The success of Avatar and Alice in Wonderland has done much to allow the roots of the new 3D cinema movement to flourish and his work on developing the technology has elevated James Cameron to the forefront of this movement.
Now that Alice has superseded Avatar on the nation’s 3D screens, and with an announcement of the home entertainment version of the Pandora experience expected soon, James Cameron sat down with USAToday to discuss the future of 3D in the cinemas, and in the home.
Unsurprisingly Cameron is an evangelist of 3D in both arenas, and his take on the longevity of this new technology is a considered one, yet his eye is always on the future. Commenting on the next few steps, Cameron has this to say,
We now need the second wave. We had more than enough for Avatar and more than enough for Alice In Wonderland (another new movie shown in 3D). But now you’re going to have film coming upon film coming upon film.
We’ve demonstrated that the 3D market is an extremely lucrative market and this is not a fad, this is not something that is going to go away. It’s going to be interesting because (3D) TVs are going to change things yet again. But the TVs are going to take awhile to catch up with the marketplace because there isn’t enough content.
The conversation moves around to the technology moving into the home, but Cameron talked a lot about the ‘Avatar effect’ and how different (or not) working in 3D is in practise,
Mauro Fiore won the Academy Award for cinematography for Avatar shooting in HD and stereo. He had never shot in stereo before. He had a week of testing, he figured it out, and he shot a movie and won an Academy Award. So while there is a learning curve, its not a steep or prohibitive learning curve.
Another interesting point, no doubt touched upon because of the recent announcement that Cameron is looking to convert and re-release Titanic in 3D in 2012, was the back catalogue of other films which may be ripe for conversion,
If it’s done well. I think it should be driven by the artist. If Star Wars gets converted into 3D I think George (Lucas) should do it. If Terminator gets converted into 3D, I should do it.
Q: How about an older movie, such as The Wizard of Oz?
A: That gets into an interesting area. At that point the people that own the library have the right to do it, particularly if they own the rights to all media.
While Cameron is dubious about hasty post production conversions, his example is Clash of the Titans, it’s a great read, and worth checking out if you too are wondering if you’ll soon have to upgrade to the latest 3D HD TV at home.
