Updated: 03/12/2010

3-D Production

  Attempts to reproduce 3-D (three-dimensional)  images for audiences date back to the mid- 1800's.

The basic concept of displaying separate images for the left and right eyes (just as each of our eyes sees a separate image) is simple. However, accomplishing it on a TV or theater screen in a way that is acceptable to audiences has long been a problem.

Various techniques have been used throughout the years. (A good history of developments can be found here.)   Because many techniques caused eye strain or were otherwise deemed unsatisfactory to general audiences, they never caught on. For a long time 3-D was relegated to novelty experiences and included such effects as throwing spears at the audience.

For movie theaters this began to change in the early 2000's when Real D 3-D was introduced and high definition video cameras and projectors solved some of the previous production and display problems.

Almost half of the top-10 highest grossing movies of 2009 were offered in 3-D. From a gimmick 3-D progressed to being a more natural part of the story.

For tens-of-thousands of people around the world the "film," Avatar, was their first 3-D experience. Despite the comparatively limited number of theaters equipped to show it in 3-D at the time, the majority of people saw the 3-D version. 

Although the film was the most costly film in history to produce, it garnered about two-billion dollars world-wide, setting an all-time box office record.  

However, when adjusted for inflation several earlier films were still ahead of it: Gone With the Wind, Star Wars, The Sound of Music, ET, The Ten Commandments, and Titanic.

Avatar is credited with opening the door to a mainstream acceptance of the 3-D medium. (Avatar  was released in 2-D,  Real D 3-D and IMAX 3-D.) 

Avatar was immediately followed by another 3-D film, Alice In Wonderland, in 2010. Despite weak reviews, "Alice" benefitted from a significant increase in the number of theaters equipped to show 3-D and it set an opening weekend box office record. At this point it appeared that the general public had finally embraced 3-D in film.

Savings In Going Digital

3-D screens led the box office to an all-time record $29.9 billion in 2009,  3-D movies constituted 11% of all business compared with 2% in 2008. The 3-D glasses helped rake in $1.1 billion, a 375% increase from the year before.

Even so, the success of "the made-for-3D" Avatar was hampered by the limited number of 3-D equipped theaters.  Theaters that didn't show it in 3-D cited the expense of equipping their theaters for digital 3-D.

Even though equipping a theater for digital 3-D costs more than $100,000, there are major cost savings in other areas. For example, the industry could save $1-billion a year by distributing movies on small hard drives instead of large reels of celluloid. A billion dollars would go a long way in helping out theaters move to digital technology.

3-D In Television

  Meanwhile, on the TV side, 3-D is seen as starting to take off. In the US at least one major TV set manufacturer started selling 3-D sets in March, 2010. 3D-ready TV sets can operate in 3D mode in addition to regular 2D mode. Many of these sets were sold with Blu-ray players and come with one or more 3-D movies.

Japan and several other countries have been ahead of the U.S. in adopting 3-D for regular TV broadcasts. 

Sony, a major TV hardware supplier, predicts that by 2013 between a third and a half of all TVs sold by the company will have 3-D capability. The 2010 NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention, where new audio and video equipment is traditionally introduced, featured a wide array of 3-D production equipment.

Although 3-D sets are available, programming is still limited. However, several developments may change that.

In late 2009, a Blu-ray standard was finalized that made it practical for 3-D movies to be issued on the high-resolution disks for home use.

Sky TV a European, a satellite TV provider, announced that it would launch a 3-D channel in 2010. ESPN 3-D will showcase at least 85 live sporting events during 2010.  And early in the same year Discovery, Imax and Sony announced that would be forming a 3-D television channel.

Initially, a technique of using red and cyan (blue-green) viewing glasses was used for TV -- the same technique that had been widely used for 3-D films, 3-D comic books and some video games. This is referred to as the anaglyphic 3-D technique.  Some TV stations, such as KTLA in Los Angeles, presented limited programming using this technique. 

The red and cyan filters allow the image (light) intended for one eye to pass while blocking light to the other eye. Thus, each eye sees a separate image. Although the technique works (at least to a large degree), it has a number of limitations -- not the least of which was that audiences found wearing the (generally paper) glasses annoying.

A more recent technique involves alternate-frame sequencing. Glasses linked to a 120 frame per-second TV set by a IR (infrared) beam alternately switch left and right eye images. These "LCD shutter" glasses are expensive ($70 - $100 each) and require batteries but this system provides an excellent 3-D picture. 

The most satisfactory solution, although one that may be ten or more years away, is a flat TV screen that displays 3-D images without the use of special glasses.

Thus far, this approach requires you to sit at an exact point in front of the screen -- a limitation that may be okay for a single viewer, but not when several people in a room want to watch the same program.

Although there have been many unsuccessful attempts to get 3-D widely accepted in mainstream film and TV in the past, many observers feel that in 2010 we were finally at the threshold of the general acceptance of 3-D. And, of course, as more people are willing to invest in it, we will undoubtedly see important advances.

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