WEBVTT - Rerun: The Death of 3D Television 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:14.720 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:18.040 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio, and 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.439 I love all things tech and I'm a little under 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:23.599 the weather today. But of course I don't want to 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:27.600 leave you without a tech Stuff episode. So rather than 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:30.560 skip a day, I thought we would have a nice 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:36.200 little rerun episode. Uh. This one comes from August twelve, 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.360 two nineteen, so not that long ago, and it is 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:43.880 called the Death of three D Television. I hope you enjoy. 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:47.280 So in this episode, I'm going to talk a bit 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.879 about three D and how three D works, and then 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.400 transition over to why television manufacturers were so gung ho 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.880 on the idea in the first place, and why ultimately 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:03.320 it failed because spoiler alert, no major television manufacturer is 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:08.160 currently including three D TV capabilities in their sets. All right, 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:12.440 So let's begin with the way three D actually works. Now, 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:16.280 in the real world, we can perceive depth, right, the 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:20.800 real world around us, we perceive in three dimensions, and 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.600 we can tell how far away stuff is in general, 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:26.959 or at least have a good idea about which things 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:30.200 are closer to us. Than other things. If something is 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:32.960 within twenty feet of us are closer, we can do 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:36.160 that pretty easily with our depth perception. Beyond that we 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:40.320 start to rely more heavily on visual cueues outside of 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.280 stuff like parallax, so we can perceive objects actually have 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.280 depth as well. Right, it's not just that we can 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.480 see that something is closer to us than something else. 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.040 We can see that that something has three dimensions, So 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:55.680 it's not like the world just looks like a bunch 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.320 of cardboard cutouts to us. Our brains use a lot 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:01.720 of different in form ation and cues to create this 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:06.200 three dimensional representation that we're taking in, but one of 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.800 those is stereoscopic vision. This applies to people who have 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:13.760 vision in both eyes. There are some people who do not, 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:16.880 and for those people the technology and three D films 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:20.639 and TV doesn't work. But for those of us who 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:23.079 do have vision in both eyes, we know that our 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:27.000 line of sight is slightly different for each eye. This 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:30.400 is just common sense, right. Because the eyes are on 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:32.800 either side of the nose, the left eye and the 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:36.400 right eye are peering out from different positions, so we 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:40.680 get slightly different angles of vision, and our brains take 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.480 these two streams of data and combine them into a 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:49.119 single representation, and that's where we get our three dimensional images. 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:53.640 It's our brain taking that information and combining it to say, 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:56.959 here's how I'm making sense of the world around us. 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:01.200 But stuff like traditional photographs or drawings, or films and 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:05.960 television present two dimensional images to us. Their images on 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:10.560 flat surfaces, and thus they have no depth. Our brains 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:13.680 can try to judge depth based upon the qualities within 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:17.600 the image, as in I can tell that in this image, 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.920 this one thing is closer than this other thing. But 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:23.440 that also means our brains can be fooled if we 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:27.519 take advantage of that way that brains work. This is 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.959 the principle behind tricks like forced perspective, in which you 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.880 position subjects in an image in such a way as 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:37.800 to create the illusion of a significant difference in size. 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:41.040 But it's not necessarily the case that one object or 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:45.280 person is significantly larger or smaller than another. Rather, it 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:47.400 has to do with the distance to the camera and 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.240 the angle of the shot. So an example of this 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:53.400 trick in action is found throughout the Lord of the 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:57.400 Rings films, in which Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf, would 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.120 often be positioned so that he was closer to the 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.320 camera than the actors who were playing dwarves or hobbits, 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:08.040 you know, the smaller creatures. The crew created special tables 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.000 and benches and other pieces of furniture so that when 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.200 they were shot from the correct camera angle, it looked 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.479 like a normal table, and this supported the illusion that 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:21.119 you were looking in on, say a six foot tall 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:25.800 human like figure sitting down with three foot tall human 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.880 like figures, when in reality the differences in the actor's 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:34.480 heights was really much less dramatic. This trick works because 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.240 there's no true depths in the image we're looking at, 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.400 so the filmmakers can take advantage of that and create 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:44.640 this illusion. A three D version makes this trick harder 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:47.400 to pull off, since it requires shooting the scene from 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:51.200 two different angles to simulate the experience of a person 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.919 looking in on that scene with their own eyeballs, and 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.320 