3D TV is on its way to a satellite near you

[Mark Suszko]

We’ve had a 4DTV sat receiver for years now:-)(that’s a brand name though, and nothing to do with stereoscopic vision)

We just saw Avatar in 3-d yesterday, (you can read more of my review in the film section), it blew my mind and will forever change the course of film making, yes, but I will say I don’t really want or need to watch *everything* on TV in 3-D. Some of the more “spectacle” type films, heavy in special effects, or where the added dimension really adds to the story, ok. And some sports, I guess, but not all of them, all the time. It might become popular for porn, I suppose, then again, the expense of the technology may not fit the profit margins of that business.

I kind of reserve 3d for “appointment television”, the stuff that’s out of the ordinary and a true “occasion”. SOme movies I really WANT to see in a theater, Lord Of The Rings, Star Wars, Iron Man, Kurosawa’s RAN, stuff like that… but many others, particulalrly comedies, I am okay waiting to see on DVD on a small screen. I’m trying not to make myself sound like a Luddite, this is maybe not so much the same as not wanting to shift from B&W to color, for years during the transition we had the two available at the same time, and the color TV was nice, but the stories didn’t really depend on it. Same as a B&W movie doesn’t depend on color to be good, B&W even becomes a specialized genre’ like Noir. I suppose when more directors get the hang of incorporating the 3-d as a true story element, like Cameron did, it may catch on more. But if you use it just as a gimmick, “Bwana Devil”/”Doctor Tongue” style, it is not ever going to break into mass appeal, IMO.

But do I need to see “30 Rock” in 3-D to enjoy it, or would I enjoy it MORE in 3-D? I don’t think so.

Now, if I buy a disk of Avatar, I would always want to see that in 3-D, one reason being that is how Cameron envisioned it. Same as not wanting to see pan-and-scan versions of Cinemascope films on TV. But I don’t see the death of 2-d any time soon, not till they perfect affordable holographic TV sets without the need for glasses.

[Jason Jenkins]

[Ron Lindeboom] “But we all know that in the future, 3D will come from holographic projectors and that we won’t need glasses anymore.”

That’s what I’ve been imagining in my brain for a long time. I don’t know if I’ve seen anything with the Real-D system, but tonight I’m going to see Avatar, so we’ll see how it goes.

Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!

[Jason Jenkins]

[Mark Suszko] “But I don’t see the death of 2-d any time soon, not till they perfect affordable holographic TV sets without the need for glasses.”

I’ll second that!

Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!

[David Roth weiss]

[Ron Lindeboom] “I think that AVATAR is the best example of how to use 3D that has been done so far. “

I think there’s no doubt about it, the 3D motion tracking Cameron did sets it apart from anything done before. It’s literally perfectly executed.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Mark Nancetor]

[Mark Suszko] “I don’t really want or need to watch *everything* on TV in 3-D. It might become popular for porn, I suppose.”

That’s a scary thought, Mark. I don’t even want to go there.

Ron will probably turn off our accounts if we did. I hit the send button before I was done.

Mark Nancetor

[Maurice Jansen]

hi there

first i’m not conservative and really open for new things.
actually our company did a few stereo production several years ago.
imagine this 2 BTS LDK14’s and 2 BCN’s where used on our first production and succesfull. 😉

BUT do you want to see this all night long and can you use it for every genre/program.
I guess not.
feature films YES but what about sport.(where you have limited control of your DOF and framing). not even talking about news(i guess we don’t want so much reality some time’s).
what i mean to say is what makes a channel a good channel.
i guess it’s programming.
News, sports, entertainment & films on the right time.
only the last are suitable for stereo such a big investment in stereo for say 30% of your program’s is not economical.

stereo in the theater/cinema yes.
stereo at home whatching VOD or a Blu-ray (or what ever) yes.
broadcast channel no.

for broadcast i have a stronger feel for the HighVision project of NHK
filling the human field of view with the resolution / resolving power of the eye.

greet
Maurice

People saying they don’t make mistake’s often make nothing at all!

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Mark Nancetor] “Ron will probably turn off our accounts if we did.”

