3D movie screens coming online slower than the movie industry projected

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3D movie screens coming online slower than the movie industry projected

1:18 PM Mon, Jan 12, 2009 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
Victor Godinez   E-mail   News tips

While there have been a few prominent examples of blockbuster movies being shown in 3D movie theaters, the trickle is about to become a flood, the New York Times reports.

But even if the 3D movies are on the way, the number of theaters capable of displaying 3D films is lagging:

"It's starting to look like there will be a lot of disappointed producers unable to realize the upside of these 3-D investments," said Harold L. Vogel, a media analyst and the author of "Entertainment Industry Economics." Filming in 3-D adds about $15 million to production costs, he said, but can send profit soaring because of premium ticket pricing.

Only about 1,300 of North America's 40,000 or so movie screens support digital 3-D. (Imax adds 250.) Overseas, where films now generate up to 70 percent of their theatrical revenue, only a few hundred theaters can support the technology. It costs about $100,000 for each full upgrade.

Studios require about 3,000 screens in North America for most new releases. Popcorn movies like "Avatar" or "Monsters vs. Aliens," a 3-D entry from DreamWorks Animation, typically open on more than 4,000 screens.

"The crunch has everybody scrambling," said Chuck Viane, president for domestic distribution for Walt Disney Studios. "We had expected many more screens to be available by now, no doubt about it."

One barrier in the near term for 3D theaters is the cost, both to upgrade the screens and to buy a ticket to go see the films (the NYT story says tickets to 3D movies will go for as much as $25 each).

While the studios and theater chains are apparently hashing out agreements to split the upgrade costs, I think $25 movie tickets are going to be about as popular as bird flu.

Even in the best of economic times, $25 for a movie ticket borders on the larcenous unless the purchase includes free hot dog, popcorn and beverage, and all teenagers are automatically immobilized via tazer if they so much as whisper during the movie.

But cost aside, the 3D movie theater trend might be derailed before it even gets rolling, thanks to 3D television.

And, unlike 3D theaters, some of these 3D TVs won't require bulky glasses.

Comments

Posted by Bob Johnston @ 9:36 PM Mon, Jan 12, 2009

I feel some recent quotes in the trades, in an effort to enhance the awareness and financial value of 3D exhibition, have been taken out of context and need clarification.

The estimate that 3D Animation Films cost "15 Million more" should not be confused with the costs of shooting a Live Action Film in Hi Definition 3D.

While the "$15 Million more" estimate comes from Jeffrey Katzenburg and Dreamworks in reference to the costs of a large budget Animated Film, the actual costs to shoot a Live Action film in stereoscopic HD 3D is only 15 to 20% of that "15 Million" for typical feature projects.

This generalized overestimations of actual costs for Live Action 3D will dissuade producers considering a 3D release for a typical 8 to 20 million dollar feature to relinquish the notion of originating their film in 3D, when in fact it will only value enhance and futureproof their film for future 3D delivery formats for nominal additional expense.

These generalizations only diminish the amount of potential future 3D content.

The Lionsgate release of "My Bloody Valentine-3D"
is an early example of the new cost efficient model of Hi Def 3D Live Action filmaking.

Bob Johnston
Executive Producer
Paradise FX
3D Producer for "My Bloody Valentine-3D"

--
Bob Johnston
Producer
johnston.rw@gmail.com

My Blogs:
http://3dproductionnews.blogspot.com/
http://filmmoney.blogspot.com/
http://3devents.blogspot.com/

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Home |Tech | News

Format war looms over 3D TV

• 14:42 11 February 2009 by Barry Fox

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last month was overrun with companies demonstrating 3D television systems for the home. But despite the impressive viewing experiences on offer, the spectre of a lengthy battle between competing formats hangs over the latest shiny offerings.

TV studios and hardware companies alike are now building on the public's rediscovered love of 3D movies. Satellite broadcaster Sky recently treated press to examples of soccer games and boxing matches filmed in 3D by strapping two regular cameras side by side, and Panasonic last week started to make 3D Blu-ray video discs at its Hollywood factory.

However, anyone interested in a 3D system for the home must pick between three or more very different and incompatible technologies. At present, material designed for one system usually cannot be played on another.

Polarised views

One approach – already well established for virtual environments used by engineers and surgeons – involves a home theatre projector running at high frequency to deliver left and right images in rapid succession.

The viewer wears LCD spectacles that alternately block the left and right eye view to ensure that each eye only sees the correct viewpoint – timing is synchronised via a wireless link with the projector.

Panasonic's 3D offering uses a plasma screen to flash the alternate left and right images, and should be on sale in the near future.

South Korean firm Hyundai uses an LCD screen to display left and right images simultaneously, using a filter over the screen to polarise the two images differently. The viewer wears polarising spectacles to see 3D image.

