I’ve been mulling over a post about 3D for the last few weeks. And it’s time for the mulling to get on the screen!
3D movies have existed in some form or another since the yonder days of 1890 when a bloke called William Friese-Greene filed a patent for a 3D movie process, which involved his movies to be projected side by side on a screen. Would be movie goer’s would watch the movie through a stereoscope to converge the two images. Anyway, this was a balls. Too awkward and cumbersome for any cinema house or would be audience. Leg it onto 1922 and the earliest confirmed 3D movie that was shown to an audience who paid for the privilege , was the Power of Love. This was the start of the red /green anaglyph format and those wonderful cheap as shit cardboard glasses were used. And throughout the subsequent years, various methods were used and the love of 3D came and went and came back again. There was a bit of a 3D boom in the early 50’s, then came the 3D of the 60’s and 70’s and then all went very quiet until IMAX arrived. I don’t know how many of you have ever been in an IMAX cinema, but it is a truly a unique experience, and to be fair, IMAX, even with the heavy 3D glasses, got 3D right! But, unlike your local multiplex, not everything is released on IMAX. It’s like something you do once a month or a few times a year. Going to see every movie released on a screen a few stories tall isn’t going to be everybody’s cup of tea! But credit where it’s due, IMAX started the ball rolling for the normal multiplex. In 2005, the world famous Mann’s Chinese theatre was the first commercial cinema in the world to be fitted with Digital 3D. And then the ball really started rolling and we reached the point where we are at today!
Even though, what I’ve outlined is badly written and only scraping the surface of 3D, it shows that 3D has never been consistent. Compared to say colour TV / Film. Once that caught on, it was here to stay. Over history 3D has never been consistent. Too many false starts and even when it did get going, it never kept going. Cost and technology can partly be held responsible for this, but is the demand really there even now?
Besides IMAX 3D, my first experience of the current 3D systems used in conjunction with digital projection was in the Gate Cinema where I was invited to a press screening of U2:3D. I’m not the worlds biggest Bono fan, but I found the experience exciting and certainly was left wanting more. From there, the next one I recall seeing was Monsters VS Aliens. Again, this gave a great sense of depth and immersion. The future was looking good for 3D. And after another few 3D experiences including UP, James Cameron’s Avatar showed up and set the bar so fuckin high you’d need King Kong to reach the top of it! My first thought about Avatar was “Fuck me, the screen isn’t very bright”. This is an ongoing problem with current 3D cinema as the glasses you get, also dim the image a bit as well. Brightness aside, the depth and immersion was second to none. Then the shit hit the fan. Like a gigantic beacon, Avatar climbed well beyond $2.5 Billion world wide and dollar signs were heard going off in nearly every single studio in the world. And this is where the problem really lies. Cameron shot Avatar in 3D for 3D. The way it’s supposed to be done!
But a few boffins figured out a conversion process to convert 2D to 3D. The most recent case and points are Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and Clash of the Titans. Both were shot in 2D and converted into 3D. And both, especially Titans, are absolute shit! It’s one thing to have a lacklustre movie, but having it converted into lacklustre 3D is demented. What’s the point? Well, it comes down to dollar signs again. I do wonder though, how long the conversion process will con the cinema going public. People expect an experience at the cinema and in particular they expect a fantastic experience with 3D. The studios are forgetting that!!! While the inflated box office will continue, how long will it continue for? I’m already regretting spending the extra going to see Titans in 3D. Not only was the 3D shit, it proved a huge distraction, it was so bad. People pay a premium for a premium experience, not a big pile of dark, fake looking shit!
Eventually, and I don’t know how long it will take, people will stop going to see movies in 3D, because this conversion process is complete bollocks. Your average Joe only hears the words 3D. He or she isn’t aware if it was shot in 3D or converted from 2D. And if average Joe goes' to enough shitty 2D-3D conversions they will lose faith in the format and stop spending their hard earned cash!
These poor 3D conversions are already starting to taint the properly shot 3D movies. Compare Avatar to Titans for example. And if things keep going the way they are, all 3D movies will be painted with the one, shitty brush and audiences will avoid them like the plague. These conversions will rightly fuck up 3D for the film makers who would use it properly. And when I say use it properly, I mean shoot it in 3D for 3D. Film makers will have no audience for 3D left the way things are going. Ongoing 2D conversions, while they may fatten the studio bank accounts in the short term, they will empty them in the long term, once the audience wise up. Not only are these conversions incredibly bad, they’re incredibly expensive to convert as well. If there is any bright future for 3D movies then it’s as simple as this. 3D needs to be converted into 2D not the other way round!!!!!!
Today, I wandered into Harvey Normans, an electrical retailer in Ireland. A recent ad in the paper advertised the fact that 3 of their stores, 1 in Dublin, Limerick and Cork would be demo’ing 3DTV. I’ve been banging on about 3DTV for the last while and I’ve formed a perception that it won’t be as good as what you get in the cinema. For the simple reason, the screen size. Surely, a 55” TV can’t create an immersive experience compared to a gigantic cinema screen? Well, I was wrong!!!!!!!! A 47” LG TV, not only blew my mind today but it also blew the mind of my wife. It was like looking through a window. Clairty, Depth and Immersion were streets ahead of anything I’ve seen in the cinema. Even though the demo loop was only 5-6 minutes, I could have stared at it for hours. The demo featured a CGI animated toon, U2:3D, The Superbowl and some footage shot from a paraglider. As I said, I was blown away. Will I buy one? Will I buy the 3D Blu-Ray player? Damn right, but I’m going to hold off until early next year. I’m always an early adopter of stuff, but the current lack of software is holding me back. But when the software start’s rolling, the future for 3DTV in the home is really positive. Granted, the world is still trying to get to grips with FULL HD, let alone FULL 3D HD and that may hinder things.
In conclusion, 3D is certainly shaping up to stay here for the long term, but the studios have their finger over the red button and are already very close to fucking the whole thing up with overkill and lame ass conversions! As I said 3D to 2D not 2D to 3D.
