|
Titanic Director Says, Cinema Should Wake Up To Possibilities of 3D
 A leading Hollywood director has called on studios, film-makers and distributors to wake up to the role that 3-D films can play in winning back audiences to the big screen. James Cameron, showered with Oscars for Titanic, is directing a science-fiction 3-D film for 20th Century Fox. He says 3D technology lets cinemas offer filmgoers something home entertainment cannot.
"I want to inspire people to come back to cinemas with an experience they can only have there," he said. "Theatre owners, exhibitors and distributors should work to bring a sense of showmanship back to the cinema experience. Cinemagoing won't go away, but it can get eroded. This is a wake-up call. Are we just going to lie down and let change roll over us, or do something about it?"
The unsurpassed clarity of the latest 3-D technology makes audiences feel that they are in the picture. Two reels of film going through the projector fool the brain into merging them and seeing them in 3-D. Audiences still have to wear special glasses, but today's advances mean eye strain and headaches associated with the green-and-red ones of past decades have been eliminated.
Cameron was speaking as Superman Returns, directed by Bryan Singer, has become the first live-action picture to have segments converted into 3-D. Next month, 2-D and 3-D versions are to be released next month. Twenty minutes of the film have been converted to 3-D. A visual cue, a green glasses symbol, is seen at the bottom of the screen to tell the audience when to put on the glasses.
 Dennis Laws, general and technical manager of the Imax cinema in London, was one of 450 delegates at a trade conference in Amsterdam given a preview. The London Imax will screen Superman Returns from July 14.
Laws said: "You felt you were there as part of the action. There are moments when you want to reach out and touch Superman as he whizzes past."
Richard Boyd, the head of technical services at the National Film Theatre, described 3-D cinema as "the future".
Cameron though, has called for films to be shot completely in 3-D.
"Superman was shot in 2-D, and then they dimensionalised part of it... I'm not a big fan of the dimensionalising process," Cameron said, "If you're making a film now, just shoot it in 3-D, not as an afterthought."
THE GREATEST INVENTIONS OF CINEMA......
- Sensurround Sound waves augmented screen action. Upset nearby multiscreen audiences
- Smell-O-Vision Machines wafted flower/herb scents at key film moments
- Interactive posters Made by US company with radar sensors to trigger film clips
- Open-air cinema Al fresco screenings in Britain on increase. This summer Stella Artois has first outdoor film festival in Greenwich Park
- Simulation cinema Hydraulic seats threw occupants around to screen action. Audience had to be strapped in
 |
Show/Hide comment form