This system is already on sale in Japan, where limited 3D TV broadcasts started last year, and has also been adopted by Sky.

'Confusing' situation

Experts say that the sudden appearance on the market of incompatible rival technologies could hold the 3D home movie back.

"With several competing technologies – and none of them adopted as industry standards – the fragmentation could seriously impede progress, generate confusion and slow consumer uptake," says Sarah Carroll, at consumer electronics research firm Futuresource Consulting.

The closest the industry currently has to a standard is Panasonic's campaign to add 3D playback to the Blu-ray standard.

If other manufacturers get on board, the move could lead to a single format for discs or broadcasts that any 3D or even 2D TV set can play. So far they have put development of competing technologies first.

--
Bob Johnston
Producer
johnston.rw@gmail.com

My Blogs:
http://3dproductionnews.blogspot.com/
http://filmmoney.blogspot.com/
http://3devents.blogspot.com/

Audi push for holograms

Austrailian IT
Simon Canning | February 16, 2009

MARKETERS have a new weapon in their arsenal after Audi last week became the first company in Australia to introduce a holographic sales assistant to one of its showrooms.

The debut of the life-size projection comes after several electronics companies demonstrated 3D televisions at the consumer electronics show in the US last month.

For all technology there comes a tipping point, and Audi's holographic experiment, coupled with the sudden international interest in 3D as a viable technology, suggests that the tipping point in the next generation of electronic media and marketing is fast approaching.

Just as the iPhone shuffled mobile media out of relative obscurity, it may soon be the era of holograms and 3D, thanks to cartoons, out-of-home marketing and games.

Dreamworks and Disney have already announced that all their feature films produced from now on will be capable of being viewed in 3D.

Telstra has installed 3D screens at its corporate centre in Melbourne, while gaming developers are also salivating at the impact of an era of truly immersive games.

Brian Craighead, managing director of Prime Digital Media, which created the Audi projection, says the transition of interest in using holographic devices and 3D content has been swift.

"It really went from bleeding edge to leading edge overnight," he said.

Mr Craighead said that while attempts to create workable holographic and 3D content in the past had been let down by the available technology -- most notably the ubiquitous red and green cardboard glasses -- it was now capable of delivering a believable experience.

"The trick involved is a product of the content world," he said. "They are all playing tricks with your eyes and you need to know how to work the content to make it work.

"We have been really surprised at how enthusiastic the marketing world has been about this."

Mr Craighead said the development of 3D and holograms would transform out-of-home media from "walk by" to "stop and stare".

"You want people to stop," he said. "We are starting to see demand for not just day-to-day, but big emotive stuff.

"Consumers are much harder to reach and I think now the battleground is when they are out and about, and people are not interested in seeing just a screen anymore so you have to have an improved product."

Mr Craighead said that as the two mediums began to take hold, it would also become harder to unstitch the content from the media, with holographic and 3D campaigns linked to the capabilities of the new mediums.

In the US, Panasonic, LG, Philips, Sony and others are marketing 3D TVs for the home, some of which require the use of special polarising glasses.

Other technology to arrive in coming months -- and already in use by marketers on out-of-home displays -- uses new methods to dispose of the glasses.

So the tipping point is approaching and you can expect to see more and more holograph-style displays in the marketplace, particularly as the technology improves.

But what will propel 3D from being just a gimmick on the periphery? Sony marketing director Tony Barbour says it will be games. He says that gaming, where people now spend hours wandering through virtual worlds, will provide 3D with a key to the loungeroom.

Fwd: 3D Films Back in Cinema, but porn will lead

From The Sunday Times

February 15, 2009

3D films back in cinema, but porn will lead

Horror, animation and concert movies are out or on the way, but adult entertainment will push boundaries with the new technology

Christopher Goodwin

This is the year Hollywood's billion-dollar 3D movie gamble will be played out on the big screen, with dozens of 3D films, across all genres, set for release in the coming months. You can already watch the horror movie My Bloody Valentine in 3D; and Coraline, a stop-action 3D animated feature based on a story by Neil Gaiman, opens in May. Even the Jonas Brothers, a boyband, are jumping on the bandwagon with a 3D concert movie. More than 30 3D films are in production, including Avatar, the first feature directed by James Cameron since Titanic, due at the end of the year.

Betting that the format will offer something consumers can't get on their new HDTV screens at home, Hollywood is quickly converting cinemas and heavily promoting forthcoming 3D films such as the blockbuster Monsters vs Aliens. Its producer, DreamWorks, handed out 150m sets of special glasses so American viewers could get a taste of the experience by watching a 3D trailer at half-time during the recent Super Bowl.

