Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Are the Super Bowl 3D spots a huge miscalculation?

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Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 01-30-2009, 11:39 PM:

I just picked up the 3D glasses to check out the 3D technology being used for the Super Bowl ads. It's a new anaglyph "technology" which used an amber and a blue lens rather than a red and blue. It's supposed to produce more true colors than the red/blue anaglyph format.

If 3D cinema was attempting to introduce a new anaglyph technology, I could see the point of these ads. But since they are trying to convince consumers that RealD is something completely different, I think this is a HUGE mis-step.

The sample videos I watched (link below) cause me to feel nauseous and made my eyes feel weird. All this is going to do is convince the people who haven't seen the new 3D that it's just the same old thing. I think it's an especially big miscalculation considering one of the spots will be a 3D ad for Monsters vs. Aliens.

ColorCode 3D vidoes

ColorCode 3D page

Sorry, I forgot the link when I first submitted.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 01-30-2009, 11:43 PM:

quote: Justin Hamaker
(link below)

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 01-31-2009, 12:51 AM:

ColorCode is nothing new, really. One of the large format producers (nWave?) used it on either a theatrical or home video release five or six years ago, but I don't remember specifically.

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 01-31-2009, 02:30 AM:

I guess us humans never learn and history is bound to repeat itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDZbeyTdSUU

For once, this is not the first Super Bowl commercial in "3D". It was done before with pulfrich (Nuoptix) glasses some +20 years ago. TV has had a history of ads in 3D (anaglyph or pulfrich) and even TV shows (more recently 3rd rock from the sun and Medium, i.e.)

http://www.film-tech.com/ubb/f1/t004742.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvFOjagmCwY

For seconds, the usual lack of clear communication is making the consumers go ¿huh? Just wait to see the amazing number of people that are going to sit in front of the TV wearing their (realD) 3D glasses from Bolt and go ... ¿huh?

They are marketing this Monsters movie as being in Imax 3D, RealD 3D, Intel InTrue 3D and Colorcode 3D if you push me. They usually require different glasses: linear-Imax, circular-Real, no-such-thing-really-but-animators-often-use-shutter-glasses, modified anaglyph-Colorcode.

Just wait for the number of people showing at the movie theaters with their SuperBowl glasses in their hands to watch Monsters and refuse to pay the 3D surcharge claiming they already have the glasses ...

They are, once again, using the old cliché of "not in your old parent's red-blue glasses system". No. This time is blue-and-orange/brown.

Anyway. Colorcode is indeed nothing new and there've been a couple of DVD's releases using it long ago. Just a perfected anaglyph system that, like anything else 3D, can yield good results under certain conditions if extreme care is used, but that like most anaglyph systems, it basically and generally suxs.

It has happened in the 80's. Someone figures the big bucks is in selling millions (125 million for the SuperBowl ads) of 3D glasses for home viewing and convinces some TV station or someone that a 3D showing will bring in "2, 3 times the amount of viewers". It gets done, viewers are dissapointed at the modest (if at all) 3D effect, feel cheated for a while, and forget about it 10 years later. Except some 10% of the viewers that, for whatever reason, just love it and get "hooked" to the 3D effect and want more and start blogs about how RealD is going to take over the world in 3 years.

Of course, after 30 years technology improves and allows for good (better) results to be obtained easier. Before digital filmaking and DI, like in the 80's, everything had to be done optical and "in one take", w/o room for mistakes and having to wait for dailies to check the results. Now, digital cameras are small, offer tremendous flexibility and inmediate results.

We won't even talk about CGI generated stuff ... the flexibility is total as there is no 3D camera at all to begin with ...

Also, digital transmission etc allows for finer control of the end results. So there are technological improvements, but make no mistake. There is nothing new about the 3D of the 00's and 10's ... it's the same old thing except that before it took a lot of expertise and care and effort to do it right, and therefore it was often done wrong, while today it's almost just "pushing a button", so even a monkey can "do it right". Although someone always manages to do it wrong no matter what ...

