New York Stereoscopic Society

24 minutes of James Cameron's Avatar were screened at the Cinema Expo in Amsterdam on June 23rd and although all audience members were required to sign non-disclosure agreements anonymous reports have been posted on various websites. Uniformly, they are positive to the point of near-delirium. Like the headline at the FilmDrunk site which modestly proclaims it to be "THE MOST IMPORTANT MOVIE OF ALL TIME."

See The Hollywood Reporter's coverage, here.

The film's budget is reported to be in excess of $200 million dollars — which 20th Century Fox obviously believes is a safe bet, given that Cameron's last feature film back in 1997 went on to earn $1.83 billion-with-a-B dollars world wide. (You know the one I mean, it had a boat in it, and ice—geez, it's on the tip of my tongue—and it was a really big boat). And that was without a Happy Meal tie-in, plastic action figures or even T-shirt sales.

Of course, these days Hollywood takes second place behind the computer gaming industry in the market for our entertainment dollars. But films reach a much broader audience — all video gamers watch movies but not all moviegoers are gamers. Still, this is a science fiction film set on a distant planet and when has a movie like that ever made any money?

Correction: My editor informs me that the 8 theatrically-released Star Wars movies (including Star Wars:Attack of the Clones (IMAX) and the animated Star Wars:The Clone Wars) have a combined world box office gross of $4,411,410,761. $4 billion-with-a-B.

OK, fine, but name another one!

For NYSS members and supporters the big news, obviously, is that Avatar was filmed and designed to be seen in 3D (as well as IMAX 3D). It will also screen in a 2D version. The current US release date is December 18, 2009 though I imagine a lot of you will be booking tickets to Belgium or Egypt to see it on December 16.

First one to see it and send a review to this site wins the fabulous. . . esteem and praise of the NYC 3D community. Remember, if you see it on the 16th you could get either crude oil or waffles.

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Fanboy Trivia: According to IMDB.com Farrah Fawcett, Glenn Close, Barbara Hershey, Bernadette Peters, Bonnie Bedelia, Dianne Wiest, Margot Kidder, Jessica Lange, Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Cybill Shepherd, Christine Lahti, Jane Seymour, Anjelica Huston, Catherine Hicks, Christine Baranski, Kay Lenz, Kim Basinger, Kathleen Turner, Debra Winger, and Geena Davis all auditioned for the role of Princess Leia.

While James Caan, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Burt Reynolds turned down the role of Han Solo.

Now if you've been following this franchise, you'll know that this is actually Final Destination 4. Three previous films have been released with identical plots, only the Rube Goldberg-like methods by which the young, attractive casts are dispatched are changed.

For examples, go here, here and here.

But this latest entry is in 3D. In fact, this was shot using the same Hi-Def 3D camera system (Fusion F23 3D HD) employed by James Cameron for the upcoming Avatar.

I can't wait.

The set-up is that a group of actors in their late 20s playing teenagers avoid death because one of them foresees a calamity: an airplane exploding on take-off, a multi-vehicle accident on a highway, etc. The mythology of the series is that "Death has a plan" and each major cast member starts meeting their doom in the same order that they would've died had they not avoided the disaster in the opening reel.

The great pleasure in these films is in how ridiculously convoluted the dangers are constructed. For the trailer for the new film, go here.

For a behind the scenes peek, go here on the MovieWeb site.

My favorite this time around is the sequence where a young woman first looks like she will drown inside her car due to a spectacularly malfunctioning automated car wash. Seconds later it looks like she's about to be be-headed.

I'll never wash my car again.

Saturday, June 20
Admission: $5, $10 minimum
Showtime: 7:30 pm
Reservations are recommended, go here

NYSS Member Gerald Marks writes to let our audience know about this show:

This event should be spectacular and I will attend for sure. Dan is a PhD candidate at the Columbia University Computer Music Center and he generates both music and great stereoscopic 3-D from his laptop. . .at the same time!

He programs for the video card, much like a gamer, but in the service of Art. He uses anaglyph projection.

