[photo-3d] 3D movies why aren't there more?

[Danny Vint <dvint@xxxxxxxx>]

No one seems to bring up the practicality issue of the whole 3d process
when they talk about the movies. It takes 2 of everything just to get the
same product. Now add to that how much fun we all have in just trying to
get Realist slides mounted in a reasonable time from when they are
processed, imagine the fun of having to keep 2 reels of film in synch as
you work at an editing board to cut and splice a full production movie
together! 

Studios are trying to find ways to make things cheaper not more
expensively. I'm actually surprised to see the volume of IMAX films in 3d,
but here there are different drivers. Here you have a theater and a format
trying to compete in the same world we want to compete in with 3D.

Here the IMAX world is trying to build a market for something different so
they are offering marketing gimmicks (3d) to help offset the cost of the
theater and their format. As it is the films are as expensive if not more
than a regular show and they are shorter in length most of the time (at
least the ones I have seen have only been about an hour in length). It was
good to see the new Fantasia offered in  this format, but how many other
made for film efforts have been done in this format? IMAX is expensive
because of the size of the film and the larger cameras/projectors used in
the process - has anyone else looked at that projector room in the Chicago
Science museum!  I'm not sure why they ended up with this particular design
(other than for showing to the public) but those are some large spools of film!

I don't know of any figures, but I wonder how competitive the IMAX format
and theaters are with the rest of the industry. Someone is backing the
format and hoping for it to catch on. I know that George Lucas with the
first Star Wars wanted to use IMAX for the film, but at that time there
weren't enough theaters to make it practical. That has changed since 78?,
but has it changed enough.

Anyway the point is that not only is there a theater issue here, but there
is a whole production factor that raises the cost, and currently the only
driver for using 3d in movies has been to help the IMAX world these days.

..dan
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Danny Vint
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