so forced perspective in three D films is a lot 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.520 harder to pull off. So that's the first part of 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.839 three D technology. You shoot a scene with two cameras 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.320 position such that they mimic how the viewer's eyes would 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:10.960 look in on that scene, or sometimes this is done 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.440 in a computer generated environment for example pre c g 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.359 I films or for converted films. Will talk more about 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.440 those in the second. But now you have two sets 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:23.320 of images to show an audience right, You have one 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.599 set for the left camera and one set for the 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:30.080 right camera, and you will only want one set of 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:33.040 images to go to each eye. Right, the images from 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.360 the left camera have to go to the viewers left eye. 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:37.839 The images from the right camera have to go to 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.720 the viewer's right eye. But you're showing all of them 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.040 on the same surface. Otherwise this the three D effect 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.080 won't work. You would just have a mess of images 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:49.120 on the screen. It would be a big jumble. So 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:52.040 how do you tell the light which way to go? 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.000 How do you tell the light from the left side 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.160 just go to the left eye and the light from 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:57.800 the right side to just go to the right eye 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:02.000 for an audience full of people. Well back when three 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:04.840 D films were first really becoming a fad in the 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:08.360 nineteen fifties, it was typical to use filters on the 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.960 camera's color filters. The left camera would have say a 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:15.160 red lens filter on it, and that meant only red 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:18.680 light could come through that filter. This is a matter 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.599 of physics. A red object is one that absorbs all 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:25.040 light except light that has wavelengths in the red spectrum. 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.680 That light would reflect off the object. A red lens 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:33.520 allows red light to pass through and absorbs all other light. Similarly, 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.640 the right camera lens would have a blue filter on it, 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:38.920 which meant only the blue light from a scene could 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.440 pass through. So now you have two rolls of film 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:46.000 of the same movie. They are shot from almost identical angles, 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.280 but they are slightly offset, again to mimic the way 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:53.200 our eyes are offset. One set of those images is 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:55.360 from the camera with the red filter, and the other 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:57.680 is from the camera with the blue filter. You take 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.520 these developed pieces of film, you put them in a 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:05.040 pair of projectors, also spaced just so, side by side, 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:07.840 and you play them in sync with each other so 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.560 that the sequence of images matches up. You have a 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:14.480 red set and a blue set. So these are identical 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:16.880 except for a slight difference in angle and of course 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:21.480 their color. The audience puts on glasses that have red 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.280 and blue lenses. The red lens will only let the 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.440 images from the red filter camera pass through. The blue 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:31.680 lenses on the glasses will only allow the blue images 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.800 to pass through, and thus the brain gets two sets 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:39.280 of images. If the cameras and projectors are properly aligned, 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.840 this should create the illusion of a three dimensional image, 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:46.320 and the audience will perceive depth and what is otherwise 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:50.360 two sets of two dimensional pictures, which is pretty darn cool. 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:53.920 Of course, that's the old way to do it, and 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.280 it meant that you couldn't really get a full color 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:59.600 film in three D. But there are other ways to 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.360 get the same effect. The two main ways fall into 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:09.040 the broad category of passive glasses and active glasses. Passive 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:12.320 glasses work in a similar way to the red blue 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.480 lens glasses, in fact, the same way, just through a 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:20.600 different operating mechanism. They typically use polarized lenses, which will 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:24.440 only allow light that is polarized in a certain way 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:28.600 to come through the lens. Polarized sunglasses work in this way. 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:32.960 Most polarized sunglasses will only allow light that is vertically 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:37.920 oriented to pass through the lens, because horizontally oriented light 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:41.800 is typically glare caused by light that's reflecting off of 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:45.319 horizontal surfaces like the hood of a car. So by 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:49.120 blocking that kind of light, the glasses eliminate glare. It 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:51.160 also means that less light is coming to your eyes 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.360 more than a second. So you can polarize light and 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:58.199 lots of different ways, not just horizontally and vertically, including 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:03.760 in circular patterns that are clockwise or counterclockwise or witter 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:06.880 shens as I like to say. A clockwise polarized lens 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:10.640 won't let light with a counter clockwise polarization through the 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.880 same lens, and vice versa. The clockwise approach is important, 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:18.000 by the way, because if you polarize lights so that's say, 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:21.600 the left lens only allows horizontal oriented light to come 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:25.079 through and the right lens only allows vertical oriented light 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:27.600 