My first experience of 3D

So I’m late to the party - I’ve been poor and haven’t been to the cinema in some years. I went to see the Avengers the other day and turned up when they were showing the 3D version.

I was concerned that my glasses would be an issue but the cinema gave me a set of filters that went over them seamlessly.

I’m really not sure what to make of 3D. 3D was put to startling use in one of the adverts beforehand where they had fighters all the way up to the projector. Since I was sitting right at the back, immediately underneath the projector room, this was very disconcerting. Instead of the fighters going overhead, they came right at me! With regard to the film itself, I’m not sure it benefited from 3D. I think it was mainly used to give just that extra bit of depth.Perhaps that shows how well it was used. I don’t remember anything coming far out of the screen - I was disappointed that they didn’t do it for the linnorms. Certainly, the main battle scenes didn’t really seem to benefit from 3D. I didn’t get the eye-strain that some have reported, but I wasn’t able to fully relax into the movie.

I wonder if Peter Jackson’s 48 fps Hobbit will make a difference to 3D?

The best 3D, in my and many others’ opinion, doesn’t have anything come out of the screen, instead tries to use the screen as a kind of window layer, with everything deep behind it. That way it moves away from gimmicky and becomes something easier to relate to.

Having said that, a few people do come away feeling they’ve missed out if there isn’t any in-your-face comin-at-ya type shots of yo-yos and gun barrels a few inches from their noses, so to each their own, I guess.

I think 3D has begun to enter that phase of it being available for those who want it, but a lot don’t, so it may start to lose audience numbers until it reaches either a level of unsustainability and disappears, or finds its comfortable niche and lingers on only a few event films.

I think it works well for CG animated films (where it’s easy to implement and manipulate), but not so much for anything else.

Still the best 3d movie ever.

:stuck_out_tongue:

I love the movie, but The Avengers is a horrible movie by which to judge 3D. I’ve seen it in 2D and in 3D. The 3D was not really utilized to much effect, IMO, in this film. You should also know that it was a “post-convert”, meaning the movie wasn’t actually filmed in 3D. The 3D effects were added later. This almost always gives inferior results.

Hugo was really great in 3D–a visual treat. Avatar also had really good 3D. Many CGI animated movies (Up, Toy Story 3, etc.) utilize the 3D effect well. These movies were filmed (or rendered) in 3D to begin with, instead of being converted after filming.

I have yet to see a better usage of 3-D than Avatar, which was a visual mindstorm, and I have seen many releases in 3-D, some more subtle than others.

Agree about the Avengers not really being a 3-D showcase movie.

What baffles me is this: why didn’t they shoot it in 3D? It must be a lot more expensive to go through the movie frame by frame, rather than just to film with two cameras in the first place.

Thor was my first 3D experience, and it was okay; about the same quality when I saw it again in 2D. My second (and last, if I have anything to say about it) 3D experience was the first five minutes of the last Harry Potter movie… blurry, twitchy, and completely unwatchable.

Everyone would have seen them come right at themselves, not right at you (or right at the projector).

3D gives me a headache. IMAX makes me woozy, so everytime I’m cajoled into taking my kid to another IMAX dino experience, I have to take some ibprofen and bear it.

My first 3D experience outside of IMAX dino shows was Avatar. I got a little woozy and still had a headache, but it was still the best experience compared to other 3D flicks. I mean, if a film is going to make you sick, it better be worth it.

I only go if I’m with another person and they REALLY want 3D or that’s the only showing option at the time. I really hate it. One exception: I saw The Lion King in 3D -it was the only option- and am now pretty convinced that animation is the only time it should be done. It added a lot of visual depth.

I hope the whole 3D thing dies down soon. My son and I were both struggling during Flying Monsters, and I suspect it is because we both have vision issues. Unfortunately, my son loves these flicks. It was also a clue that he does need glasses, so I’m glad he told me he was having a hard time focusing. He had his eyes checked recently and his vision was deemed fine but I don’t believe it.

I digress.

3D sucks.

Just a WAG but I have started to become convinced that movies that are converted to 3D after being filmed by and large don’t benefit as much from it as movies that are filmed with a 3D purpose beforehand. As the OP points out, very often movie previews show more “3D effect” than the post-conversion movie itself. And another thing: I have recently been in the habit of taking off my 3D glasses during these movies to get a gauge of how blurry it would be to watch them and I am convinced that the less blurry the picture is without the glasses (as The Avengers was) the less the “3D effect” is present.

As to the expense issue, I suspect its actually cheaper to convert the movies to 3D after the fact than filming them that way from the outset. I don’t think they apply the full-blown “3D effect” to the entire movie, rather, portions of it.

It’s still considerably more expensive to shoot in 3D - because of course there’s a lot more to making a moving that just pointing a camera at some action.

When you choose to shoot stereo, you now have to do all your post-production work to supply both images. This is especially tricky for composite effects shots. Render everything twice, make sure the binocularity matches the camera, etc. You do your composite work twice, and you can’t be as loosey-goosey with it, because you need to duplicate it exactly.

With conversion, I think that the attraction is that you (mostly) don’t have to worry about making everything work for stereo until you’re done.

If you want to see a good example of 3D, probably Brave will be the best one this summer.