Why settle for
when you can
1915- Jim the
Penman was the
first 3-D movie
ever played.
1954- Gorilla
at Large was
one of the
many 3-D
horror movies
released in the
1950’s.
1983- Jaws 3-D
hit theaters in
3-D to make
shark attacks
seem more
frightening than
in 2-D.
BY CODY MCGOWAN
ENTERTAINMENT
EDITOR
A new craze
is sweeping through
movie theatres across
the nation. Well, maybe
notnew,butsomethingeyecatching, to say the least.
Recently, Hollywood has
rediscovered a love for one of its
oldest gimmicks, the 3-D movie. Some
of the highest grossing movies of the past few
years have been presented in digital 3-D, and
there are no signs of it slowing down any time
soon.
Companies like RealD have redefined
what it means to make a movie in three
dimensions. Working with the big animation
studios like Disney and Dreamworks, movies
like Up, Coraline, Monsters vs. Aliens and Ice
Age 3-D: Dawn of the Dinosaurs are drawing
inbiggerandbiggercrowdstomovietheatres,
something that is sorely needed in the current
economic climate.
So why all of the fuss over binging back
3-D movies? Slumping ticket sales over the
How
The
New
3-D
Works
past
decadehave
caused movie makers to
seek out new ways to entertain the moviegoing public. Ticket sales in 2008 were down
4.5 percent from the previous year, according
to boxofficemojo.com.
Itsclearenoughwhythemovieindustry
is returning to 3-D, but it raises the question
of how? How do the images, particularly
those of the animated movies seem so life-like
when they pop off of the screen?
Takingadvantageofhumans’binocularvision (the fact that we have two eyes) digital
Two synchronized projectors,
one for each eye, produces two
images with opposite polarity
3-D offers two different polarizations for
your eyes to look at. Polarization is a way of
allowing only certain light waves to be seen.
That’s why you have to wear the 3-D glasses.
Each lens is polarized to a different
frequency, tricking your brain into
thinking that an image has depth.
This is very similar to
traditional 3-D movies, but instead
of offering a different color for each eye,
typically red and blue, digital 3-D does
Each image represents a
different set of light waves
that are projected together
The glasses allow the
viewer’s brain to comb
the two images into on
?
r two
n get
bine
ne
1991- Freddy’s Dead:
The Final Nightmare
in 3-D, Freddy Krueger
is confronted by his
daughter.
not distort the color of the movie.
The projector of digital 3-D movies
is more complex, too. The projector is also
polarized, and has a switch that allows the
image to change polarization. Each frame of
the movie is seen 2-3 times, providing each
eye with a chance to see the image.
All of this technology takes its toll on
ticket prices. The average movie-goer
can look forward to spending $5-10
more per ticket for the digital 3-D
experience. But that doesn’t seem to
slow sales down one bit.
Grossing nearly $300 million
The final image has perfect
colors and it tricks the brain
so it appears to be in 3-D
2005- Chicken
Little was one
of the first
movies in Real
3-D.
since its release,
Disney and Pixar’s “Up” has proven to be
one of the most recent digital 3-D success
stories. Released in late may of this year,
it has already become the fourth highest
grossing computer animated movie ever.
Though the idea of 3-D movies is
nothing new, the first 3-D movie, Jim the
Penman, premiered in 1915, great leaps in
technology have kept them alive for nearly
100 years. Digital 3-D is just the latest in a
long line of technological advances
that have reinvigorated, time
and again, the movie-
2010- Tim
Burton’s Alice
in Wonderland
is an upcoming
movie that will be
released in 3-D
watching experience.
In the 1950s, when 3-D movies were
in their hey-day, the invention of television
was keeping people out of theatres. Today,
the movie industry has to combat digital
cable, high-speed internet, a failing economy,
rising gas prices, and movie pirates (no, not
the Johnny Depp kind) to get people out of
their houses. Only time will tell if digital
3-D actually has any
effect on
audiences, or whether
its
just
another throw-away
gimmick.
What’s coming
up next in 3-D
Aug. 28 - The Final Destination
Sept. 18 - Cloudy with a Chance
of Meatballs
October - Toy Story (Remastered)
October - The Nightmare Before
Christmas (Re-release in 3-D)
November - A Christmas Carol
December - James Cameron’s Avatar
March 2010 - Alice in Wonderland
March 2010 - How to Train your
Dragon