It's a Brave New World – Blog edited by Scott Arundale

You must give the man credit for pushing exhibitors to add 3D screens. We might not be where we are today if he had not insisted that all new animated features be released in both 2D/3D. But he brings a cautionary note to the proceedings.

Moderator: David Wertheimer, CEO and Executive Director, Entertainment Technology Center at University of Southern California.

After attending the Digital Summit this weekend, I hate to admit this but my eyes are still sore.  I wouldn’t say that I overdid it but after on-again off-again viewing of content using the Panasonic active shutter glasses and the RealD’s (not to mention that guy who keeps popping his strobe camera off every few minutes in the dark) my vision is slightly toasty.

Like Olympic athletes,  perhaps we need to start training before these events.

On Monday, my first stop was the Autodesk booth where expert colorist, Kent Pritchett demo’d the 3D Lustre software using the luxuriant Dave Matthews concert footage that he graded recently.  He reports that hours spent in front of a the 3D console (only when wearing the glasses) may have to be reduced by 50% due to eye strain and fatigue.

UPDATE 5.07.10

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UPDATE 4.17.10

Remember when Nintendo released one their Pokemon movies back in 1997 and later withdrew it because one of the strobe sequences caused epileptic seizures in kids and small animals?  Well now Samsung has issued a warning about their stereo displays.  Being forewarned is forearmed and reduces threats of lawsuits.

“Viewing in 3D mode may also cause motion sickness, perceptual after effects, disorientation, eye strain, and decreased postural stability.”

All this week, I’ve been wondering what will be the next announcement from Cupertino and why aren’t they here?  I’ve enjoyed using the NAB iPhone app that lists the Exhibitors and pushes daily notices about events. Despite the din around the halls, I’m waiting for Apple to chime in.

Two things have emerged one having to do with 3D:

HDGuru3D.com reports on Apple’s Patent Pending ‘iSpecs’.
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The other is a party they got going on at the Renaissance on Wednesday.

Digital Cinema (including 3D) Roll-out:  A Status Report

Moderator, Michael Karagosian (MKPE Consulting) reports we are in year 11 in digital cinema rollout.  This year 33 titles will be in 3D.  All current growth in screens in the U.S.  is currently fueled by 3D.  But Asia and Europe are seeing the most expansion of 3D screens. Michael Lewis (RealD) warned that “Bad 3D” could really slow down the movement.  AMC, Cinemark and Regal Cinemas have formed a consortium (DCIP) and raised $660 million towards the deployment of 16,000 new 3D screens. Oleg Berezin (Neva Film) described the Russian exhibition paradigm where less than half the Russian films released on 35mm did not recoup their P & A while digital and 3d releases are considered  the golden goose. Peter Wilison of the European Digital Cinema Forum (EDCF)  portrayed the European theatrical system as healthy and growing, despite the fractious nature of the EU community.  There are 31,00 screens across Europe (excluding Russia and Ukraine) of which 8,000 are 3d equipped.

Technical Issues for 3D Digital Cinema

Richard Welsh of Dolby Labs talked about the essential nature of metadata particularly when cueing subtitles, although they must be rendered or baked into the picture.  Subtitles should to be placed in front of the action so as not to clash with the action plane.  However when there is a dynamic move as shown in the Alice in Wonderland segment with the Cheshire Cat floating towards the audience, so too must the subtitles shift to match the plane. Clearly reading subtitles are going to be a son of a bitch in 3D, however the two multi-depth credit cards looked really hot in the Alice trailer.

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Siegfried Foessel talked about panoramic cinema featuring about to 12 x 2K cameras shooting in a half circle.  He also showed one of the most stunning short clips featuring a Peregrine attack above the city of London and co-produced by the BBC.

