Director James Cameron, whose name has become virtually synonymous with 3D, recently joined the hotly-debated 2D/3D discussion in an interview with Popular Mechanics. Regarding the backlash against 3D, he said, it was a good thing because what consumers were lashing back against is “some pretty crappy stuff.”
Poor quality 3D, he said, has a lot to answer for, and consumers were right to demand their money’s worth when paying a premium. “I think that’s completely valid. I want the studios to get spanked for making bad decisions because I actually think they’re compromising the overall 3D market if they continue this way. I don’t think any long-term damage has been done‚ as long as they take heed of these lessons, and don’t do slapdash six-week conversions that look like crappy pop-up cards.”
One important thing to remember, Cameron stressed, is that the movies released after Avatar were made before its own release: “So any lessons learned about how to do it, in terms of how to use the cameras, how to use the stereo spaces and so on, that might be learned by other live action film makers from Avatar‚ we haven’t seen those films yet. It takes a year to make a decent film.”
Also vital to 3D success, he added, is that: “People need to keep in mind is that 3D doesn’t make a good movie. Good movies are made by good scripts, great acting and a lot of other things besides just being in 3D. 3D can only make a great movie a little bit better.”
Crucially, there needs to be more information from critics and the media to alert people about the distinctions between “This is a crap movie. The 3D’s good, but it’s a crap movie,” and “It’s a good movie, but the 3D’s crap.” For instance, he said, while he was rooting for Avatar star Sam Worthington, Clash of the Titans was a “pretty good movie…but the 3D sucked. In some scenes it didn’t even look like it was 3D.”
On the subject of 2D-3D conversions, he concluded, if they’re not done right, just look like pop-up cards. “It’s a hideously complicated process. It’s much simpler to just shoot it in 3D and hopefully that’s the thing that Hollywood is going to wake up to, I’m praying.”
