The History of 3-D Film Making

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3-D film making, a movie art form that gives the viewers realistic sense of a films actual depth perception, traces its earliest roots to the 3-D movie process patent filed by William Friese- Greene of Great Britain. Using 2 film projectors to project side by side images on screen, a stereoscope was used to merge the images fir the viewing public.

But due to the difficulty in using the said technology, film makers shied away from this format and it was not heard from again until June 10, 1915 when Edwin S. Porter and William E. Waddell presented an anaglyph film to audiences at the Astor Theater in New York. These test reels included rural scenes, an excerpt of John Mason in Jim The Penman, and a clip of Niagara Falls. Although the reels created a buzz, the cost of filming on the format kept the movie producers at bay.

By the 1950’s Hollywood decided to take a chance on the 3-D format. Known then as the anaglyph image, these films were viewed using glasses with red/green and red/blue lenses that were designed to give off depth perception while screening the movie. According to the History of 3-D Film Making from Wikipedia.org, the effect was achieved by using 2 images which were then:

superimposed in an additive light setting through two filters, one red and one cyan. In a subtractive light setting, the two images are printed in the same complementary colors on white paper. Glasses with colored filters in each eye separate the appropriate images by canceling the filter color out and rendering the complementary color black. (Wikipedia.org)

Unfortunately, there was still no viable way of bringing down the cost of 3-D film making during that time, so, they had to pull back on mass producing such films.

The tide seemed to turn in terms of 3-D film making on November 26th, 1952, when the first commercially succesful film of its kind was released. Bwana Devil was released by Paramount theatres in Hollywood and Los Angeles, with the public enjoying the immersion rich story based upon true events that happened in 1898 at the Tsavo River crossing in Kenya while the railways were being built.

The mad scramble among the titans of Hollywood film making was on, with each production studio trying to out to the other in terms of the 3-D spectacle being presented. Each producer also hoping to finally set the industry standard for 3-D film making since each studio was struggling to control the stability of the projected films, which was causing a massive headache among the movie goers after or during viewings.

But just like all innovative products in the market, if it gets too expensive to produce, production will cease. When it became too expensive for the exhibitors to rent the 2 prints necessary to produce the special viewing effect, the format began to lose ground.

The distributors wanted more money for their films, but the exhibitors could not pass on the cost to the viewers at the time. the movie going public was not just about to pay twice the amount for a movie, specially since, after the novelty of the special spectacles wore off, people decided they would rather see a movie in wide-screen anyway. So by the 1960’s, the 3-D format was considered to be all but dead. With 3-D movies being shot in anaglyph format few and far between.

There were also some health concerns that later on had to be considered by the movie producers wanting to use the format. Such were the negative effects on the eyes of the viewing public that health professionals all voiced concerns and still continue to voice their concerns regarding the effects of the movie format on the eyes of the viewers. In fact, some health professionals still advise avoiding watching films in 3-D if possible due to the still undetermined health hazards it may be posing.

Towards the latter part of the 60’s movie producers tried to go back to the 3-D format with the advent of Space-Vision 3-D and Stereovision in 1970, with the 1970’s versions showing more inventiveness and a specialization in the horror film field. This trend carried through to the 1980’s with classic films such as Jaws 3-d, Amityville 3-D, Firday the 13th part 3 all filling cinemas to capacity with everyone wearing the famed 3-D glasses in order to “get into the movie”.

By the mid 1980’s, the Canadian film company IMAX began producing the newest generation of 3-D films called 3-D IMAX. This particular version of the technology set the standard for the image projection. The company was able to minimize eye fatigue by using a larger viewing screen thus making the viewing experience more enjoyable for the viewers.

The excitement over the 3-D IMAX films, which were shot specifically for special IMAX 70mm film projectors, accompanied by the advent of computer generated imagery, digital film cameras, digital video capture, and specialized 3-D cinemas literally broke barriers and opened the door for 3-D films to finally become competitive and cheap enough for Hollywood studios to consider making more films in the said format.

The sudden re-emergence of the 3-D format in film also has to do with the fact that we now have a new generation of movie going public. All of whom have been weaned on computer graphic images and consider technology part of their everyday life. 3-D films to them, are just another part of a technology that they enjoy, and will pay big money to do so.

Judging from the release of at least 3 3-D films a month this year, it seems that the 3-D format is here to stay and finally take its place in film making history. Movie producers have finally discovered a way to shoot films in 2-D format and then successfully converting it to 3-D format in post production. Some of these films, which are post converted to 3-D format include the upcoming final chapter of the harry Potter movie series, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and the Star Wars film series.

References

Hayes, John. You See “Them With Glasses!… A Short History of 3D Movies”. Wide Screen Movie Magazine. 2002. Web.

“3D Film”. Wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, n.d. Web.

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The History of 3-D Film Making

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