New York Stereoscopic Society

NYSS member Gerald Marks (he's always in the know) sends us the following info on a 3D event in Brooklyn this coming Friday. If any NYSS members attend, please send us a write-up on the event so we can post it. Thanks!

Forward Motion Theater

To celebrate 5 full years of EyeWash we are going 3D!
Friday, March 7th
at Monkeytown
58 North 3rd Street 
(btw. Kent & Wythe)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Seatings at 7:30 pm and 10:00 pm. Admission: $5
Space is limited, reservations recommended.
Call 718-384-1369 
or email monkeytownhq@aol.com for reservations.

Featured video artists include:
 Holly Daggers, 
Seej, 
MOSTRA, 
VisualHornHonking


Music by DJ ActivePhaze

Directions from the L Train:

1. Exit at the Bedford stop (the 1st stop in Brooklyn).

2. Walk 4 blocks south on Bedford.

3. Make a right on North 3rd St. (west)

4. Walk an additional 2 and 1/2 (west) on North 3rd.
 MonkeyTown is halfway down the block on the left.

IESB.net, the Movie Reporter site has an interesting interview with Charlotte Huggins, one of the producers of the upcoming 3D film Journey to the Center of the Earth, starring Brendan Fraser.

Huggins was interviewed at San Francisco's Wondercon, the smaller, more intimate comics, sci-fi and fantasy expo, as compared with San Diego's Comic-Con, the industry's largest event.

Footage of Journey to the Center of the Earth, opening nationwide on July 11, was screened at Wondercon and Huggins spoke about her film, James Cameron's Avatar, the 3D conversion of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas and the Star Wars 3D project.

For the complete interview, go here.

Our pals at the Ohio Stereo Photographic Society are hosting their 6th Annual 3D Stereoscopic Weekend, May 2-4, 2008 at the Embassy Suites, Cleveland-Rockside, 5800 Rockside Woods Blvd., Independence, Ohio, just 15 minutes south of Cleveland, Ohio. For complete details, see their site here.

Schedule

• Friday, May 2, 2008

12:00 Noon – Registration room opens and packets for pre-registration available. There is no formal room hopping. It is up to the individual dealers to have room hopping.

• Saturday, May 3, 2008

7:00 am to 8 am
Dealer set-up in Conference Rooms

8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Sales/Exhibit Room open

11:30 am to 1:00 pm
Lunch Break

1:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Stereoscopic Programs, Stereoscopic projections

6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Dinner Break

7:30 pm to 10 pm
Night session of programs/workshops

• Sunday, May 4, 2008
Special event – to be announced

Four major Hollywood studios are offering to kick in between $800 to $1,000 per film, per theater over the next 10 years to help fund the transition to digital projection, estimated to be around $75,000 for each movie house, according to the New York Times. For the complete article, click here.

As everyone on this site already knows, digital projection is a requirement for the current generation of 3D films.

Also, below the fold Paramount revealed that the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie would be released digitally to theaters with installed digital projection systems. This is news because director Steven Spielberg has always maintained that he wanted his films released solely in film, rather than digital format.

The fourth installment in the franchise was shot on film and George Lucas said that it looked "like it was shot 3 years after the Last Crusade, you'd never know there was 20 years between shooting."

The sequel Crank 2: High Voltage is already in production with returning star Jason Statham and the same writer-director duo of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. And they are already planning the third film for 3D.

In Crank 2 the filmmakers are planning to update and enhance the classic 'bullet time' effect that begin with The Matrix and now is used in car commercials. This is a pseudo-3D looking camera move that uses many still cameras, green screen and lots of computer rendering time.

Mark Neveldine explained, "We're pushing the limits. . .We're going to be creating a moving bullet[-time] camera that has never been done before. We're putting about 15 cameras onto a piece of speed rail, all these super lightweight cameras that I'll be holding on rollerblades flying around people. So you'll have that image that you've seen in The Matrix, where they stop motion and the cameras spin around, except for the fact that our cameras can spin around and move while the actor moves."

For the complete article, go here.

OK, I know this is only slightly connected to 3D, but we happen to be huge Jason Statham fans.

MarketWire carries the announcement that Empire Film Group's upcoming Shadow Vision will change from a 2D production to 3D, using the 'Real D' format. The film stars Vivian Schilling as a blind woman who develops the ability to remotely sense and visualize crimes.

"Movie goers want to be dazzled," said Empire Film Group CEO Dean Hamilton-Bornstein. "As big screens and home projection systems become more common, consumers are demanding a bigger, better movie experience from theatres. The 'Real D' 3D format meets this challenge as it delivers a stunning, perfectly sharp 3D image, free of frame jitter or left eye-right eye issues that plagued previous attempts at 3D exhibition."

