46% of 2014's Oscar Winners Were 3D Films

The 86th Academy Awards were held in March, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. When the gathered stars and glitterati weren't taking selfies, the famous gold statues were being handed out to a host of worthy winners. Amongst them, 3Defence counted 11 wins for 3D films, helped mostly by Gravity, but ably assisted by Frozen and The Great Gatsby. This means that 46% of 2014's Oscar winners were 3D films. By comparison, 21% of 2013's winners were stereo movies, and 23% of 2012's were too. So, why the meteoric rise this year?

Gravity - as many predicted - swept the majority of the 'technical' categories. It took out the Visual Effects, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing awards early on in the evening. These particular awards have been given to 3D films in the past. Cinematography and Film Editing came next though, and winning both of these awards is a significant breakthrough in terms of the industry's recognition of stereo film-making. For one thing, the teams working on both fields for Gravity were utterly dependent on each other to succeed. Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography filmed the unfilmable, and had to predict where effects and edits would be made many years before they could be finished. Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger's editing stitched together hundreds of shots and effects into a seamless whole, to the point where their edits were nearly invisible to the audience. Their combined achievements meant that 3D cinema was awarded its first Best Film Editing Academy Award.

Steven Price took out the Best Original Score Oscar for Gravity too, joining Life Of Pi and Up's composers as the third 3D film to win that particular award. Finally, Alfonso Cuarón won the Best Director award for the film. After Ang Lee's win last year, this makes it the second year in a row that the Academy has awarded a director of a 3D film... and then not awarded them a Best Picture Oscar to boot. 12 Years A Slave pipped Gravity to that eventual win, and by all accounts the race was very tight.

As mentioned earlier, it wasn't just Gravity cleaning up at the Oscars; smash hit Frozen picked up 2 golden statues. Frozen has widely been regarded as a 'return to form' for Disney's animation division, and is the first time the animation studio has won an Academy Award in 14 years. The film has now earned over $1 billion at the global box office (ably helped by 3D ticket surcharges) and one of its songs Let It Go reached the Billboard Top 10. That particular achievement may have helped the studio win Best Original Song, and it also picked up an award for Best Animated Feature.

Finally, the immaculately designed and photographed The Great Gatsby picked up 2 Academy Awards also. Catherine Martin & Beverley Dunn were rewarded for their efforts in Production Design. Following wins from Avatar, Hugo, and Alice In Wonderland, this category is beginning to look like a 3D-dominated one. Catherine Martin picked up another gong for Best Costume Design (another category that Alice In Wonderland took out a few years ago). Gatsby's opulent aesthetic has had a major cultural influence in music videos and dress-up parties this year, and the decadence came alive wonderfully in stereo.

In a few years' time, a 3D film may eventually take home the Best Picture Oscar. While it hasn't happened this year, it's still great to see the film industry recognising the craftsmanship of stereo film-making. We at 3Defence heartily congratulate the likes of Catherine Martin, Mark Sanger and their esteemed peers for their efforts in making 2013 a banner year for 3D cinema.

Gravity - the best 3D film of 2013?

Alfonso Cuarón's upcoming 3D film Gravity has critics spellbound, and looks to be this year's "Must-See 3D Film". Set miles above Earth, the film stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as a pair of astronauts who... have to deal with gravity after a high-speed encounter with space debris. Gravity premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month, and immediately started generating Oscar-buzz from the dumbstruck audience.

It sounds like cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's first 3D outing is a doozy, technically-speaking. Breathless reviewers have described long, unbroken, takes that last in the range of 10 - 15 minutes. HitFix's Drew McWeeny appropriately summed up most people's reactions: "It is increasingly rare that I look at an effects-heavy film and don't know immediately how they did it. With Gravity, I'm not even sure what was real and what wasn't." Indeed, if you watch any of the film's trailers or TV Spots, there's a good chance you'll have the same reaction:

So, what of the 3D? 3Defence hasn't had a chance to catch a sneak-peek yet, but we can report the media has spoken very favourably of the 3D effects used. Cuarón designed the film with an IMAX 3D release in mind, and has apparently made dizzying use of the medium, with epic shots of Earth set beyond the stratosphere. In these pictures released this week, you get a chance to see for yourself what the fuss is about. What do you think? Will this be another over-hyped release, or one that will help strengthen 3D's reputation in 2013?

