posted 07-21-2006 08:29 AM                       

quote: Phil Ranucci

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Just finished installing a Kodak DCS at the Arlington in Santa Barbara. Kodak and Barco's people were very efficient.Tested it this morning and the 3-D is very impressive, with lots of depth to the image.

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Thanks. I'll pass along the good words to the Kodak Digital Cinema team.

posted 07-21-2006 10:02 PM                    

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Watch Out! 3-D Is Back; Studios Say It's Improved
Hollywood hopes the format can pull people into theaters
By Dawn C. Chmielewski
Times Staff Writer

July 21, 2006

Summer blockbusters have never been known for their depth.

But a slate of big-budget movies is trying to change that as Hollywood turns to 50-year-old technology to keep theaters packed.

Columbia Pictures' animated film "Monster House" opens today in 3-D, the latest film to use a technology once dismissed as cinematic gimmickry to heighten the realism — and add just a touch of the thrill ride — to theatrical releases.

Filmmakers say the technology brings a new dimension to the big screen, accentuating the menacing maw of the possessed "Monster House" or lending dramatic realism as the Man of Steel rescues Lois Lane and her family from a sinking yacht in "Superman Returns."

The studios and exhibitors see 3-D as a lure to keep people coming to theaters instead of watching movies at home on their big-screen TVs.

"With rising production costs and especially marketing costs from the studios, we needed a way to help 'eventize' our most important productions," said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures.

For an industry that recycles its story lines — "Poseidon" and "Miami Vice" are recent examples — it's little surprise that the studios are dusting off old approaches for prying audiences out of their living rooms.

In the 1950s, studios fearing the encroachment of television grabbed for the polarized glasses and embraced 3-D technology. The inaugural 3-D movie, "Bwana Devil " — a jungle adventure that promised "a lion in your lap" — was such a rousing hit, other studios began creating their own 3-D films.

Although early 3-D enjoyed some commercial success — Warner Bros.' horror thriller "House of Wax" starring Vincent Price was among the top 10 grossing films of 1953 — projection and photographic errors, together with filmmakers' impulse to thrust spears into the audience's eyes, caused people to leave the theater with headaches or sick stomachs.

New digital projectors make today's 3-D movies more lifelike and less likely to induce queasiness.

Warner Bros. was the first big studio to experiment with new 3-D technology in a major release, and its 2004 "Polar Express" in Imax 3-D triggered a stereoscopic revival. Robert Zemeckis' animated version of a child's Christmas Eve trip to the North Pole reaped $128 million in 3,650 U.S. theaters in traditional film projection — and $45 million more when shown on 83 Imax screens in 3-D.

It was so popular with audiences, Imax offered a repeat showing in the 2005 holiday season.

The experiment has propelled a flood of 3-D projects, including "The Ant Bully," which opens in Imax 3-D on July 28, and Sony Pictures Animation's forthcoming "Open Season."

"You have to keep pushing the audience experience," said Yair Landau, president of Sony Pictures Digital. Dramatic visual effects are no substitute for telling a story well. "If the story works you can make the experience more visceral in 3-D."

Indeed, "Monster House" — a collaboration between Sony Pictures Imageworks digital production studio and Zemeckis' Imagemovers Production — was conceived as a 3-D project.

"Once I saw the 'Polar Express' offered in 3-D, I saw it could actually take a story somewhere else," said "Monster House" director Gil Kenan.

"It shattered the idea of going to a movie as a passive experience. It becomes something more akin to a thrill ride, an amusement park ride. It makes the audience feel like they're strapped in and moving through the story."

Kenan and other contemporary filmmakers have learned a few lessons from the excesses of early 3-D experiments — to use restraint, rather than "poking a candelabra into your eyes for an hour and a half." Otherwise, the audience suffers eye fatigue.

"Monster House" employs 3-D to amplify the film's spooky atmospherics. In one scene, the main character, a boy named DJ, scales the steep tower of a wrecking crane and the 3-D heightens the sense of vertigo.

Similarly, "Superman Returns" director Bryan Singer chose, largely for technical reasons, to limit Imax 3-D to those moments when the Man of Steel dons the cape. So when Clark Kent takes off his glasses, audience members put theirs on.