The Keynote Speaker, John Honeycutt (Discovery Channel) was the high point of the day as he unveiled Sony’s new 3D camera which I am sure will cause a sensation on the floor of the convention this week.  Some of the specs were outlined such as 3-inch CMOS sensors per eye, Full HD (1920×1080), interchangeable lenses, convergence control and full metadata support. Discovery will be conducting field tests of  the “Concept” prototype this July. The reaction from the house was palpable.

Can there (ever) be a Common Worldwide 3D-TV Broadcast Standard?
When the SMPTE engineers came out after lunch to repeat everything we had been hearing for the last two days, I started to nod off. So I will leave it to Debra Kaufman to fill us in on the details.

I’ve enjoyed using two pairs or RealD glasses this weekend.  I kept one pair and gave the other away. I notice that they smudge easily but hey, they are comfortable and effective. However the question begs, where do they end up after use? Like Happy Meal toys, my kids bring them home thinking they are worth something, but soon get tossed.

The Italian Health Ministry has questioned whether or not re-using or recycling the glasses creates a health concern.  The panelists at NAB this weekend scoffed at this notion.

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Why can’t Gucci start selling 3D glasses?  Having that logo on the side of frames would suggest something of value.

In the meantime, RealD has raised more venture capital. Courtesy of J.P. Morgan.

Eye strain goes with the territory when sitting in a darkened conference room and donning the RealD glasses every half hour for  most of the  day.  But the footage was worth it!  We looked at U2, Dave Matthews, NFL football, Alice in Wonderland and Clash of the Titans, as well as a Praying Mantis eating the head off a fly.  Much of the material was breathtaking, but why do they have to play the music at 100+ decibels?  Do they think it makes the images look better?

Morning Session

I’m a morning person but they managed to run out of coffee by 8:30am (ouch!) when the session was due to start.  Strangely, the organizers had not anticipated such a huge turnout as many were left standing without enough chairs, but not having caffeine in the morning was a cruel hoax, courtesy of  Sony and NAB.

Understanding Stereopsis and 3D Image Capture

Peter Lude’ and Steve Schklair kicked off with an illuminating and sweeping explanation of Stereopsis.  We began to grasp the concepts of divergence, floating windows, edge violations,vertical alignment and the “wow” factor.  We also began to appreciate the difference between side by side cameras and beam splitters.

3D programming:  Lessons learned

Al Barton, Patrick Devlin (Evergreen), Thomas Edwards (Fox Technical Group) and Jason Goodman (21st Century 3D) each took turns explaining their approach to 3D.  The Fox sports reel was the most annoying and in your face, but Tom brought up an interesting dilemma: where does the ever-present score box go?.  Evergreen’s production of the Dave Matthews concert was most exciting to watch.  Jason Goodman (Call of the Wild) has been tearing apart and re-building the Panasonic DVX cameras and creating lightweight 3D rigs which work great on the steadicam.  Their 3DVX 3.5 444 2.75″ 10 Bit Uncompressed rig warrants further investigation.  The Red dual camera setup looks just plain big and unwieldy.

3D Conversion

Warren Littlefield (formerly NBC) gave the sales pitch for 3D describing when in 1987, Third Rock from the Sun created a special 3D episode as a lead-in for Gulliver’s Travels. As the “yes man” for 3D he was the used car salesman of the day,  advising us that we should go out and stereo retro-fit all original content from the last 20 years. Chris Bond’s story was the most harrowing as he described the 2D/3D conversion of Clash of the Titans during which they had a mere 8 – 10 weeks working on an unlocked picture.  The word on the street is the final product looks like a quickie, but the upside is Prime Focus has developed the know-how to turn around features under a tight deadline.

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A Case for Quality in Production and Post-Production

Buzz Hays (Sony Technology Center)  talked about the importance of education and getting the D.P.’s. Directors, Game Developers and Editors on board.  Based on their credits, Sony is clearly an industry leader in 3D and I look forward to dragging my students through their learning center.

After the Capture – What other Tools Exist?

