Part 1: 3D – It’s a Gimmick

I began writing this post a few days ago after posting a few questions to Twitter. I had been meaning to document my take on 3D cinema for some time, and as I finally sat down to get stuck into it, I soon realised that if I was going to respond to the comments that I had received both thoroughly and thoughtfully, it was going to take some time.

So, I’ve broken down my argument into a few main areas, and I’ve decided to go all Harry Potter and split up my post into a few chapters, which I’ll publish each Christmas for the next few years. Well. Maybe a week or so apart… Week 1, plain and simple, 3D is a gimmick.

With the current trend being towards 3D cinema, I remain unconvinced. And here is why…

First and foremost, it’s a gimmick. Take a look at the list of 3D releases over on Wikipedia, and try and pick out the truly outstanding 3D films. By this, I mean the films that truly could not have been released in 2D. I urge you to scroll down that list and try to pick out a single one. I can already here the Avatar crowd inhaling in preparation for a put-down. Hold on a second though. Keep scrolling. Pick me out another one… Hmm. Quite.

Films like Saw 3D and Glee: The 3D Concert Movie are about as gimmicky as you can get, and if you scroll down to the most recent films, along with the as yet unreleased ones, there are a fair number of re-releases and 3D conversions in the pipeline. Why is that? Am I a cynic for implying that studios are looking for an easy payday? Does the use of 3D for an added bit of shock value in already tired franchises such as Saw and Final Destination really justify the additional ticket cost? I’ll let you make up your own minds on that one, but for me, the answer is a resounding ‘no’.

Back to Avatar then. Some might say that the film couldn’t have been made without the much lauded stereoscopic 3D camera technology that James Cameron put so much into developing. But that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have worked in 2D. After all, Avatar was released in 2D. And it did bloody well.

Unfortunately, the industry does not keep a breakdown of the admission numbers for films released in both 2D and 3D, only a running total of the gross profit made from all releases (this alone astounds me…). However, cinema stats website Box Office Mojo released an article back in February 2010 entitled ”Avatar’ Claims Highest Gross of All Time’, at which point the film had made a gross total of $601.1 million in the US, and a worldwide total of $2.075 billion, and the writer goes some way to break down the tickets sales. After some estimations and guess work, they came up with the following estimated (US) figures for viewings in each release format:

3D: 38.7 million, 2D: 15.2 million, IMAX: 6.8 million, totalling 60.7 million.

Despite this old information (the film went on to gross over $760.5 million at the US box office), it appears that around 25% of cinema-goers still chose to view the film in 2D. Ok, so a quarter might not sound like that many. But lets take a look at DVD sales. To date, in the US, the 2D DVD version of Avatar has shifted just under 10.5 million copies, a US record. Not too shabby. Evidently, people still thought Avatar was a great movie whether in 2D or 3D.

It is an interesting question then, as to whether Avatar would have done as well as it did, if it was just another 2D release. So much hype was built up around it because of the new 3D technology involved. Were ticket buyers going to see Avatar ‘the movie’, or were they going to see Avatar ‘the 3D spectacle’? The Box Office Mojo article makes an interesting point, that although the gross profit made by Avatar was record breaking, the estimated number of admissions were approximately half of those enjoyed by Titanic, the previous record holder. It is wholly unfair to imply that Avatar is a gimmick movie, however I feel that it perhaps enjoyed more success than it perhaps deserved due to the 3D related hype generated around its release.

I feel like I’ve been bashing Avatar a bit so far, but I intend the opposite. It is, for me, the singular example so far of a credible 3D production. However, without too many more ‘credible’ productions on the horizon (save the inevitable Avatar sequels), I can’t see how 3D can still be lauded as the future of cinema. Once the bubble of the easy money cash-ins has burst, I feel that 3D will fall by the wayside.

In response to some of the comments I had via Twitter, @TweetAlexM threw Tron Legacy a lifeline, saying that he enjoyed the fact that 3D was only employed within the computer world, and as such served some sort of narrative purpose. Unfortunately, having not seen Tron in 3D I don’t feel able to comment properly, however this does sound more like an appropriate use of 3D.

I seem to share the same sentiments as those belonging to @BigArt_Jim, who “rated (3D) for Avatar and found it genuinely immersive. Didn’t at all for HP (Harry Potter). Think if it was made for 3D then it’s all the better”. This also touches nicely on another topic that I’ll be touching on – the upconversion. But that’s still to come.

What do you all think? Am I being too harsh by criticising any use of 3D that is not either essential, or for some artistic purpose? After all, what is so wrong with a little gimmick now and then..

Still to come:

Money, glasses, darkness, focus, animation vs. live action, and human evolution. Until next time.

Realisations (or, ‘what they don’t teach you at Uni’)

Seeing as it’s pretty late and I have very little to do until the clients upstairs call it a night, it feels like as good a time as any to get back into the habit of this blog lark. It’s a recurring theme, I know. But in all honesty, I never feel like I have anything of worth to say, so I just don’t bother. But that is no good! So here goes (again)…

I started out intending to keep a bit of a diary on my move to London, and how I was getting on with my masterplan of breaking into the world of audio post production.. Well.. It’s all going remarkably well! I finished my last shift in Manchester three weeks ago, almost to the minute, and SO so much has happened since then. Let’s start at the start.

