3D Or Not 3D? That Is The Question
3D Film Transfer Conversion Process Raises Questions About Quality
Until recently, Hollywood seemed relatively unconcerned with 3D movies. Back in 2003, Robert Rodriguez’s campy kids adventure flick Spy Kids 3D: Game Over made nearly $200 million worldwide, but 3D technology was still overlooked for huge blockbuster films. In that same year, The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King made over a billion dollars worldwide, in only 2 dimensions. Fast forward to 2010, and the story changes. Some of this year’s biggest hits, including Twentieth Century Fox’s Avatar and Disney’s Alice in Wonderland have proved that big name studios, big name directors like James Cameron and Tim Burton, and most importantly big money audiences are embracing 3D as more than just a gimmick.
But there are several ways of going about making a 3D movie. James Cameron helped design a breakthrough 3D camera that allowed him to shoot Avatar in such a way that it looks more like the “true” 3D that we see in the real world. Unfortunately, not all 3D movies that hit theaters are produced with such care and regard for quality. Now that Hollywood has realized that 3D’s premium ticket prices mean gold at the box office, many studios are pushing for 3D conversion, a process that turns ordinary 2D movies into 3D. These movies are shot the old-fashioned way, and then converted to 3D after the fact. A 3D film transfer can look good if it’s done carefully, as Disney proved with Alice in Wonderland, which was not originally shot in 3D. But in many cases, movie studios would rather do a fast and cheap 3D conversion process, and that means sacrificing quality for lower cost.
This trend of producing last-minute 3D film transfers has many Hollywood directors worried. James Cameron, who plans to release a converted 3D version of Titanic, has said that the conversion process can yield poor results if it isn’t performed slowly and carefully. According to Cameron, Hollywood is producing more and more “slapdash” 3D conversion jobs as studios realize how much money can be made at the 3D box office. In an interview with BBC News, Cameron said that “these decisions should be made by film-makers; they shouldn’t be made by studios.” Cameron has also said that “slapdash” 3D film transfers will “work against the adoption of 3D because they’ll be putting out an inferior product.” And Cameron isn’t the only one who feels that way.
Michael Bay, director of the hit Transformers films, is under pressure from Dreamworks to convert the upcoming Transformers 3 to 3D. Bay believes that 3D conversion looks “fake” compared to 3D films that are shot in 3D. The director isn’t convinced that even a careful job will work with his fast-paced, effects-rich action sequences, and is not willing to move forward until he is presented with proof that it came be done. Bay says that “studios might be willing to sacrifice the look and use the (3D) gimmick to make $3 more a ticket, but I’m not.”
On March 26, 2010, the Los Angeles Times gave a glowing review of a new Disney film, but not the kind of film you might be expecting. Although appearing less than a week after the DVD release of Disney’s latest animated hit The Princess and the Frog, the subject of Times reviewer Kenneth Turan’s latest review is not a new animated classic, but rather a fascinating new documentary entitled Waking Sleeping Beauty which details the pivotal ten years between 1984 and 1994, which redefined Walt Disney Pictures as the world’s premier animation studio.
If you’re a Hollywood buff or photography enthusiast with cash to spare, you could be in for a treat this week. On March 26th and 27th, thousands of classic glamour photographs from Hollywood photographers like George Hurrell will be auctioned off by a respected dealer called Profiles in History, which specializes in vintage signed photographs and manuscripts, historical autographs, letters, and other guaranteed-authentic original documents. Classic photographs of movie stars from Jean Harlow to George Clooney will be available for auction to the public, but don’t expect to nab a classic photo on the cheap. The dealer expects to fetch over $20,000 for Hurrell’s iconic Vanity Fair portrait of Jean Harlow on a white bearskin rug.
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As the makers of Guinness beer happily remind visitors to the brand’s Dublin museum, “everyone’s Irish on March 17th.” Indeed, St. Patrick’s Day is widely celebrated by Americans of various ethnic backgrounds, and annual St. Patrick’s Day parades in the U.S. date all the way back to 1737, when the first one was held in Boston. But for many Irish-Americans, St. Patrick’s Day is also part of Irish-American Heritage Month, which is a time to recognize and celebrate Irish history and family heritage. While many Irish and non-Irish Americans join in on the wearing of green and the merrymaking on March 17th, most of us miss out on the opportunity to explore and celebrate our family heritage throughout the month of March. One great way of doing this it to make a photo family tree on your computer.
On March 1, 2010, California Attorney General and former Governor Jerry Brown announced that he is running for governor once again. Current California law prohibits constitutional office holders from serving more than two terms in any single position, so the Republican incumbent, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cannot run for reelection. But this two-term limit has only been in effect since 1990, and does not apply to terms served before November of that year. Democrat Jerry Brown served as the 34th Governor of the State of California from 1975 to 1983, so he is eligible to run once again in the November 2010 race. As part of his campaign to “get California working again,” Brown has launched a multimedia website dedicated to promoting his gubernatorial candidacy and cataloguing his career.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day – Lucky Leprechaun Deal ends TODAY!
Our Affiliate Spotlight will not only introduce you to an affiliate that stood out over the last month, but will hopefully inspire you to implement the ways they are making this program successful for them. This month, we’d like to highlight one very special affiliate, drum roll please….
We love our customers. That’s why we follow up with everyone after their order is complete to assure we’re doing our job right. If there’s ever any issue, we address it immediately. Most of the time however, we receive rave reports. On behalf of the ScanDigital team, I’d like to say “Thank You” to our amazing customers. We’re truly flattered to know you are happy and honored to have been trusted with your family’s precious memories. Please find a sampling of the testimonials below that we have received from the first half of March.
Each year since 1993, the Academy Awards telecast has included a feature called “In Memoriam,” which honors academy members and others in the movie business who have passed away in the year since the previous awards ceremony. Included in each year’s memorial are famous figures like this year’s Patrick Swayze, Michael Jackson, and Brittany Murphy, as well as lesser known “behind-the-scenes” characters, whose names and faces are unfamiliar to the public but dear to the academy.
