3D is going to ruin movies?

My personal take on 3D, after interviewing many of the leading proponents as well as consumers is that it will succeed this time simply because the studios and electronics manufaturers will will it to succeed. Thy have billions of dollars tied up in this bet so they will make it pay off, one way or another. It may take decades before it pays off, but eventually, I think it will.

As far as consumers go, I think that the studios and manufacturers will do fine with 3D theatrical for tentpole releases. For home video though, I think it will be a tough sell. Besides the cost and replacing HD sets that are fairly new, the glasses are the sticking point for consumer acceptance. At this point, it will be years before consumers WANT 3D in the home but as the Millenials come of age where they are making considerable disposable income and as the Boomers die off, I think that 3D in the home will become more popular. Gaming will drive it to begin with, then eventually filmed entertainment, news, variety programming. But it is going to take a LONG time, longer than the long slog to HD in the home took.

Those are my thoughts on it.

Dan

All that to say, be expecting designer 3D glasses. I'll take the Ray Bans.
 
The main issue I can't cope with is with depth of field. Unless you are looking at the right spot on the screen, the 3D illusion fails as you end up looking at an out of focus area...in 3D.

I tend to look all over (not just what you're supposed to look at), and for that reason, 3D will never work for me. Unless the technology becomes intelligent enough to adjust DoF for whatever area you're looking at...but that won't be anytime soon I think.
 
Excerpts from Transcendental Style in Film (1988) by Paul Schrader:

"Motion pictures were not born in religious practice, but instead are the totally profane offspring of capitalism and technology." (156)

Quoting Andre Bazin: "'Perspective was the original sin of Western painting,' and from that time on the spiritual quality of art steadily diminished." (157)

"...the spiritual quality in art suffered its decline at the expense of 'realism,' the duplication of either external or internal reality. Art has always been excited by the challenge of realism: the bison came off the walls and became sculptures, the sculptures became photographs, the photographs moved. Eventually the artist, in his desire to imitate life, attempted to reproduce physical existence itself, not like the Greeks just to portray the highest sensual form. Victor Frankenstein's mad dream was a Gothic extension of a dream shared by many artists of his age: to artificially recreate human life and its external surroundings." (157)

"Cinema short-circuited the desire to duplicate external reality - no longer would a painter or novelist strive for the realism cinema inherently offered - and plunged the desire to duplicate internal reality into a deeper, more complex level." Cinema "canonized the human, sensual and profane: it celebrated the realistic properties of the nineteenth century while the other arts went on to explore the twentieth." (158)
 
3D is just interim nonsense until they manage to get cost-effective, quality holograms going.

Why bother?

Well, maybe for porn flicks.
 
Which would you rather have on set. A CGI Jessica Alba or the real thing? I personally love working with actually people. Then again, you can get a CGI Jessica Alba to do anything. ;)

freak!
 
-Speaking generally here, not to any individual. I drinketh to thee.:beer:

It will happen eventually. Probably not in your or my lifetime, but sooner or later, no doubt.
It's all just a natural progression towards a more reality based experience.
When the tech gets there, it'll happen. Otherwise, we are idiots.

100 years ago we had no radio, no T'V. Many still had gas and whale fat lamps then. :)
No transitors, ect, nothing!

So, don't think your all smart ass and that the world is flat and things won't happen just because you don't believe they wont. shi* happens, every day, every year,every century, blah ...


In the meantime, enjoy...
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I AGREE
 
It might be wise to hedge bets and think about ways to shoot in 3D... before your competitors do. Imagine the revitalization of your failing business as you become the first in your region to shoot, edit and produce in 3D?
That said, I see this being a Hollywood-only domain for at least a year, maybe two..
 
I think that people in certain niches, especially people who do high end corporate video, trade show video wall content and a few other select areas will make a boatload of money by doing just what Mark is saying above. They key is, you need to already have those clients in place who will pay for the thrill of being on the bleeding edge.

Those who do the opposite, and buy 3D production gear as a speculation sport and go in search of clients who will pay for it may be in for a fiscally rude surprise, just like a lot of those Lemmings who bought RED ONE packages because they "knew that they would clean up" by just owning a RED ONE, that the world would beat a path to their door. The current rental rates on RED ONE packages in LA and NY are testimony as to how that worked out for a lot of owners. I've seen complete RED ONE packages renting for $450 per day in LA and even cheaper on weeklies.

Dan
 
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Excerpts from Transcendental Style in Film (1988) by Paul Schrader:

"Motion pictures were not born in religious practice, but instead are the totally profane offspring of capitalism and technology." (156)

Quoting Andre Bazin: "'Perspective was the original sin of Western painting,' and from that time on the spiritual quality of art steadily diminished." (157)

"...the spiritual quality in art suffered its decline at the expense of 'realism,' the duplication of either external or internal reality. Art has always been excited by the challenge of realism: the bison came off the walls and became sculptures, the sculptures became photographs, the photographs moved. Eventually the artist, in his desire to imitate life, attempted to reproduce physical existence itself, not like the Greeks just to portray the highest sensual form. Victor Frankenstein's mad dream was a Gothic extension of a dream shared by many artists of his age: to artificially recreate human life and its external surroundings." (157)

"Cinema short-circuited the desire to duplicate external reality - no longer would a painter or novelist strive for the realism cinema inherently offered - and plunged the desire to duplicate internal reality into a deeper, more complex level." Cinema "canonized the human, sensual and profane: it celebrated the realistic properties of the nineteenth century while the other arts went on to explore the twentieth." (158)

Great Quotes.
 
I have no idea what that means JR.

The only advice I can give is do whatever the F you want. That's about it.
Everyone else can go F themselves. But try and learn something along the way.

