SMPTE/NAB Digital Cinema Summit – 4/18-19/09 – Sound bites by Phil Lelyveld
Marty Banks, UC Berkeley, gave an excellent overview of the vergence/ accommodation conflict and perception distortions.
The vergence/accommodation conflict is the conflict in your physiological systems between the point where your eyes converge to ‘see’ the 3D object (either in front of or behind the screen) and the point where your eyes must focus to see it clearly (the screen
surface). Dr. Banks as been able to experimentally isolate the
vergence/accommodation conflict from other factors, and through a double-blind test procedure has been able to plot the boundaries of comfortable viewing. He found that the greatest discomfort from conflict occurs when images are in front of the screen. He recommends that the bulk of 3D movie images remain in or behind the surface of the screen, and that the area in front of the screen be used sparingly for special moments.
Perception distortion is the distortion of a 3D image when viewed off- axis (ex. from a seat on the side of the theatre). He found that even when other visual cues are supplied to help the viewer’s mind understand what the image is supposed to look like, the mind does not compensate for this distortion. This means that seating position, both left/center/right and front/center/back, do matter and cannot be corrected for in the 3D viewing experience.
He will make the slides available.
Screen size: During Q&A, Marty Banks posited that there may be a simple relationship between the 3D effect and screen size. Later in the day, Steve Scklair, 3ality Digital Systems, says that he has tools and techniques to make those adjustments.
Steve Schklair mentioned that 3ality is starting a training program to certify a new generation of stereographers. This will support the adoption and growth of 3D among the creative community, and enable the growth of the market for 3D content of all types.
Buzz Hays, Sony Pictures Imageworks, showed plots of the known 3D feature release schedule and projected the decline in the number of weeks each could stay in 3D theatres with a) the current number of screens and b) an increase of 300 screens/month. Later in the Summit, Buzz said that on his first three 3D movies, he was being asked to make a 3D movie that was being told in 2D. 3D must be integrated into the storytelling. My Dinner with Andre may be an ideal movie to make in 3D so you can be at the table with the two characters.
– The killer app for 3D will be access to content, not a particular type or genre of 3D content.
Chuck Goldwater, Cinedigm – The BCG game, at $20-$25/ticket, increased revenue by 2000% over a normal weeknight. The All Star Saturday Night Special event was shown in 86 theatres at $12-$22/ticket and earned more at the box office than 9 of the top 10 features in theatres during its screen time. Exit surveys found that people felt that these live in-theatre experiences were worth the ticket price, and that they expressed interest in returning to similar events in the future.
Jim Reisteter, NEC Digital Cinema Division – Examples of alternative content
– Clearview Cinemas, part of the CableVision Family in New York
– Sports: in-theatre exhibition of live Mets, Rangers, and Knicks games have proven exciting for the audience. Clearview brings local sports figures and celebrities to the theatres.
– Concerts: they deliver, Jingleball, a popular holiday season show for children, from NYC to local theatres
– They would like to host “watercooler” events, like live American Idol broadcasts
Larry O’Reilly, iMax – IMax is planning a major digital cinema rollout, including growing from 4 to 24 theatres in the LA area and from 4 to 20 in the NYC area.
Josh Greer, RealD, described how their current RealD Cinema System delivers 15% of the light to each eye, while their new RealDXL and RealDXLS system delivers 30%. He expects RealD sunglases and other eyewear in the future.
Wendy Aylsworth announced that work on the SMPTE 3D standards specifications will start in June, 2009.
CEA is looking at standards in many aspects of 3D, but will not address encoding algorithms. The industry needs to define and document terms than convey interoperability, such as ‘3D ready.’
Michael Fidler, Sony – The goal of the digital cinema transition is to drive incremental business to theatres Monday-Thursday.
Chris Chinook, 3D@Home Consortium – The DepthQ projector in the ETC’s 3D Home Theatre retails for $6k. ViewSonics offers a 3D-enabled digital projector for $1.5k. There are 3D digital picture frames on sale from China for $370. Hitachi Wooo H001 3D cellphone uses
parallel barrier autostereoscopic technolog. 3D mobile content will
be broadcast in Japan in 2010.
Bernard Mendiburu, a 3D stereographer, researcher, and author of 3D Movie Making, described a technique for introducing greater “roundness” to an otherwise flat-looking shot. Shot the foreground and background with separate camera pairs that optimize the occullar distance for each, then composite the two shots to create a single enhanced shot.