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Re: 3D Movies
> My understanding of 3D projection is that the movies are shown in either
> anaglyph or polarized by the choice of the projectionist. From what little I
> know of that industry, they supply by far more anaglyph projection equipment
> to theaters than they do of the polarized type. The movies themselves
> comprise simply the left and right image in standard film strips.
>
This is not an accurate understanding of the distribution of 3D movies. Anaglyph
was used in a number of early experimental 3D movies, especially in the '20s and
'30s because it was the simplest method of distribution. They are all printed on
a single strip of film, and projected just like any other movie. By the early
1950s, however, the polarization process had been perfected and provided a far
superior 3D image. It was therefore adapted by Hollywood, and all 3D movies of
the early 1950s were filmed and distributed ONLY in polarized versions. One
major problem was complaints from projectionists, who had to do a lot more work
since the system required two projectors to run in interlock. The movies all had
intermissions in the middle because at the time a 6000-foot reel (about one hour
running time) was the maximum most theaters could handle. Films were NOT
distributed in two versions. Any theater running 3D ran it in the polaroid
system. Even my home town in Indiana, population less than 500, saw polaroid 3D
movies in the local theater. (And incidentally, neither anaglyph nor polaroid
projection usually involved any major replacement of equipment. Anaglyph was
projected exactly like any other movie, and polaroid merely required that a
theater's standard pair of projectors be able to run in synch, which in some
cases required the replacement of the drive motors.)
I suppose this erroneous idea that 3D movies involved red/blue glasses comes
from the fact that the 3D movie craze was mirrored by the release of dozens of
comic books and other photo magazines which in fact were printed in
anaglyph--the only possible way to do 3D on the printed page (okay
purists--except for experimental systems like ChromaDepth, which weren't known
at the time).
Anaglyph movies were never very successful because the system is so poor
relative to polaroid. Years later, Universal released anaglyph reprints of a
couple of their best 3D films, and a few nudies and horror films have used the
system, mostly in isolated scenes in otherwise "flat" films, such as The Mask.
But when 3D staged a comeback in the early '80s, although the projection system
had changed radically, the viewing system was still your basic polarized light,
viewed with glasses identical to those used in the '50s--and they were NOT red
and blue!
Other than the nudies and the reissues, there probably haven't been enough films
actually released in the last 50 years in anaglyph to be counted on the fingers
of one hand. Which is why it irritates me so much to hear people, even those
knowledgable about 3D, talking about people watching 3D movies through red and
blue glasses. It's exactly like saying that the big problem with the present-day
recording industry is that people don't like buying those cylindrical recordings
and playing them through those big horns!
> I saw it [Star Wars] four times while it was at the Chinese. I think
> one of the biggies about Star Wars was the use of computers to make the
> special effects possible and realistic.
Again, I believe most of the special effects in Star Wars were standard
motion-control effects. Computers didn't play a major role in movie special
effects until later. Star Wars' major achievement was its fast-paced non-stop
editing, which covered up a multitude of inefficiencies in other departments. In
fact, I understand that Lucas is talking about replacing much of the effects
footage in an upcoming reissue to reflect the current state of the art.
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