Thoughts on Meet the Robinsons 3-D

Meet the Robinsons 3-D is an interesting case for anybody seriously studying the use of 3-D in stereoscopic films and just how much is good enough to make a 3-D movie pass as a 'movie that really uses the 3-D'. IMO The use of 3-D in 'Robinsons' is weak. There is hardly any off-screen action (the most famous, effective and memorable of 3-D tools), the use of depth in regular scenes is bland and shallow, and the volume of objects is inexpressive. It just doesn't leave a lasting impression and for a movie that is being marketed as 3-D, that is a real shame. It's very much like trumpeting the use of Dolby Digital and THX surround sound and then only using the center speaker, or heralding the use of colour and then sticking to a bland palette. It's just not a convincing way to produce and promote a big budget movie, or any movie for that matter.

It does bring up a very notable point about 3-D, though, which is that most people will not find it worth watching 3-D unless the 3-D is actively used. And with active use I mean in your face, thrill ride and gaping depth 3-D. As a 3-D producer, I am always looking for the balance of just how much of the off-screen and in-screen extremities need to be used to please a 3-D glasses-wearing audience. And personally, I found the balance in 'Robinsons' to be way off. I understand that studios want to show films in 3-D because of the financial imperative, but if they keep pumping out bland 3-D films the audience is going to not want to see 3-D films any more, if only because most people find donning the glasses quite a big hurdle. Patrons are fickle and the potential of 3-D releases must not be killed off by greedy studio execs who just hit the 3-D switch for the sake of squeezing an extra buck out of a movie. Oh dear, that's it then, we're in trouble...

Independent 3-D film producers can make a difference, though. The way to do this is to stand out from the below-average mainstream 3-D product by being different and damn good. So using 3-D for what is can do and creating a new 3-D film language. Currently, there is no such thing and subsequently, 3-D movies are all over the place in terms of use of 3-D, and so is its projected practical future.

Check out www.the3drevolution.com/3dtheory.html for more theory on 3-D film making.

Thoughts on Meet the Robinsons 3-D

3-D Stereoscopic production for the rest of us

Meet the Robinsons 3-D

There is currently a lot of talk in the common and media press about 3-D film production and releases, spawned by the changeover to digital projection. Dreamworks has promised it will produce all its animation features in 3-D from now on, Cameron is still en route to release the most expensive film ever with Avatar, also in 3-D, and Zemeckis has just joined up with Disney to ensure their 3-D efforts are successful, creatively, from now on.

But is there enough knowledge about 3-D film and animation production amongst everybody but these mogul film producers to guarantee professional quality stereoscopic product from the rest of the world's film professionals?

There has been over a century of education in film language, but the 3-Dimesional equivalent still remains something of a secret art. Because of this, producers wishing to shoot, animate or post-produce in 3-D are more often than not stabbing in the dark about what is possible, how to do it all and how much it should cost. A 3-D professional can fill in all those blanks.

There are as many different possibilities for the final 3-D look as there are for the look of a regular flat movie. Where use of lens, focal length, depth of field, film stock, f-stops, colour timing and countless other factors determine the look of a flat movie, the 3-Dimensional look will be determined by all these factors, interacting with camera interocular, convergence, stereo window offset, stereo window safety, screen size and extra-stereoscopic depth cues.

You see, it’s for a good reason that every 3-D stereoscopic film production includes 3-D technicians as well as 3-D cinematographic advisers. Without the 3-D direction, the 3-D equivalent of a typical YouTube video will result: amateurish, poor-looking, clumsy and often difficult to watch, and that’s when you’re not causing your audience massive headaches.

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3-D Stereoscopic production for the rest of us