OiD's big question of the day: The success of Avatar & the future of 3D media...

Avatar - Why so successful? & is 3D media the future of Film and TV?

So, why has James Cameron's Avatar been so immensely successful?

As far as I could tell the storyline was a piecemeal of anti colonialism, anti war, with a large dose of smurf-a-hontas. As for 3D, well I just cant see it... literally as I'm monoptic these days :p

And what is it about 3Dmedia at the moment, be it Film or TV. We live all our lives in a 3D immersive experience, so what gives 3D media that 'wow' factor? & do yo think there is any future in it?

Spelling mistake in title..this thread already fails :p

It's been so successful cos it looks so good. The exact same reason why Crysis sold so well, cos of all the "pretty", the story and gameplay in Crysis was bloody awful!

"shiny shiny!"

3D in the media and electronics is the next big thing because people can actually see the upgrade (well most people, sorry OiD) unlike with HD content which many people argue is worthless.

Many probably believe it is the only thing that will give BluRay a unique selling point over DVD. BluRay might have better picture, better sound, more interactive, blah blah blah, but that's just polishing something that is already quite good. DVD doesn't do 3D, BluRay will. This could shift units.

I'm not sure I'm convinced though, 3D has been around for years, why is it now that everything has taken off? wha't been the change?

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Originally Posted by Funkstar

I'm not sure I'm convinced though, 3D has been around for years, why is it now that everything has taken off? wha't been the change?

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IMO it's a combination of Hollywood (again) and the fact it's now a transferable technology to TV. Sort of a dual pronged attack. Maybe the word from the Electronics channel was that 3D TV was finally becoming viable so Hollywood cashed in with the initial push. Especially with aftersales in mind, being 3D Blu-Ray.

I believe that it's a DRM strategy. 3D adds a little value to the end user but a ton of content protection. If you want 3D you will have to pay.
It will hang around because there is big money pushing it. The studios and the hardware manufacturers all stand to benefit.

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Originally Posted by 0iD

We live all our lives in a 3D immersive experience, so what gives 3D media that 'wow' factor? & do yo think there is any future in it?

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Surely 3D provide the wow factor because it makes it look closer to what we experience. IMHO, it's akin of asking what gives HD the 'wow factor' over SD, colour TV over black and white TV, and dare I say, TV over books (this one may be debated because the content tends to be different).

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Originally Posted by Funkstar

I'm not sure I'm convinced though, 3D has been around for years, why is it now that everything has taken off? wha't been the change?

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Perhaps only now has the technology become mature enough? I remember that some 10 years ago, in order to get some pretty immersive 3D shows in some theme park, you had wear some heavy and no doubt expensive goggles. Those light red and green glasses were too limited due to how much it changes the colour.

The cheap glasses we use in cinema today, while not perfect, are already quite impressive. If they can finally bring the technology into home cinema (I've heard of 3D projectors, and won't upgrade my projector for a while to see if they will pick up), then I think they may definitely be able to carve a niche. In order to really capture the market though, they really need to find a way without the goggles.

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Originally Posted by 0iD

Avatar - Why so successful? & is 3D media the future of Film and TV?

So, why has James Cameron's Avatar been so immensely successful?

As far as I could tell the storyline was a piecemeal of anti colonialism, anti war, with a large dose of smurf-a-hontas. As for 3D, well I just cant see it... literally as I'm monoptic these days :p

And what is it about 3Dmedia at the moment, be it Film or TV. We live all our lives in a 3D immersive experience, so what gives 3D media that 'wow' factor? & do yo think there is any future in it?

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Avatar - 'most expensive film ever made'... '3D'.. etc..

In terms of immersive experience.. for sports it would be an awesome addition. We have player cam on sky for football matches. 3d player cam.. thats what it's all about.

For films, it could be.. but again.. I am not sure.. should all films be shot with 3d in mind.. I don't think so. I hope the next installment of Terminator is 3d- that would be awesome.

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Originally Posted by pp05

In terms of immersive experience.. for sports it would be an awesome addition..

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oooh, now that's a thought that hadn't occured to me before. i likes the sound of that. sport in HD was a pleasant enough surprise, in 3D would be awesome

IIRC all the England 6 Nations Rugby games are being shown live in 3D in selected UGC cinema's.

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Originally Posted by Funkstar

I'm not sure I'm convinced though, 3D has been around for years, why is it now that everything has taken off? wha't been the change?

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3D has been around for years, but it's previously been very difficult until fully digital film production (i.e. not using film cannisters) took off. IIRC, it was supposedly quite tricky to getting all the exposures + colours looking right when recording onto two sets of film at the same time. It must be pretty off-putting when viewing in 3D if the colours don't match up for both eyes. With digital cameras, I think this becomes trivial.

Maybe I made all that up, but that's what I remember hearing.

I finally got to see 'Avatar' in 3D yesterday, and was really impressed - I was expecting that it wouldn't live up to the hype, but it was loads better than I had expected, both from the point of view of the 3d effect and the storyline (more 'Emerald Forest' than 'Pocahontas' imho).
I found the whole experience totally absorbing, almost overwhelming emotionally, visually stunning -
you just have to respect the imagination and technical skill that made this happen, and it certainly raises the bar on what comprises a 'state of the art' movie - the only disadvantage I could see with the 3D system is that some of the picture brightness was lost, otherwise comfortable and no eyestrain or headache, and that's wearing the 3D glasses over my prescription ones.

I think that 3D will be wanted by a mass audience, to the extent that I think it will be the 'killer app' that finally makes HD the mainstream - adding 3D capability to existing TV technology is apparently reasonably cheap to implement, and I can see it being a very big selling point, I've certainly started saving up! Just have to hope that there's more content on the way to rival 'Avatar' - problem is, I think it might be a long wait...oh yes, they've also got to agree on standards - active or passive glasses, that sort of thing.

However, I wouldn't want to watch everything in 3D, I think you'd end up with eyes like this...:confused:

It's Dances With Wolves(incredibly successful in it's own right) redone with huge amounts of CGI and blue aliens. Was always going to be successful imo.

3D holds no real appeal to me. Admittedly that's partly because I have a knackered left eye, so the goggles don't work, even if they did. I wouldn't be interested tbh.

I think Avatar did so well for the novelty factor (notwithstanding IMAX films etc). I wonder how many people will continue to stomach the extra premium to watch less expensive/heavily marketed films in the future. Not that many if you ask me - at over £10 a ticket in my local cinema I won't be bothering.