3-D film revolution......

[julian_craster]

From The Times

December 5, 2008



3-D film revolution lets audiences feel they’re in the action

Patrick Foster, Media Correspondent



3-D film revolution lets audiences feel they’re in the action - Times Online



For more than 50 years the film studios have sweated over how to bring the silver screen to the viewing public in three dimensions.

But today a slice of cinematic history will be made when two South London auditoriums raise the curtain on a new generation of digital 3-D screens not yet seen outside the United States.



The Odeon cinemas in Greenwich and Wimbledon are to begin screenings using revolutionary digital Imax technology, which promises to bring viewers the highest video quality yet seen, and the crispest audio available.

Gone are the paper glasses with red and green lenses; they are replaced by far less stylish tinted black plastic models, with tentacle-like head clips.

Although the first fully 3-D movie will not hit the screens until February, with Under the Sea, a feature-length documentary voiced by Jim Carrey, cinema bosses are pinning their hopes on a blockbuster slate of films incorporating 3-D scenes, including the next Harry Potter, drawing in the crowds.



Odeon has spent about £1.5 million kitting out one screen at each of the two cinemas with the digital technology, which means that movies can be played from a computer file instead of needing bulky, and costly, reels of film.

Rupert Gavin, chief executive of Odeon, said that viewers would be met with a cinematic experience that they had never experienced before. “It really has the capacity in these desperate times to catapult people into a different world,” he said. “It does that in spades. Particularly the fantasy films like Batman - it’s a world that audiences can get immersed in.”



Imax, the company behind the innovation believes that its curved screens and high-tech speaker systems will revolutionise the cinema experience.

Larry O’Reilly, executive vice-president of Imax, said: “We’re using two projectors instead of just one, so that means we’re putting much more light on the screen, which allows us to crank up the contrast and gives you better colour separation and makes it more lifelike and satisfying to the eye.

“We’re also ensuring that you get the best possible sound. Each individual speaker cone is checked to make sure it’s operating properly. If it’s not, the other cones can compensate. Our sound system has 12,000 watts of power. When you’re in a battle scene and the ground starts to shake, you start to shake too.”



Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, set for release in July, will have key scenes remastered into three dimensions, with a flashing indicator on the screen telling viewers when to put their glasses on.

“When people come to see Harry Potter the most obvious difference is that in the Imax alone there will be 2-D action that has been converted to 3-D,” Mr O’Reilly said. “When Harry Potter flies, you get to fly with him.”

The added action comes at a price, however. Tickets to see films at the new screens will cost £11.50 for adults and £8.50 for children, £3 more than a typical ticket.



Odeon also hopes that it can take the technology beyond films. It is planning to use the digital Imax screens to show Formula One racing as well as football matches.



Although there are about 50 cinemas in Britain capable of showing 3-D films, the screens in Greenwich and Wimbledon will be the only cinemas outside the US to use giant-screen digital Imax projection.







Historical dimensions



—3-D films have been around since the 1890s, when William Friese-Greene, a British pioneer, filed a patent for a version

—The earliest known commercial release in 3-D was The Power of Love, in 1922, which relied on a dual-strip projection that ushered in red and green glasses – as well as splitting headaches

—After the invention of television, film studios threw resources into 3-D. Arguably the most famous feature film using the technique was The Creature from the Black Lagoon, a 1954 production

—3-D fell out of favour with the advent of widescreen cinema, but returned in the 1970s, with the sex comedy The Stewardesses

—In the 1990s the popularity of the giant Imax screen led to studios revisiting 3-D. Polar Express made 25 times more there than at conventional cinemas

[MB]

The IMAX cinema in Bristol closed last year, apparantly. It was particularly nice at Christmas. It was empty when we went there and yet we really enjoyed the experience. A real shame.



Some info about it:



Closure of Wildwalk and IMAX

[earlb]

The old red/ Green system

[Steve Crook]

Are they still using the red/green separation for this development? The results are better with polarised separation. You don't get the colour fringing and it doesn't give as much of the "scenery flats" effect where everything seems to be on scenery flats at different levels into the distance, but each flat being very two dimensional and separate from the flat in front and behind it



Steve

[Bernardo]

name='Steve Crook']Are they still using the red/green separation for this development? The results are better with polarised separation. You don't get the colour fringing and it doesn't give as much of the "scenery flats" effect where everything seems to be on scenery flats at different levels into the distance, but each flat being very two dimensional and separate from the flat in front and behind it



Steve

Or the accompanying splitting headache as one leaves the theatre especially during daylight hours.

In the late 50's I saw a Tony Curtis Swashbuckler with polaroid glasses, it was very good and has always surprised me that there were no more.

[billy bentley]

Just over a week ago I went with my youngest boy to see "Bolt" in 3D. The glasses were like Rayban(d)s and very comfortable and the 3D effects far superior to what I had seen before. I'd read somewhere that the "TIntin" film was going to be the flagship for the new 3D technology.

