Intimacy vs. Immersion

I think that calling stereo 3-D content immersive is something of a misnomer. Immersion is the sensation of being inside an image, being surrounded by the "real" world of the content. 3-D can be an immersive experience in the right venue - a CAVE environment, a large format slide viewer, or an 80' Imax screen that fills the peripheral vision, for instance, all immerse the viewer. But a 2-D Imax experience is also immersive, as is A 2-D dome projection or head-mounted display. But this feeling of immersion is not inherent in the 3-D content itself - watching the same Imax 3-D content on a 3DTV or the small screen of a 3-D handheld device does not create the same feeling of immersion.

But 3-D does have the ability to create an experience for the audience, regardless of screen size, that is unique from all other media. Stereography can create an intimacy with the content - for EACH individual audience member - that can only be experienced via 3-D. Consider the moment in 'Muppet Vision 3D' when the character Waldo emerges deeply into negative space, seemingly inches from your face, and tells you directly that "Everyone thinks I'm talking to them, but I'm really talking to you!" At that moment you, and each other individual audience member, are having the singular experience of having the on screen character address you directly - and each audience member feels that they are the ONLY ONE having that

experience. Anything in positive space appears to exist beyond the confines of the viewing venue or device, and objects in negative space become personally intimate regardless of screen size. I suppose it could be looked at as the inverse of immersion in that the on screen image is able to emerge and exist in the real world of the viewer.

I see, in this individual connection between viewer and content, the tool for creating a heightened emotional experience. Wim Wenders' 'Pina' is a great example of this in practice. In the film, the testimonial of each dancer is presented as a living portrait, their gaze breaking the fourth wall and connecting with each audience member one-to-one. And the dance pieces themselves utilize the proscenium of the stereo window to create a 'best-seat-in-the-house' experience. Wender's explains that he chose to shoot in stereo after seeing U23D, and coming to the conclusion that 3-D created a closeness to the content and "brought it to life", while his 2-D tests always felt lifeless and distant.

And using the example of U23D, consider the moment in the film when Bono comes to the foot of the stage, reaches out to the audience, and makes eye contact with the camera. He makes an intimate connection with EVERY member of the audience that is unique to the 3-D viewing experience. In 2-D, Bono would simply be addressing the entire theater at once from the flat screen, with no personal connection. And at a live U2 concert, that moment is only meaningful to the one person in the front row of the arena who Bono actually makes eye contact with. But in 3-D, each person in the auditorium is the ONE person that Bono chooses, and every audience member gets a heightened sense of connection and intimacy.

There has been a trend among studio pictures to treat 3-D as spectacle, allowing the action in a scene to drive the amount of depth. I call this choice the "technical approach" to 3-D, and while it can be effective in enhancing FX heavy action sequences, I often find it lacking, or even distractingly flat, when applied across the board to the storytelling. I prefer the 'intimate/emotional approach" to 3-D in narrative story, with the above outlined heightened level of personal intimacy, and I think that it is 3-D content that has successfully utilized this tool, both intentionally and accidentally that has resonated well with audiences.

I am planning to publish a comprehensive piece on the potential for 3-D to create intimate personal connections and would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the subject.

At The Closing of the Year

The end of 2012 was quite an emotional roller coaster ride. In one December weekend at the Downtown Independent Theater we held our 9th Annual LA 3-D Movie Festival, and we shared in a memorial to our friend Ray Zone. 

The festival was a great success - we screened over 20 independent 3-D short films and two features, and had some engaging Q&As with the filmmakers. I want to thank everyone who came out to the festival, everyone whose work was presented, and some very special club members whose efforts made the event a reality: Jodi Kurland, who managed the festival and oversaw the box-office; Shyam Kannapurakkaran, for designing the printed program and shooting video coverage at the fest; Jeff Amaral, for arranging the U23D screening and working the box-office; David Starkman, for helping to arrange the ROBIN HOOD screening; John Hart, for securing our food sponsor; Lawrence Kaufman, for assisting with PR and promotion; and Oliver Dean, our volunteer usher, who made sure that everyone had their 3-D glasses.

