P3D Detroit Report - January

[fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Dr. George A. Themelis)]

It was fun, last night in Detroit.  As Derek said, Dennis Hanser's program
was postponed.  Instead, we saw two anaglyph "flicks" (hi Mark!) from the
late 30s.  These are in super 8 mm format and are available for about $40 ea.
in the USA.  They were of a rather experimental nature (not a continuous
plot, but demonstrations of stereo effects).  I recognized the name of one
of the producers (Norling).  Derek, please tell us more about the story 
behind these movies!

I liked them!  Alignment was a bit off at occasions, ghosting a bit of a
problem (expected), BUT worth watching and buying IMO.  I loved the
narration!  Funny as funny can be!  Very good explanation of what stereo is
all about, in the beginning.  After all this insistence from my side that
"stereo" is not a good abbreviation, I loved it when the narrator was
making fun (pretending he could not say it) of the word "stereoscopic"...

I am ready to buy these movies and place an ad: "WTB super 8 Projector
w/sound"  Sound was half the fun.  Not worth seeing without the narration,
IMO.  My kids will get a kick out of them!

Second part of the meeting was the competition, "Bridges".  To my surprise,
lots of good images of bridges.  Nothing extra creative but pleasing,
good-to-honest stereo photography.  Dennis aced again with 27 points
(maximum score) and one 3rd place, maintaining his impressive lead in
accumulated ratings.  A good day for me with one second and 2 HMs.  I was
4th two months ago and now I am tied in second place.  

Excellent showing by Paul Talbot with one 2nd place.  But he got bitten by
the "first slide syndrome".  One of his lovely images was shown first.  It
was a solid 8, IMO, or total of 24 points, 3d place.  BUT, judges gave it a
22.  Here is where experience counts.  The first slide in the competition
has no frame of reference to be judged.  An inexperienced judge will tend
to rate it average ("7").  As the rest of the slides proved, this was
definitely above average.  So it got harmed by being shown first.  

Experienced judges can do two things:  First, be  able to rate the first
slide accurately WITHOUT a frame of reference.  Second, even if they missed
the overall frame of reference (compared to what was shown next) they can
maintain their own frame.  The absolute magnitude of their scores does not
matter as long as they can keep these scores consistent throughout the
judging.

Overall, a fine meeting in Detroit MI!  Looking for the next one, second
Wednesday in February.  Subject of the competition: "Contemporary".  Time
to fire up the old computer...

Reporting from Cleveland OH - George Themelis


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