Seeing 3D through rose-tinted glasses

by Marie Bloomfield

One session at last month's Screen Digest PEVE Digital Entertainment conference focused on industry efforts to enable distribution of 3D content to the home. The event highlighted the industry tensions around competing display technologies and standardisation of content delivery formats for 3D, but nevertheless offered a compelling business case for 3D as the next step in home entertainment.

The area that remains a little greyer is the extent to which consumers will be interested in this proposition. 3D certainly has its naysayers-critical of a medium that requires you to wear special glasses, they dismiss it as a novelty. Admittedly, such a peripheral is not ideal, particularly if you already wear prescription glasses. Wearing another pair of glasses over these is a bit cumbersome and can detract from the experience. That said, demonstrations by the major consumer electronics manufacturers at recent industry events show that the technology being readied is achieving a wow-factor that could challenge the cynics.

Early signs are that emerging 3D technology will be supported by compelling content. The latest wave of 3D movies has generally avoided the visual gimmicks associated with 3D in favour of a more immersive experience. To paraphrase John Lasseter, chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation and executive producer of Disney's latest 3D movie Bolt, this new aesthetic is less about objects flying out of the screen, more about enhancing the sense of depth and enveloping the audience in the action. Filmmakers are developing a distinct visual vocabulary for 3D, characterised by a less imposing style of editing. These longer shots enable the viewer to explore the image, enhancing the sensory experience created by the 3D effect.

In this respect, 3D would arguably lend as much to a sweeping vista as it would to an asteroid shower; its potential extends beyond the sci-fi, animation and horror genres around which the current crop of 3D movies is concentrated. Indeed, it extends beyond movies-the possibilities for sports and nature documentaries, for instance, are exciting. Major sporting events are already being broadcast in 3D to cinemas, offering audiences a simulation of the spectator's experience in the stadium.

Then there is the promise of 3D video games-firstperson shooters and driving sims could soon become an even more realistic experience. 3D games could conceivably arrive in the home sooner than 3D movies and TV programming given the incidence of the early adopter profile among garners and a willingness to adopt peripherals that offer compelling gameplay -those consumers that are already using the guitar controller for Rock Band or Guitar Hero are arguably less likely to turn their noses up at 3D glasses.

Whatever the content, glasses seem a small price to pay for the 3D experience. And box office results for 3D movies suggest that many people agree. This month has seen the release of DreamWorks' animated movie Monsters vs Aliens and early indicators are that consumers are flocking to 3D screenings. A little more than a quarter of screens exhibiting the film showed it in 3D (the rest in 20) but it accounted for more than half of the total box office, with audiences queuing up to pay the higher ticket price. In fact, according to exit polls conducted by DreamWorks on the opening weekend, nearly 40 per cent of those that watched the f1lm in 20 had intended to see it in 3D, but showings were either sold out or were not at a convenient time.

Consumer engagement with 3D in the home should be just as fervent, although the fact that households will have to upgrade their TVs to watch 3D content might dampen enthusiasm, particularly if they have recently invested in an HD display. At least with 3D the industry has created a discernible product, one much easier to distinguish than HD and therefore more marketable. Providing the powers that be can agree on standards, displays with 3D capability should become commoditised along the same ']ines as HDTVs, at which point the replacement cycle for the living room TV set could shorten. This would be the best case scenario for the industry, as it looks to build a business for 3D, and for consumers, assuming 3D fulfils its considerable potential.

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