WEBVTT - The Death of 3D Television 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:13.960 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:17.200 I am your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:19.480 with I Heart Radio and How Stuff Works in all 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:24.440 of all things tech, and longtime listeners of this show 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.840 know that on my annual trips to c e s 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.080 for several years in a row, I would come back 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:35.800 talking about how TV manufacturers were really pushing three D 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:40.239 features over and over again in the face of well, 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:44.920 let's let's call it consumer resistance to the idea. So 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:47.600 in this episode, I'm going to talk a bit about 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.520 three D and how three D works, and then transition 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.640 over to why television manufacturers were so gung ho on 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:58.520 the idea in the first place and why ultimately it 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:03.880 failed because spoiler alert, no major television manufacturer is currently 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:08.160 including three D TV capabilities in their sets. All right, 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:12.479 So let's begin with the way three D actually works. Now, 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:16.319 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 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.600 we can tell how far away stuff is in general, 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:26.960 or at least have a good idea about which things 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:30.240 are closer to us than other things. If something is 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.000 within twenty feet of us are closer, we can do 0:01:33.040 --> 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 --> 0:01:44.319 stuff like parallax, so we can perceive objects actually have 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.319 depths as well. Right, it's not just that we can 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:50.520 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 --> 0:01:55.720 it's not like the world just looks like a bunch 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:59.280 of cardboard cutouts to us. Our brains use a lot 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:01.760 of different and form nation and cues to create this 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:06.200 three dimensional representation that we're taking in. But one of 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:10.880 those is stereoscopic vision. This applies to people who have 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.800 vision in both eyes. There are some people who do not, 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:16.919 and for those people the technology and three D films 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:20.639 and TV doesn't work. But for those of us who 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:23.080 do have vision in both eyes, we know that our 0:02:23.200 --> 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 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:32.840 either side of the nose, the left eye and the 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:36.440 right eye are peering out from different positions, so we 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:40.720 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 --> 0:02:49.160 single representation, and that's where we get our three dimensional images. 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:53.640 It's our brain taking that information and combining it to say, 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.960 here's how I'm making sense of the world around us. 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:01.240 But stuff like traditional photographs or drawings, or films and 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:06.000 television present two dimensional images to us. Their images on 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:10.560 flat surfaces, and thus they have no depth. Our brains 0:03:10.600 --> 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, 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.920 this one thing is closer than this other thing. But 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:23.480 that also means our brains can be fooled if we 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:27.560 take advantage of that way that brains work. This is 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:31.000 the principle behind tricks like forced perspective, in which you 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.919 position subjects in an image in such a way as 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.840 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 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:45.320 person is significantly larger or smaller than another. Rather, it 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:47.400 has to do with the distance to the camera and 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.280 the angle of the shot. So an example of this 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.400 trick in action is found throughout the Lord of the 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:57.400 Rings films, in which Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf, would 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.160 often be positioned so that he was closer to the 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:03.400 camera than the actors who were playing dwarves or hobbits, 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:07.960 you know, the smaller creatures. The crew created special tables 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.040 and benches and other pieces of furniture so that when 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.200 they were shot from the correct camera angle, it looked 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.479 like a normal table, and this supported the illusion that 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:21.159 you were looking in on, say a six foot tall 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:25.839 human like figure sitting down with three foot tall human 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:29.920 like figures, when in reality the differences in the actor's 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:34.479 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, 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.440 so the filmmakers can take advantage of that and create 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.680 this illusion. A three D version makes this trick harder 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.479 to pull off, since it requires shooting the scene from 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.239 two different angles to simulate the experience of a person 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.960 looking in on that scene with their own eyeballs and 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:57.320 so force perspective in three D films is a lot 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.560 harder to pull off, So that's the first part of 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.880 three D technology. You shoot a scene with two cameras 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.400 position such that they mimic how the viewer's eyes would 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:11.000 look in on that scene, or sometimes this is done 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.480 in a computer generated environment for example pre c g 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.360 I films or for converted films. Will talk more about 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.440 those in the second. But now you have two sets 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:23.080 of images to show an audience, right do you have 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:25.520 one set for the left camera and one set for 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:30.000 the right camera, and you will only want one set 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:32.880 of images to go to each eye? Right, the images 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:34.799 from the left camera have to go to the viewers 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.560 left eye. The images from the right camera have to 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.360 go to the viewer's right eye. But you're showing all 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:43.520 of them on the same surface. Otherwise this the three 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.279 D effect won't work. You would just have a mess 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:48.880 of images on the screen. It would be a big jumble. 