{"id":3372,"date":"2012-07-24T16:44:50","date_gmt":"2012-07-24T22:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=3372"},"modified":"2012-07-24T16:44:50","modified_gmt":"2012-07-24T22:44:50","slug":"is-waving-things-at-the-camera-always-a-3d-gimmick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2012\/07\/is-waving-things-at-the-camera-always-a-3d-gimmick.html","title":{"rendered":"Is waving things at the camera always<\/i> a 3D gimmick?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yesterday, I was watching The Adventures of Tintin<\/i> with the kids, and I was struck \u2014 not for the first time \u2014 by the way some images that were obviously designed for 3D can look a little odd, composition-wise, when viewed in a 2D format.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have never had a problem watching movies like, say, Up<\/i> in 2D, because those films used 3D to accentuate the existing depth of their images, without trying to poke you in the eye; when the third dimension is stripped out, you can still appreciate the image for what it is, even for its depth of composition. But whenever I watch animated films like, say, Kung Fu Panda 2<\/i> at home, I am struck by the way they often throw in gratuitous shots of people wagging objects at the camera; it is almost as though they were trying to remind you, the viewer at home, that you\u2019re watching a less-than-optimal version of the film, which is kind of odd when you think about it.<\/p>\n

But then the kids and I watched another movie which made me wonder if I was becoming a bit too sensitive to this sort of thing. Specifically, we watched A Bug\u2019s Life<\/i>, a film that came out way back in the 1990s, years before the digital 3D trend got going. And here, too, there was a scene where someone waved an object \u2014 well, actually a character, namely Slim the Walking Stick \u2014 right at the camera:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, if this movie had been made at any point in the past three to seven years (the digital 3D format basically got going, on a commercial level, with the release of Disney\u2019s Chicken Little<\/i> in 2005, and of course it hit its tipping point with the release of Avatar<\/i> in 2009), I might have assumed that the image above was generated with 3D exhibition in mind. But, unless someone at Pixar was really<\/i> forward-thinking about this sort of thing, that almost certainly wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n

So, maybe I shouldn\u2019t react so negatively every time a character wags something at the camera? Maybe I should assume, for the sake of charity if nothing else, that the animators might have had characters wagging things at the camera anyway even if the film had<\/i> been made for 2D? Innocent until proven guilty and all that?<\/p>\n

Footnote: A Bug\u2019s Life<\/i> is one of the few early Pixar films that has not<\/i> been reformatted for 3D yet. Toy Story<\/i> and Toy Story 2<\/i> were re-issued as a 3D double-bill in 2009, and both Finding Nemo<\/i> and Monsters Inc.<\/i> will be re-released in 3D later this year. What do those films have that A Bug\u2019s Life<\/i> doesn\u2019t? Sequels<\/a>, imminent<\/a> or otherwise<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I was watching The Adventures of Tintin with the kids, and I was struck \u2014 not for the first time \u2014 by the way some images that were obviously designed for 3D can look a little odd, composition-wise, when viewed in a 2D format.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[77,144,149,145,148,147,146],"class_list":["post-3372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-3d","tag-adventures-of-tintin","tag-avatar","tag-bugs-life","tag-chicken-little","tag-kung-fu-panda-2","tag-up"],"yoast_head":"\nIs waving things at the camera always a 3D gimmick?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yesterday, I was watching The Adventures of Tintin with the kids, and I was struck -- not for the first time -- by the way some images that were obviously\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2012\/07\/is-waving-things-at-the-camera-always-a-3d-gimmick.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is waving things at the camera always a 3D gimmick?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yesterday, I was watching The Adventures of Tintin with the kids, and I was struck -- not for the first time -- by the way some images that were obviously\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2012\/07\/is-waving-things-at-the-camera-always-a-3d-gimmick.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-24T22:44:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2012\/07\/tintin.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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