P3D Marketing 3-D

["Jim Harp" <matmail2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Boris Starosta wrote, regarding "Dial M for Murder:"

But that begs the question: why shoot it in 3-d in the first place?  It's a
perfectly good film shown flat!  And given the potential distractions of
stereo misalignments, ghosting, etc., chances are that on any given
occasion, it is a better film shown flat.

Tony Alderson wrote:

>In my opinion, it's the technical hurdles, not the plethora of "bad" 3D.
>If the only way one could hear stereophonic sound was to wear
>headphones, almost all audio would be monophonic. 

I think the analogy of stereophonic audio to stereoscopy is quite valid. 
Stereophonic demonstration records from the 50's and early 60's are full of
overstated sound effects and "techniques" such as panning all the drums to
the left and the rest of the band to the right. This reminds me of the
current state of popular 3d film making.  If stereo audio hadn't moved
beyond this gimmicky stage we might still consider monaural audio the norm. 
 Since the technical hurdles to easily presenting stereo sound had been
overcome stereo audio techniques were able to rapidly evolve.  Does anyone
ever ask why a contemporary film has a stereophonic (or multi-channel)
soundtrack?  It is my hope that as technology evolves 3D might become
another tool to be used expressively by cinematographers and videographers
and not just a gimmick drawing attention to itself.  The question of how 3D
can be currently marketed is a perplexing one, since our consumer culture
seems dedicated to making media ever easier and quicker to consume.  The
idea of having to put on special glasses just to look at an image doesn't
fit in with using your palm pilot to gain wireless access to web-sites etc. 
I had the pleasure of seeing Lynn Butler's slides and StereoJet prints at
yesterday's NYSS meeting.   She mentioned that the StereoJet process might
eventually be used in publishing.   I think books of full sized 3D color
images easily viewed with polarized glasses would succeed brilliantly.   I
hope it happens. (Soon!)  
Jim Harp