I just seen Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D and it wasn't what I expected. It didn't have the pop off the screen moments or anything like that, but instead it separated the planes and gave the characters more dimension. The movie wasn't filmed for 3-d 15 years ago, so I give it the benefit of the doubt. There was a trailer before it for a movie with Brendan Frasier (I forget the title) that was advertised as the first full-length feature to be filmed in digital 3-d.
I can see the first few 3-d features being box-office draws, but I don't see it as being a dominate force in cinema. At least I hope not.
Hey, look over there: it's the future of cinema
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Precious Doll
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I don't like the sound of this at all.
From The Sydney Morning Herald, 31 May 2007
Hey, look over there: it's the future of cinema
The next wave for film is 3-D, but don't expect anything like those 1950s shockers, writes Garry Maddox.
"I HAVE seen the future of cinema," declares the DreamWorks Animation boss Jeffrey Katzenberg, "and it's right around the corner."
One of Hollywood's most powerful figures believes that in two years cinema will enter a new era in which mainstream movies will be screening in 3-D.
It will be a development that Katzenberg likens to colour taking over from black-and-white 70 years ago. "The first innovation that's come along since then that I think has the same opportunity to impact the experience is 3-D," he says.
Yes, the gimmicky format that spawned such trashy 1950s movies as It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon and Cat-Women of the Moon is going mainstream.
In the 1960s and 1970s, it was responsible for such racy fare as International Stewardesses, Chamber Maids and Prison Girls, but in recent years, 3-D has re-emerged in novel IMAX movies about dinosaurs and deep-sea diving, and such children's movies as Monster House, Chicken Little and Meet The Robinsons, which have also screened in conventional cinemas.
Katzenberg, who came to Sydney for the premiere of Shrek The Third, believes "a very significant proportion" of Hollywood movies, including all output from DreamWorks Animation, will be released in 3-D from 2009.
Viewers will pay a small extra charge to get a much more immersive experience that will reputedly put home cinema to shame and, to the great benefit of Hollywood studios, make it more difficult to pirate movies.
Katzenberg says this brave new world will begin about the time the director James Cameron delivers the science-fiction thriller Avatar, starring Sam Worthington, his first movie since Titanic.
"Our [northern] summer releases in 2009 will be in 3-D; Jim Cameron's got his 3-D movie; Disney's got two things that they're looking at; Paramount has got a movie they're looking at," he says. "You'll start to see a meaningful volume of high-end movies offered in 3-D, and theatres are starting to build to accommodate it."
The director George Lucas is planning 3-D versions of the Star Wars movies.
However, even the bullish Katzenberg recognises that this new experience has an image problem. "The problem with 3-D is that it has a history that is a bit sordid, so people think of it as this gimmicky, almost theme park-like experience with little glasses.
"What we'll be doing in the next couple of years is educating people to the fact that the technology exists today to author these films in a way that delivers a spectacular experience in terms of the images that we're able to create, and how immersive it is.
"A filmmaker can pull the audience into that world, heightening every aspect of the feelings that a storyteller is creating. It's just a much more vibrant film experience …
"3-D will make cinema-going very different to watching a movie on a big-screen TV with surround sound at home. That's what's very exciting about it, from an exhibition standpoint."
Katzenberg believes it won't be too long before cinema-goers own special glasses.
"You have a pair of sunglasses, you own golf clubs, you have a baseball glove, you have a tennis racquet. Whatever those things are that you do recreationally, you have equipment.
"You will own a pair of 3-D glasses and they will be cool and designed and unique."
The managing director of the Greater Union cinema chain, Ross Entwistle, shares Katzenberg's enthusiasm and says Australia is strongly involved in the push into this new era.
The chain has seven cinemas, including in Sydney's George Street, Campbelltown and Castle Hill, that have been screening 3-D versions of children's movies that screen conventionally elsewhere.
"We've seen very encouraging results from recent 3-D pictures including Monster House and more recently Meet the Robinsons," Entwistle says.
"We share Jeffrey's enthusiasm for what 3-D means for the theatrical experience. It's a natural evolution, a demonstrable difference from the home one."
Entwistle has no doubts that adults will take to the new experience. "Avatar promises to be a tipping point in terms of 3-D mainstream adult fare," he says.
So will we see a 3-D cinema in every multiplex?
"Quite possibly," Entwistle replies. "There will certainly be a greater number of digital installations when these pictures start to flow through. With a filmmaker of the calibre of Jim Cameron, and a project that promises to be his Star Wars, that's a fairly strong motivation for people to install equipment to accommodate it."
