Likewise.
Dumb question: I’ve been wearing glasses lately, because my contact lenses have been bothering me in recent days. Are there clip-on 3-D glasses for Avatar, or would I have to wear glasses over/under glasses?
Because most people use the argument that an entirely new medium is somehow a “gimmick” because older versions of the technology were so bad that the only way you could tell the difference between the new medium and the old is by using gimmicks. I came into Coraline 3-D expecting a gimmick (it was the only showing playing at that particular time and I didn’t even know it was in 3-D or I would have planned on seeing the 2-D version,) and got anything but: even if you strain argumentation you can only find 3 shots maximum where it appeared to be specially set up for 3-D.
Avatar is much the same way, although with many questionable cases. All of the shots that seem gimmicky are taken directly from 2-D action movie tropes, they just “stand out” more in 3-D, and I don’t have time to do an exhaustive mathematical comparison to see if Cameron purposely chose more of these because of 3-D.
In short: those who call 3-D a gimmick are wrong. It is not a gimmick. It is a new medium.
Though he’s a pretty good filmmaker, I don’t think Cameron’s opinion is considered the opinion of the industry as a whole.
:rolleyes: That is utterly ridiculous. I have to drive about 25 minutes to get to the closest theater, period, and I live in a suburban area near a large city–not out in the sticks. So every time I go to see a movie (2D or 3D) I have to drive that far.
“Damn it! The movie industry needs to build a theater right next door to me, or I’m going to start stealing movies online!”
Cameron isn’t the only guy putting out 3D movies these days - he didn’t do Toy Story 3, Coraline, A Christmas Carol, or other ones that have come out lately. If it was just Cameron getting his panties in a twist it wouldn’t matter so much because he’s just one movie-maker, the problem is that a bunch of people are doing this now, with the trend looking like more and more such movies being made. As long as there is a reasonable 2D option it’s not so bad, but when you no longer have the option and your eyes can’t handle the 3D systems it sucks.
I’ve not seen “clip-on” glasses. I suspect you’ll have to wear the 3D glasses over your regular ones (they’re pretty big).
Here’s a question: If a theater is going to project something using the new 3D format, don’t they need new projectors that can do it? What is the difference between a standard 2D projector and the new 3D digital ones? What’s the cost?
We’re the dope here. Let’s establish some facts before we post rolleyes smilies.
“It costs about $70,000 for a movie theater to upgrade from film to a digital projector, and the 3-D add-on costs another $30,000. That $100,000 total compares to the cost of $15,000 to $20,000 for a traditional 35 mm projector that has been the industry standard.”
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2009-06-03-3d-movies_N.htm
Coraline in the theatres used the gray glasses, but the DVD version were definately not the gray polarized type. Polarized 3D effects are not possible on television, even Hi-Def. If not blue/red then they were some other dual color combo. Blue/yellow maybe?
I think the theaters should have on hand a clip-one single lens cover that you can wear if you’re a person who can’t see 3-D or simply don’t want to so that you can still go with people who want to see it that way.
At the cinema we saw it at, at least, they were overglasses*. I wear glasses, and the 3D glasses fit over them no problem.
*Like overshoes. Geddit?
You’re the obfusciatrist! Bring a patch or a piece of tape! This is your speciality!
I asked an attendant how much the glasses cost, as they were quite serious about collecting them after the show. They were $46.00 Australian.
Given that they’d need hundreds, why should they have specialty ones that only a small subset of the population would need, whether they be clip-on for glasses or for those who can’t see 3-D? Especially as the overglasses worked fine, IMO.
I ended up driving 30 minutes to a smaller theater complex where they were showing both 2D and 3D. It was worth it to not have to wear those Bono fly glasses for 3 hours. I still got a headache, but it would have been a migraine with the 3D.
ETA: Theaters should really have some sort of way you can test drive the 3D for a minute so you can tell how comfortable your experience will be.
The previews are mostly in 3-D plus there is a little demonstation beforehand of a few seconds. Or do you mean a way you can test drive and them give you a refund if you’re not comfortable? Theatres give refunds just because the movie stinks if the customer complains enough, I’m sure they will give you a refund if the 3-D give you issues during the previews and you say you didn’t know beforehand. offer void where managers are acting like jerks
It seems pretty obvious to me that 3-D is the direction that movie theatres will be going just to survive. With more and more people being able to watch Blu-Ray or other types of HD movies at home on big-screen TVs or personal home theatres, and with the consumer in the near future being able to watch any number of movies “instantly” (by ordering it online), the movie theatre has to offer something that you can’t get at home, and 3-D is one of those things.
Well yeah (though obfusciatrist is meant to mean the opposite of that, not obfuscaterer), but I don’t have a problem with 3D (other than that for most movies it doesn’t really add anything of value, though it definitely did for Avatar).
Though I went to a presentation earlier this year from Jeffrey Katzenberg promoting the wonderful future of 3D (he quite seriously said that he thinks eventually all movies will be done in 3D) and he talked about a tour he did of a major eyeglasses manufacturer that had done a prototype of sunglasses that were those kind that go clear indoors. And the lenses were polarized for 3D movies so people would be able to have just their own pair of 3D sunglasses.
If 3D really does become ubiquitous then that’ll be nifty for people who like me that see tons of movies in the theaer.