NEWS

Can This Man Save the Movies?
Jim Cameron's 3-D Plan to Keep People in Theatre Seats
by Patrick Gregston


James Cameron.
AP Photo/Kevork Djansezia

Acclaimed filmmaker James Cameron was last most distinctly in the public eye in March 1998, proclaiming immodestly, “I’m the king of the world!” After his Titanic triple-Oscar night, the man responsible for writing, producing, directing and editing the highest grossing film of all time had pretty much dropped out of sight, particularly in terms of his role as a feature film director.

While he executive produced Dark Angel for television, and wrote a script that was not produced for Spiderman, Cameron has spent much of the last eight years literally and metaphorically in deep exploration. During that period, he directed and/or produced several underwater documentaries in 3-D, including Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005). It is these projects that suggest the direction in which he is now heading.

Cameron emerged this past winter and spring with tales from these journeys, some feature film production announcements and, most interestingly, an ambitious plan to rescue the theatrical viewing experience from extinction. Appearing at several public venues to receive awards or deliver speeches–– including his keynote address at the Digital Cinema Summit at this year’s NAB––he positioned himself at the forefront of the mission to save theatrical exhibition.

A 10-year member of the Editors Guild, Cameron declined to be interviewed specifically for this story (“I don’t want to be standing up like an expert until I have a movie out.”), but he did spend over an hour in a Las Vegas Convention Center hallway patiently taking all comers’ questions and comments after spending nearly three hours on stage.

With a newfound appreciation for documentaries and the teamwork required to produce them, Cameron explains that his desire to be a “world class” filmmaker was what drove him to finance the development of tools and techniques to film in 3-D deep under the sea. Just knowing that on any day he might see something “nobody has ever seen before” was motivation for him to find a niche others had not claimed. The rewards were in the experiences themselves, and sharing them with his team, according to the filmmaker.

Cameron worked with director of photography Vince Pace to develop the new acquisition tool. “The underwater film rigs are really unwieldy,” the director says. “Making a 35mm stereo underwater camera seemed impossible.” Cameron invested over five years and an unspecified amount into the development of a digital high-definition stereo camera system that was used to produce his underwater documentaries. “We’ve got the package down to 28 pounds, and it has dynamic convergence so you can keep focus on a single spot or tracking shot,” he adds.


James Cameron delivering the keynote address at NAB 2006's Digital Cinema Summit. Photo Courtesy of NAB.

With the production package tried and tested, and the math worked out for both production and post––“about 5 to 15 percent more altogether, depending on how you do it”––the element missing for Cameron to return to feature filmmaking was an established base of theaters in which to display 3-D.

For anyone tracking the long, slow history of digital exhibition, the issues have been many. Cameron articulated the problem that faces the industry as “getting people back in theatres.” While digital cinema has been on the table for nearly five years as a way to save expense, synergize alternate revenues for venue operators and revitalize the primacy of the theatre-going experience, it has yet to take off. He is convinced that 3-D, enabled by digital exhibition, will create a more immersive theatrical experience that will bring people back to the cinema.

During his speech, Cameron presented a brief history of 3-D movies (42 pictures released between 1952 and 55 and only three in the next 25 years) and how each problem that contributed to that failure has now been resolved. Digital Cinema projectors, by virtue of their capability to project at high frame rates, can project both sides of the stereoscopic image from one projector, greatly reducing the complexities of alignment and synchronization, as well as lowering cost, according to the filmmaker.

There is also the matter of the glasses. There are two methods that Cameron discusses as viable––active and passive. The active glasses have batteries and a shutter and currently cost about $25 apiece. Their main advantage is that they can be used with existing screens. Passive glasses are much cheaper but require the installation of a special screen, which is still compatible with 2-D presentations. “So the glasses are still kind of an issue for everybody––except Bono,” says Cameron, who adds that earlier this year, his camera system was used to shoot a U2 concert in Brazil. “Bono looked at the glasses and said, ‘This is a marketing opportunity.’”

The next significant element in the past failure of 3-D is the selection of story. “You can’t have a good 3-D script; you have to have a good script that you can enhance with 3-D,” Cameron explains. In his experience, directing in 3-D is very much the same as 2-D. “You are going to tell the story, and there are some tricks and pitfalls inherit in 3-D, but they are very easy to pick up since you have the instant review of digital acquisition,” he says. “There is nothing you can do in 2-D you can’t do in 3-D.

