3D Another doom and gloom prediction....3-D (1 Viewer)

[Ejanss]

I lived in South Jersey. We had cable, which in 1982 meant we got the Philly stations and the New York indie stations (5, 9, and 11). Channel 48 in Philly ran REVENGE OF THE CREATURE in May of 82. I remember watching it and not being exactly bowled over by it. But in July of 82, Channel 9 in New York ran GORILLA AT LARGE. I remember loving it. By the late 1980s, I had seen anaglyph broadcasts of those two, DYNASTY, THE MAD MAGICIAN, and THE MASK (with the Harry Blackstone, Jr. intros).

Never saw the Mad Magician, but I remember The Mask, and the between-commercial comedy interstitials for Dynasty. ("Does it have--?" "No, it does NOT have Joan Collins in it!")

So...Pete...any chance of the LaFayette showing ARENA, CATWOMEN OF THE MOON, DANGEROUS MISSION, and HANNAH LEE anytime?

Catwomen of the Moon? Was just wondering about that one--I remember Rhino's anaglyph VHS, where the 3D seemed to arbitrarily drift in and out of the scenes at will, and I didn't know whether that was the fault of the original film.. Bob, what's the current condition of that one? Just like Rhino sold it in a series with the anaglyph Robot Monster, one would think CWotM would be a perfectly good pop-retro substitute to sell on dsk.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

The 3-D is excellent on CAT WOMEN. The horrible anaglyph was created from sub-par elements. Wade Williams owns the film, has left/right materials and has zero interest in restoration or preservation.

 

[Doug Bull]

Just to show some forum members what a 3D Stereo-Vision film frame looks like, below are a few actual 35mm frames recently scanned from an existing print of Dial M for Murder. (These of course are different from the original 50s dual 35mm projection prints) I hope these frame scans are of interest to others. The only Anaglyph 3D Film I ever saw at the movies was a Pete Smith featurette called Audioscopiks. (aka. Metroscopix) And that was 60+ years ago. (am I that old already?) I was lucky enough to see most of the 50s 3D Movies that were screened in Australia at the time, we didn't get them all, but what we did get all used Polaroid glasses. I worked at United Artists in Australia when "Top Banana" was released here around 1955. I can still actually visualise the opening of the wooden crates as they arrived and the storing of the Film prints and merchandise into the vaults. Sadly there were no, none, nil, naught 3D Prints of "Top Banana" delivered. :-( I truly love 3D and I pray it's here to stay this time.

Doug.

 

[Todd J Moore]

Catwomen of the Moon? Was just wondering about that one--I remember Rhino's anaglyph VHS, where the 3D seemed to arbitrarily drift in and out of the scenes at will, and I didn't know whether that was the fault of the original film.. Bob, what's the current condition of that one? Just like Rhino sold it in a series with the anaglyph Robot Monster, one would think CWotM would be a perfectly good pop-retro substitute to sell on dsk.

I had both of those Rhino releases, and the Rhino release of THE MASK, which had a little bit more footage than the off-air broadcast version I recorded in 1986, and their late 90s releases of COMIN' AT YA!, THE BUBBLE, and DOMO ARIGATO. I dumped Cat Women, Comin' At Ya!, and The Bubble on ebay years ago. Michael Starks 3-D TV Corp. briefly released Cat Women on Field Sequential in the 1990s. I have it and can testify that the 3D is great, even if the movie isn't. Personally, I prefer Robot Monster over Cat Women, though a late friend of mine loved both. I never got the field sequentials of Comin' At Ya!, The Bubble, or Domo Arigato, though I considered the first two. Now, of course, I'll just get Bob's3D Blu of The Bubble when it comes out. Domo Arigato may well be the worst 3D movie I've ever seen. That or Run For Cover, and I'm leaning towards Domo. Run For Cover is an awful movie, but has some hilarious cameos in it. Domo Arigato is just plain boring. Had Oboler just done a 3D documentary on Japan with a proper narrator, it might have been good. But shoehorning in a love story between two ugly people who can't act really killed it. And the Rhino release did it no favors. It was the worst 3D of the late 90s trio. Which is a shame since by the late 90s, they got anaglyph 3D TV working a bit better than the 3D Video Presentations of the early 80s. And with a flat screen tv, anaglyph can work. Not as well as the current tech or field sequential, but it can work.

 

[SAM33]

The 3-D is excellent on CAT WOMEN. The horrible anaglyph was created from sub-par elements. Wade Williams owns the film, has left/right materials and has zero interest in restoration or preservation.

That sounds depressingly familiar...

 

[Stephen_J_H]

bob, all you had to say was Wade Williams and everything is crystal clear.

 

[Yorkshire]

I raised a mental eyebrow at the coincidence of these two news stories appearing so close together (13th & 14th June) at the BBC:

3D Sport Channel on ESPN to Close After Three Years

The Total Gross Generated by 3D Films in the UK Falls Again

The stats:

"The 18 per cent gross income generated by 3D in 2012 continues a slight decline, down from 20 per cent in 2011 and 24 per cent in 2010."

