One Geek Nation

Ever since the worldwide gross of James Cameron’s Avatar broke the $1 Billion mark, every Hollywood studio has wanted to recreate that success. The reason Avatar is such a visually immersive film is because James Cameron filmed it using two cameras, one for each eye. Obviously, when th equipment is doubled, the crew that operates that equipment must also be doubled. This means that James Cameron’s technique for filming  in 3D is very expensive. Knowing this, many big Hollywood executives have decided to keep their costs down by taking movies that were filmed in the traditional manner, with one camera, and convert it to 3D during the final stage of post-production. When a movie is filmed in 2D, which is how it has been done traditionally, it is meant to be seen in 2D. However, by converting movies such as Alice in Wonderland and Clash of the Titans, which were filmed in 2D, to 3D, the Hollywood studios have an excuse to charge the consumer $15 for admission. Doing so ends up ripping the consumer off because the end product is nothing more than a gimmick that may diminish the overall experience. Roger Ebert, a well-known skeptic of the 3D conversion technique, said this about Clash of the Titans: “I saw it in 2D, and let me tell you, it looked terrific.” In order to stop this epidemic, the consumer should read some reviews of a film before they go out to see it. Movie reviews will often reveal whether a particular movie was filmed in 3D or uses 3D as a price-hiking gimmick. Most of the time it will be the latter, and in those cases consumers should opt to see the 2D version, as the films director intended.