[Steve Crook]

name='billy bentley']Just over a week ago I went with my youngest boy to see "Bolt" in 3D. The glasses were like Rayban(d)s and very comfortable and the 3D effects far superior to what I had seen before. I'd read somewhere that the "TIntin" film was going to be the flagship for the new 3D technology.

That sounds like they used polarised separation. You wear a pair of what look like polarised sunglasses but one eyepiece was rotated through 90 degrees so you see vertically polarised light through one eyepiece and horizontally polarized light through the other. You have to keep your head level or the images get confused and leak over from one eye to the other and so the 3D effect doesn't work properly.



The other technique is to use circular polarization. One eyepiece only passes left-circularly polarized light, the other only passes right-circularly polarized. That lets you tilt your head



Steve

[Richard W]

Get thee hence:



Top 10 3-D Myths - 3DFPF - 3-D Film Preservation Fund a tax exempt 501(c)3 non profit corporation





3DFPF - 3-D Film Preservation Fund a tax exempt 501(c)3 non profit corporation



All movies should be filmed in polarized 3-D. We see through two eyes. Therefor all our photography and cinematography should be executed through two lenses.



Richard

(impoverished independent 3-D filmmaker)

[rbrooks2008]

Nice to see another 3-D tinkerer, Richard!



It's called a revolution because things go around in circles or cycles.

[Richard W]

Yes, indeed.

I wondered why it was called a revolution.

Of course, I've been going around in circles for twenty years.

Does that mean I'm due for a break, or am I just revolutionary?



Do you shoot 35mm film or digital?

With over a thousand cinemas in the USA wired for digital 3-D, I think it is best to provide product for that medium. Shoot on film, but distribute on digital.



By the way The Haunting is one of my top films as well. I think it and The Innocents are the most perfect ghost stories ever filmed. If only they had been shot stereoscopically! I'm not sure the power of suggestion is a viable approach anymore, but 3-D turns every film into an event, especially when it is intelligently applied.



Richard

[ghostdasher]

1.5 Million pounds of digital technology i'll wait for the price to go down a bit until i install one of those. I love the charm of the old anaglyph 3d and the paper glasses with red and cyan lenses, put those on and everything looks 3d if it's meant to or not, I love wearing them. I watched "House of Wax" in 3D anaglyph the other day with some company and when everyone had their glasses on the sight of everyone in spacey specs was pretty cool, I recommend it for a party and the film was good as well... DVD also has something called Field Sequential but needed something a bit more expensive than paper glasses to watch that format...

[batman]

The Blu-Ray release of the new Brendan Fraser version of Journey to the Centre of the Earth contains 3-D glasses.

[rbrooks2008]

name='Richard W']Yes, indeed.

I wondered why it was called a revolution.

Of course, I've been going around in circles for twenty years.

Does that mean I'm due for a break, or am I just revolutionary?

You're ahead of your time and also need to catch yourself up, or something!

Do you shoot 35mm film or digital?

With over a thousand cinemas in the USA wired for digital 3-D, I think it is best to provide product for that medium. Shoot on film, but distribute on digital.

Only stills at the moment.



http://www.vickers-armstrongs.com/pi...D%20stuff.html



But, after watching Dan Cruickshank in a documentary series about Freize Green, showing some of his early footage to relatives of those in the films and on a nice looking flat DVD screen with DVD which slid in at the side (or top) Viewfun DP77 7" Dual Screen Portable Tablet DVD Player I knew things had possibly caught up for a moving version of the Viewmaster screen. View-Master Model L



Prices on Mini-DV cams has dropped dramatically, so not out of the bounds of lunacy, rigging two up in the same way as the Vilias.

By the way The Haunting is one of my top films as well. I think it and The Innocents are the most perfect ghost stories ever filmed. If only they had been shot stereoscopically! I'm not sure the power of suggestion is a viable approach anymore, but 3-D turns every film into an event, especially when it is intelligently applied.



Richard

The great thing with 3-D is that you can take the most boring picture and it still looks great. Initially one does things like sit at the end of a runway and wait for a B-52 to land but anything can look great without going for the 'wow' factor.



As to The Haunting in the book there are two children who run past (I think) Eleanor as she lays resting in the long grass. That would have made an interesting DVD extras idea.

[Steve Crook]

name='rbrooks2008']Only stills at the moment.



http://www.vickers-armstrongs.com/pi...D%20stuff.html

Interesting, get a laser an you can make some holograms as well



Steve

[rbrooks2008]

name='Steve Crook']Interesting, get a laser an you can make some holograms as well



Steve

I'm going for two cheap mini DV-Cameras and go for the whole personal and portable moving film Viewmaster affair first of all.