It has become part of the discussion on the future of cinema, and opinions are raging on the nature of the immersion versus the gimmick factor and now that technology has caught up with the visions of some of Hollywood’s biggest directors we are starting to see how 3D works for us as an audience.
Will the ‘Avatar effect’ summon forth a wave of 3D event films, blotting out the sun of smaller independent fare, or will the patchy 2D/3D post production process, as witnessed in Alice and soon to be seen in the forthcoming Clash of the Titans, prove a more realistic use of the technology?
This week we sat down with The Observer‘s acting arts editor Akin Ojumu to start the conversation on 3D movies and as part of their arts section The New Review. They have compiled a video of myself, Matt Bochenski from Little White Lies and Jonathan Cresswell from BritishGaming.co.uk to give our views of what the future holds.
The video is below, and we want your comments on what is discussed, particularly as Alice is out tomorrow – do you think 3D is here to stay?
I think that 3D is here for at least the foreseeable future. Right now it seems to be used mostly as a gimmick. Avatar aside, studios are now pushing back release dates so they can get the 3D treatment (i.e. Clash of the Titans). Whether this will be an advantage or a disadvantage has yet to be seen.
Studios were trying to market 3D before Avatar, but Avatar made the studios seem to think it's a tangible option for movies they currently have in development.
I can say for myself, that if given the option, chances are good that I will choose a 2D version over a 3D. Unless it was filmed specifically to be a 3D release. The last minute 3D treatment looks to me, to be a last ditch attempt to up the ticket sales.
P.S. Nice job Jon!!
I agree with a lot with what was mentioned here. I personally think that because of how well Avatar did at the box office filmmakers are now not looking to jump on the 3D bandwagon but instead cut back a try to find premises than will grip the audience on both an visceral and intellectual level. Yes 3D will be used to definitely enhance that idea but i hope that it won't be just used as a gimmick. Which sadly is so easy to do it kind of defeats the purpose of using 3D in the first place.
Great work Jon, i think you do a better job on camera than i do. 🙂
Tom
I think 3D is here to stay, it’s been around for ages and people seem to like, but as a bit of fun. It’s expensive to go and watch compared to normal cinema and in a lot of cases if you wear glasses or have any kind of eye trouble it just leaves you with a headache! I don’t think it’s necessary for many films to be done in 3D, I can only really see it being beneficial to action films and fantasy and probably anything by Tim Burton. I will probably be proved wrong now!
L