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:52.080 So how do you tell the light which way to go? 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:54.039 How do you tell the light from the left side 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:56.160 just go to the left eye and the light from 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:57.840 the right side to just go to the right eye 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:02.040 for an audience full of people. Well back when three 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.880 D films were first really becoming a fad in the 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.400 nineteen fifties, it was typical to use filters on the 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:12.000 camera's color filters. The left camera would have say, a 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.200 red lens filter on it, and that meant only red 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:18.720 light could come through that filter. This is a matter 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.600 of physics. A red object is one that absorbs all 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:25.080 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 --> 0:06:33.560 allows red light to pass through and absorbs all other light. Similarly, 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.640 the right camera lens would have a blue filter on it, 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.000 which meant only the blue light from a scene could 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.479 pass through. So now you have two rolls of film 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:46.040 of the same movie. They are shot from almost identical angles, 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:49.000 but they are slightly offset, again to mimic the way 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:53.240 our eyes are offset. One set of those images is 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:55.400 from the camera with the red filter, and the other 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:57.680 is from the camera with the blue filter. You take 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:00.560 these developed pieces of film, you put them in a 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:05.040 pair of projectors, also spaced just so side by side, 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:07.840 and you play them in sync with each other so 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:10.560 that the sequence of images matches up. You have a 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:14.480 red set and a blue set, so these are identical 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:16.920 except for a slight difference in angle and of course 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:21.520 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 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:28.360 images from the red filter camera pass through. The blue 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:31.720 lenses on the glasses will only allow the blue images 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.840 to pass through, and thus the brain gets two sets 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:39.320 of images. If the cameras and projectors are properly aligned, 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.880 this should create the illusion of a three dimensional image, 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:46.360 and the audience will perceive depth and what is otherwise 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:50.400 two sets of two dimensional pictures, which is pretty darn cool. 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:54.000 Of course, that's the old way to do it, and 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:56.360 it meant that you couldn't really get a full color 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:59.640 film in three D. But there are other ways to 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:03.600 get same effect. The two main ways fall into the 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:09.600 broad category of passive glasses and active glasses. Passive glasses 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:13.480 work in a similar way to the red blue lens glasses, 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:17.200 in fact, the same way, just through a different operating mechanism. 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:21.720 They typically use polarized lenses, which will only allow light 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.400 that is polarized in a certain way to come through 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:29.800 the lens. Polarized sunglasses work in this way. Most polarized 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:33.960 sunglasses will only allow light that is vertically oriented to 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:38.760 pass through the lens, because horizontally oriented light is typically 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:42.960 glare caused by light that's reflecting off of horizontal surfaces 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:46.120 like the hood of a car. So by blocking that 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:49.640 kind of light, the glasses eliminate glare. It also means 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:51.880 that less light is coming to your eyes more than 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.920 a second. So you can polarize light in lots of 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:59.280 different ways, not just horizontally and vertically, including in circular 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:04.160 patterns that are clockwise or counter clockwise or witter shens 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:07.160 as I like to say, a clockwise polarized lens won't 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:11.400 let light with a counter clockwise polarization through the same lens, 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:15.640 and vice versa. The clockwise approach is important, by the way, 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:18.440 because if you polarize lights so that, say, the left 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.360 lens only allows horizontal oriented light to come through and 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.680 the right lens only allows vertical oriented light to come through, 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:28.559 it would require the audience to sit upright to watch 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:32.600 the image to get the proper feeling, the proper effect. 