Monkeytown has a large back room that is set up as maybe a 24' cube with projectors focused on all four square walls. There are floor cushions along all four sides for 8 people, so a total of 32 folks get the experience. And, great, reasonably priced, food is served on low tables in front of you. The artists and their electronics are in the center of the room. It's like a cube-ular planetarium.

Sri Lankan sitar virtuoso Pradeep Ratnayake combines forces with electronicist Daniel Iglesia for a most curious sensory experience. The traditional forms of Indian and Sri Lankan music will meet digital fragmentation and subversion, turning live sound into aural fodder and visual abstractions for 3D glasses.

danieliglesia.com
vimeo.com/3783938

The Draftmasters (Jeff Snyder and Victor Adan) performing live electronic wizardry on hacked pen-plotter printers. Physical gestures turn into vector commands, with electromagenetic pickups uncovering the secret aural world of the inner machinations. As they draw, video analysis by Daniel Iglesia turns the shapes into graphics for 3D glasses.

Glissando Bin Laden is an improvising ensemble consisting of 2 violins (Jim Altieri and Caroline Malonee), and 2 laptop performers/vocalists (Sam Pluta and Alex Ness). Glissando works as a group to compose sound worlds through improvisation, focusing on just intonation, noise, and electronic sounds, creating unique sonic environments and software interfaces for each piece played. This show celebrates their new release, Drone Level Orange on Carrier Records.

This just in — the CDC has announced a Z-Alert for Brooklyn, NY on Sunday, May 31st.

“We have information that leads us to believe there will be a Zombie outbreak around 2:00 p.m.,” said spokesperson Amber MacArthur.

Recently analyzed data suggest that the outbreak will begin at The Charleston, located at 174 Bedford Avenue, between North 7th and 8th Streets in Williamsburg.

“At this time we can’t be more specific, but please check this website and the related links for updates" said MacArthur.

The CDC requests all area stereo photographers and videographers to document the activities of the Zombie horde and make these images available for later study.

Citizens are urged to approach Zombies with caution, although due to their slow, shambling gait it is believed that most active New Yorkers will be able to outdistance the undead. Active stereographers are known to possess immunity to the touch of the undead.

Photo from Drivenbyboredom.com. NOTE: not all photos on Drivenbyboredom.com are SFW.

UPDATED INFORMATION: www.nyczombiecrawl.com

Dolby, known for their ubiquitous sound system, is making a bid to challenge RealD in the multiplex for your 3D viewing experience. If you've seen a 3D film recently — Monsters vs. Aliens, Coraline, My Bloody Valentine 3D — you've already experienced the RealD system.

RealD is based on polarized projection of the film that requires a special silver screen. When you take off your glasses at a RealD screening what you see is double image — the right eye and the left eye images projected on the screen at the same time.

In the early history of film all theater screens has a 'silver' coating. This was to help compensate for the dimmer projectors of the time; the silver screen was brighter than a white one. The reason for using a silver screen with 3D projection is that the polarized light striking it will remain polarized as it is reflected back.

This silver screen, along with the digital projectors, is the most expensive part of the installation. Inexpensive polarized glasses — previously with cardboard frames, now molded plastic ones are standard — are distributed to the audience at each showing.

Dolby's new system also uses polarized projection but does not require installation of a silver screen, a major savings for the theater chains. It does, however, use a special multi-coated lens for viewing and these 3D glasses are not cheap. They cost about $25 a pair to produce.

For this to be practical tight control over the distribution and collection of these Dolby glasses is obviously needed.

Here are the Dolby advantages, taken from their web site:

• Delivers realistic color and a sharper, clearer image from every seat in the house
• Extends the capabilities of Dolby Digital Cinema’s established, proven technology
• Ensures compatibility with your existing equipment by using a simple digital
projector filter accessory, easily switching between 2D and 3D
• Maximizes flexibility by using a standard white screen rather than a costly silver screen
• Reduces costs with a one-time investment and no annual licensing fee

If you went to an Imax theater in the 1980s you may recall that you had to wear a helmet-type set of goggles with LCD screens for lenses. These lenses were controlled by a radio signal and alternately went rapidly from opaque to clear, delivering to each eye the correct Left or Right image. This blinking sequence had to be matched precisely to the images being projected.