At the memorial for Ray Zone, nearly 200 people gathered to share their memories. There were touching stories that brought both tears and laughter and the day truly became a celebration of Ray’s life. Thank you to everyone who attended, to those who spoke, and to those who listened. Again, a number of very special people deserve my deepest gratitude for helping to make the memorial such a fitting tribute: Johnny Ray Zone and Amanda Chapman, for trusting in me to bring Ray’s friends and family together; Susan Pinsky, who collected and curated all of the photos that were shown, both 2-D and 3-D; David Starkman, for his assistance with the slideshows; Lawrence and Cassie Kaufman, for all of their support, especially their help with selecting and displaying Ray’s work; Tom Koester, for providing video of Ray’s films; Jeremy McGee, for making all of the arrangements for the food at the reception; Jim Chabin, Daniel Henningson and the I3DS for hosting the reception; Barry Rothstein, for providing the 3DTV and helping with set-up of the lobby; Perry Hoberman and Julia Heyward for assisting with the set-up and making signage; Monica Angrand for helping in the lobby; Michael Page, who took on the task of putting together a camera crew to shoot the memorial; Edward Oleschak, who handled both camera and audio recording; Shyam Kannapurakkaran, who also operated a camera; Jeff Amaral, for collecting donations to the Ray Zone Memorial Fund; Jodi Kurland, for being there to do whatever needed to be done at the memorial, and for all of her support through what was a very difficult month.

And a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Jim Kirst and the wonderful staff at the Downtown Independent, without whom none of our events would have happened. 

Ray Zone, 1947-2012

On the Thursday of last month's LA 3-D Club meeting, I had the painful task of notifying the 3-D community that one of its brightest lights was no longer shining. Two days earlier, on Tuesday, November 13th, 2012, Ray Zone passed away at his home in Hollywood. Ray meant so much to so many people, and his influence spread well beyond our 3-D "family" here in Los Angeles. Ray was respected and admired around the world for his work, which covered the full spectrum of artistic endeavors, from comic books to fine art and music, and all of the photography, motion pictures, and history in between.

I first met Ray Zone ten years ago when I started attending LA 3-D Club meetings and I learned that 3-D was, quite literally, his middle name. Ray took me under his wing, mentoring me in all things stereoscopic. Over the next decade we ended up becoming very close friends. In many ways Ray was like a surrogate father to me, and in fact he sometimes called me one of his "3-D kids". We worked on many projects together - I had the privilege of starring in two of Ray's short films, and shooting and editing another for him, and he worked on several of my films. I also got to work with Ray on a number of 3-D conversion projects, including a pair of lenticular Presidential portraits that were displayed in the White House. We traveled or stayed together at many industy events including NAB, SD&A, Comic-Con and NSA conventions, and we made numerous treks to the Big Bear Film Festival. I will forever hold dear the in-depth conversations we had on those many road trips. 

Ray always championed the low-budget, indie spirit, and a few years ago he and I came up with the idea of branding our work "3-DIY, Do-It-Yourself 3-D". Ray used that as the title of his book on the subject, and I was honored to be featured on the cover. We even started a 3-DIY YouTube channel together to showcase the work of 3-D filmmakers from around the world. Ray always liked to say that "Hollywood is full of 800-pound gorillas making mediocre content, while the 3-DIY chimpanzees are creating the innovative new work". He was always confident that the "chimpanzees" would find success, and I'm proud to be one of his chimps.

I was asked to write a brief biography of Ray for Stereoscopy magazine. The following barely scratches the surface:

Ray Zone was an author, 3-D film producer, speaker and award-winning 3-D artist. Starlog magazine called him the "King of 3-D Comics," and Artsy Planet named him the "3-D King of Hollywood." Born on May 16, 1947, he grew up in Cucamonga, California and was in the first graduating class of Alta Loma High School. He wrote for the Cucamonga Times about school happenings in a weekly article titled "Tepee Times," named for the Alta Loma Braves. Ray became interested in 3-D in 1953 when he read a 3-D Mighty Mouse comic book at age 6. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980's and began working in the world of 3-D converting flat art to 3-D images. His early collaborations with Jack C. Harris and Steve Ditko drew the attention of Archie Goodwin, who recruited him to work with John Byrne on the 1990 Batman 3-D, a full-length 3-D graphic novella. Ray produced 3-D adaptations of art for over 150 comic books, for clients such as Disney, Warner Bros and the Simpsons, and including stories by Alan Moore and Grant Morrison which were specifically written to accommodate stereoscopy. He also created stereo conversions and stereoscopic images for a wide variety of clients in publishing, education, advertising, television and motion pictures. In 2006 Ray Zone was acknowledged as "3-D Artist" on the platinum-selling Tool 3-D CD "10,000 Days" which garnered the Grammy in the category of "Best Recording Package." He was the recipient of numerous awards for his 3-D work, among them a 1987 Inkpot Award from the San Diego Comic-Con for "Outstanding Achievement in Comic Arts."

