Digital Cinematography

Hollywood Finds Depth: 3-D Boom
By Jonathan Blum, Fortune Small Business
Apr 30, 2008, 06:14

Las Vegas -- Hollywood is done with being shallow; it wants depth. 3-D depth, to be specific.

3-D filmmaking - the process of mounting two simultaneously filming cameras side-by-side and then superimposing the images on top of each other to create the illusion of depth - is looking at a comeback. At the recent National Association of Broadcasters show in Last Vegas, everyone from the major film studios to music-video production companies to the National Basketball Association displayed eye-popping examples of films and clips capturing artificial depth. Silly 3-D glasses were actually kind of hip over in the high desert.

The technology is far from new. 3-D was first tried in the 1950s, and later popped up in horror films starring Vincent Price. Even auteur Andy Warhol tried his hand at the tools. But filming even brief segments with two cameras was cumbersome and expensive; the cost of shooting an entire 3-D film was prohibitive for most projects.

But now, the alchemic effects of digital technology and the Internet are changing the business of adding dimensions. Miley Cyrus and U2 have put out successful 3-D films; kids love 'em. Big-name directors including James Cameron have 3-D projects in the works - the hot rumor in Hollywood is that George Lucas is working to re-release the entire Star Wars saga in 3-D.

The good news for small businesses is that the field is ripe with growing companies developing innovative solutions for 3-D's many challenges. Take Iconix Video Inc. in Goleta, Calif. It has created a nifty, super-small, high-definition imaging system that's going great guns in 3-D.

Click www.money.cnn.com for the whole story.

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