While the technology behind this was brand-spanking new in the 80s, the concept had been successfully demonstrated back in December 1922 in New York City at the Selwyn Theater using a mechanical system called Teleview.

Two projectors were used along with viewers attached to the seats all of which were synchronized. Alternate frames of left and right eye images are projected and due to the persistence of vision a moving 3D image was perceived by the viewer. The only feature produced using this system was The Man From M.A.R.S. (later re-released as Radio-Mania).

For a fascinating, detailed discussion about the Teleview system please go to Dan Symmes site, here.

You must check out these performance videos by The Draftmasters, Victor Adan and Jeff Snyder, who take 80's-style pen-plotter printers and hack the firmware to allow live mechanical control. Daniel Iglesia analyzes their video to create graphics for 3D glasses in real time.

They control them with a physical interface that turns their gestures into vector commands. Electromagnetic pickups mounted on the printers turn their electrical fields into the sound. Video input (from camera's trained on the printers) gets analyzed on the fly to create live graphics for 3D glasses.

They've performed around NYC, being called "a band of renegade tech geeks...like Robocop on the fritz" by Time Out NY.

Check them out at the following links:

http://www.vimeo.com/4611451
http://www.vimeo.com/4621363

Please mouse over the image if it is not animating automatically.

Migg Burroughs is a well-known CT-based artist and graphic designer who has recently been working with lenticular images. While this show does not feature 3D lenticulars, Burroughs certainly proves that this imaging technique can produce fine art in the right hands.

The heart of this show (called Journeys) is a series of nine 18 X 18 inch lenticular portraits that use a period photo combined with a contemporary one taken in the same style to achieve their effect. The image reproduced above is of Burrough's mother. He used a photograph from her high school days along with an image he shot making a two image lenticular that fades from the young woman to the senior citizen. While this idea may not sound revolutionary, seeing these portraits in person was surprisingly moving.

Burroughs offers a bit of history in his text explaining that it was a French painter Bois-Clair that invented the lenticular concept in 1692 by taking narrow vertical strips of two paintings, reassembling them and folding them like an accordian. Burrough's process begins with two digital images and the software necessary to divide them, 30 stripes to an inch. Then he laminates the digital output with optical lenticualr plastic that has a corresponding 30 grooves to the inch.

One of the highlights of the show is a piece called Political Ties 18 X 18 X 36 inches. Burroughs uses 7 square images joined together to form a simple chair. In the images we alternately see a young man sitting in a chair with a white shirt and red tie, looking much like the fellow working away in the cubicle next to yours. The alternate image has the same young man in a black T-shirt, roped to the chair with his red tie used as a blind fold. You can walk completely around this piece and watch the transformation from every angle.

This show is well worth the trip to Fairfield, CT. All the work is for sale and Burroughs does commissions, too. It was all I could do not to break the bank and buy one of his smaller works on the spot.

There's one of a local movie house, The Community Theater, (20 X 16 inches) that presents the same view from day to night with an old-fashioned neon movie marque as its focus. Simply beautiful. And for $450 it could hang in your home.

For Miggs Burroughs' website, go here.
For gallery information on Journeys, go here.

Animations of some of the Paul's lenticular images are online.

Festival founder Laurence Asseraf, Bill Allen of Dolby, and Program Director Dimitris Athos.

The BeFilm Festival held a great run of 3D projections last week. Several members showed films and participated in the events. Björk's Wanderlust won the prize in the new 3D category organized by New York Stereoscopic Society member Dimitris Athos. We are looking forward to more collaborations with the Festival.

from NY Stereoscopic Society member Josh Klatt:

I'm producing a TV show on Manhattan Neighborhood Network in steroscopic 3D (red/cyan anaglyph). Today, Thursday, April 23 is the first LIVE episode in 3D and I hope you can check it out!

