Making A Spectacle Of Themselves - Cinemas To Bring Back 3-d

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday July 20, 2007

Conrad Walters

LOOK OUT! 3-D movies are heading straight at you - again.

Long derided as hokey gimmicks, 3-D movies are being touted as a possible saviour of cinemas, which are increasingly under threat from home theatre systems.

Advances in digital production and projection systems could be enough to turn 3-D into something expected in every movie, Peter Symes, an international cinema engineer, said yesterday.

Mr Symes, who spoke at the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers conference that ends today, said the cost of special cameras and screens would keep the technology from most homes and could drive audiences back into cinemas.

Eight 3-D releases were scheduled for the next 18 months, including a re-release of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas later this year, he said.

DreamWorks Animation, the force behind Shrek, has announced all of its movies will be produced in 3-D by 2009, and the director of Titanic, James Cameron, plans a 3-D release of his next film, Avatar.

Dominic Case, the director of communications for Atlab Australia, the largest film-processing and post-production company in Australasia, said he believed 3-D had gone beyond gimmicks.

"I think most of the issues that were a problem in the 1950s have been resolved," he said.

Mr Symes said Australia had 16 cinemas fitted out with systems by Real D, the dominant player in the 3-D industry. He predicted the number would climb to more than 50 within 18 months.

Three-D has come a long way since its 1950s heyday. Gone are the red-and-blue glasses. Glasses use a circular polariser or shutters that alternate two images so each eye perceives a separate image.

Mr Symes said technology also permitted existing 2-D movies to be converted to 3-D.