3-D Movies Turn 50 ... Sort Of

jonerik writes "The Associated Press has this article on the 50th anniversary of the release of 'Bwana Devil.' Released on November 26th, 1952, the film would be largely forgotten today if not for the fact that it's generally regarded as the first full-length 3-D movie, kicking off a burst of 3-D filmmaking which lasted into the mid-'50s and which still takes place today, particularly in the adult film industry and on the IMAX circuit where this year's 43-minute 'Space Station 3-D' has brought in about $33 million so far. 'Bwana Devil' utilized the Polaroid method, which used two lenses filming, and involved lightwaves passing in perpendicular planes to the other lens. However, considering that a long string of 3-D films were made as far back as 1922 using more primitive processes, the claim that 'Bwana Devil' was first can be regarded as open to question. Either way, Robert Stack, who starred in 'Bwana Devil,' is somewhat ambivalent about his small part in movie history, saying 'I'm not sure it was anything to be proud of. It's an honor like being the world's tallest midget.'"

Comments

Re:Space Station 3D was way cool

[brokenspoke]

I saw it at the IMAX in the Science Museum in London. "Awesome" is not the word.

The is a scene where the astronautes are having Christmas dinner. One of them is throwing M&Ms to the others. The chocs sail across and are caught in the mouth. Of course, there is someone working the camera too and it would be rude exclude them from the choccy treat! An M&M then comes sailing towards the camera (and you). I swear I saw a dozen people in the audience try to catch it in their mouths.

It's like I was really there!

[uglyMood]

In the late '70s I was assistant manager at the Tiffany Theatre on Sunset Strip, and we showed "Dial M for Murder" with the original two-projector setup for 3D, which hadn't been done since the 1950s and to my knowledge hasn't been done in a regular theater since.

Most Polaroid system 3D movies use a single film with both images in each frame, either one on top of the other or side by side. These images are distorted in order to squeeze them both onto one frame of film. The images are projected through a beam splitter and then sent through an anamorphic lens to get the correct aspect ratio and remove distortion. When viewed through the Polaroid glasses, which are dark like sunglasses, these films tend to appear very dim because the amount of light reaching each eye is less than half of the light from a normally-projected film. There is also a great loss of image detail because each frame is only one-half the size of a normal film frame, and sent through extra optics to boot. Coupled with the fact that theatres tend to project movies much dimmer than they should in a misguided attempt to stretch bulb life, modern 3D projection is pretty damned unsatisfactory.

The two-projector system, which is the way these movies were intended to be viewed, is frankly a bitch to set up, but wow, what a difference. There are two different prints of the film, one for each eye, and each shot from that eye's viewpoint. The films must be threaded into the two projectors, making sure that they both start on exactly the same frame. (This little requirement is the reason for all the "3D causes eyestrain and headaches" bad press 3D got in the 'fifties, by the way. Untrained and/or uncaring projectionists could ruin a 3D movie.) In order to ensure that the projectors remain in sync with each other, a steel rod actually connected the takeup reels with each other across the projection booth. Since each image receives the entire illumination from the projector lamp, after putting on the glasses the 3D film looks just as bright as any other film. There is no loss of image quality because each image is a full frame.

We also showed a 3D Hong-Kong martial-arts period piece called "Dynasty."

On a side note, the article linked to claims that the Soviets never had an operational glasses-less projection system. This is incorrect. A friend of mine saw a 3D movie without glasses in a theater in Moscow in the mid-eighties. It was a lenticular screen, and the theater itself was much narrower than usual to ensure the correct viewing angle.

Now, don't get me started on how morons in suits have ruined every attempt to do 3D on television.