China's Love For 3D Kaiju, One-Eyed Monsters, And Stereo Raptors

As we enter a new season of movie-going, the Chinese box-office continues to buck worldwide trends in 3D movie attendance. A month ago, the industry had written off Pacific Rim as a well-intentioned exercise in geek-pandering. Jurassic Park 3D had proved that audiences were never going to go crazy for 3D re-releases. Monsters University was a middling Pixar effort. Midway through September though, China has re-written the history books for all three films, and again challenged expectations of the global audience for 3D.

Pacific Rim's experience was the most startling for the industry: a gigantic movie in every sense of the word, it was always destined to do earn more "internationally" than "domestically". It's reasonably common for big Hollywood action pictures to earn 60% of their total gross in the wider worldwide marketplace, and the other 40% or so of their gross comes from the avidly movie-going State-side domestic audience. What no-one expected to happen this year though? A case where a Hollywood tentpole earned less in the USA than it earned in China. At the time of writing, Pacific Rim has just pipped over the $100 million mark in the US... and in the People's Republic it has earned $111 million, with more on the way. In fact, Pacific Rim's opening weekend  was Warner Brothers' highest ever.

So, why did China go ga-ga for Pacific Rim? For one thing, the Guillermo Del Toro picture feels tailor-made for a global audience; it doesn't feel like an American-flag waving sci-fi pic in the vein of Transformers, and it certainly avoided the New York-set locations that giant monsters like King Kong, Cloverfield and 1998's Godzilla have already ravaged. In fact, Pacific Rim's largest fight scenes were set in Hong Kong, and that surely played a part in the Chinese audience's affection for the film.

Of course, the other thing Pacific Rim had going for it was Rinko Kikuchi playing a pivotal starring role. While she's not Chinese, she is an Asian woman cast as the main character in a film that would ordinarily been stacked full of Ben Affleck / Bruce Willis / Liv Tyler types. There is no doubt that this helped sell Pacific Rim as a 'different' feeling blockbuster. And if 2013's box-office grosses are anything to go by, people are actively avoiding anything that feels too 'samesy' these days. That's true no matter what country you live in. Worldwide audiences have passed on RIPD, partly because it felt too similar to Men In Black. Many avoided The Lone Ranger on the basis that it was Johnny Depp doing his usual schtick. Pacific Rim, to Western audiences at least, might well have seemed like more of the Godzilla / King Kong gimmickery they're accustomed to. But to China, it felt sufficiently unique to justify a near-stampede through their multiplex turnstiles.

That 'special difference', from their perspective? 3D, and some stunning CGI. China's certainly seen its fair share of kaiju films (which are historically more of a Japanese cinematic phenomenon), but there's never been one this expensive. There's a saying that you've gotta spend money to make money, and Pacific Rim's Chinese box-office grosses prove there's still some truth to that expression. Audiences there determined they weren't going to watch this on a pirated VCD or DVD: Pacific Rim in 3D was a family event that had to be experienced on the big-screen. Certainly the Del Toro film's outstanding performance proves that Chinese movie-goers still think that 3D elevates a film to 'event status', provided the film's content matches their tastes. On the basis of Pacific Rim's performance, you can expect to see fewer big-budget cowboy films in the next decade, and a much larger number of 3D monster films set in China!

Speaking of 3D monster films... Jurassic Park 3D has exceeded all expectations in China. Its opening day was the fourth highest of the year (trailing only the 3D films Man Of Steel, Pacific Rim and the 2D Furious 6). The 20 year old movie has now ruled the Chinese box-office two weeks in a row. So, why the love for Jurassic Park? In the West, Jurassic Park 3D's middling success was considered by most to be fuelled by a general nostalgia for the film. It's a beloved classic these days, regardless of its flaws, and the re-release was generally well-received by Western media. In 1993, Western audiences were watching the film repeatedly, while China's movie theatres missed out on the Spielberg dino-pic entirely. There was no doubt a pent-up and long-held desire by many Chinese to see the film on the big-screen for the first time. Still, that doesn't explain why the film gripped their box-office for a fortnight. Hollywood explanation? Again, China's apparent love of 3D movie-going. It costs roughly $20 million to post-convert a 2D classic film to 3D, but given that China alone has earned Jurassic Park 3D $50 million+  (with more to come) then it's safe to expect more 3D re-releases that are targeted specifically for the Chinese market's tastes. Don't expect to see Saving Private Ryan 3D any time soon, but we at 3Defence wouldn't be surprised if we see a Jaws 3D conversion released soon!

