[Philip Lelyveld comment: Director discusses his 3D philosophy and choices.]

[MovieHole.net]

It may shock those without an IMDB account to know that “Final Destination 5″ is, one of the finest examples of a 3D movie to date. But anyone with internet seach abilities can bring up director Steven Quale’s resume and see that the multi-skilled filmmaker worked, on and off for about fifteen years, with James Cameron – the man who resurrected and perfected 3D with his “Avatar”. Quale brings to “Final Destination 5″ the skills he learnt working on the 2009 blockbuster with Cameron, as well as a vast array of roles in completely different areas in film. …

…Yeah. Well, the key there is just having under… The understanding of what good 3D is, how it works. And having done two movies, Aliens of the Deep and Avatar, both with James Cameron, I learned a great deal, especially in Aliens of the Deep, of what not to do and what hurts people’s eyes and what isn’t effective 3D and what to do. So I applied all those techniques and was even a little more aggressive at some of the kill sequences with the 3D in this film. And I think the results speak for themselves and in fact, every shot in the whole movie was made of the shot in 3D. And that’s the key. It’s getting the filmmakers to really understand it and use it as effectively as possible to give the audience a fun ride.

So, how did you decide where the 3D elements go? It used to be just…

The way I… Alright, the way I picked the 3D is I actually looked like any filmmaker. You look at some directors, they love telephoto lenses, and then some directors like really wide angle lenses. It doesn’t mean that one’s right or one’s wrong. It’s just a different aesthetic. So in this film, I looked at the story and I said “Well, what is it about the story and the characters that organically tells you what you want to do with the 3D” as opposed to just “I want to make a cool 3D shot for no reason in the middle of the dialogue so you have somebody’s hand come right at you.” That’s not effective 3D. But if suddenly somebody’s about to die and some horrific thing comes flying right at you, that could be effective. So it just boils down to making it organic with the story. In fact, I think the most effective use of the 3D in the film was the bridge sequence. When you have this suspension bridge and it starts collapsing and you’re 75 meters off the water and you have to climb on this narrow I-Beam to get to the other side for safety as things are vibrating and crashing down, that’s a brilliant use of 3D because it really gets the sense of vertigo that a 2D movie cannot get at all.

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Read the full interview, which focuses on shooting 3D, here: http://www.moviehole.net/201144418-steven-quale