Entwistle thinks that even more immersive experiences that are popular in theme parks - heat, cold, wind, moving seats - still seem a little too gimmicky. "I don't foresee that 4-D experience … as being a particularly big part of it," he says, "but I guess we'll see."
From The Sydney Morning Herald, 31 May 2007
Hey, look over there: it's the future of cinema
The next wave for film is 3-D, but don't expect anything like those 1950s shockers, writes Garry Maddox.
"I HAVE seen the future of cinema," declares the DreamWorks Animation boss Jeffrey Katzenberg, "and it's right around the corner."
One of Hollywood's most powerful figures believes that in two years cinema will enter a new era in which mainstream movies will be screening in 3-D.
It will be a development that Katzenberg likens to colour taking over from black-and-white 70 years ago. "The first innovation that's come along since then that I think has the same opportunity to impact the experience is 3-D," he says.
Yes, the gimmicky format that spawned such trashy 1950s movies as It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon and Cat-Women of the Moon is going mainstream.
In the 1960s and 1970s, it was responsible for such racy fare as International Stewardesses, Chamber Maids and Prison Girls, but in recent years, 3-D has re-emerged in novel IMAX movies about dinosaurs and deep-sea diving, and such children's movies as Monster House, Chicken Little and Meet The Robinsons, which have also screened in conventional cinemas.
Katzenberg, who came to Sydney for the premiere of Shrek The Third, believes "a very significant proportion" of Hollywood movies, including all output from DreamWorks Animation, will be released in 3-D from 2009.
Viewers will pay a small extra charge to get a much more immersive experience that will reputedly put home cinema to shame and, to the great benefit of Hollywood studios, make it more difficult to pirate movies.
Katzenberg says this brave new world will begin about the time the director James Cameron delivers the science-fiction thriller Avatar, starring Sam Worthington, his first movie since Titanic.
"Our [northern] summer releases in 2009 will be in 3-D; Jim Cameron's got his 3-D movie; Disney's got two things that they're looking at; Paramount has got a movie they're looking at," he says. "You'll start to see a meaningful volume of high-end movies offered in 3-D, and theatres are starting to build to accommodate it."
The director George Lucas is planning 3-D versions of the Star Wars movies.
However, even the bullish Katzenberg recognises that this new experience has an image problem. "The problem with 3-D is that it has a history that is a bit sordid, so people think of it as this gimmicky, almost theme park-like experience with little glasses.
"What we'll be doing in the next couple of years is educating people to the fact that the technology exists today to author these films in a way that delivers a spectacular experience in terms of the images that we're able to create, and how immersive it is.
"A filmmaker can pull the audience into that world, heightening every aspect of the feelings that a storyteller is creating. It's just a much more vibrant film experience …
"3-D will make cinema-going very different to watching a movie on a big-screen TV with surround sound at home. That's what's very exciting about it, from an exhibition standpoint."
Katzenberg believes it won't be too long before cinema-goers own special glasses.
"You have a pair of sunglasses, you own golf clubs, you have a baseball glove, you have a tennis racquet. Whatever those things are that you do recreationally, you have equipment.
"You will own a pair of 3-D glasses and they will be cool and designed and unique."
The managing director of the Greater Union cinema chain, Ross Entwistle, shares Katzenberg's enthusiasm and says Australia is strongly involved in the push into this new era.
The chain has seven cinemas, including in Sydney's George Street, Campbelltown and Castle Hill, that have been screening 3-D versions of children's movies that screen conventionally elsewhere.
"We've seen very encouraging results from recent 3-D pictures including Monster House and more recently Meet the Robinsons," Entwistle says.
"We share Jeffrey's enthusiasm for what 3-D means for the theatrical experience. It's a natural evolution, a demonstrable difference from the home one."
Entwistle has no doubts that adults will take to the new experience. "Avatar promises to be a tipping point in terms of 3-D mainstream adult fare," he says.
So will we see a 3-D cinema in every multiplex?
"Quite possibly," Entwistle replies. "There will certainly be a greater number of digital installations when these pictures start to flow through. With a filmmaker of the calibre of Jim Cameron, and a project that promises to be his Star Wars, that's a fairly strong motivation for people to install equipment to accommodate it."
Entwistle thinks that even more immersive experiences that are popular in theme parks - heat, cold, wind, moving seats - still seem a little too gimmicky. "I don't foresee that 4-D experience … as being a particularly big part of it," he says, "but I guess we'll see."
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)