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:35.760 That might work at a movie theater, but at home 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:38.199 it could be an issue for people who might say, 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:42.600 lounge a bit while watching television. So if your head 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.600 is at an odd angle to the screen, the lenses 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:49.480 might not align properly with the light coming from the image, 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:55.880 and thus the circular polarization helps bypass that particular problem. Otherwise, 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:58.240 the process is pretty much the same as the red 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:02.240 and blue version. Each camera has a special filter to 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:04.520 only allow light polarized in a particular way to pass 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:09.040 through the lens, or the projectors are fitted with special 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:14.079 filters to polarize the light that they're projecting. These match 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:17.040 the glasses, and we again get the two sets of 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:20.199 images that, when viewed through this pair of glasses with 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.800 the proper polarization, creates that illusion of a three dimensional image. 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:28.120 Then we have active glasses. These are glasses that have 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.880 liquid crystals in the lenses, and the liquid crystals can 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:35.280 change shape and a fraction of a second, so in 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:38.960 one orientation they block light from coming through the lens, 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:42.720 and the other orientation they allow light to pass through 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:48.040 the lens. They're kind of like very tiny window blinds 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.920 that open and shut at an incredible speed. And the 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:55.720 left lens and the right lens have crystals alternating these 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:59.040 two orientations, so that when the left lens is letting 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:03.480 light through and the right isn't, then you can get 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:05.960 the left side, and then vice versa. The right side 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.360 will let light through on the left, won't you get 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:11.640 the right side. The shuttering is in synchronization with the 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:15.480 film or the three D television, Otherwise that method wouldn't work, 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.719 so you're only getting the left images when those are 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:21.840 on display. You're only getting the right images when those 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:25.760 are on display, and otherwise the the opposite lens is 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:29.840 blocking light. So with these glasses, rather than having two 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.800 sets of the same image projected on a movie screen 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.640 simultaneously or on a television display, you only have one 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.920 set displayed at any given instant. So let's say it's 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.520 the first fraction of a second, only the image for 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:44.960 the left eye is on display. The glasses worn by 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:47.400 the audience open the shutters on the left lens and 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.160 close the shutters on the right lens, so that the 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:52.640 light only gets to the left eye of all the viewers. 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:55.839 In the next instant, the image for the right eye 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.880 is displayed and the glasses switch the shutters, so now 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:00.760 the light can pass through the right lens but not 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:03.560 the left. And this goes on, with the glasses shuttering 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:06.280 over and over in sequence with the images on the screen, 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.680 and it's all happening fast enough that our brains can't 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:13.000 detect the changes. To us, it just seems like a 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:17.600 continuous series of images coming right into our brains, like 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.520 we're looking at unbroken sequence with both eyes at the 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:24.720 same time, and our brains again construct this three dimensional representation. 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:27.960 This approach helps correct a problem that a lot of 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:30.840 other three D films have, which is that they tend 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:35.080 to be pretty dark. You've got two sets of images 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:37.559 on the same surface with the other methods of three 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:40.800 D presentation. So if you read a lot of tech 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.079 blogs or a lot of movie review sites that talk 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.880 about the differences between three D versions of a film 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:49.040 and the two D versions of the film, you'll often 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:53.440 see commentary about how dark the three D version is 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:57.720 in comparison, and that has a couple of things with it. 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:01.160 That's partly because you have projectors with these polarized filters 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:03.880 on them, so less light is coming from the projector 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.080 to hit the screen. You're wearing glasses that also have 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.400 polar rized lenses on them, so they're preventing some of 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.679 the light from the screen to getting to your eyes. 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.720 So that means the image is going to look darker 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:20.360 to you, and it can make it challenging or even 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.640 impossible to tell what's going on with a dimly lit scene. 