P3D Re: 3D Fallacies

[Lawrence W Kaufman <kaufman3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dale Walsh wrote:

> ...Sorry for continuing the fallacy.
> I have seen this repeated many times and I am hesitant to accept this as a
> fallacy.  Do you have any sources for this assertion?  I have seen it written
> numerous times including the statement in Hal Morgan and Dan Symmes Amazing 3D book
> which says that Euclid laid out the principles of binocular vision.
> Considering another potential fallacy, I just saw Encounter in the Third Dimension,
> which I found highly enjoyable.  However they say that the pioneers of Cinema, the
> Lumiere Brothers, shot their first film using two cameras for 3D.  The famous
> sequence of the train coming into the station.  Was this shot in 3D?  I had never
> heard that before.

A new SCSC member recently questioned me on the same point:On the point of history
raised in the film and your comment, myrecollections are (from reading and teaching
film) Lumiere's film
'train arriving at the station' was made in 1896 as part of his first
showings. It was 2D. Subsequently the Lumiere brothers got
interested in 3D and in the 30's went back to that particular
train station and shot a version in 3D. (This was what I was told
again during my l997 visit to Paris and the screenings there which
dealt with 3D history.) So the IMAX film claim that the 'first film'
was in 3D is from where?

To which I replied:
I have heard so many stories on this film. We need to find an
eye witness! Among the stories I have heard: The film was not
shot in 3D, but was so powerful and realistic looking, the audience
ran from the theater afraid they would get injured from the on
coming train. Also, that it was being shot with a camera with
two strips of film (also two different formats, perfs, etc) one for
the american release and one for the European release and even
though it was not intended to be a 3D film, they did in fact have a
right and a left print.

But, I can quote the R.M. Hayes book '3-D Movies':
"L'arrivee du train" (1903). Filmed in Stereoscopic Lumiere
(dual 35 mm printed single strip anaglphic). Producers Auguste
and Louis Lumiere. A Lumiere Film production. Filmed in Paris.
Duo-color. Silent. This French film, consisting entirely of one scene,
was released in France in 1903 but never shown theatrically in the
U.S. It was incorporated into the 3-D Movie (never released).
The title translates as "The Arrival of the Train" but usually referred
to as "The Arrival of the Train at the Station". The Lumieres had
produced similar footage in flat format for projection on the large
screen in 1895 under the same title.

In the out of print book 'Four Aspects of the Film' several
stereo movie cameras are mentioned to have been developed
around the turn of the century. But, the first 3D film mentioned:
In 1903, stereoscopic movies were shown at the Paris Exposition
under the guidance of French movie pioneers, Auguste and
Louis Lumiere. In its Appendix it has listed as the first 3D films,
Lumiere shorts (1903). But also refers to Lumiere shorts (1935).

To which this member replied: Who indeed made the first 3D
'motion picture'?  Lumiere in 1896?  Or, as Michael Starks states
in his 'yellow book' pg. 54 with photo: 'World's first
stereo movie camera by William Friese-Green (1893)?
I am interested in the issues of proper credit for works done.
Especially since many of the early cinema pioneers had such a
'tough going'.  (The case of Friese-Green being well documented
in terms of these difficulties, later Melies, etc.)

So are there any eye witnesses? What is the correct answer?
Who made the First 3D motion picture? Any thoughts?

Thanks for the time,
Lawrence Kaufman, mailto:kaufman3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
SCSC website: http://home.earthlink.net/~campfire
SCSC eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/group/scsc


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