Atrium Cinema has so far been listing its movies wisely with a perfect balance of Hollywood and Bollywood hits, along with animated movies. Apart from what they are showing, many viewers ask, are they showing it right? If you haven’t already been to the cinema for a 3D experience, here is what you can learn from others who have been there. The Express Tribune draws a comparison between the 3D experience in Karachi to that of abroad.  Let’s find out what people who have been to cinemas here and abroad have to say about their 3D experience.

The experiences

Obaid Rahmani, a Technologist, frequent tweeter and Twit-activist, says, “I usually associate movies with curling up in front of the TV with snacks and watching several titles in one go. My laziness and the availability of willing friends prohibit me from going all the way to M A Jinnah Road or Sea View to watch them on the big screen. And hence, my visits to cinemas are rare.

However, once returning from vacations, my route was via Bahrain. I had eight odd hours for my next flight so I took a cab to Sanabis and went to Dana Mall that had a dozen Cineplex, each showcasing a different Hollywood, Arabic and Bollywood movie. My primary intention was merely to kill time. But once I made it to the 3D cinema, it wasn’t too bad. I watched Avatar which I had already seen at home (thanks to my cable operator), but on 3D, the experience was definitely more sophisticated and technologically superior.”

Rahmani was quite excited upon the news of opening of a 3D-cinema here in Karachi. “Since a friend of mine is an architect on the team that designed Atrium Mall, scoring ‘early bird’ tickets was easy. As I have been to other cinemas in Karachi (Nishat and Capri being all-time favourites) I was expecting something similar. However, I was surprised to find that the facility was way beyond my expectations. It was at par with the ones I visited at Dana Mall,” says Rahmani.

Sharing his experience of the cinema and its facilities, Rahmani says, “The cinema is much larger (I counted 300 seats) and has wonderfully comfortable seats (since one tends to shift at the sight of an approaching monster, they are absolutely necessary),” adding that once the show was over I was astonished at the fact that the same visual and aural experience people go abroad for, was now thankfully available right at home. “I am now hoping that they (cinema owners) have some kind of ‘frequent visitor’ discounts,” says an excited Rahmani.

Raffat Raza, a banker at an International banking chain believes, “3D is an experience that has more to do with the spirit of the movie rather than the technical acumen. A really good cinema with a really low-spirited 3D would make you call the overall experience ‘overrated’. Watching Avatar at a 3D-cinema in Singapore was my first experience and I absolutely loved it. Largely because the movie had a neat storyline and amazing digital master piece and watching it with 3D effect was the icing on the cake. However, same city, same cinema, Alice in Wonderland was a disappointment.

For Raza, the 3D cinema at the Atrium Mall, Saddar falls under the same league. “A very good cinema, pleasant ambiance, huge screen and decent sized goggles, but the movie (Narnia) was a tad disappointing. So full marks to Mandviwalas for setting up the stage for a very good experience but we just have to wait for the right movie,” says Raza.

Not every Karachiite is happy with the facilities at the 3D-cinema at Atrium. Kiran Farooque, a London based PR consultant is one of them. Comparing, the cinemas of Dubai and London with the one here, Farooque says, “The IMAX Dubai is absolutely brilliant. I used to try and go as often as I could even though it’s ridiculously expensive. The best movie I watched there was The Dark Knight. It seemed like the characters would jump out of the screen at you and you actually had to turn your head  left to right and vice versa to see the entire screen. You couldn’t see it all in one go. It was both -massive in size and massive in fun.”

As for 3D experience in London, Farooque says, “It differs from movie to movie. While some movies intensively utilise 3D effects like Avatar, other movies claim to be 3D with majority of their scenes being in 2D such as Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The movies in the former group are a pleasure to watch, as sometimes the objects seem to be close enough to touch. However, movies in the latter group are very disappointing and defeat the purpose of the 3D glasses, which can become a bit inconvenient.”

Farooque’s experience in London has been better than that of Karachi, however, she thinks it’s a great initiative and opens a much needed new arena of entertainment for the audience in Karachi.

Problems with 3D image quality at Atrium

Speaking of the technicalities of the cinema, Ali Faisal, a journalist with a leading Global Media Company, says, “I haven’t seen anyone else quibble about it so I am not sure what’s wrong, but I was quite underwhelmed by the quality of the image on screen while watchingAvatar. I watched about three 3D films in London and Paris last summer (non IMAX screens) and the image at the Atrium was distinctly less sharp in comparison and distortedly so in many scenes. The non-focal points looked more like multiple images than diffused ones, and I got the feeling that something wasn’t right in terms of the configuration of the projection, because I tried changing my location from the back of the hall to a place closer to the screen but it didn’t make much of a difference. I’m assuming it wouldn’t be a problem with the glasses, as I know there are inherent shudder problems with fast movement in 3D technology, but even relatively still scenes presented this issue. Also, the kind of stuff specifically meant to heighten the 3D experience, like objects flying towards your face, didn’t hit the mark quite so much.”

However, I’ll soon be going there again to watch Gulliver’s Travels to see if a change of theatre makes a difference, maybe it was a one-off problem of a non-vigilant projectionist. Otherwise, in general I think the Atrium is a fantastic addition to cine life in Karachi, especially given that the management at Cineplex has unaccommodating rules about who can go in and who can’t. Problems with the 3D image are surmountable, and probably the 2D films playing at Atrium are just fine.

How does 3D work for people with glasses?

If you wear powered glasses you may have trouble wearing 3D glasses. Here’s what Junaid Iqbal, an IT student, technologist and a movie maniac says, “I wear 3D glasses in front of my prescription glasses and it works fine.”

