In this conversion I'm going to great pains to create a nice sense of 3D depth and keep it consistent throughout the movie. Although there are some recent movie makers that have got the 3D depth just right, I feel that several haven't and certain movies have suffered from a low separation (or parallax) in the initial shooting of the film. This could either be because of concerns that a 2 hour movie with a wide parallax may cause eye fatigue in the audience or it could be due to a lack of knowledge over conventions of 3D and how 3D should actually look when it's done well. This is of concern to me. Just like other people, I am not willing to spend my hard earned cash on a 3D movie or Blu-ray 3D only to find that the actual 3D is substandard or hardly noticeable. Also, poor future 3D productions could bring about the early demise of 3D movies and audiences will think it's hardly worth the bother of donning the 3D glasses just to see a little bit of roundness on objects. I appeal then to all future 3D film makers, take a look at classic 3D movies of the past e.g. House of Wax and Creature from the Black Lagoon or just look at some of the great 3D pictures on Flickr etc and please, please, please continue the tradition of proper 3D with proper depth. I want to feel as though I could walk into every scene of a 3D movie. I don't want low separation where the difference between 3D and 2D is hardly noticeable. Also, I don't want lazy 2D cutaways either. Of course it takes longer to make sure that EVERY single scene is looking its best in 3D, but that's what it's all about isn't it? The public is expecting to see proper 3D, they demand it and nothing less will suffice. We need visionary directors and artists making 3D movies, artists with a sensitivity to the 3D process who can get the best out of each scene. Sadly, those types of true visionaries seem to be few and far between these days.
With the above in mind then, during my conversion of House on Haunted Hill, I am spending a lot of time on each scene, making sure that the 3D depth looks as good as it can and importantly, is consistent throughout the film. Here is a sample side by side snapshot from Storyboard 3, Scene 15. I've highlighted two key areas that demonstrate the level of parallax between objects in each eye in order to create a good 3D depth.
Click on each image to see a larger version
And here is the anaglyph version showing the 3D depth. Please note, the 3D anaglyph image is inferior compared to viewing the side by side image with shutter glasses.
I recently took a snapshot frame from a modern Blu-ray 3D movie (mentioning no names) and noticed that the parallax difference between each side was very small. Of course, because of this, the 3D was pretty poor throughout, sometimes to the point where I kept asking myself if it was in 3D at all. Let's hope future 3D movies don't suffer from 3D Lite syndrome.
Here are some examples of pictures with great 3D depth over at Flickr.
