3D opera and Sony's closed-caption glasses previewed at Geneva Convention

Now in its sixth season, the Met Opera has been the single most successful alternative content program in theatres. On Tuesday night, RealD previewed part of Madam Butterfly 3D. No, it's not from the Met, but London's Royal Opera House. After a host of technical difficulties were resolved, we previewed part of the movie. The opening credit sequence had the extreme pop-outs people associate with 3D. It was mainly behind-the-scenes shots of hair and makeup and rainy London streets. The patient, slower pace lent a different mood to 3D than the one people are used to seeing with 3D-animated or tentpole movies. The actual opera had more restrained use of 3D. The most revelatory part was not the 3D, but the crispness of the shots. The high definition showed, and gave a front row view of the action.

On Wednesday evening, Sony previewed its closed-caption glasses. Not only will theatre owners likely be required by a federal mandate to provide options for deaf and blind patrons, but many theatre owners spoke of customers who had come in requesting such a product, since it was announced last year at ShowEast. Though Sony is currently mum about the price, the glasses are heavy and
complicated--and that usually means expensive. This reporter could not figure out exactly how the hologram was being projected but that's for the engineers. On each side of the glasses there is a small pack that apparently projects the captions on the screen from each side--but I can't explain more than that. It's also attached to a small transmitter that allows people to set the language and other specifications. This creates a great opportunity for international film festivals--people can watch the same movie, all with subtitles set to their preferred language.

Wearing the glasses is slightly less smooth. They project in green, but depending on the color of the screen at the moment, words could be hard to read. The darker the screen, the more legible the captions. Because the glasses are adjustable, you can have the subtitles show up in the black space below the screen, which Sony confirms many testers have preferred to do. But if your theatre doesn't have a lot of dark dead space below their screen, you may have to read the subtitles on the screen, a more difficult option.

The biggest flaw of the glasses is the fact that a person's head is not the most stable projection device. If movies were projected via hats worn by the projectionist, the images would be wobbly. The same principle is at work here. It's possible over the length of a feature film the mind would adjust to the wobbles, but I found that the subtitles drew an annoying amount of attention to my body's minor fidgeting. I would then move my head more to try to move the subtitles back to where I had them before. This is the kind of problem that never seems to happen in Minority Report! Despite these issues, Sony's engineers have created an impressive technology. For a deaf patron, the service is a lot better than nothing. But audiences used to fixed, unmoving subtitles while watching a foreign-language film may not find the experience as smooth to their liking. For that reason, I think this product will be the biggest success in the hearing impaired market. If the next generation contains a stabilizer or something else to fix the wobbles, I think foreign film subtitling will be the next application of this cutting-edge technology.

CGI 'Monsters vs. Aliens' first entry in DreamWorks' all-3D plan

By Sarah Sluis

Last week I saw a preview of scenes from Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D.  The film, which will release on March 27, 2009, also recently unveiled its trailer online.

Unlike home-runner Pixar, DreamWorks' animated pictures have been much more uneven, critically and commercially.  Monsters vs. Aliens comes eight years after Pixar's Monsters, Inc., and employs a similar monsters-are-our-friends take on the freakish creatures.  Although I wish the two studios could stop their critter competition (rats in Ratatouille and Flushed Away; fish in Finding Nemo and Shark's Tale; insects in A Bug's Life and Antz), the latest offering looks like a worthy match to Pixar's offering.

Conceptualized and animated entirely in 3D, the film forgoes using the popping effect to shock (a la my previous benchmark, Universal Studios' theme park ride Terminator in 3D) but often makes something as simple as an over-the-shoulder shot pop out, bringing the 3D effect to the most quotidian of film compositions.  The first set-piece, in which the United States president (Stephen Colbert) attempts to make contact with the alien spaceship, makes the most cinematic use of 3D--staircases jut out from the center of the screen, helicopters swoop in, and missiles (including one emblazoned with "E.T. Go Home") fire to impressive 3D effect.  The new wave of 3D glasses are clear and not meant to cause headaches, but it took me the greater part of one sequence for my eyes to adjust and the whisper of a headache to subside.  The polarized glasses also have some unintended effects: the red EXIT sign multiplied by seven and cast itself into my left eyeline.  Not the biggest deal, but if you're paying the premium price ($15.00 for an adult 3D ticket in Manhattan, a $3.00, 25% markup), you want the image to look perfect.

From a storytelling perspective, there is much to commend: little details, like a series of preemptive comedic shrieks, temper the scare factor for youngsters.  For adults, the voice casting plays on the star personas (roly-poly Seth Rogen plays a blob, "House, M.D."'s Hugh Laurie plays a mad scientist cockroach, Stephen Colbert as the President...).  Along with a smattering of Shrek-like allusions to classic monster and alien films, the snappy dialogue, visual gags, and mild gross-out humor will please adults and kids alike.  Watching the film, I knew exactly which moments would prompt eager kids to whisper to their parents with glee ("Daddy! That man just scanned his butt!").  The film also avoids one of my biggest pet peeves: when a marketing campaign gives away too many plot points, forcing the audience to spend half the film waiting to get to the moment you saw or predicted from a thirty-second commercial.  Based on the introduction of the clips, it appears the monsters' defeat of the aliens marks the turning point, not the climax, earning the film major points according to my rubric.  Perhaps DreamWorks is taking a lesson from Pixar and its tantalizing teaser trailers.  With most animation moving into 3D, and DreamWorks committed to making all of their films in 3D from this point onward, the relative success of Disney competitor Bolt 3D stands to foreshadow Monsters vs. Aliens' success this March.