David Wertheimer, the chief executive of the University of Southern California’s EntertainmentTechnology Center and the former president of Paramount Digital Entertainment, said artistic obstacles sometimes prevented films from being successfully converted into 3-D.
“Most people don’t realize that there is an ‘art’ to making great 3-D,” Wertheimer said in comments emailed to AFP. “It’s not just about the technology and creating a second eye view.
“Most 3-D films being distributed today have 3-D in mind from conception. The shots in those films are being staged and framed differently.
“They’re being edited differently to maximize the ‘effect’ that the depth has on the story and the experience.
“The problem with converting live action movies from 2-D to 3-D is that some of the creative choices that the director and DP (director of photography) originally made are different from how you would want them in 3-D.
“It is sometimes impossible to make comfortable 3-D out of 2-D shots that are framed in a certain fashion. So, it’s an entirely new creative process in converting that film to 3-D.”
Yet Wertheimer believes classic films such as “Star Wars” and “Titanic” could be successfully converted provided the makers of the original films are closely involved in the process.
“In the hands of the original creators, the likelihood of success is great (assuming enough time and budget to do it right),” he wrote.