HOLLYWOOD UNCUT // BWANA DEVIL, AVATAR AND BEYOND
BY ANDREA CIRILLO
I had an interesting conversation today about 3D movies with a film agent from CAA. I have to admit I haven't seen any of the new, much talked about 3D spectaculars but I'd have to be deaf to escape the buzz, both pro and con, and it's made me scratch my head about where the trend might be taking us. Are 3D blockbusters the salvation of the movie business? Or are they a flash in the multi-dimensional pan?
My CAA friend quoted Jeffrey Katzenberg, who said at a presentation in Chicago for Monsters vs. Aliens in December 2008 that "all theatrical release films are going to be done in this new 3D to bring audiences into the movie-making experience." He called it "the next great frontier." But more recently, after some 3D bombs and critical debacles, even Katzenberg has had to back off. Maybe we're at a "crossroads" and have to make better 3D movies or risk killing the goose before it's had a chance to lay the mother-lode of golden eggs.
What I didn't know until doing a bit of quick research is that 3D movies date back almost a century, to 1915. We're more familiar with their "golden age" in the early 1950s when movies like Bwana Devil and Cat-Women of the Moon were released--honestly, who can argue with titles like that? But even at the height of the action, the inventor of the 3D process made less money from the movies than from distributing the requisite special glasses (which cost six cents apiece)-which tells me just about all I need to know.
Still, 21st century Hollywood is looking for a shot of adrenaline and if people like Jeffrey Katzenberg think 3D can provide it, I want to know why. Could 3D be as important to this business as sound or color once were? Or, if that's too big a stretch, is it as important as the advent of VHS or DVD?
The real question in all of this is how it should-or shouldn't-affect creative choices. Is this a moment to re-jigger your brain as a writer or a filmmaker to take into account the 3D trend/boom? I'm never one to advocate letting the tail wag the dog, and that's what I think the danger is here. As always, if you have a story to tell, you want to tell it in the best possible way--which may or may not be 3D. Story first. You wouldn't set a movie in Berlin 1944 without referencing WWII any more than you'd be likely to make a children's film about a kaleidoscope factory in black and white. Making the best choices means never having to say you're trendy. But if you love 3D, if it whispers (or more likely shouts) sweet nothings in your artistic ear, jump on those feelings and aboard the gravy train that Katzenberg and company are touting, and prove that it's a meaningful change and a gateway to the future.