For the complete article, go here.

Thought you'd love an affordable twin lens digital camera from a major camera company? Wondering when such a product will hit the market? But why settle for just twin lenses. How about a digital camera with over 12 thousand lenses?

An electronics research team at Stanford is working on a new camera design with what they call a "multi-aperture image sensor." And it may eventually cost less than a standard mid-range digital camera because the quality of main lens will no longer be of critical importance.

"We believe that you can reduce the complexity of the main lens by shifting the complexity to the semiconductor," explained Keith Fife, one of the trio of scientists working on the project.

Seeing the world through thousands of tiny lenses would give you a 2D image with everything, near and far, in focus. But most importantly it would also generate a "depth map" recording the precise distances to each object captured in the frame.

In addition to processing a great stereoscopic image from this data other applications could include security using facial recognition, medical imaging, 3D printing, 3D models of buildings, creation of 3D avatars for virtual world gaming or interaction.

For the complete article, click here.

It can be a long way from a patent application to the shrink-wrapped package in your hand (or shopping cart) while you wait in a check-out line, but it's always news when Apple, Inc. is revealed to be exploring the next new, new thing in display technology.

Of course, the best part of this kind of news is the wild speculation it will generate among interested parties.

Now get this: no eyeglasses or head sets required. It's going to employ a holographic-like display. Possible uses of this technology include video conferencing, scientific modeling, forensics, and entertainment (porn first, then everything else).

For more details, here's how several tech sites have covered this news: MacRumor, Gizmodo and the Macintosh News Network.

Meet the Filmmakers
Friday, March 14, 7:00 pm
Kaufmann Auditorium, American Museum of Natural History

Björk's new 3D music video will soon premiere in New York and Los Angeles. The New York Stereoscopic Society presents an opportunity to meet the creative team behind this remarkable piece. Live action and rendered graphics are combined in an 8 minute visual and musical narrative.

Directors Sean Hellfritsch and Isaiah Saxon of Encyclopedia Pictura and Producer Mark De Pace of Ghost Robot will show the video and a 3D slide show documenting the production of the props, sets and costumes as well as live shooting.

Our venue is particularly appropriate, as the 3D space created in the video is inspired by the forced perspective of the Museum's dioramas.

e-Gear.com has a story about the first regular season NBA game to be shown in 3D HD.

"The March 25 National Basketball Association contest between the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Clippers will be produced from Dallas by Fox Sports Net Southwest with the help of technology from PACE, a cutting-edge 3D production firm that has worked with director James Cameron on several documentary films."

"The game will be shown in the format at a Magnolia Theatre in Dallas that is owned by Internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who also owns the Mavericks. It will be attended by VIP guests, as well as 100 Mavericks fans who will have the chance to win tickets."

For the complete article, go here.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology and The New York Stereoscopic Society invite you to a private screening of the new Ghost Robot production "Björk's Wanderlust in 3D" directed by Encyclopedia Pictura.

Click on thumbnail for larger image.

Filmmakers Sean Hellfritsch, Isaiah Saxon and Mark De Pace will be on hand for questions. The evening includes a slide show by Greg Dinkins offering behind-the-scenes views of the production.

Thursday, March 27, 8:00 pm
Foshay Masonic Lodge
9635 Venice Blvd, Culver City, 90232

Followed by a reception at
The Museum of Jurassic Technology
9341 Venice Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232

Donations to support the programming of the Museum and the Society will be gratefully accepted.

The website ComingSoon.net has a nice feature on the resurgence of 3D filmmaking in the 21st Century. Especially informative are the two interviews with Walden Media CEO Cary Granat and Real D CEO and Chairman Michael Lewis.

Walden Media CEO, Cary Granat

I loved Granat's comment, "If this were a comic book, [this] would be called the 'origin story' period of time." Michael Lewis also makes an excellent point when he said, ". . . it's been driven at the end of the day by filmmakers. We spend a lot of time with filmmakers. We bring them in and show it, and they get excited. They go, 'Wow, this is a new way to tell my stories, this is cool. I want to play.' "

Real D CEO and Chairman, Michael Lewis

For the complete article, go here.

A selection of glass plate three dimensional slides will be presented utilizing polarized projection by R. Munn and Sara Cook.

Over 90 years old, many of these stereo photographs were taken during battle and display a stark, uncompromising, rarely seen view of trench warfare in WW1.

With electronic Theremin accompaniment.

NOTE: Not for the squeamish!

8:00 pm Tuesday, April 1st
Gershwin Hotel
7 East 27th Street
(Between 5th and Madison Ave.)

$10 admission (this includes 3d glasses)