3D offers a whole new perspective

Carl Jones checks out the latest innovation for cinema audiences which has already arrived in Shrewsbury, and is now heading for Telford.

It was a dull, overcast afternoon in the summer of 1983 - not the sort of weather which would have ordinarily called for a pair of dark glasses.

But these weren't just any old pair of specs. They were the latest must-have fashion accessory at my local cinema, where we took our seats for a screening of what was sold to us as the next great revolution in movies . . . Jaws 3D. Three dimensional cinema which would jump off the screen before our very eyes.

Perhaps it was the flimsy cardboard specs, with two differently coloured cellophane lenses, which were crude, unconvincing, and looked like a free gift from a pack of breakfast cereal, which halted the revolution in its tracks.

Then again, it could have been because the 3D effects were skewed and unconvincing, distorted many of the film's features, and were hopeless for anyone who already wore glasses.

Or maybe it was down to the fact that the producers seemed more concerned with making things jump out of the screen than they were on serving up a decent quality movie

It was probably a bit of all three. But, fast forward a quarter of a century, and the story's very different.

Screen Eight at Shrewsbury's Cineworld multiplex is now dedicated to 3D presentations, and a similar system is being installed at Odeon in Telford as part of its current big-money revamp. This time, 3D cinema is here to stay, and the big studios are fighting for a slice of what is rapidly becoming a very lucrative cake.

Cineworld's digital projector has been in situ since November 2007, making its 3D debut with fantasy war drama Beowulf. Its current offerings include the dark animated fable Coraline, which truly comes to life in the value-added format, and barely a week will pass this summer without some kind of three-dimensional presentation as movie moguls form an orderly queue to unveil a procession family-friendly offerings such as Ice Age 3, and Up.

It's all very well showing off the latest gimmicks and gizmos, but do the public like what they see?

Madeline Brine, Cineworld Shrewsbury's general manager, says customers experiencing a film through 3D spectacles for the first time are eager to come back for more, even though an adult ticket comes in £2.20 higher than a two-dimensional presentation.

"We've currently got a digital projector showing 3D films in one screen, but another is on the way soon. In a couple of years, I would expect the entire cinema to be digital.

"The real test comes when people see a film in 3D and say they want to come back again. It's something people can't get at home, and it's also fighting back against piracy - you can't make a pirate copy of a 3D film."

Chris Blackhurst, who heads the team of technicians at Cineworld, views the 3D projector like a giant computer. Gone are the days of lacing together huge spools of film into a coherent presentation - with a digital movie, you simply plug in a hard drive which arrives in the post from Hollywood HQ, download it into the machine, and you're ready to rock and roll.

"It cuts down on the time involved, but I must admit it does also reduce the skill involved from a technician's point of view, and impact on the job satisfaction a bit," he says.

One thing hasn't changed from the 1980s. You still have to don a pair of spectacles to experience the 3D effect, but they are much more user-friendly these days. Both lenses are clear, and the lightweight frames themselves are slightly oversized, making them easy to fit over a "regular" pair of glasses. A sort of XXL version of the famous glasses immortalised by Michael Caine in the Harry Palmer movies.

So how does the 3D experience actually work? Because our eyes are located about three inches apart, they each view the world from slightly different perspectives. The brain fuses these two images together, allowing us to perceive distances and depth of field.

3D technology exploits this by switching back and forth rapidly between the left eye and right eye image to give the illusion of three-dimensional depth.

Disney currently has a dozen more three-dimensional movies in the works, and Hollywood executives hope the technology will prove exciting enough to lure audiences back into the big screen, and offer them something they can't yet experience from the comfort of their own front rooms.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks, believes it is the third great revolution in the history of film after the arrival of sound in the 1920s and colour in the 1930s, leading directors Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton and George Lucas are all working on 3D projects, and studios are busily dusting off past blockbusters like The Matrix and Toy Story to exploit the new technology.

This time, there seems little doubt that the revolution is unstoppable.

It won't be quick, though. Not every cinema has the equipment to show the films in their full glory, and it is an expensive investment for companies which are by no means immune to the effects of the global recession. Replacing the old screen in the Cineworld auditorium with its special digitally-coated replacement costs over £10,000, without taking into account the cost of the project itself.

Odeon Telford's 3D projector will make its debut next month with Ice Age 3.

There's no doubt that, done cleverly, 3D is a very effective way of increasing interactivity with the audience. People really feel like they're part of a moviegoing experience when it's used subtly, and sparingly.

But when all is said and done, its success will depend entirely on the quality of the movies. Wearing these snazzy specs at the cinema will only remain a novelty for so long.