Matthew DeJohn (In Three) described Dimensionalization as the patented process created by his company for 3D conversion. By this time, my eyes are hurting and every demo reel seems to feature converted and original 3D material and quite frankly, I am having trouble telling the difference.

So now it is time to quote, Jeffrey Katzenberg:

“All 3D is not created equal.  It is first and foremost a very, very powerful creative storytelling tool”.

Stereography and Storytelling

I started reading the Bernard Mendiburu book, this morning entitled 3D Movie Making and I my review will post shortly. I enjoyed his rather flip examination of the creative process.  Chuck Comisky (Avatar) is clearly a 3D god and lives and breathes this stuff 24/7.  Phil Streather’s (PLF) reel was gorgeous but uneven.  The bug footage was startling.  Clearly you can shove a 3D camera into a macro nature scene and still achieve great results.  By the time Phil, the indie filmmaker got up to speak, it was the end of the session. I was spent and so was most of the audience.  The scene he showed with the clown in the elevator was painful to watch but this guy is someone we should keep our eye on.  When micro budget filmmakers post their 3D films on youtube, I think this is a game changer.

UPDATE 5.23.10

Marketsaw’s analysis of the latest patent motherboard for the upcoming 3DS.  We are looking at Wi-Fi along with stereo speakers and drum-roll please: backward compatibility!  Expect a June 15 announcement for rollout during the Christmas season.

UPDATE: 5.10.10

The Associated Press reports on Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata’s comments in an interview on the imminent release of Nintendo 3DS.  Piracy was the number one issue that Nintendo plans to address followed by the health and safety issues of the user.   The new model will be demonstrated at E3 this June to be held in Los Angeles.
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It seems like only yesterday that Nintendo upgraded the DS to DSi, adding a camera and wifi capability to it’s wildly successful handheld gaming device, much to the chagrin of parents like myself of two young girls (6 & 8).  My kids always want the latest and greatest and when they learn that the DS is moving into stereoscopic display (and does not require glasses), they likely will be clamoring for them. This means we will have three different models in use around the house, each with a non-matching  power supply. Yikes!  At least they are backward compatible as we have made a sizeable investment in the games. Likely the newest offering will utilize parallax barrier or lenticular-based auto-stereo display with head tracking display.  A sampling of the newest device is shown here and is due this time next year.

- Scott Arundale

Before leaving for NAB, I went in to my local Best Buy and spoke to the salesman about 3D and mentioned the Masters Golf Tournament. I told him I watched some of it last night on DirecTV and it looked mighty fine in HD.

The grass was lush and green and you could really appreciate all of the fabulous landscaping they have in Augusta.  It looked like Tiger never broke into a sweat.  But where is their 3D broadcast?  The salesman said he was channel surfing on DirecTV last night too, but could find no Masters channel in 3D.  Oh well.  We both shrugged our shoulders. He led me to the Panasonic 3D display and couch (with cup holder, natch).  It took awhile for the active (powered) glasses to kick in.  The demo reel was nice, but kind of static.  It reminded me of the Viewmaster Stereo slide viewer I had during the ’60’s.

OK, I realize it is very early in the game, but I wanted some cool programming to sample on the my first 3D retail encounter.  It feels like a chicken and the egg kind of thing.  Which should come first? Should it be a boatload of displays on sale or endless amounts of 3D filmed entertainment to consume?
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Either way, the race is on.

-Scott Arundale

Sony has won and lost a few format wars, but thankfully they prevailed with Blu-Ray, and with the disks added capacity, they may just be the ticket when it comes to distributing 3D content.

In a recent Wired Magazine article:

“No other company seems to be staking as much of its future on the belief that an added dimension will convince millions of consumers to swap out their home entertainment components — which many just recently upgraded to hi-def.”
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Sony Corp. today unveiled their plans for adding a third dimension to the football viewing experience.

World Cup final among 25 3-D games.

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What remains unclear at this point is how consumers will actually be able to view these images as 3D sets have not rolled out in any significant numbers.