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Topic: Can a digital 3D movie be played in 2D?

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 5579
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-06-2008 02:17 PM

See the title for my question.

I'm envisioning having "2-D" shows at the end of the week, for those legions who would just rather not bother with 3D for whatever reason. Is it possible?

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Galen Murphy-Fahlgren
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 238
From: Canton, MI, USA
Registered: Oct 2007

posted 10-06-2008 02:25 PM

If I recall correctly, no. They use separate files, and while the hard drive may contain the file for the 2D version, chances are they are not going to give you the license file for both, at least not without such substantial remuneration as to make it implausible for you.

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Thomas Pitt
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 207
From: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
Registered: May 2007

posted 10-06-2008 03:15 PM

Some movie distributors have been known to supply a theater with both a 3D digital version on HDD, and a 35mm (2D) film print as well in case the 3D system breaks down or they want to move it to another screen.

But no, you can't simply play the 3D version in 2D. Not only is it technically difficult, but it would probably get you into trouble with the movie studio as well, since you weren't licensed to play it in 2D.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 5768
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 10-06-2008 03:46 PM

Some theaters are provided a 2D virtual print for a movie in digital 3D for purposes of moving the show into a smaller theater if they don't have any other 3D equipped screens to accommodate it.

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Mark J. Marshall
Film God

Posts: 2123
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 10-06-2008 03:51 PM

You could try putting a circular polarized filter in front of the projector on the porthole. That would block one of the eyes. Although you may end up with slight ghosting in some scenes where there's high contrast, but maybe the ghost busting would take care of that... I wonder how that would look...?

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David Zylstra
Master Film Handler

Posts: 250
From: Novi, MI, USA
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 10-06-2008 04:37 PM

Galen is correct - 2D and 3D digital prints are separate files. Currently 3D digital "prints" are 48fps and alternate between eyes, the result being 24fps per eye; but the current 3D file is also timed for lower onscreen luminance so projecting 1 eye's information may not be ideal, there could also be issues with the ghost busting information on each eye.

Theoretically the server could be in 3D mode (48fps) and the projector simply configured to accept only the image from one HD-SDI input (for 3D each HD-SDI input carries only 1 eye's information) . . . . . . . I wonder if that would work . . . . .

Some of the discussions I've heard on 3D is how production will work - i.e. do they create a completely separate 3D copy or simply use 1 eye as the reference 2D version . . . . . .

So far we have booked both 2D and 3D versions to provide our patrons the choice(except for Fly Me to the Moon). We have also been required to play the entire run in 3D - i.e. we could not drop a 3D booking down to a 2D in order to move it to a smaller house (our location that only has 1 3D screen had to delay getting Fly Me to the Moon by a week in order for Journey to play its entire booked run)

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Matt Fields
Master Film Handler

Posts: 426
From: Wellston, Ohio, United States
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 10-08-2008 08:59 PM

David-

When given the choice, what percentage of patrons go to the 2D version instead of the 3D version?

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David Zylstra
Master Film Handler

Posts: 250
From: Novi, MI, USA
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 10-09-2008 03:20 PM

For the first 2 weeks of Journey the 3D version had 3.5 times the attendance of the 2D version (we dropped the 2D version after 2 weeks).

Our other 3D titles varied from 1.5X to 3X the 2D attendance.

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 4258
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 10-09-2008 07:32 PM

..and sadly, with the cinemas around here that did play "JCE" in 3D and the other cinemas playing the film version, the film cinemas got the wrath from the customers thinking that they're buying tix to attend a 3D movie and finding out it's just a "normal" movie ...and they were so dissapointed like they wanted to blame the attended cinema for not having any form of 3D capability.

3D is gonna really be the BIG BANG for this new generation.

-Monte

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