http://movies.ign.com/articles/784/784033p1.html
Real D: The Future of Cinema
"In the next 10 years it'll be as ubiquitous as colour or sound." Prepare to be blown away.
by Cam Shea, IGN AU
Australia, April 27, 2007 - If we were to tell you that a revolution in cinema — one that's potentially as profound as the advent of sound or colour — was not just on the horizon, but already sitting in hundreds of theatres around the United States and indeed the world, what would you say? If we were to tell you that these cinemas — kitted out with new technology and the content to showcase it — were merely the first waves lapping against the 21st century's multimedia shores, heralding a tsunami of support from filmmakers, studios, production houses and theatre owners, what would you say?
There is indeed a revolution in cinema taking place. It's quietly slipped under the radar of most technophiles, beginning its assault on the way we consume media clothed in thoroughly unassuming garb — the Disney Digital 3-D film, Meet the Robinsons. Yes, we're talking about 3-D. And no, we don't blame you for being skeptical. Most people in their mid-20s or later think of 3-D movies from the old school perspective — goofy red and blue coloured glasses, strained eyes, possible migraines. And most importantly, a so-so 3-D effect. No more.
3-D is back, packing sophisticated, highly refined, and most importantly, affordable technology courtesy of a company called Real D, and it's here to stay. Seriously, go and see Meet the Robinsons in 3-D. It's not the first film to be released using Real D's technology, but it's the first to be designed from the start with both 2-D and 3-D versions in mind, and is an eye-opening experience that will really key you into the potential of the technology. Of course, that's only the beginning and over the course of this article, you'll learn just how seriously the film industry is taking 3-D and why, in only a few years, this presentation will most likely become the standard for the movie going experience.
To help us do so, we interviewed a "who's-who" of the 3-D scene. We spoke to Joshua Greer, the President and Co-founder of Real D; Kyle Odermatt, the computer graphics supervisor responsible for stereoscopic 3-D on Meet the Robinsons; and Steve Schklair, the founding principle of Cobalt Entertainment and its subsidiary 3ality Digital Systems, who is a producer on U2 3-D — the first live-action concert film in 3-D — and a hugely important player in the resurgence of 3-D.
From left: Joshua Greer, Kyle Odermatt and Steve Schklair.
The Real D technology has been a long time coming. Greer told us that a lot of the core technology which forms the basis of the Real D system has been refined over the last 20 years in industrial applications. Whether it's aerial mapping and reconnaissance by the military, or CAD design for the automotive industry, there are numerous areas where seeing in 3-D can be vital, which inexorably led to the development of technology. One of the most significant companies involved was StereoGraphics, which Real D acquired three or four years ago to provide their base technology.
"From that point," Greer says, "we then spent another three years refining the technology further, bringing in a lot more advanced optics, a whole new generation of digital projectors, and completely refined the system again, to really make it at the quality we have today."
Importantly, they also refined the system to the point where it could be displayed on a single projector. Greer laughs as he tells us that "it seemed in concept a really simple idea, but it took us a hell of a lot longer than we ever imagined to actually make it work and work well."
This helps make the system cost-effective to install, which is obviously a hugely important concern for any new technology. In fact, as Greer told us; "All of our technology is designed to sit off of what is becoming the digital cinema standard. So, currently all of our systems run on DLP based projectors. There are three vendors that produce that, as well as about 10 different servers that are produced. So you need to have that base projector and server."
Understand 3-D... in two dimensions. Click for a more readable size.
That's far from the end of the story though, with "a number of pieces of technology, both hardware and software, optical and digital" also factored in as part of the Real D system. There's the specially formulated silver screen, which, while not new tech in and of itself, is the result of "an incredible amount of time and energy working with the vendors to re-engineer that for the quality we have today." There's an optical device called the Z-Screen that sits in front of the lens of the projector. It acts as "a special liquid crystal modulator that polarizes the light, the left eye and right eye information, in opposite circular states." And then there's the eyewear. Forget the ancient red and blue though, as Real D uses "a specially polarized type of eyewear called circular polarized lens, which is very different from traditional 3-D in that it allows you to tip your head without losing the 3-D effect — something you can't do with typical 3-D systems." Then there's "a series of hardware and software drive modules that do our electronic noise reduction and synchronize the projector, and actually help juice the projector — we actually run them at 144 frames a second." Phew.