I would probably throw you onto moderation again (most I wouldn’t turn off completely) because we have teachers and professors from around the world — from the junior high level to universities and trade schools and art academies — that use Creative COW as a key part of their curriculum.

These instructors trust that we will provide the kind of site and content that they can build their curriculum around. We guard that trust like junkyard dogs.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

[Mark Suszko]

Yeah, we really don’t need to go there, though it is a fact that that industry has had a huge effect on what tech is adopted by the mainstream, (VHS over Betamax comes to mind) and has a history of pioneering the online interactive video technologies we now use and take for granted in the real world.

To pretend they and their market don’t exist, or that technology doesn’t migrate back and forth across that border, would be folly, though we’re certainly not trying to glorify or play them up them here. Let’s leave it at that.

To stay more on track though, it remains a fact that this is a significant investment in technology, and whatever your business is, there’s a cost/benefit curve you have to try to fit your operation and market to. If you jump into 3D for the wrong reasons and make wrong assumptions about the taste and pocketbooks of your audience, you could lose your shirt. (That’s a euphamism.)

But I could be wrong, I suppose. Some day likely everything will be 3-D, just as now most people here insist you should shoot everything in HD and that SD is dead or dying. Of course, they say betacam is dead too, and they don’t build new decks for it any more, but I still get dub orders for it almost every week:-)

I really think that 3D is just another tool in the artist’s arsenal. Orson Welles was sort of 3-D director, in the way he used deep-focus shooting to make the whole image more like what you would see in a stage play; then like the stage director he was, he would use various camera and lighting and editing tricks as well as actor movement and positioning, to direct your attention around this deep-focus scene in the way he wanted you to look at it.

Cameron does something like this in Avatar as well. But will all tv productions go to the trouble of hiring that great of a director? On regualr deadlines and budgets? Cameron took a decade or so developing this movie and its technology, it was his pet project of a lifetime, something he’d been thinking of since his teens. That level of effort makes it special, unique.

When you start applying the 3-d tool in more pedestrian ways, is it really going to make a dog food commercial that much better? Or Crazy Larry’s used landspeeders? Or Mokie-Coke sports drink? Or the evening news? Or the Tonight Show?

Somehow I doubt it. But the broadcast mix of 3d and 2d are going to fight for space ont he air, no question. I just don’t know who wins in that deal… even if we do.

[Mark Suszko]

I am reminded by this speculative discussion of a short book Harlan Ellison wrote under his pen name of Cordwainer Bird, called “The Starcrossed”. Would make a great little comedy movie today, someone should option it.

It was science fiction comedy, based not-so-loosely on his real experiences making a very ill-fated and badly-managed TV sci fi series called “The Starlost”. I remember watching it as a kid; it starred Kier Dullea from “2001”.

Long story short, his real-life experience on the show was Job- like, the biblical Job, I mean. The book transports his experiences to a future LA where 3-d TV technology is at about the same point where color TV was vs. black and white in the early 60’s. A network needs a breakout popular new “flagship” network show, designed from the beginning to be done as 3-d and make the most of the new medium, to drag audiences into wanting more 3D programming and buy 3D sets. The writer in the book comes up with an SF re-telling of Romeo and Juliet, but in space. The rest, well, you’re just going to have to find an old copy of the book and enjoy it.

In that future LA, California has given up trying to stop smog, and instead, just adds a perfume scent to it, so your daily traffic report also tells you what the weather will smell like on your drive home…. and tall skyscrapers are fitted with emergency rockets that launch them into the ocean if a big earthquake is about to hit.

I love Harlan…..

Do you remember an ABC mini-series about 3-D TV, starring Jim Belushi and Bebe Newurth, called “Wild Palms”? or did I just dream that one up?

[Eric Pautsch]

I think Hollywood needs to work on character development and a decent script before it moves ons. Avatar was the same story told countless times before. I think its sad that such a great film maker is now putting his efforts into a gimmick like 3D. The technical aspects are amazing but thats not why I go see a film.

Ground breaking?! For reals?! District 9…now that was a compelling story…effects and gimmicks should be secondary.

https://www.avatarsucks.com/