1953-1954 state-of-the-art 3D has not been improved on by digital capture. Stereoscopic cinematography is the ultimate test of a cameraman. I watch these films with the sound turned off so as not to be distracted from the depth, camera set-ups and lensmanship.
Imax's large-format documentaries have proved to be the ultimate in stereoscopic cinematography. Sitting in front of the gigantic screen watch the 65/70mm 3D is literally like experiencing another dimension. Many people say it gives them physical sensations -- you know, dizzyness. Plus some others.
I work in cinema design and can say that 3D is only as good as the team that maintains it. A brand new, properly setup, Real-D system looks incredible but if it’s not cleaned and re-aligned every so often, it’s not worth the ticket price.
Ghosts of the Abyss Saw this in Manhattan in spring 2003 in 3D Imax. Incredible, with the glasses I reached to touch the hull. I ended up touching a woman's shoulder in front of me, she turned around and laughed because she knew why. You could almost touch the ship. I was impressed with this viewing.
On Black Widow in 3D 4DX at Regal, the trailers were completely messed up. They were strobing and jittering, with double imaging and rainbow colors. It was headache-inducing. I had to go out and tell them and they said they were working on it. The trailers never got fixed, but when the movie started, the 3D was working properly. I would've had to go home otherwise.
Let's make a necessary distinction here. Stereoscopic photography / cinematography is a completely different thing from stereoscopic conversion. Digital technology makes it possible to convert any flat, standard film into 3-D, but the best and authentic 3-D films are shot stereoscopically. Which is not to say that digital conversions can't look impressive. Sometimes they do.
One interesting observation: in the last 15 years, all of the 3D films actually shot in 3D have had dozens (more like hundreds) of shots that had to be dimensionalized (that is, "fake 3D"), because of the visual effects involved. Avatar is a good example of a film that has hundreds and hundreds of shots that were dimensionalized, but I don't think that the audience noticed or cared. In particular, the CGI shots on Pandora, flying through trees and forests and showing creatures and so on, were spectacular enough that it didn't matter. A lot of the 3D that was shot live on set had millions of dollars worth of complex technical fixes due to alignment issues and unanticipated camera/lens problems, so quite a bit of that had to be redone and even dimensionalized in some cases. I worked for a few weeks on the 2010 Alice in Wonderland film directed by Tim Burton, and they actually storyboarded and planned every 3D shot so that they knew before the scene was done exactly what was going to happen. The Sony Imageworks technicians actually worked on the 3D process while the new scenes were being shot. The film wound up getting great reviews and made over a billion dollars, so I'd say they did pretty well with it. 3D has risen and fallen quite a few times over the years, and I think the problem they had around 2009-2010 is a lot of studio chiefs wrongly believed that any film released in 3D would automatically make money, because they could charge another $2-$3 premium on the theater ticket. Both Sony Pictures chief Sir Howard Stringer and Dreamworks CEO Jeff Katzenberg bet the entire future of their studios on 3D, and both eventually lost their jobs due to the financial disasters they ran into in the next 6-7 years that followed. The lesson learned was: a bad movie done in 3D is still a bad movie.
I don't know why, but lately they've taken 3D out of the IMAX showings. I think for the last couple years, they would split showings between 3D and non-3D on a lot of movies. Black Widow isn't showing in 3D at all on the IMAX screen at the Regal theater here. The 4DX theater shows it 3D once a day, 2D for the other 3 showings. Regular screenings have 3D for about 1 out of 5 showings. Looking back a bit the IMAX CEO was talking down 3D a few years ago and I think that's when they started showing some movies that could be in 3D without any 3D screenings. Luckily I have that 4DX option with 3D. The Regal theaters with RPX also show one 3D screening a day in that format.
I wouldn't mind seeing Black Widow in 3D if the IMAX were screening it. My expectations are low but I always enjoy Scarlett Johanssen's work.
I liked the 3D in it. The helicopter rescue and the fighting around the apartment buildings looked good. 4DX 3D looks quite good, I don't miss IMAX when watching it that way.
3D is coming back big time. And as its for gaming, there's a vast audience, CES 2023: The future of Metaverse and VR depends on these glasses-free 3D displays
