Thousands of theaters equipped for 3D in record time

Thousands of theaters equipped for 3D in record time. Dozens of highlight films announced by most of the major Hollywood studios. The story seems familiar, but it took half a century before "Avatar": 3D cinema experienced a first golden age of early 1950s, before being completely abandoned. As early as the 1910s, various inventors had tried to bring relief to the film, and short projections had taken place in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, but to interest Hollywood studios.

A unbridled race

The hour of glory of 3D will come in the early 1950s, a film independent to modest budget, "bwana devil", shot with the process Natural Vision, an adaptation of the technology of the polarizing filters (box read). Projected on November 27, 1952 in one room, the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles, the film achieved a recipe for 100,000 dollars in a week. What awaken the interest of the majors. "At the time, Hollywood needed to position themselves facing competition from new popular entertainment, television, of course, but also the disks or the parks attractions, says Kira Kitsopanidou, historian of innovation technology in film and lecturer at the université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris-3." The American cinema was therefore looking for innovations to renew its offer.

The unexpected success of "bwana devil" gives the kickoff of a frantic race that will see face most of the major studios. Objective: exit as soon as possible a feature-length film in relief, if possible with its own technology, history to avoid paying royalties. This will be made as early as April for Columbia ("Man In The Dark") and in may for Warner ("House of Wax"). Universal, Paramount, Walt Disney and MGM released their film before the summer. The time is in the bidding: Warner announces that his next film will be on relief, and asks Alfred Hitchcock to adopt this technology for "the Crime was almost perfect." This frenzy grows operators to equip themselves in record time: nearly 2,000 rooms can broadcast films 3D as early as the summer of 1953, and this figure will double by the end of the year. But the public does not follow: revenues are considered disappointing by the studios, which will abandon the 3D as quickly have attention it. From the spring of 1954, the production of films highlight stops almost completely. And "The Crime was almost perfect" does come out in theatres in 2D version.

Swept by the CinemaScope

Several reasons for this failure, which will be pouring of ink in the American press. "3D was launched in the va-quickly, explains Kira Kitsopanidou.". Projectionists were not trained, and many facilities were of poor quality. Loss of synchronization between the two projectors were frequent. There was also a controversy on the glasses, tiring for the eyes or unhygienic. "3D has also suffered from a lack of attractive programmes. "The catalogue was composed almost exclusively of films by genre (horror, police...), considered often"vulgar", while the studios were a rental rate to operators." Above all, the relief will be swept by another technology, equally dramatic but technically less complex: projection on wide-screen, in particular the CinemaScope.

Projections highlight will be a brief resurgence of interest in the 1980s, but will remain confined to genre films and the suites ("The teeth of the Sea 3", "Emmanuelle 4"). Must await the arrival of digital projection, in the early 2000s, to return the 3D on the front of the stage. With digital, the image quality is much better with film and synchronization problems disappear. The first digital 3D, "chicken little" film, Disney, released late 2005 in the United States. But this time, studios and operators to show a little more cautious... at least to the tidal wave of "Avatar", end of 2009, pushing operators to mass (4,000 screens in the United States, more than 500 in France), and the whole of the industry to again see his future relief.

Remains whether if, this time in 3D cinema is called to last. For Kira Kitsopanidou, "everything will depend on the pace of release of the film, but also their quality: if they are the level of"Avatar", it will work." The future of the 3D will depend on how filmmakers capture: if it is used in free way, only for its spectacular appearance, the public will tire quickly. But this time, there are already projects of films of authors in 3D. "And then there will be a request on the part of television."

Monday: AZT