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Post-Converted 3D: Or, The Part(s) Where Everybody Stopped Caring

Quick: when was the last time you heard anyone be excited to see a movie in 3D? This has little-to-nothing to do with the movie itself, but the 3D format specifically, not as in, “I can’t wait to see Age of Ultron” but “Age of Ultron is gonna be awesome in 3D." Such people doubtlessly exist, but they’re very likely to be in the vast minority, and fairly ignorant of the 3D process to begin with. “Post-converted 3D” refers to the act of digitally manipulating and engineering a film shot in two dimensions to appear as if it were shot in three.

A post-conversion house will take a 2D shot, a program will be used to map out the geography of the shot - extrapolating a concept of geometry, perspective, and distance relative to each object in the frame - and that geography will be used to create an impression of depth and dimension. A great deal of technician involvement, artistry, and nuance is required to pull a convincing three-dimensional shot out of a two-dimensional source, and some post-conversion houses are better than others at completing this illusion in a believable way. One thing is fairly universal, though: post-conversion is inferior to natively-shot 3D, and the list of Hollywood 3D releases accomplished via post-conversion has a high correlation with a list of 3D releases called out and noted for visible evidence of that inferiority.

The goal of IMAX, large-format, 3D, HFR, and any premium feature is partially to advance the technology, and always has been; the other part of it, though, has to do with emphasizing the multiplex as the optimal location for watching movies…and the reason for this has very much to do with the encroachment of the home environment on the multiplex environment. With respect to a couple of yearly spikes that are relative to their nearest neighbors, ticket sales have been on a steady decline since 2002; the only two of those relative spikes that are really significant belong to 2009 (which birthed Transformers 2 and Avatar) and 2012 (which had the trifecta of Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Hunger Games).

In an odd coincidence, that ticket-sale apex of 2002 coincided with the year that Hollywood introduced IMAX DMR by re-releasing 1995’s Apollo 13, and you can draw a relatively straight line from IMAX DMR to large-format exhibitions, which are the current premium feature in theaters; 3D is still present, but the boom in native and post-converted 3D that began after Avatar peaked in 2012 and dropped sharply from 2014 to this year; 2016 is sparer still. Something will likewise take large-format’s place; whatever does will have to contend with a home-cinema environment that continues to grow in versatility and democracy. That will be covered in Part 4 of our 4-part series on HD and digital cinema. Thanks for sticking around for this installment, and we’ll see you in just a bit.

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