And Monsters University 3D? Why does that warrant a mention? Well, in comparison to some of Pixar's efforts in China, the Billy Crystal-voiced effort absolutely dominated the box-office. It smashed the record for a highest grossing single-day of an animated film in Hong Kong, beating the tallies of several other 3D films, including Pixar's own Toy Story 3. In mainland China too, the film is on its way to surpassing Toy Story 3's grosses, to become Pixar's most successful film ever there. Traditionally, Pixar films have underperformed in China, especially when compared to their counterparts like Dreamworks or Blue Sky Studios. Most marketing in the country is handled by the same two firms, so advertising is usually not blamed for this phenomenon. Rather, the studio's films - that often praise rebellious and forward-thinking anti-hero figures - are considered the reason Chinese audiences don't gravitate towards Pixar films. Brave, Pixar's first film about a woman, was criticised there for being "too American", despite being set in Scotland and starring Billy Connolly! So why would Monsters University - set in a very American campus, rampant with variants of beer pong and college frat-boy hijinks - not suffer the same fate? Could we attribute that to a continued desire to see 3D films? Or is it just that Monsters Inc. was an already established brand in the country? It's hard to say. In any case, the prequel's performance this year is noteworthy, if only because the film itself is regarded much worse by Western critics than films like Brave and Up. If the next Pixar film outpaces Monsters' performance, then we'll know for sure that 3D is continuing to drive the Chinese box-office.

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes' (literally) viral marketing

Over the weekend, Fox showed off 3D footage for X-Men: Days Of Futures Past, The Wolverine and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. Most of that footage has so far remained in the San Diego Comic Con halls, but Fox did release this sneaky piece of - literally - viral marketing. It's a cute play on the recent Designed By Apple ad, with similarly noodling piano and swooshy animations:



I was a big fan of Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, and are hoping the team involved knock its sequel (which is technically also a prequel) out of the park. What do you think, are you ready for some damned dirty 3D apes?

New Wizard Of Oz IMAX 3D trailer

In September, for better or worse, we get our second 3D trip to Oz for the year. Warner Brothers and IMAX have teamed up to re-release The Wizard of Oz in post-converted 3D for a limited one week release. It's hard to know how big an audience there is for this type of retrospective; Jurassic Park and Titanic 3D re-releases have been doing fine business at the box-office, but no-one's attempted a post-conversion job on a classic this old. In fact, most kids' grandparents weren't even born when Wizard Of Oz was originally released, so if there's a nostalgia ticket to be sold then it's likely on the basis of a VHS copy or TV re-runs! For many, it will be the first time they've seen Dorothy's ruby slippers on the big screen. Check out the trailer for an insight into how Warners are pitching their marketing:

With its school-choir revision of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, it would appear Warner Brothers are borrowing a play from the The Social Network's marketing play-book. It's no mistake that they've done this. Both trailers capitalise on a 'global' feeling of connection to the material, and they work hard to captivate as many generations as they can. Whatever your original connections are to the source material though, it's hard to avoid the feeling this trailer was whipped together on-the-cheap, with trite fonts in front of stock footage backgrounds feeling all a little 'straight to video'.

Of course, the impact of this trailer is dramatically reduced in 2D. It's easy to imagine that this footage pops off the screen in an IMAX theatre. The trailer labours how expansive the film's backgrounds feel (most were achieved with the help of some stunning matte paintings) and how vivid the Technicolor is. If the 3D post-conversion has been handled tastefully, we think the Wizard Of Oz re-release could look better than some of the other 3D product being shifted around multiplexes this year. What do you think? Are you tired of these re-releases, or do you relish the opportunity to see a beloved classic on the big screen again?

New trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Today Warner Brothers released the first trailer for their upcoming epic The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. It's filled with dramatic wide-angle shots and sword-bearing creatures leaping towards the camera. Even when viewed on YouTube, the footage looks devoid of motion-blur, very much like the 48fps HFR version will in theatres. Check out the trailer below:



What do you make of the trailer? Are you excited to see an explosion of butterflies in 3D, or a waterfall scene at twice the frame rate of any waterfalls from the original trilogy? You'll be able to see the trailer in 24fps 3D this Friday, as it's likely attached to most Man Of Steel 3D prints.

