The History of Stereoscopy in Cinema - Text 5
In the mid-1980s, the production of 3D feature films for theatrical release dropped once again, but 3D continued in IMAX cinemas or Géode-type cinemas (Francis Ford Coppola’s Captain EO, produced by Disney, 1986). IMAX produced Roman Kroitor’s documentary We Are Born of Stars in 1985. IMAX’s production of 3D films continued regularly with a dual-camera 70 mm system. One such film was Jean-Jacques Annaud’s The Wings of Courage (1996), the first 40-minute fiction film in IMAX 3D.
Since the 2000s: Digital 3D
Beginning in 2005 entirely digital films such as Robert Zemeckis’ Polar Express (2004) and Mark Dindal’s Chicken Little (2005) stood out by using 3D. Shooting in digital facilitates stereoscopy. It is easier to adjust video projectors than 35 mm projectors when doing dual projection (one image for each eye). Two systems co-exist: passive glasses (simple light polarization using different grids in front of each eye, as with RealD, which supplies most movie theatres in Europe and whose video projector and eyeglasses can be seen below); active eyeglasses (with liquid crystal and which obscure each eye in alternation at high speed – 144 frames per second – in synchronization with the projection; these are equipped with batteries, as are Xpand glasses). Passive glasses are not expensive. Active glasses give a brighter and better quality stereoscopic image.
