Okay . . . this just plain sucks . . . I’ve been posting a bit on the new Chicken Little film coming from Disney and opening this weekend . . . you will recall from the last post I made on the subject . . . Of Chickens, Little, and 3D . . .. . . new screens, projectors give 3D new push . . . that we weren’t sure if there would be any true 3D theatres to show it in Taiwan. The original posters all had the Disney Digital 3D logos and blurbs but recently we haven’t seen any, although all of the posters do say "3D."

As promisted, Lorraine called her contacts to find out what the deal is and whether or not we’ll be able to see in in true stereoscopic goodness as we’ve been planning and hoping to ever since news of the system came out.

Nope. Nadda, zilch, non, not a bleedin’ thing!

The Disney folks here told Lorraine that the only place you can see the stereoscopic 3D presentations are in the US, Canada, and England. According to the local Disney folks based in Taiwan, the problem isn’t the screen conversion cost but that Disney and Lucas are insisting on using the Dolby Digital Network Servers for the system which pretty much locks out Taiwan and many other countries from participating.

Sheesh.

In the US, the studios are offering at least some investment coverage incentinves for some theatres that opt to convert to the new 3D Digital systems (at around US$80-90,000 a pop, it’s a heavy investment for one to three films per year at the get-go). Unfortunately, the cost is shutting out a lot of theatres and the technology restriction demands are shutting out even more.

This really is too bad. There reasonable polarized options for film theatres that can’t convert to the new system or where they can’t support the network or server’s used stateside. For instance, Allan Silliphant’s very workable 6 perf 3D format CINE160-3D would allow many many theatres to convert to 3D projection at a fraction of the cost that the digital system is running and it would allow theatres in parts of the world where the expense of a digital projection system is just way too high to enjoy the stereoscopic wave. One reason Lucas and Disney are pushing digital projection only for this and upcoming films is to push the conversion to digital sooner and to control patents and technology rights. However, this will not speed the conversion in many areas of the world where the economies of scale and infrastructure can’t support the switch just yet. Basically, the "first world" will get the goodies and the rest of the planet will get zilch and be frustrated and pissed about it. Grrrr. Actually, the CINE160-3D will support good quality bright projection polarized 3D which would be my preference for projected stereoscopic entertainment at this time but it also supports a higher quality true stereo anaglyphic system as well which actually means even more theatres can convert. Unfortunately, a lot of folks are down on anaglyph because too many producers are using cheap ugly variations either to save money or because they don’t understand the dynamics of anaglyphic processing to minimize ghosting or other problems.

In any case, as I personally have been looking forward to the upcoming 3D wave of movies, it is really disappointing that the studios haven’t moved forward to a more workable and universal system to encourage global stereoscopic systems instead of limited conversion in very select markets.

The rest of us seem to be getting squat for now. Grrrr.

Brian