In one flashback to Clark Kent's days as a teenager on a farm in Smallville, he bounds higher and higher through the cornstalks, ultimately crashing through the roof of a barn and stopping inches above the hay-strewn floor. The top of his head is in the center of the screen.

"The cornstalks are right there in your head," Singer said. "It puts you right in the scene. Having been there, having made the movie on that actual farm that we built, not since then did I feel I was put there again."

The digital conversion of cinemas is propelling the 3-D renaissance.

The 3-D technology of the 1950s used two synchronized projectors to simultaneously show two films on screen — one for the right eye and one for the left. The audience wore polarized 3-D glasses to filter out the image intended for the other eye. (Think of polarized lenses as slots: If the light from the film aligns with the slots, it enters; if not it's blocked.) The result was an image that appeared to float off the screen.

Today, the polarized glasses are the same. But digital technology has eliminated the need for two projectors.

Digital projectors can run at speeds of as many as 144 frames per second. Companies such as Real D, which have signed deals to bring stereoscopic film to theaters, place a shutter in front of the projector to swiftly flicker back and forth between the images intended for the right and left eye.

Another company, NuVision Technology of Beaverton, Ore., uses lightweight glasses that filter the image.

The results are considerably easier on the eyes.

Regal Entertainment Group operates 13 Imax and 38 Real D screens out of its 6,383 screens. It plans to add more Real D screens in anticipation of the "Monster House" opening.

"I think people seek out new technologies," said Kevin Keller, Regal's film vice president. "We've had very favorable response."

The jury's still out on whether audiences will embrace 3-D, or whether it will go down as another cinematic novelty.

"Time will tell if it really is the killer app for theatrical," said Andy Maltz, director of the Science and Technology Council for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

"With digital distribution and projection systems, you can do things that you've never been able to do before…. What the studios choose to do with that to draw people out of their homes, what creativity goes into that, we'll see."

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posted 07-27-2006 04:11 PM                    

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For Immediate Release

REAL D Digital 3D presentation of Columbia Pictures’ MONSTER HOUSE 3D earns $2.4 million domestically opening weekend

Opening Weekend Box-office Exceeds Expectations

LOS ANGELES, July 27, 2006 – The REAL D Digital 3D presentation of Columbia Pictures’ MONSTER HOUSE 3D exceeded industry expectations, grossing $2.4 million opening weekend on only 178 screens in 162 theatre locations. The combined earnings for the 2D and 3D presentations of MONSTER HOUSE also surpassed box-office expectations, grossing $22 million opening weekend.

The 3D per-theatre location average for MONSTER HOUSE was more than $15,000 opening weekend, July 21. More than 11% of the gross for MONSTER HOUSE came out of the 178 screens that were playing the film in the REAL D Digital 3D format – this means that less than 5% of theatres showing MONSTER HOUSE delivered more than 11% of the box-office gross.

“REAL D Digital 3D greatly enhances a film's box office performance, and this weekend’s 3D presentation of MONSTER HOUSE exceeded our highest expectations,” said Michael V. Lewis, Chairman, REAL D. “Audiences bought tickets to MONSTER HOUSE 3D early, helping to contribute to a near sell-out of REAL D screenings nationwide.”

MONSTER HOUSE 3D audiences received comfortable, lightweight glasses that enabled them to view the motion picture in the REAL D Digital 3D format. Unlike traditional anaglyph (red and blue) 3D, REAL D Digital 3D leverages digital cinema projection technology to eliminate eye fatigue, ensuring moviegoers enjoy the most comfortable 3D viewing experience possible.

To find a REAL D Cinema, log on to www.REALD.com and check local listings for REAL D Cinema theaters and show times.

About REAL D

REAL D is the worldwide inventor and provider of key stereoscopic technologies used in entertainment, marketing, science and other industries. REAL D’s mission-critical 3-D visualization technologies are used by organizations such as NASA, Pfizer, BMW, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, SEGA, Boeing and more. For more information, or to locate a REAL D Cinema, visit www.REALD.com.

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posted 07-27-2006 06:55 PM                       

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REAL D is the worldwide inventor and provider of key stereoscopic technologies used in entertainment, marketing, science and other industries. REAL D’s mission-critical 3-D visualization technologies are used by organizations such as NASA, Pfizer, BMW, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, SEGA, Boeing and more.

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