On the outset, I would say there should be special bigger glasses for people who wear powered ones, so that they can wear them on top. As 3D works a lot based on visual capabilities of an individual, I think there should be better and more convenient technology for all kinds of viewers.

3D should open in other cities

The response 3D-cinema in Karachi received was quite overwhelming and people especially youngsters from other cities are waiting for a similar one in their towns as well. Aimon Fatima, a LUMS graduate from Multan, currently working in Lahore at a PR firm says, “The 3D cinema experience in Karachi was worth watching, and we need something like that in Lahore too; only the snacks should be a little less expensive here.”

Talha Masood, an IT professional believes that since cinemas are a good entertainment medium, 3D cinemas have great future in Pakistan. “As I am not based in Karachi so haven’t been to Atrium yet, but have heard its pretty cool, so will make my next stop there, unless they plan to open one in Islamabad.”

Mostly the crowd loves the idea of 3D in Karachi and find the experience worthwhile; others think that some improvements are still needed to bring it to the international standards. In any event, there is no reason why one shouldn’t go and experience it for themselves. So go and book your favourite seats.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2011.

See the original post here: http://tribune.com.pk/story/131131/when-3d-cinema-made-a-comeback/

[By PETER SVENSSON, The Associated Press]

U.S. eye specialists are welcoming the Nintendo 3DS game device, dismissing the manufacturer’s warnings that its 3-D screen shouldn’t be used by children 6 or younger because it may harm their immature vision.

On the contrary, the optometrists say, it’s a good idea to get your kids to try the 3-D screen, especially if they’re younger than 6. It won’t do any harm, they say, and it could help catch vision disorders that have to be caught early to be fixed.

“The 3DS could be a godsend for identifying kids under 6 who need vision therapy,” said Michael Duenas, associate director for health sciences and policy for the American Optometric Association.

The new handheld game device is already available in Japan and goes on sale in the U.S. on March 27 for $250. It has two screens like the DS machines it is designed to replace. The top screen can show 3-D images, without the need for special glasses, though only new games will be in 3-D. A pair of cameras on the 3DS can be used to take 3-D pictures.

If your kid doesn’t see the 3-D effect on the 3DS, that’s a sign that he or she may have a vision disorder such as amblyopia, or “lazy eye,” or subtler problems that can cause problems with reading, Duenas said. Kids who experience dizziness or discomfort should also be checked, he said.

Today’s 3-D viewing systems send different images to the right and left eyes, a technique that creates an illusion of depth. But a lot of the cues we use to perceive depth in our environment are missing. That confuses the eyes and accounts for the eyestrain and headaches many people experience watching 3-D movies. Because of that, optometrists say, these systems can help isolate problems that have to do with the way the eyes move, problems that aren’t caught by eye charts.

These problems are much easier to fix if caught before age 6, when the visual system in our brains is more or less done developing. Only 15 percent of preschool children get a comprehensive eye exam that could catch these subtle problems, according to the American Optometric Association, the professional group for optometrists. More than half of all juvenile delinquents have undiagnosed and untreated vision problems, according to studies.

Going to see a 3-D movie or trying a 3-D TV can also help screen for problems, but optometrists expect the 3DS to be in front of kids’ eyes more.

“This has presented my profession, optometry, a wonderful opportunity,” said Joe Ellis, the president of the optometrists’ association.

However, optometrists aren’t quite seeing eye to eye on this issue with another group of eye specialists: the ophthalmologists, who are medical doctors. (Optometrists are doctors of optometry but not medical doctors.)

David Hunter, a pediatric ophthalmologist affiliated with the Children’s Hospital in Boston and the American Academy of Ophthalmology, said the idea that off-the-shelf 3-D games or movies could help screen for vision problems such as amblyopia is “a little perplexing.”

Kids with amblyopia don’t have much depth perception in real life, he said, so if they don’t see depth in a 3-D screen, they might not say anything because that wouldn’t be much different from what they see around them.

It’s not impossible that it could help, but it’s “all sort of exploration and speculation,” said Hunter, who has started a company that’s developing a device for childhood screening of vision disorders.

Nintendo’s warning, issued in December, was vaguely worded. It said specialists believe “there is a possibility that 3-D images which send different images to the left and right eye could affect the development of vision in small children.”

The Japanese company didn’t back the warning up with scientific evidence, so Duenas sees it as being motivated by liability concerns – much like coffee mugs carry warnings that beverages could be hot – rather than a true danger.

Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo of America, says the company is “aware of all the work that has been done in the field” and issued the warning based on that work. The warning, he said, is based on research that up until age 6, a child’s eye – specifically the connection between the eye and the brain – is still developing.

Nintendo, he said, wants to be “conservative and consistent,” erring on the side of safety.

Optometrists haven’t seen any sign that 3-D screens can cause lasting damage, but they also acknowledge that not much is known about how 3-D viewing affects us. Hunter, the ophthalmologist, agrees.

The optometrists’ association announced this week that it has formed an alliance with the 3DAtHome Consortium, a group of TV manufacturers and Hollywood studios promoting the technology. The idea is that the two groups will share information about the effects of 3-D. In the future, Duenas said, 3-D movies might be preceded by public service announcements recommending vision examinations for those who have problems perceiving the 3-D effect.

Jim Sheedy, director of the Vision Performance Institute at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore., said parents should limit kids’ use of the 3DS just as they limit computer or game console use.

“Is there a limit on how much a child should be viewing 3-D? Yeah. How much is it? I don’t know. Let’s use some sound judgment,” he said.

He noted that the No. 1 health issue associated with console and computer gaming is obesity, rather than eye problems.

“Kids should be out running around,” he said.

___

AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay contributed to this report.

See the original post here: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_17645510?source=rss