Man Of Steel 3D - Behind The Scenes

UPDATE - we've now reviewed Man Of Steel's post-converted 3D.

In the lead-up to June 14th, we're getting more and more footage released for the upcoming film, Man Of Steel. The Superman flick is being post-converted into 3D (which we can't imagine producer Christopher Nolan is very happy about). Perhaps proving how forgettable Superman Returns was, many news agencies and bloggers have incorrectly reported that Man Of Steel is the caped boy scout's first 3D outing. It's fair to say that Steel's director, Zac Snyder, is wary of Returns' luke-warm reception. The 3D footage used in that film was intermittent, with long periods of time passing in 2D. Snyder has upped the stakes by saying, "anticipating how audiences today embrace 3D, we designed and photographed the movie in a way that would allow Man of Steel to captivate those movie goers." Indeed, Man Of Steel is actually Zac Snyder's second 3D film; the first being the atrociously-titled Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. That movie certainly had its 'visual moments', with Snyder employing fantastic depth in some of its flying scenes. Steel looks like it will build on his work in that area, and some of the footage we've viewed in theatres looks absolutely stunning. 

So, what do you make of the footage being released of the new superhero epic? Will it improve on Ga'Hoole and Returns' 3D?

Steven Soderbergh's 'State Of Cinema' Address

Last weekend, at the San Francisco International Film Festival, Steven Soderbergh delivered a tour de force speech that aptly sums up the Hollywood movie industry in 2013. He covers box-office grosses, theatre admissions, marketing strategies, numbers of films released per year, insider stories, and his own thoughts on how to improve 'the studio system'. While he doesn't specifically address 3D film, he does infer strongly that studios are spending more, on fewer films, to earn more money. How does this have anything to do with 3D? Well, one can see this logic in play with the release pattern of 3D films: while there are fewer films per year being greenlit with a budget of $10 million, there are more 'tent-pole' releases having $10 million added to their already-massive budgets to convert or shoot the blockbuster in 3D. We'll be covering some of this ground next week in a three part special that asks "is 3D still a fad?" but for now you can watch (or read the transcription) the highly entertaining Soderbergh deliver his thoughts:

The Hobbit Frame Rate... Explained in FAQ Form

If you're reading this site, you're probably savvy enough to understand what it means to watch a film with a higher frame rate. If you're interested in a real discussion about the shift in projection technology represented by the first Hobbit (An Unexpected Subtitle Journey), then read our post on the matter. If, however, you want a corporate-styled explanation, then feel free to read the officially released briefing below (click the image to expand)

Star Wars: Episode VII: In 3D: An Old, New Hope

Breaking news: Disney has bought the rights to produce future films in the Star Wars series. Disney plans to release 'Star Wars: Episode VII' in 2015, likely based on treatments written by George Lucas himself, and they intend on releasing the film in 3D. The film will be produced by one of the most successful producers of all time, Kathleen Kennedy. You can read a fantastic break-down of 'what is known' so far over at Arthouse Cowboy.

We'll have more details on this as news comes to hand. For now, you can watch Lucas explain the deal here:

Creating a 540m2 silver screen

Britain's BFI IMAX screen, the biggest of its kind in the UK, just had a major overhaul. They documented the process in amazing detail on this site here. The team responsible went to enormous effort to make sure the screen, all 500m2 of it, could take advantage of the latest and greatest in projection systems. The end result will surely look stunning, and - thanks to a laser-guided paint job - will glisten bright silver. The silver coating applied will ensure that light from the projector is reflected in straight lines from the screen, lessening refraction. 

So, why are we writing about this here at 3Defence? Well, firstly because the photos are so damned cool. And secondly, because we love it whenever a cinema goes to great lengths to supply the brightest and clearest image in town. Brighter screens and projector bulbs are key to the ongoing success of the 3D format, and it's nice to see world-class theatres like the BFI London IMAX leading the way forwards for the rest of the world.


PS: Cheers to @DJMC for letting us know about this!

G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation... 3D?

