Slashdot Mirror
Has 3D Film-Making Had Its Day?
dryriver sends this hopeful note from the BBC:
"'It's three years since audiences around the world swarmed into cinemas to see James Cameron's Avatar. It rapidly became the biggest grossing film of all time, in part because of its ground-breaking digital 3D technology. But, in retrospect, Avatar now seems the high-point of 3D movie-making, with little since 2009 to challenge its achievement. Three years on, has the appeal of 3D gone flat? Nic Knowland has been a respected director of photography in Britain for 30 years. He's seen cinema trends and fads come and go, but never one for which he's had so little enthusiasm as 3D. 'From the cinematographer's perspective it may offer production value and scale to certain kinds of film. But for many movies it offers only distraction and some fairly uncomfortable viewing experiences for the audience. I haven't yet encountered a director of photography who's genuinely enthusiastic about it.'"
Now that's the grain of truth at the heart of every comment about 3D. If it's not a hologram it's not good enough. Since the 1950s there has been 3D after 3D after 3D but all anyone wants is the hologram of Princess Leia from the movie.
I said - don't look Ethel!..., but it was too late..., she'd already looked.
You kinda had it then missed the mark. Its not popular because not only does it not look good it rarely enhances the story and instead what you get is "Dr Tongue's 3D House Of Pancakes". Man I wish Candy were alive, he'd have had a field day with this.
But the dirty little secret that they are ignoring or downplaying, which is also why the 3D TVs aren't selling worth a shit, is a LARGE section of the population gets blinding headaches from the crap! I have 4 customers that have bought 3D TVs so far, how many actually use the 3D? NONE, none of them show 3D content on their 3D TV, why? Because at least one person in their family gets a blinding headache from watching 3D which ruins the entire point of having a home theater, the family gathering around and enjoying it together.
In my little shop I get people from all walks of life and all ages and when Avatar and all the 3D hype started i start asking folks about what they thought of it and I found the headaches are a BIG problem, in fact I hadn't met anybody yet who didn't complain about it giving at least one person in their family a sick headache. In my own family while I can watch it okay, although I do feel kinda fatigued afterward, both of my parents and my oldest simply can't watch anything 3D, more than an hour and they are walking out the theater with a blinding skull thumper.
So you have a product that 1.-Costs more, 2.-Rarely enhances the story, 3.-Often is only used for cheap effects, 4.-Gives a large portion of the population a negative experience when using it, and they wonder why its bombing? Maybe when they come up with holograms or at least 3D without glasses then i could see it maybe taking off, but this current tech sucks just as bad as the tech used back in the 50s, it just sucks in a different way. I know myself and several friends have gone out to see a movie and ended up changing our minds because we couldn't find a theater showing it in 2D and from the sounds of it more folks are doing the same, its not worth the bullshit.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Government studies on stereoscopic viewing shows that viewing artificially created 3D can lead to a loss of depth perception. I built 2 different 3D CAVE/powerwall systems at the DOD. Engineers were limited to 5 hours per week which was considered the safe exposure rate. Viewing generated 3D can be used in some cases to treat strabismus, but normal eyes it's known to cause strabismus (more easily termed, permanent lazy eye).
Of course Hollywood would never tell you about such dangers since it would hurt their bottom line. Here is a link of note, which is important to note " 1 + 2 = if you use stereo 3D routinely and intensively, you will develop strabismus, period. Government studies showed that damage is not always from "routine" and "intensive" viewing. 8 hours a week had a very high rate of eye damage which is why we limited Engineers to 5 hours.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.