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Are 3-D Movies Here To Stay This Time?

In case you haven’t noticed, digital 3-D movies have been slowly been gaining momentum over the last few years. Almost every top director and major studio are working in the 3-D format, with around a dozen movies ready to arrive this year alone.

And the format is not just limited to animated movies; Live-action films like comedies, dramas and documentaries are being produced for the big screen 3-D experience. But why the sudden resurgence of 3-D films? What makes them any different from previous attempts into the third dimension?

3-D motion pictures have been with us as early as the 1890’s, when British film pioneer William Friese-Greene began to experiment with the process. He discovered that when two films were projected side by side on screen, the viewer could look through a stereoscope to converge the two images, and the illusion of 3-D was achieved.

The golden era of 3-D really began in the 1950’s with the release of the first colour stereoscopic feature film, Bwana Devil. Although 3-D films were still being produced during the early 1960’s, the second wave of 3-D cinema was started using a new technology called Space-Vision 3D.

It was in the 1980’s that IMAX began producing non-fiction films in 3-D, and the first IMAX 3-D fiction film was the 45-minute Wings of Courage in 1995. But since the advent of digital cinema, the technology has finally reached a level that really benefits the third dimension.

Exhibitors have begun to regain interest in 3-D films again. The technology needed for creating 3-D films has now matured, and shooting in the format is less limited, and the result is more stable than with previous attempts.

One of the main changes to the 3-D viewing experience are the red-and-green glasses that have now been replaced by Aviator-style shades. The images are now produced digitally so that the image is crystal clear and produce no artefacts that were present in previous incarnations.

Theatres are now having to compete with the home cinema market, and are able to offer an experience that people can only have in the theatre. And the majority of piracy these days is due to someone taking a camera into a movie theatre, but with 3-D films, this is not possible.

What other 3-D films can we expect in the near future? James Cameron is currently shooting his live-action drama Avatar in 3-D. Pixar studios are releasing five 3-D movies this year, including a 3-D-ified version of Toy Story. George Lucas has hinted that he may re-release all the Star Wars movies in 3-D. And Steven Spielberg is currently shooting Tintin in the format, with Peter Jackson doing the 3-D sequel next year.

But with more than 30 3-D movies currently in production, including Pixar’s Up and Disney’s Tron 2.0, it looks as though the third dimension is here to stay for some time yet.

Are 3-D Movies Here To Stay This Time?

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