Nikki Finke, at Deadline Hollywood broke a staggering exclusive story today: G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation is not being released next month. Instead, they're delaying its release until March 2013. The reason? They want to do a post-production conversion of the film, to add 3D. They quote the recent success of Titanic 3D in China internationally as the reason it's a good idea to spend their marketing budget for the film twice. Gitesh Pandya of Box Office Guru pithily tweeted, "with GIJoe2 moving from June to March2013 it may become 1st film ever to buy SuperBowl ads 2 yrs in a row."

Our suggestion about why Paramount made the move? Four words:

• Spider-Man
• Avengers
• Batman
• Prometheus

'Prometheus' - shot in 3D, using Red EPIC cameras

Over the last month, the marketing team at Fox have been slowly unveiling more and more news about Ridley Scott's upcoming 3D film, Prometheus. Given the film's shot in native 3D, we here at 3Defence are getting pretty excited about its release (and it seems many others are too; it's already breaking box-office records for IMAX pre-sales in the UK). So, let's take a look at some of the images released by Fox last month:

The above image shows (I mean, aside Charlize Theron holding a gun) the kit that Scott and his DP, Dariusz Wolski, used to film Prometheus. From what we know, they used a RED Epic camera, combined with the Element Technica ATOM 3D rig. This piece of information is important, because around 50% of the big budget films you're excited to see between now and 2015 will be filmed with similar gear. The nearest rival to this camera is the Arri Alexa. Anyway, the reason I blather about any of this is because Fox seem hell-bent on making sure you understand "Prometheus was filmed in native 3D". As an example, check out this shot of Scott, wearing the same glasses you and I will be when we finally see the film in June:

Aside from providing geeks like me some excitement, what does this shot say to the common-man? I read the image as if the marketing department is saying, 'this man knows what he's doing, he brought you Blade Runner and Alien for crying out loud, and he filmed this with glasses on... so the authoritative way to see Prometheus is in three dimensions." Fox, having single-handedly re-invented the 3D landscape with Avatar a few years ago, know what they're doing. Word on the street is that they've made something equally special with this film, and they've gone all-in on Prometheus now. They understand that audiences are suffering from 3D-fatigue, so they've gone out of their way to make sure you see their latest sci-fi epic the way it was intended. 

This week the rating for the film was confirmed to be an 'R' in America. Traditionally, the rule of thumb is that your standard four-quadrant Hollywood blockbuster needs to be rated PG-13 or below. There have been very few exceptions to this rule, because teenagers traditionally power the box-office grosses through their first weekend, State-side. The 'R' rating must mean Fox are damned sure they've made a piece of entertainment that adult audiences are going to root for. Given they're confident enough to release it in that state, and they're emphasising the 3D in the marketing materials, one suspects we're in for one helluva ride in June.

Great list of the best 3D moments in 'The Avengers'

Regular reader 'Andy' submitted this story for us: The Top 10 Most Thrilling 3D Moments In The Avengers. Check it out, it's a great list. Useful follow-up to our story from a few days ago on the great conversion work Joss Whedon coaxed out of his team.

10 million Americans watched a 3D film this weekend

BoxOfficeGuru revealed that, because of The Avengers' monstrous opening, 10 million Americans watched a 3D film this weekend. By my estimates, that's the most for a single film ever, in that timeframe. Big news! It also validates my earlier theory that the 3D version is of historic importance.

Now the question is... will its 3D attendance beat Avatar?

Side By Side - Keanu considers film vs digital

Keanu Reeves has a film coming out soon, and it doesn't involve kung fu, Dolph Lundgren, bombs on buses or time machines. Nope, it's a documentary, called Side By Side, and in it Keanu asks pretty much every director who had a free hour in their schedule, "is this the end of film?" Has digital cinema replaced the usage of celluloid / polyester prints? Given that Kodak recently announced its intention to fold its business, the question is a timely one. Given that most native 3D films being released today are shot digitally, it seems pertinent to bring the matter up here at 3Defence.

It screened at Tribeca recently, and there's a wave of publicity that I thought 3Defence's audience might be interested in reading. Wired have a great piece on it here, ending with the pithy observation that Side By Side itself was was shot digitally. Indiewire bring up a stunning revelation that no new film cameras are in development by any of the major manufacturers; we've a decade at best with the 35mm kit that remains. The films garners praise by The Moveable Fest, saying "Keanu Reeves' Digital Cinema Doc "Side by Side" Deserves a Whoa."

So, looks like it'll be an interesting one to watch. If you're the sort of person who cares about this debate, check out the trailer above!