ITHEATER CINEMA 3D MOVIE

This time around, it was championed, at least early on, by those perennial advocates of pointlessly overwhelming cinematic experiences, the IMAX Corporation. If you’re old enough to be reading this right now, though, you probably know about the third wave of 3D (known to its friends as 3D Part III: 3D ). This second 3D fad didn’t last long, either-apparently just a few experiences were enough to convince moviegoers that they hadn’t missed anything-and for another generation the 3D experience was relegated to theme parks in the form of mercifully short experiences like Michael Jackson’s Captain EO and Jim Henson’s Muppet-Vision 3D. (It also didn’t hurt that new distractions like home video, cable TV, and videogames were popping up to keep kids away from the cineplexes.) By now the technology had improved enough that 3D films could be shown with a single projector, but “serious” filmmakers still shied away from it-it was mainly used for genre sequels, after ultra-clever producers noticed that “3D” slid well into the titles for a franchise’s third installment, as with Jaws 3-D, Amityville 3-D, and Friday the 13th Part III: 3D (they sure whiffed on that last one). I don’t think it’s entirely an accident that a whole generation passed before 3D made a comeback-by the late seventies, there were enough moviegoers who hadn’t been around to experience the early-fifties boom and bust and were wondering what the big deal was. When you factor in the higher costs, the uncomfortable glasses, and the headaches, it was probably only a matter of time before the novelty wore off. If 3D had begun as a gimmick to get people to visit the cinema instead of staying home and watching TV, it died for a similar reason: when it wasn’t projected perfectly, it made the cinema a far worse experience than just turning on Leave It to Beaver. Add in a mandatory intermission for every reel change, and the experience was kind of a big ask for moviegoers.

If the projectors got even slightly out of sync, the film would turn into an unwatchable mess.

ITHEATER CINEMA 3D MOVIE

Since each movie used two separate filmstrips, a screening required two projectors and a very gifted projectionist. There were probably several reasons for this, but one was that 3D films were just expensive and difficult to screen. Unfortunately, Kate and especially Murder proved to be the death knell for the short-lived fad, as theater owners began begging the studios for permission to exhibit those films in 2D. Nor was the output all horror and suspense several Three Stooges comedies were released in 3D, and MGM filmed their big-budget musical Kiss Me Kate in 3D as well. While the craze did feature its fair share of schlock (notably Robot Monster, which features a monster that is definitely not a robot), it also produced some genuine classics, including The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Afred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder. (Anaglyphic technology exists, but it’s mainly used for media that can’t support polarization, like comic books and traditional television.)Īnother common myth about 1950s 3D is that it was used exclusively for exploitative garbage, like no-budget horror movies. This, in turn, tricks the viewer’s brain into seeing depth. There’s a popular myth that the 3D films of the fifties were “anaglpyhic” -i.e., that they used the colorization that required those now-iconic red-and-blue glasses to create the 3D effect-but in fact, 3D cinema has always relied overwhelmingly on the same “polarized” technology that modern 3D films use: dual images are projected at slightly different angles onto a screen that reflects them in slightly different directions, and each of the glasses’ lenses catches only one image. (Three, if you’re Einstein.) What a rip-off.Īttempts at stereoscopic photography date back to even before the American Civil War, but stereoscopic cinema wouldn’t be attempted on a large commercial scale until the 1950s, with the release of the (otherwise forgettable) adventure film Bwana Devil. (Four, if you’re Einstein.) And y’know how many dimensions a movie has? Just two. The real world exists in three dimensions.

Making movies look more like real life has always, of course, been a problem. Some though, seem to come around every twenty or thirty years, like clockwork-maybe none more so than “3D” cinema. “The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.” Harrington looks at one of the random obsessions to have gripped the public mind in the recent past, and tries, in vain, to make sense of it all. Every other Wednesday in Fads!Crazes!Panics!, Luke T.

Itheater cinema 3d