Screen Daily has a report from London’s 3D Creative Summit, which featured a pre-recorded interview with James Cameron, discussing his use of 3D in Avatar in which he says he was “probably too conservative” with the stereoscopic format in the first film. So now what? He’s going deeper as only James Cameron can:
“I’m going to open up my depth more on the Avatar sequels. In my defense, I thought I might be making a three-hour movie and nobody had ever gone more than 90 minutes so we didn’t know if people were going to go cross-eyed and have their eyeballs melt. Now we know good stereo is good stereo and you can watch it indefinitely.”
Cameron has long been a supporter of the format, but also a detractor of studios using it as a gimmick and as a way to add to the bottom line and he urged filmmakers to “incorporate it into the storytelling in ways that aren’t gimmicky but are fun and seductive to the eye.”
“I want filmmakers to embrace this technology as an art form. People like Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee and Alfonso Cuaron are artistically using that third dimension versus studios forcing filmmakers to do post-conversion where the shots weren’t composed with 3D in mind and it just doesn’t feel right.”
At this time, it’s expected Avatar 2 will arrive December 2016, followed by Avatar 3 and Avatar 4, though nothing is concrete just yet.
At the same summit, Pixar’s director of 3D production Josh Hollander said the studio is working on re-releasing a couple of their films in 3D. “Right now we’re working on The Incredibles, which is a lot of fun in 3D,” he said, unsure of when it would be finished or released. I’m not sure what the release strategy for it will be adding they “have a version of Ratatouille” which he said “works really well in 3D” and it sounds like it’s completed, though no release date was mentioned.
Coming soon from Pixar is Inside Out, directed by Pete Docter (Up) and eying a June 19, 2015 release. “The movie is just pure magic,” said Hollander. “We’re looking at how translucency and opacity is used, which plays really well in 3D.”
Obviously the 3D conversation at a 3D summit is going to be positive, but it definitely seems these guys understand the format can’t be used as a money grab any longer, at least not if they expect audiences to pay en masse.
