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MillimeterWhither 3D?
Oct 1, 2002 12:00 PM, Cynthia Wisehart, Editorial Director
I know what you're thinking. Bwana Devil. Spears flying off the screen into a bespectacled audience in bobby socks.
In its erratic history as the party trick of filmmaking, 3D has never earned anything approaching respectability (or bankability). But that's not the whole story. Starting in the 1980s, I've seen some amazing 3D movies in theme parks, world's fairs, and other non-cinema venues. In recent years, digital video has started to emerge as one option for these films, both on the production and presentation side. This, says Steve Schklair of Cobalt Entertainment, is why 3D is about to find it's moment in history. Other reasons: the eventuality of digital interactive television, and James Cameron (see page 55).
Schklair is not some nostalgic 3D buff, although he has been part of many, many special venue 3D films as a producer and 3D cinematographer for Landmark Entertainment, Warner Bros, and others. Rather, Schklair believes that digital technology will finally allow 3D to become viable business.
“In the past, 3D was based on celluloid technologies, which are cumbersome, difficult, and therefore very expensive,” Schklair says. “Today we have digital technology for 3D production, which enables us to shoot at a pace similar to shooting for 2D. That is critical to any business case, and creatively it returns control to the director. In the past, with a 100lb. camera, the grip department was dictating what shots were practical.”
Schklair himself recalls shooting just a few setups a day with bulky 3D cameras. Now, he says, digital video 3D rigs are light and portable and he envisions a time when all that separates 2D and 3D is a simple lens change.
Just as crucial, the practicalities of digital 3D now extend into postproduction and presentation, Schklair says. As a participant in early single-projector 3D experiments and demos with Christie and Stereographics, he's seen that the technology works. His company, Cobalt Entertainment, is also working with another company on an upconversion algorithm that will allow 24p-shot footage to be output for 65mm display (IMAX) and/or output for television or one of the small commercial theaters that will pop up across the country to show specialty 3D videos. What small commercial theaters?
Enter James Cameron. According to Schklair, Regal Theaters has publicly committed to build 100 to 200 small 3D theaters to screen Cameron's upcoming 3D film Secrets of the Abyss. This is important for a couple of reasons. First of all, in the past, 3D venues have either been museums or theme parks, with all of their attendant restrictions. Museums can't show certain types of content; theme parks show the same film for years. The Regal Theaters will immediately double the number of small commercial theaters able to show special digital material like 3D.
Beyond that, Schklair sees digital television, especially interactive digital television, as ideal for digital 3D content. He points to Discovery Channel and their backing of James Cameron's other 3D project, a documentary on the Bismarck, which will have a 2D airing on ordinary TV and a future as 3D TV. “As the technology becomes more democratic, documentary shooters will increasingly shoot both 2D and 3D on the same project.” That, he says, is the new futureproofing.
Schklair has bet the fortunes of Cobalt Entertainment on this vision, and the company currently pursues two simultaneous tactics — building a business and building a market. As a result, he's helping technology companies develop and publicize advancements in 3D technology and helping other production companies succeed with 3D content. Schklair believes that will ensure Cobalt's own opportunity to produce content that can air in 2D or 3D, in IMAX theaters, small commercial theaters, or on television.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.