2. 3D Is The Future!
Remember 2009? Remember those whispers you heard amid the gloomy chiaroscuro of the backseats of the internet...what is the Cameron-Pace Fusion Camera System? Where can I get one? Why are you looking at me in that way? It was an exciting time, and mankind was joined together in celebration. We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to 3D! "3D? You mean stereoscopic imagery? Like the 3D that Hitchcock used on Dial M For Murder, or like they used on Jaws 3, or like they used back in 1922 for The Power of Love, the world's first 3D film?" "...whatever." Yes, 2009 was the year in which Avatar, with it's close to $3 billion box office success, promised to change the face of cinema. Of course, 3D had existed for almost a century prior to the Fusion Camera System, but the excellence and success of James Cameron's work led to orgiastic levels of enthusiasm within the industry: "3D is the future of cinema! It's ground breaking! It's artistically important! It allows us to charge more for flimsy specs and that!" I like to think of 2009 as the year in which I really wanted to give James Cameron a slap. In the most hucksterish way, he managed to use his flashy new camera system and state-of-the-art CGI to hoodwink people into thinking he hadn't just made Dances With Smurfs, and then he managed to bamboozle more than a few filmmakers into thinking that they wanted to make Dances With Smurfs as well! And on top of Cameron's financial success, the recent Oscar wins for such stereoscopic efforts as Hugo and Life of Pi have managed to convince a few amigos that 3D
can be artistic and not just gimmicky twaddle. But the fact of the matter is that for all the broo-ha-ha that surrounds these films, audiences simply aren't convinced by 3D. You may follow, as I do, Deadline's regular posts on the performance of RealD, the company behind 3D projection. Back in 2011, the company was reporting losses as audiences chose 2D over 3D film after film - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides, as well as the catastrophic showing at the box office from Mars Needs Moms, a major 3D release. It would be remiss of me to deny that RealD has been making a strong showing recently as it expands into the international market, and their stock price is up again. But the fluctuations in the company's finances, rather than the meteoric strength-to-strength performance we might expect to see in a company which has a monopoly on "the future of cinema", illustrates that audiences simply are not sold on 3D. We are now 4 years past the release of Avatar, and non-stereoscopic formats are still going as strong as it ever. And until Hollywood manages to convince cinema goers that The Shawshank Redemption would be infinitely better in 3D, I think things will continue much as they are.