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Stereoscopic 3D: The Next Big Thing  
By Mark Horton 

A personal blog from LA

One of the great things about our industry is that it never sits still, so it never gets boring. Just when it seems everything is settling down and getting predictable, along comes something remarkable & new.

Last month I was lucky enough to be at Vince Pace?s facility in LA. Apologies for the clichés but try ?landmark? or ?ground breaking? and you haven?t quite captured it.
 
Pace are helping lead a coming revolution in 3D Stereo that I think will have a really big impact on film and broadcast , as we move further into this new century.

For most people (myself included up until last month) 3D digital stereo isn?t yet a ?hot button? ? trust me, it will be sometime sooner or later for most of us. So, these are just some personal thoughts on the subject and I?d love to hear from anyone involved in Stereo 3D ? and please feel free to correct me on anything!

A Bit of History
There?s quite a debate about how 3D got started. Some say the first test films were shown around 1915 and the first feature length screening ?The Power of Love? around 1922.

Personally when I think of 3D I think of the ?creature features? of the fifties. The so called ?Golden Age? of 3D movies ran from around 1952 to 1955. At that time, the Studios were under attack from TV and were looking for the ?next big thing? to lure audiences back to the theatre.

However people involved at the time tell me that film based 3D movies suffered from three main problems:

• They were very complex to shoot, (you had no idea what 3D shots would look like until a day or more later) which explains how inconsistent and poor much of the photography was and how some 3D effects are uncomfortable to watch.
• They were very slow and difficult to post produce. Traditional optical and chemical effects are cumbersome enough even with a conventional 2D movie. They are a nightmare in 3D as you have no idea what the effect looks like until it has been printed.
• They were very tricky to project. Keeping two projectors in harmony was very difficult so screenings were inconsistent ? plus traditional 3D cardboard glasses were uncomfortable to wear and also gave some audience members a headache!

Overall 3D cinema wasn?t a really commercial product.

It seems from the 1960s onwards the film 3D market settled into specialist areas like IMAX with the odd high profile side project to a big movie (Amityville 3D, Jaws 3D, Terminator 2) often linked to theme parks and museums.   

Things started to change a few years ago. As someone involved in conventional Digital Post, it makes sense to me that 3D Stereo Digital Post is more agile and less error prone than optical and chemical methods. So the growth in Digital Effects and later in DI potentially makes stereo 3D post quite a bit easier. 

Another new tool is stereo digital acquisition, especially HD. Unlike shooting film, a cameraman or director can view HD on location while it is being shot. Also unlike film, HD doesn?t suffer from weave or hop and doesn?t need to go through a chemical development process which can lead to differences between the ?eyes?. One of the pioneers of this process was Vince Pace who worked closely with directors like James Cameron.

Finally, digital projection is eminently suited to 3D. Unlike optical projectors, there are no issues with film movement, scratches or dirt. There are now various different digital projection choices that can handle conventional 2D films as well. 

These three steps forward ? digital post, digital capture and now digital projection, have removed a lot of the complexities and costs of film.

Stereo 3D now
No one quite knows exactly how many 3D projects are in post at the moment but the word on the street is that it is growing and growing fast.

Quantel Post customers have already played a part in digital 3D. For example, in Ghosts of the Abyss, Aliens of the Deep (James Cameron) Spy Kids 3D and Shark Boy and Lava Girl (Robert Rodriguez).


The real explosion is coming. DreamWorks have recently announced all their animated movies will be 3D from 2009 (The Times June 28th). Interestingly, 3D movies can?t be shown on conventional VHS, DVD or Web which is a new angle on anti-piracy. 

Watching modern stereo 3D is a quite different experience from the past. The 3D I saw in the past was with cardboard glasses with coloured lenses. The glasses I wore in the LA sessions were a bit like wearing Polarised ?sunglasses? and quite comfortable.

3D TV
At Quantel we work with Post and Broadcast customers. Some Broadcasters today are a little bit in the same position as Filmmakers in the 1950s ? they want to tempt audiences to themselves in favour of a new media. Today?s new media is the Web and Games. High Definition is part of the answer ? compare watching a big sporting or music event on the web or your phone and then on HD with 5.1 sound and there is no doubt that Broadcasters have a powerful new tool for attracting audiences ? but just supposing that tool could be made even more compelling.

Sitting writing these words, I simply can?t give you a sense of how amazing Stereo 3D sport and music is ? but I?ve seen it with my own eyes and it is literally sensational. Maybe you can if you are my age ? just ? remember the first time you saw colour TV compared to Black and White. The difference is that big. No point in saying more ? just wait until you see it.

So, the real long term business may be in Broadcast. Early 3D domestic sets are coming. Expect most the major electronics vendors to make a move some time soon ? the long term business opportunities are obvious. Meanwhile the NBA have already conducted a stunning ?narrowcast? experiment of relaying basketball from one stadium to another which shows huge potential for 3D events (sports and shows).

Post Production in 3D
So, is making a 3D project now easy? Speaking to folks doing it right now the answer is ?no?. I was told that there are still many issues in Post. Customers have all the day to day issues of conventional 2D projects multiplied by at least two:

• 3D projects mean double the recorded material ? that means double the disc space, double the rendering overhead and double the issues with moving media.
• There are issues in off-line. You can?t judge depth effects, you can?t judge the pace of the project (3D feels better with longer, slower shots), you can?t easily see if there are colorimetry, positioning or synchronisation issues between the cameras etc. That all means off lines are guesswork and much more fixing needs to be done in the online sessions. That can mean using a team of VFX, Colour and Editing applications to fix the problems in the edit or during DI ? but that is complex and slow ? guesswork again.
• You can?t accurately on-line projects. Customers tell us that the systems they are using now either work ?one eye at a time? (lots of opportunities for errors) or use proxy/rendering workflows (lots of time waiting for renders and opportunities for technical errors). Either way, 3D post is still really difficult.

So, seems like someone should do something to help make Stereo 3D post easier. But that as they say is another story.

See you at IBC?

Mark Horton
July 2007    

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Mark is the Strategic Marketing Manager for Quantel and is currently involved in the roll out of new Stereoscopic Quantel systems

You can find more at  www.QUANTEL.com