Digital 3-D

The primary focus of one of the seminars at ShowCanada was digital 3-D. Which is being hailed as the great saviour of the theatre industry since it cannot be duplicated at home. It also can’t be camcorded in a theatre by pirates. 3-D is more practical now and could possibly be on every screen in the future. Older systems required two film projectors which had to be perfectly synced for the effect to work. A digital projector can flash frames faster so only one projector is required. 3-D glasses are still required but the ones we wore were similar to a pair of sunglasses. The demonstration we were shown was very good. The 3-D effect looks very real and isn't as hard on the eyes as older systems. There are various versions of 3-D available each with its pros and cons. The demonstration we saw was by Real-D, the industry leader and uses the cheap glasses but requires a silver screen. Other systems don’t require the silver screen but use more expensive eye wear.
More releases all the time come out in 3-D; we were shown parts of already released films such as Chicken Little and Meet The Robinsons. A song from the upcoming 3-D concert film from U2 was demonstrated.
3-D and Digital Projection is expected to get a huge boost in 2009 when James Cameron’s next film Avatar comes out. He has waited until the 3-D technology caught up with his vision for his next movie to make a follow-up to Titanic. So by May 2009 at least 3000 screens need to be 3-D capable.