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:28.280 There's some filmmakers who try to counteract this by using, 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:31.920 you know, actual effects in the making of a three 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.880 D film to make a very bright image in the 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:39.000 first place and avoid doing darker image stuff. But you 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:42.080 can also get around this by actually just boosting the 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.440 amount of light that the projector is is putting through 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.440 the lens. You can essentially turn up the brightness on 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:52.920 the projectors. That requires training a projectionist to be able 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.439 to do this sort of thing, to calibrate a projector 0:13:55.559 --> 0:14:00.480 so that it is ideally working with the three D content, 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:05.040 and a lot of places just don't do that. So 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.240 there are a lot of projectionists who just they don't 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.640 have the training to tweak things and make it calibrated 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:14.520 so that you get a really good, uh, three D experience, 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:19.160 And so the result is you get this kind of dark, muddy, 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:24.800 out of focus almost experience. It's not ideal anyway. Uh. 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:27.920 You you realize that there's not really a one size 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.000 fits all approach to projecting films properly. You need to 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.120 have that kind of training to really get the most 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.000 out of it, and it's just just a fact that 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.080 not a lot of places do that. Active glasses, however, 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:45.760 which again don't have quite the same problems. They are 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:50.080 the most technically complicated version of three D televisions and 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.840 three D films, And it also means that the glasses 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:55.920 themselves have to draw a power from something which is 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.640 typically a chargeable battery, and that means if you want 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:00.720 to watch a three D film or TV show with 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.320 active three D glasses, you need to make sure that 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.760 those glasses are charged up first, or they may not work, 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.320 they might conk out before the movie is over. And 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.520 it also means they tend to be more expensive. So 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.600 if you lose a pair of polarized glasses, that's already 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.880 pretty expensive, but losing a pair of active three D 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:19.680 glasses can really set you back a bit. When we 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:22.280 come back, i'll talk about why the industry pushed hard 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:24.840 for three D televisions and three D content and three 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:35.280 D films, But first, let's take a quick break. Okay, 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.240 I gave you a quick rundown on how three D works, 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:40.880 and I could trace the history of three D back 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:45.440 to early stereoscopic photographs up through the gimmicky tricks of 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:49.000 the nineteen fifties designed to lure more crowds into movie 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.600 theaters because of a fear that television was going to 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.240 rob theaters of their audiences. But honestly, I've covered that 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:58.160 in other episodes, and it's not really that relevant to 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.240 this conversation about modern tell visions and the effort to 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.160 get three D adopted as a standard feature in TVs. 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:06.760 So what gives Well, First, it helps if we look 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:10.200 at the rebirth of three D at the cinema. Now, 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:14.480 apart from some fairly gimmicky films like Jaws three D, 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:17.400 the three D craze had proven to be just sort 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:20.520 of a fad from a bygone eram But that started 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.640 to change in the first decade of the two thousand's, 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.160 particularly with a film that came out in two thousand nine. 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:31.440 So you do have filmmakers who are interested in using 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:35.160 three D to enhance the experience they want their audiences 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:39.640 to have while they are watching one of these directors films, 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:44.160 and these filmmakers are exploring new ways to create movies 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:48.280 and to tell stories. A great example of such a 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:53.760 filmmaker is James Cameron, and in fact, his insanely successful 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:57.800 two thousand nine film Avatar is a large reason why 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:03.480 three D films took off. Shortly afterwards, Avatar smashed box 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:07.840 office records and the effects were rightly louded by critics. 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:11.040 People said the three D effects of this movie are 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:14.040 like nothing we've ever seen before. It's not really an 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:17.160 exaggeration to say that Avatar helped usher in the modern 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:21.520 three D cinema age. A three D film requires different 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:26.480 considerations than a standard two dimensional film, which can hide 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.600 a lot of stuff just through lighting and camera angles 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.760 and other simple tricks. A three D film requires a 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:36.840 slightly different approach, often using the same tricks but tweaked 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:40.560 for the three D filming process. It also requires twice 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:43.359 as many people. You've got two cameras to run, not 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.800 just one, so you have two camera crews. You've got 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.760 a much larger staff. It's more expensive, and because it's 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:54.240 more technically complicated, when things go wrong, it can take 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.880 a lot more time to fix stuff. So it's not 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:02.800 necessarily a better approach, but it is a different approach. 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:05.440 Stuff like force perspective is a lot harder to pull 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:08.240 off that way. It just means that you have to 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:10.320 go about things in a different way if you want 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:12.399 to get the most out of creating a three D 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:16.800 film versus a two D film. Other films get converted 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:20.760 into three D after they've already been shot in two D, 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:24.000 so these movies were not shot in three D natively. 