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“Why can’t I touch the people that I see on the screen? I want them to be near me as if they’re not on the screen.” said one man one day, and 3D film was born.*
3D goes back further than you think. It kind of started in the 1830s, with the creation of the Stereoscope. Charles Wheatstone realised that each eye sees slightly different images and then the brain fuses them together and used pictures, angled mirrors and lenses for 3D photos. Eventually, movies took the concept and shot a film on 2 different angled cameras at the same time, then projected both simultaneously to give the 3D effect. The first ever 3D feature film, the black-and-white ‘The Power of Love’ (1922) was projected through red (left eye) and green (right eye) projectors, hence why we have the red and cyan anaglyph glasses. In fact, they utilised the cameras so much that movie has a happy or tragic ending depending on which eye you closed. Please don’t ask me how they did it I have no clue. Despite this, the movie wasn’t successful and 3D was confined to short films for a few decades.
Red, Black and Cyan
Believe it or not, the Golden Age of 3D movies is not considered to be recently, but the 1950s. The 1952 movie ‘Bwana Devil’ was a full length colour feature film with the tagline:
“The Miracle of the Age!!! A LION in your lap! A LOVER in your arms!”
I don’t know who would want a lion in their land, let alone their lap, but the filmgoers loved it.
By this time, they had new natural vision 3D where you could use the black polarised glasses, where there are filters sending different light to each eye. TECHNOLOGY. With the rise of TV, cinema was looking for something that set them apart, so they clung onto 3D. The studios made 57 3D movies in the 2 years that followed. It had small peaks and troughs, with a rise in the 80s with Jaws 3D, but people didn’t really vibe with it. It was seen as more of a gimmick to sell B-movies rather than a prestigious cinema experience. This changed drastically after the unprecedented success of James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’. After that, there was a 21st century 3D craze. But did the revival do anything substantial?
To me, it did. 3D in cinema was like saying, “bougie babes, come to the front”. It was short lived, but right in the sweet spot of my tweenage years and probably terrible for my movie ego. I remember that I left my 3D glasses at home once and my parents were angry with me because they had to buy another pair. That’s when I realised that surely, 3D is for the bourgeoisie. Because if you don’t bring your expensive accessories, it’s impossible to watch the film – which was actually a big problem. Leaving the glasses at home meant a blurry cinema experience and I was at a disadvantage. Apologies to those who don’t have 20/20 vision and have the daily fight of remembering your glasses – keep fighting the good fight!
A New Prescription
Most of the time though, I left 3D movies with a headache. Some films weren’t made using 2 cameras when filming, but were made to be 3D in post production. This post-conversion made things look flat and dim, even though it cost millions to change the dimension. I remember taking them on and off to see how the lens image compared to the real thing and I had to take breaks from looking at the screen so my eyes didn’t bulge out of my socket. Directors couldn’t do much with 3D either, they had to avoid handheld cameras and quick cuts for fear that the illusion would be ruined, stifling their creativity a bit. 3D movies were never really 3D. The novelty wore off quite quickly yet again.
But this means a lot of ‘lost’ film. Movies that were shot for 3D now being watched contrary to the intended way. I have only seen ‘Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over’ in 2D. I can only imagine the absolute scenes of Sylvester Stallone as a 3D villain. It’s weird watching a film made for 3D in 2D because the characters are coming towards the camera as if they want to grab me. ‘Step Up 3D’ without glasses is some unnecessary fourth wall breaking popping and locking. It’s my favourite one though, and it’s partly because watching it in 3D added to the experience, and you could say the same thing for ‘Streetdance 3D’ too. But why am I watching ‘Beauty and the Beast’ or ‘Thor’ in 3D? Sometimes, 3D wasn’t a creative choice, but a marketing one – and the audience could tell. Audiences stopped paying for 3D versions, and ticket sales followed.
But thank God, the phenomenon is not completely dead. 3D has evolved to 4DX, and virtual reality too, so it may not be a 3D revolution, but there is still something there. If I turn on my Nintendo 3DS right now, it’s like I’m on Rainbow Road with Mario himself, and that 3D will live forever.
*this is entirely fictional and probably not what was said when 3D was born. The rest of the blog is true though.
