound. That's nice, but that's not what people expect when they pay higher ticket prices for an IMAX experience.

On Tuesday, Aziz Ansari posted a blog entry complaining that the IMAX corporation is ripping people off. He says:

Basically IMAX is whoring out their brand name and trying to trick people. These new "IMAX" theatres are really just nice digital screens with good sound, but they ARE NOT IMAX, in that they don't have the huge 72 ft gigantic screens which people would expect. However, they still charge $5 more for tickets as they would for the regular IMAX.

Check out our updated 2011 Guide to Free (and Cheap) Summer Movies.

While Terror Tuesday and Weird Wednesday are no longer free events, if you're still looking for free movies, you have plenty of options around town this summer. Recently, Jette briefly mentioned the Reel Independents series this summer at Austin Public Library. APL has two additional summer series at different libraries, so there's no excuse to miss these movies.

Two of the best deals in town have been Terror Tuesdays (formerly Thursdays) and Weird Wednesdays at the Alamo Drafthouse, where obscure, rare and just plain strange films have screened for free every week of the year. This month, the Terror and Weird are free no more. But they are still good deals.

Citing rising shipping costs, both events have joined Music Monday in charging $1 per seat. It's $2 if you buy online (those pesky service charges associated with credit card orders). When guest appearances are included, it's $5.

Going from free to fee can make some people cranky. Lars Nilsen, has a brief comment on Weird Wednesday Facebook page about the shipping costs. Zack Carlson, the Terror Tuesday programmer, explains in more detail.

"Lars and I used to just use the same prints from the Alamo's modest film archive, but with both series playing a 35mm film print each week (no DVD's!!!), that's 104 movies a year. And you can imagine that it'd be difficult to provide that many genuinely entertaining films on a constant, non-repeating basis.