[photo-3d] House of Wax in Richmond

[boris@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Great Show at the Byrd theater last night.  This was only the third time I
had gone to see a 3d motion picture.  The historic theater was amazingly
beautiful, lit moodily, and packed with a youthful and festive crowd.  The
film was preceded by a short recital on the Wurlitzer organ.

Previously have seen "Dial M for Murder" in a single strip side by side
stereo format and "Into the Deep" 3d Imax.

Two observations for discussion on this showing of House of Wax.  The depth
control by the camera operator(s) / direction of depth control was amazing.
Several scenes were done with the camera on a crane, starting with a
hyperstereo wide establishing shot, then smoothly moving into the scene,
ending with a medium close up of actor.  During the camera motion, there
must have been a separate "inter-axial puller" smoothly and continuously
changing the separation of the optics as the scene progressed.  I imagine a
minimum of three men on the crane along with the stereo camera: the
operator, the focus puller, and the i/a puller.  pretty amazing to imagine.

Unlike the Imax film "Into the Deep," I was not disturbed by any jumpiness
in the depth.  "Wax" appeared very carefully written to avoid jumps in
depth: with close up sequences preceded by camera motion shots that would
gently move you from wide establishing shots to a close-up configuration.

The presentation was marred only by one of the projectors apparently being
out of alignment.  Every other reel showed fairly bad rotational
misalignment (I guess about 5 deg.).  The couple of people I went with did
not seem to notice or mind - they reported no eye strain.  That surprised
me, because I think that by now I am pretty much inured to eyestrain, with
a pair of eyes as rubbery as those of a chameleon.

I am still thinking about the how and why of 3d motion pictures.  Although
I am totally convinced that 3d has a very good functional and aesthetic
contribution to make to still photography, each time I have seen an older
full length 3d movie, I have come away thinking that it would have been
just about as good shown flat.  I.e. why bother with the 3d in the first
place?

(Well, I acknowledge that 3d does work to attract attention.  The midnight
showing of the Byrd theatre probably seated close to 500 people - the line
to get in went down a whole city block!  I don't think a FLAT showing of
the film would have drawn that many people...)

Of the movies I've seen, only with the modern IMAX "Into the Deep" did I
feel that the 3d added a compelling functionality.  This is because the 3d
helped to clarify a relatively alien and unfamiliar environment, and
because the film was so immersive (pardon the pun), with fish images
filling the entire spatial volume in the field of vision; from arms-length
to infinity.

Boris

________________________________________________________________________
©2001 Boris Starosta, stereographer   boris@starosta.com
Dynamic Symmetry, LLC                 http://www.starosta.com
usa - 804 979 3930                    http://www.starosta.com/3dshowcase

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-                                     - Stanislaw Lem