Will the 3D Revolution Happen? A Brief Perspective on the Long History of Stereoscopy (with special thanks to Eisenstein and Bazin)

Abstract

James Cameron's Avatar inaugurated a new phase of commercial 3D cinema at the end of 2009and also precipitated the final stage in the full conversion of cinema to digital.Many cinema operators who had been skeptical or hostile to digital projection were persuaded that their outlay would at least be repaid by the attraction of digital 3D, however short-lived this fashion might prove, and so the tipping point was reached in digital conversion. 1 Yet Avatar and its immediate successors were not only commercially successful on a scale that dwarfed all previous 3D releases, but also provoked an even greater hostility toward the format than its earlier manifestation had in 1952-1954.The canonical version of this is Roger Ebert's 2010 article entitled "Why I Hate 3-D (and You Should Too)," which was followed by many similar and equally extreme expressions of animosity.2 Ebert's main assertion was that the process "adds nothing essential to the moviegoing experience."Among other reasons he gave for "hating" 3D were: "for some, it is an annoying distraction […] for others, it creates nausea and headaches"; adding for good measure that "it is unsuitable for grown-up films of any seriousness" and "limits the freedom of directors to make films as they choose."3 Most of Ebert's assertions are obviously polemical or subjective.In addition to box-office results, there is in fact considerable evidence that many have found 3D does "add" to their moviegoing experience.A survey commissioned by the UK Film Council and British Film Institute in 2011 recorded Avatar as the third most frequently cited film that "affected" a balanced sample of UK respondents, with many commenting on its spectacular visual effects and on how 3D intensified their emotional engagement.4 And empirical research comparing viewers' experience of the film seen in 2D and 3D found that the latter created great "presence" or immersion overall.5 Subsequently, two non-mainstream films, Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog, 2010) and Pina (Wim Wen-

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