“3-D is just going to be another set of colors you paint with,” he continues. “And it has to be marketed as such. A-list projects will be widely released with advertising, just as they are today, and at the bottom, it would say, ‘in 3-D at selected theaters.’ I like to think of 3-D as a turbocharger to boost the market. 3-D cannot be the primary reason to make a picture, or to draw the audience.”

There are two data points that Cameron cites for his optimism, and which he thinks signifies a trend, although he recognizes that no scientist would publish a paper based on two samples. “But we have made decisions in this industry on less information,” he is quick to add. First is the secondary release of Polar Express in 3-D in IMAX theaters. This picture grossed 40 percent of its revenue on 2 or 3 percent of the total number of screens––(approximately 60 IMAX screens vs. 3,500 35mm screens) on which it played when it was released late in 2004. The other is Chicken Little. Disney installed 80 new digital cinema installations so that it could trial release a 3-D variation of the animated film during the theatrical window. Those 3-D theatres represented only 2 percent of the total but grossed 10 percent of the take.

“This suggests that 3-D is a premium experience that the public will seek out and pay for,” Cameron says. Polling indicates this as well; in a recent survey he cites: “Twelve percent of the US population would go to theatres more often if there were feature-length 3-D movies.”

There are a few ways to produce stereo images, according to Cameron. “Computer graphics [CG], live action, a combination of the two, or dimensionalizing a mono picture,” he lists. “Live action is the simplest. I have been shooting stereo live action for five years. Control of the stereo space is not complicated, although there are a few tricks easily learned. Camera packages are about double the cost. All in all, about 15 percent more cost in production and post.”

“Director Robert Zemeckis is producing Beowulf in CG, which is the easiest,” he continues. You just render each frame two times with camera positions just eye distance apart.” Dimensionalization is the process of making a 3-D presentation of an existing 2-D production. Cameron had been skeptical, but says he found the tests done on original Star Wars scenes by In-Three (which holds the registered mark on dimensionalization) compelling. That reel is currently being shown at exhibitors’ events. “Peter Jackson is considering Lord of the Rings in 3-D,” he adds. “It’s expensive to do, but we now can turn all the top earners into new product.”

Cameron was also high on the other benefits of the digital cinema infrastructure. “Digital cinema enables live feeds. 3-D cameras can shoot live, which creates the potential for theatre audiences to participate in world events,” he enthuses. Equally important to the success of 3-D is getting Hollywood around the fact that “humans don’t like change,” he says. “We have to get past the no-cooperation history. Creatives, distributors and theatre operators need to work together to get the 3-D cinema wave building. We are halfway through. The fear of change is outweighed by the fear no not changing.” For his part, Cameron is offering to share his experience with producers and directors interested in exploring 3-D.

Unlike the industry’s transition to sound, Cameron doesn’t expect all exhibition to become 3-D. “Early on, it will be all CG and a few timeless favorites, creating a new fundamentally different class of must-see films,” Cameron posits, adding that in a few years, “studios will be asking how many of their tentpole films should be in 3-D.” He sees dimensionalization as an important part of the rollout and says that “exhibitors need to know there will be a steady stream. Raiders of the Lost Ark would be really cool in 3-D.”

As might be expected of a “world class” storyteller, Cameron weaves a better, brighter picture of a digital cinema future than the representatives of manufacturers, consultants or cinematographers who have graced the past NAB Digital Cinema summits. His presentation covered art, technology and business with equal depth, consideration and factual reference. Significantly, his presence and commitment to the format was sufficient gravity to have John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) share the stage with him for an hour, declaring 2006 to be the year that theater owners say yes to digital exhibition.

Cameron will be returning to the big-screen theatrical feature market with several films, including Battle Angel, which is slated for production this summer. “I will not make movies for cell phones,” he assures. “The people who believe in the cinema experience are in a fight for our lives. So who is with me, dammit?”

Jim Cameron has progressed from declaring himself “king of the world” to dedicating himself to salvaging a small part of it that he holds dear.

Patrick Gregston is a former Board member currently producing a pilot for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to tell the Climate Science story.  

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