The History of Stereoscopy in Cinema - Text 1
From the Nineteenth Century to 1952: Stereoscopic Photography and the Rising Number of Screenings of “3D Cinema”
Although the principle of stereoscopic vision has been understood for a long time (in the seventeenth century, painters such as Jacopo Chimenti drew views of a single subject for each eye of an observer), it was not until the development of photography in the mid-nineteenth century that inventors began filing patent applications for devices capable of showing a view in relief. Charles Wheatstone, and later David Brewster,[1] developed a very simple technique: each eye saw a different photograph. The two photographs were taken some 10 cm apart. The new medium became popular from 1851, when a “stereoscope” was given to the queen of England. In the 1880s, numerous companies in the United States, England and continental Europe sold millions of stereoscopic slides each year. The general public enjoyed seeing in relief series of landscapes, action taken from stage plays, various pieces of short fiction, pornographic images, etc.
In 1890, a company in Paris, Molteni, marketed a magic lantern with several lenses, making it possible to project anaglyph pictures thanks to the work of Joseph-Charles d’Almeida. With anaglyph stereoscopy, viewers are provided with eyeglasses tinted red and green, which complement the tint of the projected images. This way each eye sees only a single image and the brain recreates the relief. This technique also functions for printed images.
A great number of patent applications were filed for devices capable of reproducing movement “in relief.” But very few saw the light of day. Émile Reynaud, known for his illuminated pantomimes using his “optical theatre,” filed patent applications in 1902 for stereoscopic animated images. He shot the images but did not succeed in projecting them in relief. On the other hand, he developed a stereoscopic viewer which made it possible to view images in relief: the Stéréocinéma (1908).[2]
The first documented projection of stereoscopic films took place in New York in June 1915. Edwin S. Porter and Will E. Waddell, with financial assistance from the producer Adolph Zukor, showed to an audience of journalists, equipped with green and red glasses, films in anaglyph relief, including several documentaries and short fiction films. People noted at the time the effectiveness of the process, which gave the sensation of tree branches coming out of the screen. Later, this would be called a “jumping effect.” Images of a dancing woman appear to have functioned less well, and the image remained in soft focus. Zukor did not follow up on this test. This insert shows an article from the time taken from The Moving Picture World on Porter and Waddell’s process.
The first feature-length stereoscopic film appears to be The Man from M.A.R.S., made in 1922. It used the Teleview process, which operated on the principle of obscured images: each eye could only see every other image. Films in this principle exist still today, using liquid crystal alternating glasses, or shutters, coordinated with the projector. Today the term “active glasses” is used. The early 1920s saw a great rise in the popularity of stereoscopic film projection (in short film programs).
In 1935, Louis Lumière files a patent application for a system of films in anaglyph relief. A programme of films using this principle circulated in France in 1936. We see below the stereoscopic glasses developed by the Lumière brothers, and also a production still from the shooting of the three-dimensional film L’arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat (Lumière brothers, 1935). In the 1930s, programs of short stereoscopic films were shown in American movie theatres and also in fairs such as the New York World’s Fair of 1939. Films in relief and in colour can be projected using polarizing filters. Polarized glasses (resembling dark glasses) have grids in front of each eye, making it possible to choose a single image for each eye out of the two images projected. This principle is still used today in so-called “passive” 3D.