In other words, this system is based on technology that's been around for 20 years, refined to within an inch of its life, and the results speak for themselves, all without the (literal) headaches of the older systems.
Discussing the technology with Odermatt, in light of his experience on Meet the Robinsons also demonstrates that filmmakers are approaching the technology with a refreshing maturity.
"We don't want to stop the movie for a 'stereo moment'…" he told us. "If you're aware of the device then you're probably being pulled away from the story and the characters, and we really do want to make it that immersive experience." To avoid that, "it really became a conversation with the director very early in on what use of depth could provide in terms of enhancing the storytelling. Pretty much like with all aspects of art direction, whether it be the colour palette we choose, or the staging, or even going to things like the soundtrack or score, as they ebb and flow over the course of scenes or sequences to really convey a mood, we wanted to do the same thing with stereoscopic depth."
One specific example he gave us demonstrated how mood can be enhanced using stereoscopic depth.
"When the character is at his emotional low early in the film, things are very, very flat," he revealed. "The overall amount of depth that we used was quite shallow. Then as we traveled to the future world which is supposed to feel very different from the present world, we expand the depth tremendously, and then later on in the film when it reaches its climax and our characters are at their happy place, then really we are maximizing the depth settings so that you feel expanded in your emotional mood just like you do in the visual presentation you're seeing."
Another indication that 3-D is no longer just a gimmick is the lengths to which filmmakers are going to ensure that the viewing experience is comfortable. For a start, they're avoiding radical changes in depth from scene to scene, which forces the viewers' eyes to focus and refocus. They've also done tests to find out the extremes to which they can push the technology while keeping the audience comfortable. It's a lot like designing a rollercoaster — the audience wants to feel the Gs, but you can't hit them with too sustained a blast.
As Odermatt put it: "There are areas in the film where you can push things very, very far, but only for the briefest of times. Then, when you want to have a long stretch of enhanced depth, you really do have to back off so that people can handle it and have it be a comfortable viewing experience."
Moving forward, Disney is wholly committed to the technology, both as a means to reinvigorate the cinema experience and as a tool to make their films more immersive. Indeed, as Odermatt told us, "All of our projects going forward are intended for stereoscopic release as far as I'm aware."
And now that Pixar is owned by Disney, what of John Lasseter, the studio's chief creative officer and resident genius?
"He really is very excited about it and he's looking forward to doing, I believe, his next project this way", Odermatt enthused. "And he was very interested in hearing all the lessons we'd learned over the course of trying things on this film and he was thrilled with the result."
I can feel the music.
Disney isn't the only company betting big on the return of 3-D. Greer spelled it out from Real D's perspective.
"In the last five years, we've now had interaction with every major studio and almost every major filmmaker, and the reaction is almost unanimously, overwhelmingly positive. Very few filmmakers have come out after seeing our experience and not said, 'This totally changes the way I think about films.' Certainly James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, Bob Zemeckis — the biggest filmmakers in the world are all thinking now about making in 3-D, as opposed to just making in 2-D. And, obviously, the studios as well. We're now working with virtually every major studio and about 25 different production companies. Every studio either has, or is about to, green light a production for 3-D, and in the case of a company like Dreamworks, they just recently announced, starting 2009, all their properties are being designed for 3-D first, and may be released exclusively in 3-D. Which is great news for us."
The groundswell of support is certainly there, but how important is this to cinema as an artform? Greer, who admittedly has more than a vested interest in the technology, believes that "what's really happening now with the filmmakers that are being turned on to 3-D is we're seeing a new creative renaissance. And at the end of the day it's about the story, but even more importantly how you tell the story, and what's happening with these filmmakers is the way they're thinking about 3-D now, as opposed to being just a gimmick, but actually as a storytelling device, is really, frankly, going to reinvigorate the experience of cinema again. So 3-D in and of itself, if we do our job right, in the next 10 years it'll be as ubiquitous as colour or sound. It's not like anyone goes out now looking for a black and white television. It's just a natural part of the world."
3ality Digital's Schklair takes a similar line of thought.
