The Moods of Dimensional Cinema

The Christian Science Monitor points out that 3-D movies have done boomingly good business in 2010, but also highlights another facet of Moving View Master in the digital age:

... Has the extra dimension changed the craft of Hollywood?

Phil McNally, the stereoscopic supervisor for Dreamworks Animation, ... used stereoscopics in this year's "Shrek Forever After" to ramp up the drama of a pivotal scene. Early in the story, the evil Rumpelstiltskin tricks Shrek into signing a magical contract, which propels the rest of the movie.

At the beginning of this scene, the 3-D effects are very subtle. Yet as Rumpelstiltskin manipulates the situation, the visual distance between him and Shrek increases. The background slowly slips further away and Shrek seems to drift closer to the audience. The characters are not actually moving, but McNally has dialed up the visual depth so that the viewers feel, perhaps subconsciously, as if something strange is happening. ...

I've now seen a bunch of animated movies in three glorious dimensions, and while I don't like the process a whole lot, I admit that the Three Dee in DreamWorks' cartoon features is the best I've seen*. I give Phil M. a lot of the credit. He knows when to ramp the technology up and when to dial it back, which is no mean feat.

Having a maestro manipulate your projects's visuals is a definite plus for DWA, and probably adds to the company's bottom line. At least so far.

* I liked the 3-D in "Christmas Carol" as well. Sadly, having the 523rd version of the Dickens novella in Moving View Master did not rocket it into the box office stratosphere ...