to come through, it would require the audience to sit 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:31.319 upright to watch the image to get the proper feeling, 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.839 the proper effect. That might work at a movie theater, 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:36.960 but at home it could be an issue for people 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:42.040 who might say, lounge a bit while watching television. So 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.600 if your head is at an odd angle to the screen, 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.640 the lenses might not align properly with the light coming 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:53.120 from the image, and thus the circular polarization helps bypass 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:57.120 that particular problem. Otherwise, the process is pretty much the 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:01.199 same as the red and blue version. Each camera has 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.560 a special filter to only allow light polarized in a 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:07.280 particular way to pass through the lens, or the projectors 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:11.520 are fitted with special filters to polarize the light that 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:16.080 they're projecting. These match the glasses, and we again get 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:19.200 the two sets of images that, when viewed through this 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:22.240 pair of glasses with the proper polarization, creates that illusion 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:26.319 of a three dimensional image. Then we have active glasses. 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:30.240 These are glasses that have liquid crystals in the lenses, 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.800 and the liquid crystals can change shape and a fraction 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:37.720 of a second, so in one orientation they block light 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:41.360 from coming through the lens, and the other orientation they 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:45.040 allow light to pass through the lens. They're kind of 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:49.800 like very tiny window blinds that open and shut at 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:53.120 an incredible speed. And the left lens and the right 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:57.800 lens have crystals alternating these two orientations, so that when 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:01.280 the left lens is letting light through and the right isn't, 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.280 then you can get the left side, and then vice versa. 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.480 The right side will let light through on the left, 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.400 won't you get the right side. The shuttering is in 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:14.400 synchronization with the film or the three D television, Otherwise 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.600 that method wouldn't work, So you're only getting the left 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:20.280 images when those are on display, You're only getting the 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:24.479 right images when those are on display, and otherwise the 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:28.400 the opposite lens is blocking light. So with these glasses, 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:31.800 rather than having two sets of the same image projected 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:35.520 on a movie screen simultaneously or on a television display, 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:39.040 you only have one set displayed at any given instant. 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.360 So let's say it's the first fraction of a second, 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:43.800 only the image for the left eye is on display. 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:46.400 The glasses worn by the audience open the shutters on 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:49.439 the left lens and close the shutters on the right lens, 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:51.760 so that the light only gets to the left eye 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:55.080 of all the viewers. In the next instant, the image 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:57.559 for the right eye is displayed and the glasses switch 0:11:57.679 --> 0:11:59.800 the shutters, so now the light can pass through the 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:02.160 right lens but not the left. And this goes on, 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.040 with the glasses shuttering over and over in sequence with 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:07.760 the images on the screen, and it's all happening fast 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:12.120 enough that our brains can't detect the changes. To us, 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:16.040 it just seems like a continuous series of images coming 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.400 right into our brains, like we're looking in unbroken sequence 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:21.920 with both eyes at the same time, and our brains 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:26.560 again construct this three dimensional representation. This approach helps correct 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.080 a problem that a lot of other three D films have, 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:33.920 which is that they tend to be pretty dark. You've 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.520 got two sets of images on the same surface with 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.440 the other methods of three D presentation. So if you 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:41.880 read a lot of tech blogs or a lot of 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.520 movie review sites that talk about the differences between three 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.280 D versions of a film and the two D versions 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:51.800 of the film, you'll often see commentary about how dark 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:55.760 the three D version is in comparison, and that has 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:59.040 a couple of things with it. That's partly because you 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.920 have projectors with these polarized filters on them, so less 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:04.640 light is coming from the projector to hit the screen. 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.800 You're wearing glasses that also have polar rized lenses on them, 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:11.559 so they're preventing some of the light from the screen 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:15.520 to getting to your eyes. So that means the image 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:19.079 is going to look darker to you, and it can 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:21.800 make it challenging or even impossible to tell what's going 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:25.560 on with a dimly lit scene. There's some filmmakers who 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:30.640 try to counteract this by using, you know, actual effects 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.640 in the making of a three D film to make 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:35.920 a very bright image in the first place and avoid 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:40.040 doing darker image stuff. But you can also get around 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.880 this by actually just boosting the amount of light that 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:46.960 the projectors is putting through the lens. You can essentially 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:51.200 turn up the brightness on the projectors. That requires training 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:53.800 a projectionist to be able to do this sort of thing, 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:58.640 to calibrate a projector so that