Have you heard about this? The headline says it all:Avatar: How James Cameron’s 3D film could change the face of cinema forever:
If you’ve had previous experience of 3D, your impression will probably be one of a flattish image with the occasional object ‘flying’ at you’.
But these advances are different – the entire screen has depth, taking on the appearance of a window through which the viewer is watching a ‘world’ on the screen, with a distinct foreground and background, rather than a flat, moving painting
In effect, the cinema screen becomes a theatre stage.
There’s still at least one throw-back to the ‘early days’ of 3D – viewers will need to wear glasses to get the illusion.
However these are not the red and green cardboard cut-outs you used to get free with Sugar Puffs before Comic Relief.
These are polarising glasses, untinted, which do not cause the headaches experienced in the past, or more importantly rely on frequent ‘pans’ of the camera to make the image appear in 3D.
Each lens has a different filter , which removes different part of the image as it enters each eye. This gives the brain the illusion it is seeing the picture from two different angles, creating the 3D effect.
The film depicts a battle between Earth and the alien civilisation from Pandora – but who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?
Continuing to develop new technology as he went along, Cameron also devised a ‘virtual camera’, a hand-held monitor that allowed him to move through a 3D terrain.
This, Cameron said, allowed him to create ‘the ultimate immersive media’, which he anticipates will exceed any and all expectation.
Here is the trailer, unfortunately in mere 2-D:
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In