-Cheers.
 
It's all just a natural progression towards a more reality based experience.
When the tech gets there, it'll happen. Otherwise, we are idiots.
blah ...

Cinema isn't about reality, that´s why it is so much fun.

Lot´s a folks come up with "so we can go back to black and white silent films right?" stuff.

But they don´t get the whole picture.

The color we see in films has nothing to do with reality, it´s made up in grading to set a mood and manipulating your mind. 90% of the color you see was not there on set.

Same goes for the sound. Theater sound systems, THX, sorrundandwhatnot is not adding any reality. Its made up mostly from sound archives to set a mood and manipulating your mind. 90% of the sound you hear was not there on set.

Also stereoscopic viewing (not 3D :violin: ) does not add any reality.
It´s an effect like sound and color. And it is totally artificial because that kind of depth is way different from the way we see the world with our eyes. It is a simulation of depth.

So what if we would be able to add total reality to films?
Real depth, real color, real sound, real smells (uhh), real temperature andwhatnot? .

Would that be the - so hyped - total reality experience?
Would you like to watch films like that or would that cancel everything out, what makes movies so magic? (I think I would rather watch b&w silent movies)

I think movies work, because they are not reality, and our brain creates a specific and unique experience out of that 24 frames.

If you looking for a "more reality based experience", go and watch Dogma films.

Frank
 
No. It will stick this time. Avatar has made too much money for that to happen.

I suspect that Avatar is a one-off in a lot of ways. I don't think that the big perfect-storm 3D-CG-IMAX-Marketing-Fantasy-Blockbuster thing is going to work for anyone again, anywhere near what some people are doubtless already banking on. I have listened to producers on a couple of projects talk about how they're 'going to adopt the synergy that made Avatar big' etc and 'apply it to this project' and I have those why is it that you have your job, again? moments...
 
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No. It will stick this time. Avatar has made too much money for that to happen.

One has to ask whether Avatar would have been less successful if it had not been 3D. Excluding the higher ticket price, I personally think the difference would have been negligible.
 
I suspect that Avatar is a one-off in a lot of ways. I don't think that the big perfect-storm 3D-CG-IMAX-Marketing-Fantasy-Blockbuster thing is going to work for anyone again, anywhere near what some people are doubtless already banking on.

Well, we will certainly find out, although Alice in Wonderland may be the first example that it does work. It's a thoroughly dull film that I think is getting a major boost only because it's in 3D.
 
I think it's Tim Burton's cachet, marketing, and the Q-factor of the cast. The 3D aspect - in marketing around here, anyway - seems tertiary.
 
I think it's Tim Burton's cachet, marketing, and the Q-factor of the cast. The 3D aspect - in marketing around here, anyway - seems tertiary.

I'm not so sure. While those aspects I'm sure contributed, the opening weekend box office seemed to have surpassed all expectations. Anyway, if Clash of the Titans achieves similar results I think the studio heads will be convinced that 3D adds to the bo take. They may be wrong but if they see the cost of 3D production or conversion as being less than the average upside they have no reason not to do it, especially when you factor in the other benefit of curbing piracy.
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 10, 2010

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE CONTINUES TO SOAR;
U.S. ADMISSIONS ON THE RISE
3D gives a boost to box office growth

​
Los Angeles – The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) today released its annual Theatrical Market Statistics Report for 2009. The report shows that global box office receipts reached an all time high of $29.9 billion, an increase of 7.6% over 2008 and almost 30% from 2005. The U.S./Canada market reached $10.6 billion, an increase of more than 10%, and International receipts increased 6.3% to $19.3 billion in 2009.

The 3D market gave the U.S./Canada box office a boost accounting for 11% of the total compared to just 2% in 2008. With 20 films released in 3D compared to just eight in 2008, higher value entertainment contributed significantly to box office revenues.

“While the motion picture industry continues to face tremendous challenges elsewhere in our business, we’re reminded again this year that the cinema is the heart and soul of our industry and it is thriving,” said Bob Pisano, President and Interim CEO of the MPAA.

Ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada rose more than 5.5% from 2008, the first admissions increase in two years. Per capita ticket purchases in the U.S. and Canada also increased 4.6% to 4.3 tickets per person, the first significant increase since 2002. Sales were fueled by repeated visits to the cinema by frequent moviegoers – those who go to the movies once a month or more and who make up only 10% of the population – who bought half of all tickets sold in 2009.

“Four straight years of box office growth– the last three each setting a new record – show the enormous appetite audiences continue to have for great and entertaining movies in the best way to enjoy them – on a big screen with a big crowd,” said John Fithian, President and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners.
At the end of 2009 there were more than 16,000 digital cinema screens worldwide, up 86% from the end of 2008, a net gain of more than 7,000 screens. The fastest growing sector of digital screens is 3D. The number of digital 3D screens worldwide more than tripled in 2009, reaching 8,989, or about 6% of screens in the world.

“Digital technology is the foundation on which 3D has been built. Together, digital presentation and 3D hold the promise of a dramatic game change in moviemaking and movie-going. The global film audience is voting with its feet, and those feet are planted firmly in the direction of local cinemas that have the latest technology,” said Pisano.
While box office revenues and admissions surged, films produced by U.S. production companies declined over the past three years. In 2009, the number of U.S. produced films released in domestic theaters decreased 12%, the first decline since 2003. The decline is attributable in significant part to labor issues affecting the industry in 2007-08, the recession and the challenges to investment recovery due to rampant content theft, and the decline in DVD sales.
 
When i'm watching a movie in 3D, I get so immersed in the storyline that I forget that i'm watching it in 3D. I don't even remember the movie that I watched was in 3D. It makes no difference to me.
 
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