3D - Where Do We Go Now?

Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

In 1896, at the screening of L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat (Arrival of a Train at Station), people jumped out of their seats when the train approached the front of the screen, thinking they are going to get hit. The illusion is mastered by the Auguste & Louis Lumière, the pioneers of cinema. Little had the audience known the brothers had planned to show the film in 3D forms, but did not due to technical issues. Little do we know what would have happened if they had succeeded.

However, from this we do know how 3D films have always been in the interest of film-makers and exhibitors alike. The stereoscopic films were first produced around 1922, using anaglyph images generated through the cyan-and-red glasses; then quickly bloomed into business as Polaroid was invented and demanded a new form of projection. The golden era of 3D films was considered to be in between 1952 and 1954, as coloured stereoscopic films were made in abundance. However, the difficulty of acquiring two pairs of film reels and showing them simultaneously led 3D films to its decline until the revival of 80s then rise in 2000s. But what did 3D bring to cinema? 

‘The whole 3D phenomenon, it’s a marketing scheme, isn’t it?’ Wally Pfister – cinematographer for The Dark Knight (2009) – asks rhetorically, when interviewed in the documentary Side by Side (2013). True, who did not remember the horrendous experience of seeing Clash of the Titans (2010) in 3D? The film was initially shot in 2D but then converted to 3D as a post-production step and a marketing strategy. The result was, well, a flat background and gritty images. However, Clash of the Titans’ mistakes did not really lie in the conversion. The screenplay of the film, though filled with mythic images, left little for 3D to exploit its reality. The producers blindly followed the success Avatar (2009) while forgetting it is the strange landscape of Avatar that helped promote the effects. Oz: The Great and Powerful is the latest 3D experience released this month. With the design tailored to bits, the audience could feel every snow puffs to enjoy speeding down the waterfall with Oscar (James Franco). If it does not give you much headaches, it is worth going to fairyland Oz feeling everything is so real and close.

Hugo (Martin Scorsese, 2011)

But maybe 3D is not all about effects. Hugo (2011) highlights the colourful but otherworldly feel of life in Paris, making the journey back to the past a magical one. And even more magical is Life of Pi (2012). A tale of spiritual journey of belief and religion, the beautiful film questions the audience’s reason to believe the images, asking them what they really demand from cinema. And to do this, the effects have been used to tie in with the concept of the story. Ang Lee felt he needed another dimension to make the film, and he has made the right decision to exploit 3D.

Life of Pi (Ang Lee, 2012)

James Cameron thinks 3D is the new form of cinema, but with the likes of Hugo and Life of Pi, the next question is: is it a new way to understand films? And with that, we kick the ball back to the film-makers.