it is ideally working 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:02.520 with the three D content, and a lot of places 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:05.520 just don't do that. So there are a lot of 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:08.680 projectionists who just they don't have the training to tweak 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.280 things and make it calibrated so that you get a 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:15.680 really good, uh, three D experience, And so the result 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:20.480 is you get this kind of dark, muddy, out of 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:25.800 focus almost experience. It's not ideal anyway. Uh. You you 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.320 realize that there's not really a one size fits all 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.800 approach to projecting films properly. You need to have that 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.640 kind of training to really get the most out of it, 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:37.360 and it's just just a fact that not a lot 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:42.600 of places do that. Active glasses, however, which again don't 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.640 have quite the same problems. They are the most technically 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:51.080 complicated version of three D televisions and three D films, 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:53.520 and it also means that the glasses themselves have to 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:57.400 draw power from something which is typically a chargeable battery, 0:14:57.640 --> 0:14:59.280 and that means if you want to watch a three 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.080 D film or TV show with active three D glasses, 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:04.520 you need to make sure that those glasses are charged 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.560 up first, or they may not work, they might conk 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:09.840 out before the movie is over. And it also means 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.040 they tend to be more expensive. So if you lose 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.400 a pair of polarized glasses, that's already pretty expensive, but 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:17.920 losing a pair of active three D glasses can really 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:20.320 set you back a bit. When we come back, i'll 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.720 talk about why the industry pushed hard for three D 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.800 televisions and three D content and three D films, But first, 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:36.000 let's take a quick break. Okay, I gave you a 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:39.160 quick rundown on how three D works, and I could 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:42.640 trace the history of three D back to early stereoscopic 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:46.440 photographs up through the gimmicky tricks of the nineteen fifties 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.920 designed to lure more crowds into movie theaters because of 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:52.680 a fear that television was going to rob theaters of 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.200 their audiences. But honestly, I've covered that in other episodes. 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:59.360 And it's not really that relevant to this conversation about 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:01.640 modern tell visions and the effort to get three D 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:05.840 adopted as a standard feature in TVs. So what gives Well, First, 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:08.120 it helps if we look at the rebirth of three 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:12.119 D at the cinema. Now, apart from some fairly gimmicky 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:16.280 films like Jaws three D, the three D craze had 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:18.680 proven to be just sort of a fad from a 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.040 bygone eram But that started to change in the first 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:25.200 decade of the two thousand's, particularly with a film that 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:29.200 came out in two thousand nine. So you do have 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.920 filmmakers who are interested in using three D to enhance 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.680 the experience they want their audiences to have while they 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:40.920 are watching one of these directors films, and these filmmakers 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:45.360 are exploring new ways to create movies and to tell stories. 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:50.400 A great example of such a filmmaker is James Cameron, 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:55.120 and in fact, his insanely successful two thousand nine film 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:59.320 Avatar is a large reason why three D films took off. 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:05.600 Shortly afterwards, Avatar smashed box office records and the effects 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.520 were rightly louded by critics. People said the three D 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.600 effects of this movie are like nothing we've ever seen before. 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.000 It's not really an exaggeration to say that Avatar helped 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.680 usher in the modern three D cinema age. A three 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:25.399 D film requires different considerations than a standard two dimensional film, 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:28.480 which can hide a lot of stuff just through lighting 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:31.600 and camera angles and other simple tricks. A three D 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:35.640 film requires a slightly different approach, often using the same 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:39.280 tricks but tweaked for the three D filming process. It 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.760 also requires twice as many people. You've got two cameras 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:46.320 to run, not just one, so you have two camera crews. 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:49.840 You've got a much larger staff. It's more expensive, and 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.720 because it's more technically complicated, when things go wrong, it 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:57.240 can take a lot more time to fix stuff. So 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:01.520 it's not necessarily a better approach, but it is a 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:05.160 different approach. Stuff like force perspective is a lot harder 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.919 to pull off that way. It just means that you 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.040 have to go about things in a different way if 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.040 you want to get the most out of creating a 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.680 three D film versus a two D film. Other films 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:19.840 get converted into three D after they've already been shot 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.000 in two D, so these movies were not shot in 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:26.280 three D natively. So with this approach, you're taking a 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.720 single two dimensional set of images. You know, that's what 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:32.120 a film is. It's just a long sequence of two 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.440 dimensional images. Then you have to take that and turn 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:40.360 it into two offset series of images, one for each eye. 