Chicken Little is coming and in some theatres it will be in stereoscopic 3D. This will be a new digital 3D system, albeit the need to convert theatres to a new expensive digital projection system and to install silver screens implies a polarized viewing system not unlike systems from the past, the new wrinkle being in the digital. Not a lot in the descriptions in the news, new screens, projectors give 3D technology a makeover., which is not too terribly surprising since most of the reporters – and many of the new major players – don’t really know much about the technology or history of stereocopic 3D cinema . . . so look for a number of flat out bombs in the tech department before they start getting things right . . . the news reports tend to call the old stuff gimmicky without truly understanding what was outstanding and what wasn’t from the old stuff . . . there is also a tendancy to assume anaglyph (the red-blue glasses) is the original system, not true as polarized was original and anaglyph only became popular as a cheap method for 3D television which would not allow for polarization of the eye views . . . most of today’s theatres can’t handle the superior polarized systems because silver screens, which used to be the norm, were exchanged for cheaper white screens . . . interestingly, the new system is requiring theatres to install silver screens again so the circle comes full circle again . . . many folks also think anaglyph has to be crappy but that’s not true . . . see the superior systems developed as anachrome as those glasses are very very good . . . yes, the 3D in Spy Kids 3D left a lot to be desired but that is because of improper application of the technology, not a problem with the actual technology. Shark Boy and Lava Girl hasn’t even played here . . . at least not yet and so I won’t hold my breath . . .

The 3D system used for "Chicken Little" is far more advanced than those used in the 1950s, the heyday of gimmicky 3D films. All 3D pictures require two separate images, one representing what the left eye sees and one from the right eye’s point of view. Previous 3D systems projected both images on the screen simultaneously, requiring the use of the red and blue lenses or even glasses with mechanized shutters that opened and closed quickly to separate the images. [NOTE FROM BRIAN: Bullshit. They don’t know the history of 3D and are making stuff up here. Sheesh.] With newer systems, moviegoers still need to don special glasses, but they won’t be the cheap cardboard kind with blue and red lenses. Instead, special polarized lenses, similar to those worn in theme park 3D attractions, will separate the stereo images projected on specially coated screens. A 3D system by RealD, a Beverly Hills-based company, uses technology developed in part for NASA and molecular biologists who need to view images in three dimensions. Theaters install a special movie screen painted with a silver oxide to direct more light back to the viewer instead of scattering wavelengths the way normal screens do. The theaters also use digital projectors that show movies stored in bits on a computer hard disk rather than traditional film. The projectors and screens can also be used to show traditional 2D films, a big advantage for theater owners. The RealD system projects images at 144 frames per second, alternating the left and right eye images faster than the naked eye can decipher. Normal films are projected at 24 frames per second. The finished print of "Chicken Little" is essentially left eye images. Disney hired Industrial Light & Magic to recreate the film’s 1,400 separate shots from the right eye’s point of view. "What we jokingly say is it took us five and a half years to make the left eye, and we gave ILM six months to make the right eye," said Mark Dindall, director of "Chicken Little."

Hopefully someone, anyone, will show it in 3D here. Every place we’ve asked thus far has said they won’t have the conversion theatre. Sheesh. Lorraine will call some of her contacts tomorrow to see if she can find out if anyone will have the 3D version here as that’s the version we want to see, obviously. I want my 3D fix! I really hope we’ll be able to see Battle Angel Alita in 3D when it comes out. That one’s going to kick butt.

See my earlier post here.