3D in films (Gaming)

by Kahzgul, Thursday, January 07, 2016, 15:54 (3243 days ago) @ stabbim

Until Avatar, 3D in films was purely a gimmick, and it was treated as such. Objects were thrown at the viewer for no reason, things flying past your face, all just to scare or surprise you because WOW 3D! It sucked.

Then Avatar actually used 3D simply to enhance the image, and otherwise filmed the world like a normal movie. It was a more compelling window into the fictional universe. Awesome.

And then other shitty movies saw how much money Avatar made, and they forced 3D down the throats of their productions on people who did not understand how to make it work. Sometimes (clash of titans, GI Joe) they added the 3D as a special effect in post production rather that shooting in 3D to begin with, and the effect is terrible. It's like the backgrounds from the sega genesis. Several flat layers designed to appear at different distances. Awful.

Only now (as in, 2015+) do I feel like film finally has a handle on how to make a compelling narrative in 3D without making the 3D distracting or detrimental to the story. Star Wars was awesome in 3D. The Jungle Book appears to be the best 3D ever made. Other films are being produced that view 3D as a medium rather than a gimmick.

The future of films is coming, and it's 3D. But it certainly took a very, very long time to get there. VR is going to be on a similar and longer path, as you simply won't be able to outfit every seat in a theater with a VR headset (nor would you need to, as wearing a headset is tantamount to putting your head inside an infinite theater with only one seat), and finding a good business model for it will be hard.