It came from Outer space

Writing about the re-release of the "Titanic" in 3D in my previous post got me thinking about the history of 3D cinema and where it came from (better late than never, I suppose). After the hype of James Cameron's "Avatar" (2009), which has now beat his "Titanic" as the biggest grossing film, 3D cinema has been brought back to the forefront of people's minds, and since 2009 many more films have been released with a choice of 2D or 3D. There is no doubt that in the new millennium  3D has really made progress with the development of 3D television (3DTV) and even 'glassesless 3D' but is it all just a fad (again)? 

3D Cinema audience by Anne Breathwick

It is a well known fact that 3D cinema only stays around for a couple of years at a time. It definitely does not come from 'outer space', but from the simple idea to presenting two offsetting images (one to the left eye and another to the right eye) merging to provide an illusion of depth. Stereoscopy (or 3D imaging) was popular in Victorian times. But the first 3D feature film? "The power of love" (1922). The film was directed by Nat G. Deverich and produced by Harry K. Fairall. It is the earliest known film in which anaglyph glasses were used but unfortunately the film footage has been lost. Due to the great depression at the end of the 1920s and 30s 3D was not seen as a necessity. The next big 'boom' for interest for 3D was in the 1950s, also known as the 'Golden era' of 3D.


How 3D works. In simple terms. 

The two most popular types:

Anagylph: (shown left) two images are superimposed in a light setting through two filters (one red and one cyan). The audience then also wears glasses with coloured filters in each eye which cancel the filter colour out. "But as it is, it is a terrible strain on the eyes, resulting in prolonged physical discomfort almost to the point of nausea."

Polaroid: (right) Edwin H. Land founded the Polaroid Corporation in 1936. Two prints (each carrying either the right or left eye) are synchronised using an external system motor on a silver screen (or a screen made of other reflective material). The images are separated by polarised glasses worn by the audience. Polarisation reduces the glare that anagylph gives off. Most of the films released in the 50's were released in Polaroid 3D.

For a more detailed explanation oh how 3D works, see here. 

"It came from outer space" (1953)

This film is a well known 3D film. Directed by Jack Arnold, starring Richard Carlson and Barbara Rush. It was the first 3D film that Universal Studio's released. The film is one of the many popular sci-fi films made in the 1950s, at the height of the cold war, as it shows unknown creatures from foreign lands attacking the homeland (USA). The film is set in in a town called Sandrock in Arizona. It is a typical small American town in the south where nothing ever happens and, as the narrator quotes, people are "sure of the future." There is the omnipresent narrator framing the story and right from the beginning the 'alien' synth external diegetic sound which is repeated throughout, reminds the audience of the invasion of foreign bodies. The main characters are the 'man of science,' John Putnam (Carlson) and his girlfriend, school teacher (who never attends school because she is to distracted by Carlson), Ellen Fields (Rush).

Together they represent classic American star-crossed lovers who have to try and convince the police and the community that something alien has landed. The film builds suspense by using a fish-eye lens so the audience can see from the aliens perspective and tracking shots are also used to show vast areas of isolated desert adding to the suspense. Additionally, for the aliens to blend into society they live inside the body of the human, also stealing their clothes, thus completely stealing their identities. The American government was highly preoccupied with the notion of communist spies infiltrating the US government (see McCarthyism).

Unlike some of the other cold-war era sci-fi's produced, It came from outer space shows the main character reasoning with the aliens, trying to compromise: but in the end, to save his world, John is forced to blow up the mine where the alien ship had landed and in doing so fulfilling the audience's expectations of annihilating the foreign invaders. Richard Carlson then went on to star in "The maze" (1953), another 3D blockbuster in the Golden age of Sci-fi (and also 3D).

Here is the trailer for "It came from outer space":

So can 3D ever overtake 2D? I believe the answer is NO, and why should it? Even if the technology becomes more advanced I believe that nothing can come close to the feeling of actually visiting the place itself (which is what 3D hopes to achieve). A screen has size dimensions (height and width) and the spectator can never fully immerse into the screen, so why try and force this merger? I admit, 3D was fascinating for a while, and it does work a lot better on animation films: but, once again, a few years down the line and the popularity of 3D cinema seems to be fading.