An internationally recognized expert in all things 3-D, Ray had a special interest in stereoscopic cinema and Large Format 3-D filmmaking. He wrote and directed a number of 3-D short films including Slow Glass (2006), Whatever Happened to Ro-Man (2009), and The Charlatan (2012). He also appeared in many other short and feature productions, both as an actor and as himself. In 2008 Zone worked as 3-D Supervisor on the feature film Dark Country (Sony Pictures) with director/star Thomas Jane and in 2010 as 3-D Producer on Brijes 3-D, (Ithrax/SDA), the first animated 3-D feature film made in Mexico. He was the author of "3-D Filmmakers, Conversations with Creators of Stereoscopic Motion Pictures" (Scarecrow Press: 2005), "Stereoscopic Cinema and the Origins of 3-D Film, 1838 - 1952" (University Press of Kentucky: 2007), "3-DIY: Stereoscopic Moviemaking on an Indie Budget" (Focal Press: 2012), and "3-D Revolution: The History of Modern Stereoscopic Cinema" (University Press of Kentucky: 2012). Ray served on the boards of many organizations including the National Stereoscopic Association, the Stereoscopic Society of America, the International 3D Society, and the LA 3-D Club. 

It is with great sadness that I must report the sudden passing of our
friend Ray Zone.

Ray passed away on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He leaves a long legacy as an author, publisher, historian, photographer, filmmaker and artist. A longtime advocate of stereography as an art form, he earned the title "King of 3-D Comics" for publishing or producing the 3-D separations for over 130 3-D comic books. Ray was a longtime member and past President of the LA 3-D Club, and was currently serving as the club's Vice President.

And he was my mentor and dear friend. Rest in peace.

Something Old, Something New

October 2012 is an important month for fans of 3-D movies. For the first time, a couple of classic 1950s era stereoscopic features are finally available on 3-D Blu-ray for home viewing. Universal has just released CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON as part of their 8-disc box set honoring Universal’s classic horror movies (for now, CREATURE is only available in this box set), and Warner Bros. has put out a disc

of Alfred Hitchcock’s DIAL M FOR MURDER. To celebrate the releases, both studios have arranged one-time theatrical screenings of their digital restorations, with DIAL M showing last month in Hollywood, and

CREATURE showing on October 16th at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.

I attended the screening of DIAL M and did see some problems with Warner Bros. new transfer (which I’m assuming is the same as the new Blu-ray). The image suffered from a lack of sharpness and exhibited some odd edge artifacts, as if it was transferred from a positive print several generations removed from the original negatives. Also, the image was cropped from its original “square” aspect ratio to 16:9 widescreen which removed the top and bottom of the image, and created a strange framing with no headroom. These issues aside, it was still great to see DIAL M in 3-D, and see how the picture is as much about the spatial placement of objects on the set, as it is about the action. DIAL M FOR MURDER is a good movie in 2-D, but the added depth, and sense of space in 3-D makes it great.

Speaking of great use of space in a classic 3-D feature, the LA 3-D Club will be hosting a special screening of the 20th Century Fox picture INFERNO on October 28th at the Downtown Independent. INFERNO

is one of my all time favorite 3-D movies, and we are thrilled to be able to bring you this showing of the HD digital restoration done by the late Dan Symmes. INFERNO will show on a “Desert Noir 3-D” double bill with actor/director Thomas Jane’s DARK COUNTRY, and is a great way to spend the Sunday night before Halloween.

Fox currently has no plans to release INFERNO on Blu-ray, but I hope to be able to change that. Warner Bros. has already announced that they are going to release HOUSE OF WAX, and I can only hope that Universal will eventually make CREATURE available on it’s own (hopefully along with REVENGE OF THE CREATURE and IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE). If these titles prove popular to the home market, then perhaps we will finally see more movies from the Golden Age of 3-D on home video.

With Deepest Gratitude

The following is the text of the speech that I gave at the LA 3-D Club's Awards Banquet on August 16, 2012:

I want to thank you all for having the confidence to allow me a third year as your club president. I know we've joked a lot about me being the emporer of the 3-D club, but in all seriousness, it means a great deal to me that you ask want to see the club continue moving in the direction I've been steering it.

I want to personally thank each and every one of the members of last year's LA 3D club board for volunteering their time and for their passion for this art form that brings us together. First of all, I want to thank the other elected board members. Jim Staub, who has served as Vice President and Membership Director for the last two years, and will be continuing as Membership Director for the next. Jeff Amaral, our Treasurer, who has kept the club's financial records straight, despite spending half of last year on another continent. And Lawrence Kaufman, our Secretary, who not only keeps the board meeting minutes, but also writes a monthly column for the 3-D News, and somehow manages to attend practically every event that the club is involved with, no matter how far he has to travel. 

