Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Sizzlin' Stereoscopic 3Dillyicious!

This evening I was given a treat, courtesy of my good pals at the Producer's Guild: Stereoscopic 3D! Courtesy of Real-D in Beverly Hills, we attended a fantastic seminar on the things to look out for when producing a 3D feature - complete with examples from feature film and theme park applications. But first...

for those of you that are not familiar, our host explained that there are many types of 3D displays: stereoscopic 3D displays a separate image to each eye; autosteroscopic 3D displays do the same, but don't require any special eye wear or head tracking; and holographic 3D displays reproduce a light field which is identical to that which emanated from the original scene.

So today we were talking primarily about stereoscopic, or those 3D methods that provide a totally separate image for each eye. In production terms, that's like creating two totally separate features. Hmmmm... double the work, but does it have the potential for double the impact?

Well, award-winning Producer Chartlotte Huggins kicked off our panel with an in-depth discussion of the elements she looks for in a script that can really come to life in a 3D format. And I have to say that she really wowed the audience with a 3 min. clip from her upcoming Animated Feature "Fly Me to the Moon".


Forgeting that it's 3D for a moment, I thought that this clip was one of the most beautifully crafted and enjoyable CGI animation sequences I've seen recently. The stylized fly characters were absolutely joyful. Adding in the field depth of a photorealistic fantasy space setting and the extension beyond the plane with the characters drifting in space... wow. I hate to sound so dang positive through this whole thing, but Holy Buckets! I call this one 'plug-worthy', so look for it at your local IMAX theater. (Photo Credit: nWave)

Next up on the agenda was Jeff Kleiser - and if you don't know the name, you definitely know his work in visual effects that spans the decades from "Tron" to "X-Men United" and "Fantastic Four".

Jeff took us through some gorgeous concept art that was used for the Eddy award-winning Spiderman attraction at Universal in Orlando (really wonderful stuff, ALMOST worth visiting Florida for), and showed us part of the "Santa Lights Up New York" for "The Radio City Christmas Spectacular" project. The "Santa" project story was particularly interesting as they actually revisited it a few years after the original cut to freshen up everyone's favorite fat man with the latest CGI techniques... but I digress.

***TANGENT ALERT: To digress even farther, I just checked out Jeff's bio on IMDb Pro to find out that his brother Randal Kleiser is a pretty amazing Director as well. It makes me giddy as a schoolgirl to know that I was sitting three seats away from the Director of Grease! WHOPBODDALOOBOP-A-WHOP-BAMB-BOOM!!!***

Anyway, Jeff then then told us a bit about a project that his company Kleiser/Walczak produced for Bush Gardens based on the very simple concept provided to them... "Irish". Now known as "Corkscrew Hill", which takes audiences on a 3-D adventure back in time to experience the mythical creatures of 18th Century Ireland.

I wasn't as in love with the creative direction of this as with the previously discussed "Fly" feature - but only in terms of style. From a conceptual point of view, this is a story brilliantly written specifically to make the most of 3D. The audience actually gets to be a part of the story - watching the action from within a 'box' found by two small boys. It's a fantastic way to deal with the limitations of the 3D 'window' created by the film screen - and at one point a troll seems to actually pluck an audience member out of the box and try to eat him!! Very, very cool!

Unfortunately, at this point the evening was running a bit behind schedule and I had to depart due to a previous engagement... but my hat is off to Jeff and Charlotte, and my thanks goes out to Joe Russo from the Guild for providing this great session!

I'm glad to see 3D making a comeback and taking such enormous strides in quality. I did enjoy the recent release of "Monster House" in 3D, and also the Disney 3D versions of "Chicken Little" and "Meet the Robinsons". Although "Chicken" wasn't a story that lended itself to 3D as well as "Monster" or MTR. But if the effects that we saw this week are any indication, we will be seeing enormous strides in quality in this next gen of 3D cinema and park attractions. HOORAY!

NOTE: BTW, it should be clear to you that I am NOT an expert on either animation or 3D. But I'm always learning, and I'm definitely an afficionado! Please feel free to comment or correct!

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