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.720 So with this approach, you're taking a single two dimensional 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:30.439 set of images. You know, that's what a film is. 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:34.160 It's just a long sequence of two dimensional images. Then 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:36.400 you have to take that and turn it into two 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:41.320 offset series of images, one for each eye. Now, this 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.760 can be done, it can even be done well, but 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:48.040 it's also really easy to do it poorly, and in 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.680 any case, it can result in a movie that seems 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.280 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 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:03.320 the three D noss. With movies, a big motivating factor 0:19:03.560 --> 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. 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.520 It's a premium experience. So if it's done well, it 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.239 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 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.600 it's done well or not, it drives up ticket prices. 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.520 You can charge more for those tickets, and driving a 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.400 ticket prices is a good way to generate a lot 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:34.120 more revenue, particularly in the early stages of a film's release, 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:37.240 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 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:46.160 haven't yet seen the film in theaters to come check 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.240 it out. And you don't necessarily need to sell more 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:52.520 tickets than the previous record holder if the tickets you're 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:56.680 selling are more expensive. So, in other words, let's say 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:01.040 you are selling cookies at fifty cents each and I 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:03.680 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 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:10.000 cookies have some feature about them that makes them superior. 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:12.960 Let's say I'm using the claim that the ingredients in 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.600 my cookie are all natural, for example, then I can 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:19.400 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 nitted yourself thirty bucks, 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:29.760 which isn't bad. Now let's say I sold four dozen cookies, 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:33.200 so twelve cookies fewer than you did, but I charge 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:35.960 a dollar each, so I met myself forty eight bucks. 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:38.800 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 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:45.320 same thing if we were just looking at the number 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:49.400 of tickets sold, the story would be different. So there's 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:53.160 a strong business case for three D content in movie theaters, 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:56.840 particularly in an age where the average person is going 0:20:56.880 --> 0:21:00.560 to the cinema less frequently. Since two thousand, the per 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.639 capita ticket sales in the United States has been on 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:06.720 a fairly steady decline, with a couple of bumps every 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:09.840 other year or so. One way to combat this is 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:12.720 to offer up an experience that is hard to replicate 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:17.920 at home, a high fidelity experience with booming surround sound, 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:22.080 crisp images, and occasionally three D effects that can help 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:25.160 convert someone from I'll just watch it when it's available 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:27.800 for streaming to let's go to the theater and check 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:31.399 this out. Another motivation for three D films on the 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:34.880 studio side is that they seemed like a good solution 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:39.160 to a problem of debatable magnitude. That is the problem 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:43.000 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 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:50.240 let's do a quick overview. First. Piracy isn't cool, guys, 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:55.120 that's just you know, true. My philosophy is that if 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:58.639 you think something is worth the price, then you should 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:02.240 pay that price in order to experience whatever that thing is. 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:05.880 If you think something is not worth the price, if 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:08.640 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. 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:14.160 That's how you can get the prices to come down. 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:17.360 You just say like, well, I just don't think it's 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:19.679 worth it, so I'm not gonna bother if it was. 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:21.720 If you feel like it wasn't worth it, why would 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:24.359 you worry about it? Now? If you think it's worth 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:27.560 the price, but you're not willing to pay that price. 0:22:27.600 --> 0:22:29.960 So in other words, you're just saying, it's probably worth 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:32.280 the twenty bucks to see it, but I'm not gonna 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:35.440 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 --> 0:22:42.879 works out. So pirating isn't really cool. Now that being said, 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:47.159 the movie studios have a narrative around piracy that isn't 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:51.600 really supportable. So well, I agree that piracy is not good. 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:56.359 I also say that movie studios have blown it way 0:22:56.400 --> 0:23:01.440 out of proportion. See, the narrative is that movie piracy 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:07.600 directly translates to lost revenue, and that's just not really supportable. 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:10.960 If someone bootlegs a copy of a movie and then 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:14.000 makes it available in people who otherwise would never go 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.600 see the movie download the film to watch it. You 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.800 can't really claim that the movie studio is out any revenue. 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:24.879