And I want to acknowledge my appointed board members. Thank you to David Kuntz, who has curated the programs at our monthly meetings for the last two years, and will now be moving into the role of Workshop Director. And Ray Zone, who along with David has been a contributing editor to the 3-D News, and co-programmer of our monthly movie screenings. Ray will be taking on the job of Vice President for the next year, and will continue to help me with programming and business affairs. Thanks to Barry Rothstein, who will be shifting from Workshops to the new position of Outreach Director, where he will continue to bring the LA 3-D Club to galleries, artistic events, and educational facilities. Thank you to Competition Director Oliver Dean, whose hard work keeps our competitions going all year round. And a big thank you to Ed Ogawa and Dave Washburn, our House and Equipment Directors. They are always the first to arrive and the last to leave the monthly meetings. It's fair to say that the meetings wouldn't happen without them. Thank you to Jodi Kurland, for planning and hosting the many outings that the club presents outside of the regular meetings, and for handling the box office chores at our monthly movie screenings. Thank you Philip Steinman, for handling the tasks of maintaining the club's entries in other stereoscopic groups' regional and international competitions. And thanks to John Hart, Movie Chair Emeritus, for continuing to help us with our own 3-D Movie Festival, as well as the Big Bear fest and many other screening opportunities. I also want to acknowledge the tireless efforts of Susanne Kerenyi, who works so hard each and every month to edit and publish the 3-D News. Let's hear it for Steve Berezin, the Chair of this year's NSA 3D-CON, which was a tremendous success. Steve will be joining Oliver in running the bi-monthly competitions. We have two relatively new board members who I would like to thank for stepping up to help run the club - Jeremy McGee, who jumped right into the fire of having to put this banquet together - and I think he did a great job; and Frank Elmore, who volunteered to put together tonight's programs. I hope they will both remain on the board for the coming year. And finally a big round of applause to David Starkman and Susan Pinsky, who have given 30 years of service to the club, and have decided to step down from the board and enjoy the benefits of being club members for a change. Thank you to all of you for your support, and for your passion for 3-D. We wouldn't be here tonight without you.

The world of 3-D has been undergoing a rapid change over the last few years. We have seen new stereoscopic digital cameras and camcorders hit the market, while at the same time we have watched the discontinuation of slide film and film processing. We can now enjoy 3-D movies at practically every cinema, as well as in our living rooms, and even on our cel phones. The paradigms are shifting, and it's up to us in the 3-D community to keep the art of stereoscopic imaging moving forward, while maintaining a history of it's past. I love that the LA 3-D Club's membership is made up of a mix of 3-D amateurs and 3-D professionals, all of whom can be described as 3-D enthusiasts. After all it's your enthusiasm that keeps our club viable and moving forward. Thanks again for allowing me to take the wheel.

Is 3-D Cinema Finally Getting Some Respect?

Let’s see. This past year Hugo, a 3-D drama, received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Pina, another 3-D picture, was nominated for Best Documentary. And the stop-motion 3-D animated film The Reality Clock, by USC student and LA 3-D Club member Amanda Tasse, was awarded the Student Academy Award for Best Alternative Short. At the theaters, the 2-D to 3-D conversion of The Avengers was both a critical and box office hit. The animated features Brave and Madagascar 3 are proving to be very successful. And The Amazing Spiderman, natively shot in 3-D, is currently doing very well. 2012 will see major 3-D features from such name directors as Tim Burton, Baz Luhrmann, Ang Lee, and Peter Jackson. And while George Lucas’ 3-D conversion of Star Wars Episode 1 fell flat (both figuratively and literally), we are starting to see more creative use of depth by filmmakers who are learning to experiment and take risks.

This was evident in my own recent experience as lead stereographer on the theatrical short Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare (Now playing with Ice Age: Continental Drift at a theater near you). This was the first foray into 3-D for longtime Simpsons director David Silverman, and at the beginning of the production he was more than a little skeptical about using 3-D in a traditionally animated film. But he quickly embraced the 3-D as an element of his visual storytelling, and learned the “language” as we worked together. I’m incredibly proud of the finished product, and feel privileged to have had the opportunity to help create it.

Yes, it’s a good time to be working in the world of 3-D. And speaking of the world of 3-D, I’ll see you at the NSA 3D-CON at the end of the month.