- James Cameron pioneered new 3D filming technology with Avatar which helped popularize the 3D film trend. Avatar used motion capture and CGI to create its virtual world. - The rise of 3D films in recent years encouraged studios to convert more films to 3D or make 3D versions, but some feel this has led to 3D fatigue among audiences who see it as a gimmick. - Transformers: Dark of the Moon was touted as a savior for 3D but while the technology was praised, critics felt the plot suffered, highlighting ongoing challenges for 3D films.

1. The 3D Phenomenon

2. Avatar Case Study

3. James Cameron on set of Avatar

4. Some facts:
• Reportedly budgeted at a whopping $237m
(which would place it just one notch below
Spider-Man 3's record-breaking $258m)
• Took well over $2.6 billion in worldwide box
office making it the highest grossing film of all
time.
• Won various awards including Oscars and Golden
Globes

5. Old 3D
• Dependent on glasses with red and green
coloured lenses – a pair of closely-aligned
images with different tints gave the
impression of depth by fooling the eyes.

6. Cameron’s vision
• Helped move the technology on by working
alongside cinematographer Vince Pace to pioneer
and patent a "fusion digital 3D camera system"
in 2003.
• He shot large portions of Avatar on a "virtual
camera", a handheld monitor that allowed him to
move through a 3D terrain, in effect editing this
existing, computer-generated universe. The
result, he boasts, turns cinema into "the ultimate
immersive media".

7. The New Wave of 3D Films (or
Stereoscopic)
• There has been an unprecedented rise in the number of 3D studio
pictures in recent years.
• The box-office figures have been encouraging (the 3D version of
Monsters vs Aliens earned more than its flat-screen counterpart
despite playing in fewer cinemas).
• All across Hollywood, studio executives are now talking publicly
about mothballing their conventional 2D productions in favour of
chasing after that "illusion of depth".
• Stereoscopic cinema is also largely protected from the threat of
piracy.

8. New 3D
• They call it "the illusion of depth", a conjuring trick on the
visual cortex.
• 2 cameras shoot images side-by-side. Later, when the
results are projected, the viewer interprets these dual
images as a single 3D image. We see (or believe we see) a
foreground, a background and, best of all, bulky projectiles
that threaten to leap from the screen and land in our laps.
• So far, most successful 3D movies have been entirely
animated – and Cameron, too, has used computer
generated images to build his virtual world.

9. The filming of Avatar
• Avatar's footage is built from around 70%
CGI, including the female lead.
• The cast donned motion-capture suits (leotards
covered in sensors that feed the movements of the
body back to a bank of computers) – and acted out
their scenes on a "performance capture" stage six
times bigger than anything used in Hollywood before.
• In addition, the realism was improved by using a skull
cap to capture the actors' facial expressions, with
close camera enhancement.

10. Filming cont.
• Motion capture makes 3D much easier, not just because it allows film-makers to
add the special effects later, but also by letting them position the "camera"
(actually a viewpoint from inside the virtual world), wherever they want. This
technique is more closely aligned with the way that high-end computer games
are developed.
• One major advance with Avatar's setup was the creation of a virtual monitor that
allowed the director to see the motion capture results in real-time, as they were
filmed, instead of waiting for the computer to render the images.
• Cameron also developed new techniques for the live action parts.
• Cameron developed an innovative filming rig consisting of a number of
stereoscopic cameras that each use a pair of lenses built to mimic human eyes –
positioned close together and able to move a little in order to focus on objects
that are nearby or far away. That allows the cinematographer to capture two
images simultaneously, which align perfectly with and provide the illusion of
depth.

11. Marketing Innovations
• Friday 21 August 2009: officially designated "Avatar Day“ – saw the public
unveiling of a full 15 minutes of teaser footage playing at hundreds of sold-out
cinemas across the planet.
• LONDON (21 April, 2010) – Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
announced that it would launch the industry's first rich media interactive trailer in
support of the April 22 Blu-ray and DVD debut of AVATAR. Using groundbreaking
new technology, the ads allowed viewers to zoom in or out of any frame, pause at
any point and select hot spots without ever leaving the setting. By clicking on
points of interest, consumers can access extended clips from the film and in-
depth information about the world and inhabitants of Pandora.
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment enlisted the services of international
creative agency, Thinkjam, to build the interactive units and Eyeblaster, to handle
the rich media serving. The result is an elegant and extremely complex product
that is a key component of a global digital marketing campaign unlike anything
executed before for a home entertainment release. The ads debuted
simultaneously across the web in 15 markets around the world.

12. Exhibition
• Viewing not only requires a digitally equipped cinema (sometimes with a silver-
coated screen to boost the brightness), but also a pair of special polarised glasses
so that the left eye and right eye can see different images shown simultaneously
on the screen.
• Tickets for 3D films usually retail for a few pounds more than tickets to their 2D
equivalents to meet the extra production costs of a 3D film, but also because there
is an extra cost to exhibitors.
• The vast bulk of cinemas across the planet do not yet possess a digital
projector, and without there can be no 3D screenings. This inevitably spells trouble
for cash-strapped independent picture houses who may not have the funds to
upgrade their equipment.
• In the UK alone, only around 320 out of 3,600 cinemas are digitally
equipped, while in the US the ratio is even worse (2,500 out of 38,000). "So there
is a big problem looming," admits Peter Buckingham, head of distribution and
exhibition at the UK Film Council. "You are looking at about a minimum of
£80,000 to get yourself into a 3D position. Even with the hike in ticket prices and
the potential hike in audiences, that's quite a stretch for the smaller venues. The
danger is that, in this digital switchover, a number of cinemas may well be left
behind."

13. Have we fallen out of love with
3D?

14. Why 3D?
• News that US audiences are choosing for the first time to see blockbuster
movies in old-fashioned 2D, even when the more celebrated option is
available., for eg: as box office figures for ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On
Stranger Tides’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ seem to suggest.
• Previously, filmgoers have always seen 3D screenings in greater numbers,
an unbroken rule that has fuelled the format's rapid growth.
• 3D tickets are costly, which means yields are higher and end-of-year box
office charts are slanted towards movies that are shown in stereoscope.
Katzenberg, director of ‘Inception’ blames studios for embarking on cheap
2D-to-3D conversions to take advantage of the current boom, even when
the movies in question were never meant to be seen in stereoscope.
• Katzenberg describes the situation as "heartbreaking“ which underlines
the extent of 3D fatigue among cinemagoers.

16. New Developments:
• Michael Bay's movie is being touted as this summer's torch carrier for 3D – its
saviour, even. Katzenberg, in particular, reckons it's great. Having previously
avoided the format, Micheal Bay has conscripted James Cameron's people to
ensure success.
• So what's the 3D like?
• Amazing:
“Suffice to say that the blitzkrieg collision of pixel and steel up on the big screen may
well be more technically brilliant than anything yet seen in the current 3D era. One
particularly bravura sequence sees robot-in-disguise Bumblebee transform from car to
robot and back in slow-mo to avoid a collision, unwrapping and re-wrapping himself
around Shia LaBeouf's Sam Witwicky without so much as clipping his earlobe. It drew
audible gasps from the audience of critics. Another scene inside a giant alien
spaceship I can only describe as like being a small insect flitting through an infinitely
complex, mind blowingly sublime machine. In fact, for the first 10 minutes or so of the
screening I found myself spellbound.” Ben Child, The Guardian

17. But….
• Despite amazing 3D, the film failed to win
critics over as the plot was criticised as being
secondary to the technology.