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.400 Now this can be done, it could even be done well, 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.879 but it's also really easy to do it poorly, and 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:50.280 in any case, it can result in a movie that 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.240 seems to be shot in three D for no apparent reason, 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:58.560 like there's no thing in the film that benefits from 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:03.320 the three D ness. With movies, a big motivating factor 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:07.120 for studios and movie theater chains is that they can 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.639 charge more money for a three D screening of a film. 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:14.520 It's a premium experience. So if it's done well, it 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.199 can be a really great experience for the audience. They 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.160 can feel like it was worth the money. But whether 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.560 it's done well or not, it drives up ticket prices. 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.480 You can charge more for those tickets, and driving a 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.360 ticket prices is a good way to generate a lot 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:34.080 more revenue, particularly in the early stages of a film's release, 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:37.200 and that means you can turn up the hype machine, 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:40.520 because if your film breaks some box office records. You 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.080 can use that to try and get more folks who 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.120 haven't yet seen the film in theaters to come check 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.240 it out. And you don't necessarily need to sell more 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:52.520 tickets than the previous record holder if the tickets you're 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.680 selling are more expensive. So, in other words, let's say 0:19:56.760 --> 0:20:01.000 you are selling cookies at fifty cents each and I 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:03.640 swoop in on your turf and I start selling cookies 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:06.320 for a dollar each. But I also say that my 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:10.000 cookies have some feature about them that makes them superior. 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.960 Let's say I'm using the claim that the ingredients in 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:16.600 my cookie are all natural, for example, then I can 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.360 make more money than you, even if you sell more 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.399 cookies than I do. If you sell five dozen cookies 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.240 at fifty cents each, well you netted yourself thirty bucks, 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:29.720 which isn't bad. Now, let's say I sold four dozen cookies, 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:33.159 so twelve cookies fewer than you did, but I charge 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:35.959 a dollar each, so I met myself forty eight bucks. 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:38.760 You sold more cookies, but I brought in more revenue. 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.080 Three D films can help studios and theaters achieved the 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:45.280 same thing. If we were just looking at the number 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:49.359 of tickets sold. The story would be different. So there's 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:53.120 a strong business case for three D content in movie theaters, 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:56.800 particularly in an age where the average person is going 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:00.240 to the cinema less frequently. Since two thousand one, the 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.520 per capita tickets sales in the United States has been 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:06.439 on a fairly steady decline, with a couple of bumps 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:09.280 every other year or so. One way to combat this 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:12.000 is to offer up an experience that is hard to 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:17.880 replicate at home, a high fidelity experience with booming surround sound, 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:22.040 crisp images, and occasionally three D effects that can help 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:25.160 convert someone from I'll just watch it when it's available 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:27.800 for streaming to let's go to the theater and check 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.399 this out. Another motivation for three D films on the 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:34.880 studio side is that they seemed like a good solution 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:39.160 to a problem of debatable magnitude. That is the problem 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.960 of movie piracy and bootlegging. Now, I've done episodes in 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:45.399 which I've talked about movie piracy in the past, but 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:50.199 let's do a quick overview. First. Piracy isn't cool, guys, 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:55.080 that's just you know, true. My philosophy is that if 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:58.560 you think something is worth the price, then you should 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:02.199 pay that price in order to experience whatever that thing is. 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:05.840 If you think something is not worth the price, if 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:08.600 you think they're charging way too much for that, then 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:10.960 you don't pay the price and you don't experience it. 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.080 That's how you can get the prices to come down. 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:17.320 You just say like, well, I just don't think it's 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:19.639 worth it, so I'm not gonna bother if it was. 0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:21.680 If you feel like it wasn't worth it, why would 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:24.359 you worry about it? Now? If you think it's worth 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:27.520 the price, but you're not willing to pay that price. 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:29.960 So in other words, you're just saying, it's probably worth 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:32.240 the twenty bucks to see it, but I'm not gonna 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:35.400 pay twenty bucks to see it. I'm just gonna steal it. Well, 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:38.560 that that makes you a jerk. That's that's all that 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:42.840 works out. So pirating isn't really cool. Now that being said, 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:47.159 the movie studios have a narrative around piracy that isn't 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:51.600 really supportable. So well, I agree that piracy is not good. 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:56.360 I also say that movie studios have blown it way 0:22:56.359 --> 0:23:01.320 out of proportion. See, the narrative is that movie piracy 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:07.560 directly translates to lost revenue, and that's just not really supportable. 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:10.920 If someone bootlegs a copy of a movie and then 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:13.960 makes it available in people who otherwise would never go 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.640 see the movie download the film to watch it. You 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:21.760 can't really claim that the movie studio is out any revenue. 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:24.840