3D Cinema and the Protrusion Effect - Text 3
The protrusion effect, however, sometimes posed problems for realism, as “the phenomenon attracted viewer’s attention to the presence of the screen,”[6] in addition to being seen as vulgar compared to the depth of field effect, which was considered more “artistic.”[7] At the same time, the revenue generated by stereoscopy was not deemed viable with respect to the investment necessary in the 1950s. Indeed 3D projection required, in addition to a metallic screen and glasses to make the stereoscopic images perceptible, four projectors: two projectors (one for each eye) had to function simultaneously, causing synchronization problems, with the need to change reels dictating a second pair. Because of these many problems, the “3D revolution” did not last, and came to an end around 1954-55,[8] when the industry turned to other kinds of innovation.
This brought to an end to this important period in the history of stereoscopy, which is often described as the golden age of 3D cinema, but which had been preceded by other important periods in which the protrusion effect was also employed. In 1935 Louis Lumière, for example, had prepared a new, three-dimensional version of Train Entering a Station (1895) using the anaglyph 3D method. And 3D production continued following its wave in the 1950s, especially for venues outside commercial movie theatres such as amusement parks and specialised cinemas, such as IMAX 3D. In the 1980s, a smaller wave hit movie theatres with the release of several 3D horror films well suited to using the protrusion effect, including Friday the 13th Part III (1982). But it was with the breaking digital wave in the 2000s that new technologies made possible the notable return of 3D to movie theatres, in particular through several very spectacular genre films such as Avatar (James Cameron, 2009) and Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013), but also auteur films and documentaries such as Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog, 2010), Pina (Wim Wenders, 2011), Hugo (Martin Scorsese, 2011) and Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014). All of these films bank for the most part on immersive positive parallax depth effects rather than on three-dimensional protrusion effects, even though they also use them to a lesser extent.