The Witness Protection Program: The Western Hemisphere's only stereoscopic 3D TV show! Airing every other Thursday on The Manhattan Neighborhood Network, only in Manhattan.

The show is free form — sometimes it's a live call-in show (like tonight) — other times, it's pre-recorded.

I accept submissions for the show. Anyone making 3D content is welcome to submit stuff. Video formatted for red/cyan anaglyph is preferable, but we can also throw still pictures in a slideshow and play that.

Anything submitted by Tuesday April 28, will be considered for the next show, airing May 7. On the May 7 show, there will be a short piece on a couple of unicycling sisters from New York City!

11:30pm EST on channel 67/69 (Time Warner cable), channel 82 (RCN) or channel 36 (Verizon).

The Center for the Holographic Arts (Holocenter) is pleased to announce Light Magic,
a retrospective exhibition of laser and holographic works by Rudie Berkhout.

Light Magic: holograms and laser works by Rudie Berkhout

Opening: Saturday, April 18, from 4-7pm
April 18, 2009 – May 30, 2009
Saturdays from 12 – 5pm (and by appointment)

"My hope is to reach the subtler levels of perception, holding up mirrors for
thoughts, that reflect the magic that surrounds us."
- Rudie Berkhout, website

Center for the Holographic Arts
45-10 Court Square
Long Island City, NY 11101
www.holocenter.org
email: info@holocenter.org
718-784 -5065

This exhibition is made possible by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by the Queens Council on the Arts.

"One bright spot amid the deepening gloom was Universal's Creature from the Black Lagoon, today recognized as a monster classic. Its director was Jack Arnold, who had made Universal's first 3-D movie, a science fiction chiller called It Came From Outer Space. For the creature feature, the cameraman Charles ("Scotty") Wlbourne designed a lightweight, water-proof camera unit for the lengthy underwater sequences. Even though it was released in March 1954, after the 3-D boom had already begun its decline, Creature did so well that Universal made its sequel Revenge of the Creature in 3-D as well. It came out in May 1955 and was the very last film of the 3-D boom, though most theaters showed it flat. Nevertheless, Revenge did well enough to spawn another sequel, The Creature Walks Among Us, which was shot in 2-D."

—Tom Huntington, "The Gimmick that Ate Hollywood: When Hollywood Added a New Dimension to the Movies, Customers Gasped—and Then Yawned" American Heritage of Invention & Technology, Spring 2003, Vol. 18, No. 4

Michael Schiller has alerted us about another 3D application he's written that's an add-on to Mozilla's Firefox browser (one of the best, most versatile and configurable browsers on the Interwebs).

Oh, and they've just changed the name from Firefox Add-ons to Firefox Change-arounds because it would make too much sense to call them what they really are: namely, plug-ins.

Download it here.

Schillr 3D is a Firefox extension that gives you the ability to view any stereo image on the web in the format you can view best.

Just surf the web and every time you see a stereo image (parallel-view or cross-view) just right-click on the image to choose your preferred output format.

Please note: this extension does NOT convert 2D images into 3D.

Artist Rebecca Hackemann visited us in 2007. She projected some of her drawings and photographs for a site specific installation in Philadelphia. The piece is opening this weekend.

Two disguised sightseeing binoculars are anchored into the pavement at 10th and Vine and 12th and Vine showing future versions of the urban landscape - they are in fact stereoscopes that contain site specific 3-D images created by the community.

Part of the "Future Landscapes" Chinatown In/Flux series by Asian Arts Initiative.

Opening Friday April 3rd - August 2nd 2009
5.30pm - 7.30pm
Reception is at
AAI Gallery
1219 Vine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
215.557.0455

Photos by Deltakap. To view his Flickr Photostream, go here.

We received the following dispatch (below) as a comment and felt it deserved to be an entry to bring it to the wide attention of our audience.

In addition to the samples shown above in red-blue & blue-amber anaglyph formats, parallel and cross-view formats, images can also be displayed in 'wiggle' stereo and mono, on either black or white backgrounds. Note too, that the anaglyph formats allow you to adjust the stereo base via a slider below the image.

