3D Meet Bob Furmanek: HTF Golden Age 3-D Consultant (4 Viewers)

[StephenDH]

If not "The Stewardesses", how about Pete Walker's "The 4 Dimensions of Greta" or Walter Boos' "Love in 3D"?

 

[Ejanss]

Bob, have you heard any rumors about this possibility?

"Put the mask on, NOW!"

I dimly recall it from TV (didn't stay to watch it, but looking back, I should have), but "Put the mask on NOW" just keeps recalling those partial-3D "Put your safety glasses on now" gimmicks from Freddy's Dead and Sharkboy & Lava Girl, back when studios were too chicken to make a whole film--How were those partial-3D movies (or just the latter) handled on Blu?

(And yes, i'm oddly curious about The Stewardesses, too. Ahem, for historical value, you know.)

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Freddy's Dead is only available in anaglyph. Spy Kids 3D and Sharkboy and Lavagirl are full BD 3D releases [and only available in a 2-pack from Lionsgate], but with the instructions to put glasses on for the relevant parts. Similarly. schlock film The Flesh and Blood Show will show its final segment in 3D when the appropriate equipment is there, but plays in 2D otherwise. I'm probably gonna pick up the Spy Kids/Sharkboy & Lavagirl release and will let you know if there's any sort of blank screen gaps when switching from AVC to MVC, but I doubt there are.

 

[bob kaplan]

THE MASK was released on LD in anaglyph form. It was 4x3; but perhaps it was shot this way. Fun I thought. Eventually transfere it to DVD but the quality of the 3D suffers. Would very much like to see it done correctly!

 

[Todd J Moore]

[color=rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial;font-size:16px;]Now Todd, you know the Archive could not do anything with DOMO ARIGATO unless it at least had a chance to work on your other two 3-D favorites: THE NEBRASKAN and THE STEWARDESSES.[/color].

I triple dog dare you to release THE NEBRASKAN on 3D Blu Ray along with ARENA.



And you all thought I gave up on the idea of seeing ARENA in 3D, didn't you? Muwahahahaha!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm probably gonna pick up the Spy Kids/Sharkboy & Lavagirl release and will let you know if there's any sort of blank screen gaps when switching from AVC to MVC, but I doubt there are.

I'll just come out and admit that I have it - and at least on Spy Kids 3 (haven't watched Sharkboy yet), I can't recall any sort of blank screen gap. I don't recall having any issue with the technical quality of the disc.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Good to hear.

 

[fxrh]

I'll just come out and admit that I have it - and at least on Spy Kids 3 (haven't watched Sharkboy yet), I can't recall any sort of blank screen gap. I don't recall having any issue with the technical quality of the disc.

There is no gap between the 2D and 3D scenes, but there are some problems with SPY KIDS 3. A handful of shots have the polarity reversed, mainly toward the climax. I especially remember one where Ricardo Montalban is talking to Sylvester Stallone where the background clearly appears in front of Montalban. However, it should be mentioned that the vast majority of the scenes in both features are not merely technically correct; they are very well done. These movies, especially SPY KIDS 3, are a major treat for those who are fans of 3D pop-outs. The car race scene is especially good. For folks who don't want to sit through an entire 3D feature, SPY KIDS 3 is my demo disc.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

For folks who don't want to sit through an entire 3D feature, SPY KIDS 3 is my demo disc.

Have you watched Sharkboy and Lavagirl? How does that compare to Spy Kids 3? I haven't made it to that disc yet...

 

[GregK]

IIRC, for the SPY KIDS 3-D bluray, the entire feature in encoded as MVC, so there is no shifts when going from the 2-D segments to the 3-D segments.

The feature was good for its time and still has aggressive parallax which translates into deep 3-D and effective pop out negative parallax moments as well. With that said, CGI 3-D was still far from having a refined workflow process at that time period, which resulted in a few scenes having inverted elements and occasionally having actors appearing to somewhat "float" in their given CGI environments. These moments are thankfully brief and overall is still an enjoyable 3-D watch.