I contacted a few people I knew down here and managed to fall into a job pretty quickly. I guess it is who you know after all. I’ve had it drummed into me for so long by so many people (thanks Mum!); network, network, network. I’ll be the first to admit that I am PANTS at networking, but I do believe its a skill learned rather than a skill that you’re born with. Some people just need a little more practice until it comes naturally, myself being one of them. It turns out that more people remember you than you might think. I guess the trick is to make sure they remember you for the right reasons.

Anyway, I’ve started working at a post production studio in Soho, running 50% of the time, and the other 50% I’m being trained up as a mix technician / studio assistant. The building has had numerous incarnations as other audio post facilities, and after the previous company went bust, the building was purchased as seen, meaning we inherited aaaaall of the old gear (good, and bad) that was in situ. Kudos to the new owners, they are committing to gutting the place and starting as much from scratch as they can.

This means that I’m in a pretty awesome position; I’m here from the word go, helping gut the place and pulling out all the old gear and cabling, and I’ll be here for the installation of the new hardware and wiring as well. I should be able to get a pretty integral knowledge of the layout of the whole place, which will (fingers crossed) turn out to be pretty valuable when it comes to potentially getting a more permanent position. Will see how things pan out, but it is what I make of it now, so I’m throwing myself into it as much as I can.

I’ve only been here for two and a bit weeks, but already I have learned so so much. I’ve learned very quickly that as great an experience that Uni is, and as great a grounding in the fundamentals of your field that it may provide you with, nothing I learned at Uni could have prepared me for this job.

I could pattle on all day about bit rates and codecs and absorption coefficients, but when asked my by co-workers on day 1 to de-krone a cat-5 patchbay, they were met with a glassy look. It turns out it’s a piece of piss, but it’s not something I’d ever come across or ever had a need to know about. I’ve been told in the past that University is not about what you learn, its about proving that you have the ability to learn, and in the last two weeks I think I’ve realised this first hand.

A krone block. Exciting stuff..

As much as I (think I) know about audio technology, the truth is that until you get first hand experience of the technology that is used in the professional environment, you really know very little. I know a bit about Pro Tools hardware, but not on the scale that is used in an audio post studio. I know a bit about desks, but not room-spanning AMS-Neve DFCs. I know a bit about networking, but not about networks comprising miles and miles of cable, linking three studios, 15 cutting rooms and numerous offices. I know a bit about making coffee, but not skinny lattes with decorative fig leaf patterns in the foam. I kid you not.

Say, that's a big desk...

So I have a hell of a lot to learn, but I can’t wait until all the refit is finished and I can get stuck into some proper mix tech training. Hopefully the refit process will teach me a lot in the meantime and give me a much better grounding to build upon, rather than coming in totally blind. I can’t really knock anything about the last three weeks.

One thing maybe. Finding a flat is RIDICULOUSLY hard.

Signing off.

R

a quick update…

So, firstly apologies for being pretty poor at updating and carrying on with populating the site in the last week or two… At least I have the excuse of having just moved and that I’m still sleeping on a mate’s sofa! What a whirlwind couple of weeks though. Like I said before, I started out with no idea where I’d be in two weeks time, and now, two weeks later, things are starting to fall into place.

Still need somewhere to live though… Fingers crossed it won’t be too much longer though. Proper updates and news as soon as I get settled!

R

Brett Crockett Talk at PAIFF

I posted this on my Twitter tonight, and if you’re in any way interested in audio then you should check it out, even if just for the potted history of Dolby Labs.

Brett Crockett (Senior Director, Sound Technologies Research) on Delivering Cinema Sound to Mobile Devices

With the movement away from ‘legacy’ technologies, its interesting to get an insight into what such a company are doing to stay at the forefront of technical advancement. Speaking at the inaugural Palo Alto International Film Festival (PAIFF) Brett delivers an overview of the transition towards ‘over-the-top’ content delivery, and what Dolby are doing to facilitate ultra high quality content delivery to mobile devices.

Progress

So I had my last shift at Chill Factore today. I’ll miss the people like mad and also miss being able to snowboard every day – it’s not really hit me that I’ll probably be going back to boarding a few times a year max instead of every single day. But onwards and upwards to bigger things!

Had a reasonably productive trip to London on Friday – met up with a few contacts and chased up some leads on jobs, as well as catching up with a couple of old friends.. all whilst hugely overdressed for the near 30 degree heat and sweating profusely. Yum. So, yeah, there is potential for something pretty exciting on the job front, but I don’t want to jinx it or say much until I know the full story. Hopefully will find out tomorrow, and at the very least, I should have been able to set a date for actually moving down south by the end of the day. Progress indeed!

Stepping up my flat hunting efforts as of tomorrow also. I realised last night that I haven’t had my own room for 3 whole months now, and have been living out of a suitcase pretty much since leaving my old house at the end of June.. Even last year, I had a tiny box room and a single bed, so I’m itching to find a nice place of my own again and get unpacked into a half decent sized room that I can call home for a good while.

Waaah, too much to think about.