Dear NYSS Team,

I would like to announce an application that I have written to convert stereo photos on flickr.com from one format into others.

Please just have a look on my website www.schillr.com. It shows a resource of more than 65,000 stereo photos.

Perhaps your community members are interested in this application.

Yours sincerely, Michael

The New York Times — apparently it's a 'newspaper' (whatever that is) — reports on the box office success of Monsters vs. Aliens here.

And TIME (evidently a 'magazine' — where do they come up with these crazy ideas, ink on paper? it's so 1995) weighs in on the appeal of 3D to Hollywood and their audience here.

But before you read these articles, consider joining my petition to have all MSM headline writers sentenced to manual labor in rural areas of the country as part of their 're-education' process.

3D or Not 3D: That is the Question? The person responsible for that atrocity should be made to spend an entire day jogging with a sharp tack in his foot.

Anaglyphs by Mick Andreano.

The Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District event showcasing the high-definition 3D photographs of the 2008 Garden Walk by Greg Dinkins was great success with a capacity crowd at the magnificent Irondale Center.

We were fortunate to have Mick Andreano there to capture some of it in stereo for those of you unable to make it.

The New York Times has a nice, comprehensive article on the production of the latest 3D digital animation from DreamWorks (complete article here).

Is it necessary for us to say that, for once, we agree with Jeffrey Katzenberg, who says "because of advances in digital technology. . .3-D was no longer just a gimmick for reaching out and tickling (or scaring) the audience from time to time. . .The eye naturally sees in 3-D, so adding depth to the images on screen delivers a more immersive and realistic experience."

Katzenberg also maintains this can "result in a dazzling new visual language." Well, duh. Stereographers have known this for over a 100 years now. But we'll cut him some slack. The technology to deliver this in animation format to a mass audience has only recently been perfected and made cost-effective for feature length films.

What I see as the great upside to this is that a new generation of kids is being offered a quality 3D experience at the movies. They will grow up expecting this as just another option in the story-telling palette of mass media. This can mean 3D as a mass medium for the first time since the early 1950's — without the eye strain and mechanical synchronization problems of the last go-round. And that future is one to look forward to for all 3D enthusiasts.

Sunday, March 22, 2009
5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Stereoscopic Garden Party

The Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District will be hosting a fundraising event featuring high-definition 3D photographs of last year’s Garden Walk. The photographs are the work of our own Greg Dinkins, president of the New York Stereoscopic Society.

For more information about Greg's "Backyard Gardens in Stereo" project, please see: http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/10/local/backyard-gardens-in-stereo

Wine, hors d’oeuvres and music.
Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 the day of the event.

NOTE: Admission is FREE to NYSS members who have paid their 2009 dues.

Tickets are also available online at:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/55309

The Irondale Center
85 South Oxford Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217

View Map

Phone: 718-488-9233
Email: BrownstoneBGD@gmail.com

BEFILM The Underground Film Festival has added a 3D stereoscopic competition category. Entering its 6th year BEFILM is comprised exclusively by short films from around the world.It is the first established film festival in the US to include a 3D short category. Submissions are open with the final deadline on March 22nd.

The festival will take place in New York City from April 28th through May 2nd.
Screenings will be held at the Dolby Screening Room and the Disney Screening Room.

New sponsors include DOLBY® Production Services and the Gershwin Hotel. Stereoscopic projection will include DOLBY® 3D Digital Cinema, polarized and anaglyph projections. Films accepted in competition qualify for a special discount through BEFILM for DCP transfer (2D or 3D). Competition lineup will be announced April 7th.

The festival was founded and is directed by Laurence Asseraf. It begun in 2004 and started in her Tribeca art gallery “A Taste Of Art.” NSA and New York Stereoscopic Society member Dimitris Athos is Program Director. For any technical questions and information you can contact dimitris@befilm.net

BEFILM The Underground Film Festival
New York City
April 28th - May 2nd 2009
www.Befilm.net