An industry insider going by the pseudonym of “Alexander Murphy” has an article up on Gizmodo railing against the movie studios’ continue push for more 3D movies, and cutting every corner they can to “milk the 3D cow”. Starting with the usual complaints (the glasses are uncomfortable and dorky), before moving into more technical issues (post-processing 2D into 3D isn’t really 3D and does a disservice to those shooting in true 3D like Avatar), and then summing it up nicely with this one very technical issue:
And there’s the final nail in this absurd 3D show: The eyeglasses. Simply, watching a $200+ million dollar movie with $.03 crappy plastic glasses is just silly. They are not only optically poor but they take almost a full stop of light out of the image. That’s almost half the amount of light! None of the prints or projectors I have seen 3D movies in properly compensate to counteract that loss of light. When I saw Alice In Wonderland the other night at a cast and crew screening—where you think it would be dialed in just right—the image was still painfully dark. The situation in a majority of theaters theatre out there is as bad or worse.
Definitely worth a read. I still hold to my prediction that 3D in the home won’t be big in 2010.
via The Movie Studios’ Big 3D Scam – movie studios – Gizmodo.
3d eye glasses quality now catching attention.. I’ve seen a 3d movie with a messy deformed 3d eye glasses, which was really disappointing…
I just wish that movie makers really work on 3d effects for art sake not for money coz viewers will really notice it.
The only problem with the 3d scam approach is that for one most people have access to the 2d format where the 3d format is offered. If you go and look at multiplexes across the country on fandango they have Alice in Wonderland in both 2d and 3d. Yet people who see a 3d movie chose to see one again. I think they are well aware of how a 3d movie compares to a 2d movie. Most people are smart enough to do so. The reason for the rise in 3d is the sell of 3d tickets over the past few years. Selling 2 or 4 3d tickets to every 1 2d ticket sold. So 2d has been given a more than fair chance and it has not done so well. People have been given a choice and more chose the 3d format.
I noticed that 3d ticket sales was never mentioned, because that does not help the scam argument. Only give the information you want to give, ignore the rest.
Sad when an industry has to result to scams to make more money. Though I have to say that even good 3-D like Avatar gave me a headache. It’s too much of an adjustment for the eyes.