[ 01-31-2009, 03:33 AM: Message edited by: Julio Roberto ]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-31-2009, 05:03 AM:

I've actually got an S-VHS tape of that Nuoptix Super Bowl broadcast somewhere.

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 01-31-2009, 09:43 AM:

If its yellow/dark blue lenses, they are taking advantage of the Pulfrich Effect.

There was a 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN episode many years ago that used this, in addition to the Super Bowl. If the producers know how to take the best advantage of the effect, it can work pretty well.

I think I even have some glasses around here. I'll try them out on the Super Bowl and see what happens.

Try wearing the glasses during some plays...the 3-D effect can come through then, also.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 01-31-2009, 10:21 AM:

Where can you even get a pair of those damn glasses? I imagine Wally World probably has them somewhere in the store, but I haven't seen them? Does Pepsi have a list of convenience store chains and grocery stores that have them?

I'm mildly curious to see how the effect looks on the HD version of the Super Bowl telecast I'm going to record on my DVR. I won't be farting around with the glasses during the live telecast since I'll be watching the game in a local sports bar with some friends.

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 01-31-2009, 11:37 AM:

Colorcode 3D is not a pulfrich based system. It's an improved anaglyph system that allows a much better color rendition while working around some of the problems with anaglyph and (trying to) minimize others.

Posted by Dwayne Benallie (Member # 4443) on 02-01-2009, 03:01 AM:

You can get the 3D glasses at Target, BestBuy, and thousands of other stores (like grocers) that sell SoBe Life Water.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-01-2009, 10:28 PM:

Actually one of my friends grabbed about 110,874 of the free 3D glasses at a local Wal-Mart. So we were all set for our Super Bowl party.

The "intru3D" stuff worked a little better than I thought it would. Still, it's no match for the full color 3D stuff you can see in digital-equipped movie theaters.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-01-2009, 11:50 PM:

Don't forget that your DVR recompresses the already piss-poor HD broadcast signal.

3D is the wave of the future!

Posted by Dick Vaughan (Member # 540) on 02-02-2009, 05:50 AM:

quote: Adam Martin
ColorCode is nothing new, really. One of the large format producers (nWave?) used it on either a theatrical or home video release five or six years ago, but I don't remember specifically.

You're right Adam. nWave have used this both theatrically and on home DVD.

They released "Encounter in The Third Dimension" in Color Code so it could be screened on single projector systems using a white screen and on domes. It also was released on DVD

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 02-02-2009, 10:56 AM:

http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/02/02/sorry-dreamworks-but-your-3d-super-bowl-trailer-sucked/

Just google "super bowl 3d sucked" and you'll see a few of the public's reactions. Basically and unformally, according to a few polls on the web:

-About 12% loved it. After all, it was a novelty for many of them who had never seen 3D on TV before.
-About 10% hated it.
-About 40% thought it was ok.
-The rest didn't even bother to pick up the glasses=they don't really care about the 3D to make any effort to try to watch it.

But, basically, everybody expected much more from the drill.

[ 02-02-2009, 02:36 PM: Message edited by: Julio Roberto ]

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-03-2009, 06:50 PM:

I did not see the 3-D commercial or the game because I was busy doing a project. I do not know why Dreamworks would use a sub standard 3-D process to promote their new movie. during the Super Bowl because a lot of people who do not know how good 3-D could be will assume that is how it will look when it is shown in a 3-D digital theatre and IMAX. Although the movie sucked in my opinion, the television commercial for MY BLODDY VALENTINE was excellent because it showed in 2-D what one can expect when they see the film in a 3-D equipped theatre. I know MONSTERS AND ALIANS will be fantastic in Dolby Digital 3-D and Real D and should be awesome in IMAX but the people who saw the commercial on TV and was not impressed with it might not bother to see the movie in a theatre.

-Claude