3-D and Its Future

3-D is a format that since it's reintroduction at the hands of Avatar, the release of which forced more theaters to install more 3-D projectors, has been the subject of constant debates between filmmakers and audience members. On the filmmakers side we have the spearhead of the 3-D movement, James Cameron, who directed Avatar and recently re-released his last movie, Titanic, into theaters in 3-D. Also, there is the legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who just last year released his first 3-D movie, Hugo, too much critical acclaim. Scorsese threw people for a loop when he declared last year that he believed he may use 3-D for all his future films. People and certain other filmmakers, it seemed, were tired of the format already.

Why would audience members be tired already though after such a format was just reintroduced? Firstly, since Avatar's release audience members have been complaining about the glasses that you must wear in order to see the film in 3-D and the headaches and wear on the eyes caused by viewing the movie. Even worse, for any audience member with glasses they must put the 3-D glasses over their own pair in order to view the film as intended. 

Adding to the audience frustration, most 3-D movies that audiences actually see are not actually true 3-D. The movies are actually filmed in 2-D and then converted in post-production. This has been shown to be a bad situation on more than one occasion. Many critics have complained about various 3-D converted films being far too dark and murky. While this can be fixed more often than not, it is especially hard when new movies are struggling to be ready on time for their set release date. The rush due to timing issues has led to some bad 3-D releases such as Clash of the Titans and The Last Airbender. Movies like the 3-D version of Titanic and other re-releases however, have plenty of time to work on their conversion as they have and thus you get an incredibly clean 3-D experience. 

Along with audience members voicing their disproval of 3-D, filmmakers have taken up different arguments against the format as well. The most notorious of these cases is Christopher Nolan, the director of The Dark Knight and Inception, who is completely against the 3-D format and digital cinema in general, which is what 3-D is shot in these days. 

Nolan is famous among the filmmaking community for championing a kind of alternative to 3-D with IMAX film cameras. The director shot a few of the chase sequences in The Dark Knight on IMAX cameras and people were reportedly blown away when seeing it on the massive IMAX screens. He has also reportedly shot forty to fifty minutes worth of IMAX footage for this summer's end of his Batman trilogy The Dark Knight Rises.

For filmmakers there are disadvantages for both 3-D and IMAX cameras. 3-D cameras are massive and are actually made up of two cameras that are right next to each other. The overlaying of these two images creates 3-D. The bulkiness of these cameras makes it tough for filmmakers to get certain shots and also makes handheld work practically impossible, though advancements are being made in order to make the cameras lighter and easier to move around. 

IMAX cameras faults are that they are incredibly noisy and make it impossible to record sound. This means all sound must be added later on in production. This is a hindrance and only leads to costing more money and issues for the film. Like 3-D cameras IMAX cameras are also insanely bulky and hard to move around. Whereas 3-D cameras are being made smaller, IMAX cameras don't seem to have that luxury. They shoot on a massive roll of film and cannot really be made to be incredibly small due to the size of the things that must be a part of the camera.

This is not to say that the future looks bad for 3-D. Technology is moving quickly and is attempting to be able to do away with the annoying glasses. Filmmaker Peter Jackson has also gone and taken an interesting step in his filming of the two Hobbit films, which are filming in 3-D, by boosting the Frames Per Second (FPS) of the film up from 24 to 48. Every film (when it is moving at normal speed) is shot in 24 FPS. Jackson claims that by bumping the FPS up to 48 he and his crew have felt none of the headaches and the wear on the eyes that 3-D has caused previously and has made the experience more pleasurable. 

The use of 3-D in cinema will inevitably be a mainstay. While for now audience members may not be truly in love with the format, in due time when advancements are made that get rid of the glasses and Hollywood realizes that post-conversion is a dumb idea audiences will come to accept it. For now though there are enough people out there who enjoy the 3-D experience for it to stick around. And while IMAX is an interesting alternative it doesn't have the room to develop like 3-D can. Further against IMAX is that their theaters are extremely rare as opposed to most regular theaters which now have the ability to play 3-D due to Cameron's Avatar. So take this all as a warning. If you hate 3-D, you're going to have to get over it. Eventually one day you're going to end up at the movie theater and every movie you'll want to see will be in 3-D.