That's a quarter of the audience gone from the cinema in two years, which is not reflected in the overall picture of the UK cinema scene, where:

"The gross value of ticket sales in the UK was £1.099m, the second highest total of the past 10 years and up six per cent on 2011."

Though it's noted that the top two grossing films in the UK last year were Skyfall and The Dark Knight Rises, both of which were 2-D only.

The Great Gatsby opened well, but I'm not sure whether it's had 'legs' at the box office. It was critically a bit of a damp squib. I wonder what the rest of the year holds, and whether there'll be any sort of a recovery?

Steve W

 

[Todd Erwin]

The shutting down of ESPN 3D is not surprising, since the channel consisted mostly of content that was constantly recycled.

Who wants to watch an old college football game in June?

 

[Ejanss]

Also, very few providers even carried it, and then as a premium extra--Sort of hard to get ratings when nobody can see it.
The article went into detail about just how difficult it IS to shoot live-TV in native 3D, and until anyone finds enough demand to invent a more cost-effective system to shoot it, it's going to be a vicious cycle.

 

[Yorkshire]

Well, ESPN 3D is probably a lot smaller than the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23195479

Steve W

 

[RolandL]

Starz and HBO do have a number of 3D titles that are free. I hope that is never dropped.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Cinemas that show 3D are incredibly dim, the standard is actually poor in my opinion, we need laser projection for 3D, in the home you can get better brightness output from most new televisions and projectors, i also think Hollywood need to stop with the conversions and start shooting 2D AND 3D at the same time, the cost can't be much more than post conversion, i also think most directors don't make the most of the 3D format, too many people think pop out is a gimmick ( i do not ) and thus more and more 3D releases have depth but less pop out, more pop out with depth is needed.

I think when Avatar 2 hits the cinema in 2015 we will see an upsurge for 3D again, really we need more films shot in native 3D, it makes a difference, cinema quality is variable, it can be too dim, you can get a lot of crosstalk and the glasses are not the best, i think it has a future but they need to make more investments with new laser technology which will combat the brightness issue and they need to shoot much more native 3D features.

 

[Sgt Pepper]

SKY remain committed to 3D and see a growth in take up:

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/sky-3d-201307113175.htm

 

[Johnny Angell]

I saw an article (Time online, I think) hashing out how poorly home adoption of 3D has gone. If home 3D never gets fully accepted by the public it'll be more than just having to use glasses that killed it. When 3D software was becoming available, the industry did everything it could to discourage the public.

First, you've got the "You want Avatar? Sure just buy a Panasonic TV!" The killer app comes out for 3D and you limit who can have it? And they continued to do this with other titles, but Avatar was the biggie.

Than there's the absurd price premium for 3D titles. This has gotten a little better, but there is still too much of a premium for 3D titles. I remember when they were charging over $30 for Harold and Kumar (I didn't pay that). You'd have to be smoking something to pay that much for that movie.

You can't introduce a new technology and hope to have the GENERAL public adopt it, if you market it like it's only for early adopters who will jump thru hoops and pay any price. Make it GENERAL public friendly, please.

And filmmakers, start getting a little brave with your 3D. Don't overdo it, but poke my eyes out a little, would ya?

 

[Charles Smith]

Has the manufacturer exclusive thing run its course? I don't think I've heard anything about it in quite a while.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Saw Despicable Me 2 this week. Fantastic use of 3D for both depth and in-yo'-face moments. On the story front, not as good as the first, but the Minions and their antics more than make up for it, and it's topped off by yet another great 3D end credits sequence. This will be a must-buy on BD3D. Not so sure on Iron Man 3 or Star Trek Into Darkness.

On the manufacturer-exclusive front, I think that has run its course. Good Riddance.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Has the manufacturer exclusive thing run its course? I don't think I've heard anything about it in quite a while.

I'm hoping it has, I haven't noticed an exclusive release lately. My point was the industry introduced a new product and then limited its availability. Smaaarrrt! This is not like when VCRs were released and were very expensive. That was a new technology that let the user record programs for the first time. 3D is an enhancement to the HT experience and (while I love 3D) it is not necessary to have in order to have the HT experience.

BTW, Monsters vs Aliens, which was an exclusive with whomever, is selling on Amazon right now for $35. Who's buying it at that price, not I?

 

[FoxyMulder]

The studio's will probably not learn and instead see dollar signs from exclusives licensed to TV or Blu ray player manufacturers, although there hasn't been any recently i expect when Avatar 2 comes out that one of them will try and use it to promote their exclusive brand, i hope Fox resists but i have my doubts, I'm going to buy the sequel soon to what i consider the best 3D release ever. A Turtles Tale, if all releases utilized 3D the way that one did and the prices were more reasonable then i think the format would be more popular than it is now.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I wait for sales, which is how I got Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs for ~$15. Same with Dredd 3D.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I also wait for sales, picked up Coraline for £4.25, roughly $6, picked up many more at low prices and rented some others.