 

[bgart13]

Bob - Last weekend I learned about the Pulfrich Effect. Any thoughts/facts/etc. about this? I was really surprised at how well it worked in this video I watched.

 

[fxrh]

Have you watched Sharkboy and Lavagirl? How does that compare to Spy Kids 3? I haven't made it to that disc yet...

The 3D is on a par with SPY KIDS 3, but there aren't as many pop-out effects, and the film itself is a bit of a chore to get through.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The 3D is on a par with SPY KIDS 3, but there aren't as many pop-out effects, and the film itself is a bit of a chore to get through.

Thanks, that's kind of what I figured - it's not an accident that I haven't gotten around to it yet!

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Bob - Last weekend I learned about the Pulfrich Effect. Any thoughts/facts/etc. about this? I was really surprised at how well it worked in this video I watched.

Not really. I know they tried it on at least one feature film, I MONSTER with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. I haven't seen it but a friend did and said that some shots worked very well so long as the camera and actors were moving.

 

[StephenDH]

Bob - Last weekend I learned about the Pulfrich Effect. Any thoughts/facts/etc. about this? I was really surprised at how well it worked in this video I watched.

The BBC used it some years ago for their Dr. Who special "Dimensions in Time". I recall that it was OK but it's basically the poor man's 3D.

 

[Todd J Moore]

The Pulfrich Effect was used a couple of times in the late 80s/early 90s. It's first use was the 1989 Super Bowl Halftime Show. It was also used for a couple of music videos (Gloria Estefan did one), a few cartoons, the previously mentioned Doctor Who special, a Power Rangers video, an episode of Married With Children and the TV movie Revenge of the Nerds IV. The problem is, it needed to be shot in a very specific manner. There had to be continuous movement left to right and right to left. The Married With Children episode and the Power Rangers video both tried it by just shooting it in a standard manner and what you were left with was viewing a flat program and wearing 3D glasses. The music videos looked the best.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Don't forget 3rd Rock From the Sun's 3D episode, which made excellent use of Pulfrich 3D, and various programmes in Discovery Channel's Shark Week around the same time. The underwater stuff was fantastic.

 

[davidmatychuk]

It's far from Golden Age (unless you're entering puberty), but "Predator 3D" won't play on my Sony laptop, which plays every other 3D Blu-Ray I've tried. A Fox message pops up saying I need an update. The non-3D version on the same disc (horribly grain-scrubbed like the 2nd "Predator" Blu-Ray - I checked on my main system) won't play either. Anybody else have a problem with this title?

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

It's far from Golden Age (unless you're entering puberty), but "Predator 3D" won't play on my Sony laptop, which plays every other 3D Blu-Ray I've tried. A Fox message pops up saying I need an update. The non-3D version on the same disc (horribly grain-scrubbed like the 2nd "Predator" Blu-Ray - I checked on my main system) won't play either. Anybody else have a problem with this title?

No problem playing Predator 3D on either of my Sony F3D laptops using Power DVD13. Was tired of never getting current updates with WinDVD that came with the units initially. My models are the VPC F2190X and VPC F2390X.

 

[SAM33]

I asked Bob about REVENGE OF THE CREATURE a year back, and here was his reply then:

"REVENGE has quite a few shots with minor vertical alignment issues; some reverse 3-D and quite a few shots in the underwater tank that are flat. There are also some flat opticals as well, including a long tracking shot into the pier nightclub. The alignment issues are all fixable now. The convergence is never so far off that it doesn't work. It sounds like that transfer is a mess! To the best of my knowledge, they never made 16mm or 8mm versions, just an anaglyph video master for TV use in the 1980's."

I re-watched my anaglyph copy l have again last night. I assume it's made from the 1980's TV master. If I really play with my controls I can get a passable effect on my projector. Most of this version is indeed in real 3D and as Bob says, there are obvious flat scenes. But there are occasional shots, as well as the final 5 minutes or so that are just crazy mis-aligned and so separated that they make no sense.

This is of course a huge favorite of mine and I watch it every spring. I do hope it may yet get a real version of this and IT CAME, but it really does look like REVENGE would take some major restoration work to make a decent 3D version at this point.