"Let's compare it to Dolby 5.1 audio. I don't think you can go to a movie anymore that isn't in 5.1. As audio became more immersive it stayed, because there's no downside to actually having that as a playback. Yes, you can still do your stereo and your mono tracks for certain releases, but at the high end there's the assets to make something more immersive. Picture is the same way… 3-D is back, but this time it works, as opposed to all the past experiments that were done with different technologies that didn't work."
This isn't just a technology, either. It's a business model that's actually proving itself in the market.
"As Real D continues to put platforms into the market," he told us, "more and more content will be made so it can reach those theatres as well as the 2-D theatres. At this point there's so much momentum, it's self-sustaining. This technology is now here to stay."
The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D is less impressive a technological demonstration given that it wasn't made with 3-D in mind, but you can imagine how many classic films could benefit from a 3-D re-release. Star Wars anyone?
Schklair and 3ality Digital are betting big on 3-D, with a massive new production facility that incorporates '3ality Digital Entertainment' for feature film development and production, and '3ality Digital Systems' for technology, 3-D production and post-production. The first fruits of that commitment will be played out on the world stage at the Cannes film festival, where U2 3-D will be screening. This feature length, live-action concert film ties in footage of U2 in concert from a number of stops on their South American tour. I know what you're thinking: Live action 3-D? Will that really work? Well, early industry reports are that it's amazing, and Real D's Greer describes it as "without doubt the most mind-blowing, incredible capture of 3-D we've ever seen — and we've seen just about everything."
Schklair puts the difference between U2 3-D and Meet the Robinsons this way: "Think of this as, whatever 3-D you saw in that film, think of this as that film on steroids."
According to Schklair, there are numerous advantages to working in live-action as opposed to CG. "We're out there in the real world so we can set the depth so that the backgrounds and the foregrounds get the maximum impact, whereas when you're doing multi-layered shows like animation, that's a little more difficult to do. I believe in live-action we can achieve incredible depth that would take too much experimentation in animation to get the same effect."
Indeed, shooting in live-action means that the team can experiment extensively without blowing out the budget, and the end result is that they've taken a few more risks in terms of depth. What does a 3-D presentation bring to U2 3-D that a traditional display simply can't?
"It's such a totally different experience seeing it in 3-D. It's presence; it's immersive; it feels like you're actually there."
Now all we need is Smell-o-vision and we're set.
For U2 fans, this is going to be the ultimate way to see the band play live, aside from, perhaps, being in the front row. Footage was shot at a number of locations on the band's South American tour, but it was in Buenos Aires that the crew went all out, putting nine 3-D cameras into the stadium for the "final climactic shoot." According to Schklair, "We had to pull equipment from all over the world to do this, because there was more technology and cameras and fiber than has ever been pulled to any one shoot ever."
One fascinating aspect of the shooting is that they put the cameras "onto small rigs that have between 10 and 13 axis of motion control that are working and moving the cameras at all times during the shoot. As the camera moves closer or further away from the subject of the shot, the cameras themselves are moving on this rig to keep a consistent depth on the screen so there's a comfortable viewing experience." That's "in addition to the software that's doing the image processing to keep the images — not just aligned, but comfortable".
The end result, however, is that the technology is as invisible as possible for the filmmaker, with "camera systems and recording systems that work almost as simply, if not as simply, as 2-D camera systems."
U2 have embraced the technology as well: "They're very creatively involved in the project," Schklair told us. "The director has worked with the band for a number of years and she's collaborating very closely with the band in terms of the edit… This is a very, very creative band, and their input is valuable."
Reach out and touch Bono... if you're so inclined.
Excited yet? You should be. Perhaps Greer put it best when he said: "We're binocular beings. We see with depth in every part of our life, except in our media. And for us it's a really exciting moment in history to actually have an opportunity to see an evolution like this as big as colour or sound. We're very excited in what we've contributed, we're even more excited to see the creative community really embrace this as a new artform. It's really a dream come true for us."
There you have it. The next big thing is already here and knocking on the doors of cinema complexes and filmmakers around the world. If the current climate surrounding the technology is any indication, 3-D is going to grow almost exponentially over the next few years. As an indication, the industry is on track to deliver 15 to 20 films utilizing the technology in 2009, and Real D themselves are hoping to have as many as 6,000 to 10,000 theatres built by then as well. Guess the future is so bright we've gotta wear shades. As long as they're sporting circular polarized lenses, mind you
