3D film!....?

Well whether you love it or hate it, it gives you a head ache or blows your mind from its awesome power, 3D for films is here to stay. It brings in the money (6 of the top 10 grossing movies of 2010 are 3D, also Avatar the highest grossing film of all time was shot in 3D), but it does not work. Before I begin, I would just like to say that personally I hate 3D, I think its a (not so) cheap trick that distracts the audience from subject matter allowing the actual quality of film to decrease. With that said I will try not to make this to biased, so for every point I make against 3D I will also make a point for it.

Alright, so I know there are a ton of web sites and articles..... well tons of websites, but virtually only one article, that deal with the flaws of 3D. So I think I will being by addressing the ideas that Walter Murch brings up in his letter. As Mr. Murch mentions the biggest problem with 3D is the issue of focus: "But the deeper problem is that the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen -- say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what...But their eyes must converge at perhaps 10 feet away, then 60 feet, then 120 feet, and so on". The reason that this creates a problem is because never before have people needed to have their eyes converge on one point but have their focus at another. Walter Murch brings up several other very good points in that article, if you have not read it yet I strongly suggest that you do.

Now on to my opinions of why 3D makes a inferior medium for film. Most people go and see a movie because it offers them a cheap escape from their lives. They want to go and see things that could never happen to them. But the entire point of 3D is to make movies more life-like, more realistic. While this has no effect on movies like Avatar, once 3D becomes the industry standard and they make more realistic movies in 3D it becomes less of an escape for people. If movies stop offering that same level of escape for viewers people will stop going and this will mean a decrease in revenue for production companies.

Like I said before 3D is what people are becoming to expect as this happens more and more movies are going to be made in 3D, but since 3D is such a drastically different format it will slowly begin a revolution in film. It will change everything, from the way the movies are shot, the cameras they are shot with, the process for editing them, the theaters we view them in. While I think it is about time for the movie industry to go through another major revolution in the way that things are done (the last big change happened in the 60s and 70s). But the problem is that a completely new infrastructure for film would have to be built and in the end it would be payed for by us, the viewers, through ticket prices and other ways. Im sure there would also be a crack down on illegal piracy so all of you out there smugly smileing to yourself with your devious plan, best of luck not getting caught.

But as much as I have bitched about it 3D does have some very wonderful qualities. Such as it brings in money to the production companies. Also a benefit to me is that because it is going to bring about this film revolution, directors and the like will be looking for people who have not been in the industry for long and so they are able to think freely and be able to see new ways of doing things. So hopefully when I graduate film school I will be in the right place at the right time.