I haven't read too deeply into this, but I've seen a couple of signs lately that the movie industry might be looking to make money out of 3D (as in 3D glasses, and not specifically CGI). Disney's re-releasing the Toy Story films in 3D, Pixar is planning on releasing all it's films in 3D starting next year, and James Cameron has been doing some serious research into it for his closely-guarded upcoming blockbuster "Avatar". I wonder if this is something they're banking on to differentiate the big-screen experience from the DVD market. A return to the days when a trip to the cinema was a big event.
Not that home entertainment necessarily has to miss out, there's also the question of whether the videogame industry might be quick to make a similar move. Apparently BoomBlox (the upcoming EA / Steven Speilberg collaboration for the Wii) is to feature a head-tracking 3D mode as an easter egg. See Johnny Lee's presentation at TED for a recent demo of this technique.
2 comments
I saw BeoWulf in 3D at the IMAX in Dubai and it was pretty impressive, even tho I wasn't too interested in seeing the film in the first place. I'd be up for seeing more films in 3D.
Sort of backing up your point, I did only go as it was in 3D and I've not seen anything else at the cinema in the past 18 months as far as I can remember.
Posted by Ben Walton on 14 Apr 2008 at 09:11 PM
Yeah, I meant to mention IMAX. Seems like film people have been angling for some way to re-invigorate cinemas for a while with stuff like IMAX and the move from film reels to digital projection, HD, etc. Looks to me like this talk of 3D is the next in that lineage.
I'm not sure if I've ever seen a film in 3D, at the cinema or anywhere else so I'd probably be curious to see what it was like too. Not sure it could sustain past the novelty value though? And it'd seem like it's only really applicable to certain types of films, though having said that I'm struggling to think of many that it wouldn't work with.
Posted by Matt Tarbit on 15 Apr 2008 at 09:30 AM