As heavily as Hollywood is boosting the theatrical experience, however, it is at home that most people will experience the coming revolution. Companies such as Mitsubishi, Panasonic and Samsung are busily developing 3D TV systems. The market is expected to be worth $16 billion in the next decade. Most of the new Hollywood 3D films, though, won't be available for home viewing until next year at the earliest. And there aren't enough of them to fill more than a couple of days' viewing. So where will the product come from for this new kind of television-watching?

Within the industry, the dirty secret is that 3D will be carried into the homes of consumers not by mainstream Hollywood, nor even by satellite providers such as Sky, but on the back of the apparently insatiable desire for new ways of watching pornography.

"3D TV will be taken to the next level as the adult entertainment industry once again pushes the boundaries with new tech," says the online technology site T3.com. "The porn industry is going nuts for it now, and that's traditionally where all the innovation is — multiangle DVDs came about thanks to porn, after all."

That should not be a surprise. Pornography has been the driving force behind every significant new entertainment delivery system in the past few decades — the VHS home-video revolution of the 1980s, the satellite TV boom of the 1990s, the internet today. Right now, porn distributors are at the forefront of developing the technology to stream and download video on the internet, and to find ways to make people pay for it.

The porn industry is actually banking on the revolution even more than mainstream Hollywood, because it's flagging. Thanks to the ease with which porn can be accessed for free on the internet, legally and illegally, the industry's DVD sales have gone decidedly limp, dropping by as much as 50%, according to some estimates. So, at the recent Adult Entertainment Expo, producers were almost ecstatic at the opportunities offered by 3D systems, whose booths attracted bigger crowds than the nude porn stars nearby.

"Once film-makers get the hang of it, feet will be hanging out of the screen and you'll be dodging the money shot," said Tony Ross, president of Glacier Media Systems, which makes the new IceBerg entertainment system and is happy to promote the porno possibilities of its technology. The Iceberg can convert standard DVDs to 3D, which can then be watched with special glasses, made by Nvidia.

Although the Iceberg currently costs just under $2,000, the price is expected to drop fast, and less sophisticated 3D TV systems are already available, costing just a few hundred dollars. "With the glasses on, things just pop out at you... sometimes in pairs," said Charlie Demerjian, writing about the porn experience for a technology magazine. "You almost have to duck to avoid getting hit with large silicone objects."

What's funny is that 3D porn is nothing new, for all the media brouhaha recently when a Hong Kong producer announced that he was going to be making the "first" 3D porn film, 3D Sex and Zen, a $4m remake of an erotic classic, Sex and Zen. "Just imagine you'll be watching it as if you were sitting beside the bed," said Stephen Shiu Jr. "There will be many close-ups. It will look as if the actresses are only a few centimetres from the audience."

That was all marketing hype. A number of striptease shorts were made in 3D in the early 1950s and shown in cinemas. In 1954, the movie French Line was released, starring the Hollywood siren Jane Russell. It wasn't porn, but the ad copy hyped up the sexual excitement of seeing the busty Ms Russell in the new format: "JR in 3D! It'll knock both your eyes out!"

The first known hardcore 3D porn film was The Starlets, made in 1976. In fact, the film was marketed as a "4D" film, the fourth dimension being the ability to arouse the viewer. The Stewardesses, made in 1971, showed the potential of 3D pornography by taking an astonishing $27m, making it the most successful 3D film of all time. The distributor had 10 technicians flying to cities all over America to set up the projection systems and screens needed to show the film. To modern eyes, The Stewardesses is unbelievably cheesy and inadvertently hilarious, but in the era before hardcore porn became widely available, it delivered a real thrill.

"Think of it as the Titanic of 3D boobie movies," said the 3D movie buff Dion Conflict in an essay titled Why They Call It the Cockpit. The Stewardesses is being remade and should be released next year, just in time for your new 3D TV.

If the past is anything to go by, as well as mainstream Hollywood movies and cheesy porn in three dimensions, we can, thankfully, expect the new technology to attract a highly esoteric range of film-makers and artists keen to experiment with its possibilities. Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (also known as Flesh for Frankenstein) — actually directed by Paul Morrissey and filmed at the Cinecitta studios, in Rome — was originally released in what was known as Space-Vision 3D. Frankenstein remains an innovative and unique 3D pleasure, if perhaps overindulging in gore, as disembowelled viscera fly towards the viewer. Then again, sex and violence have always been big sellers, in 2D, 3D or 4D.

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--
Bob Johnston
Producer
johnston.rw@gmail.com

My Blogs:
http://3dproductionnews.blogspot.com/
http://filmmoney.blogspot.com/
http://3devents.blogspot.com/

--
Bob Johnston
Producer
johnston.rw@gmail.com

My Blogs:
http://3dproductionnews.blogspot.com/
http://filmmoney.blogspot.com/
http://3devents.blogspot.com/