Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

MOVIE MAKERS 133 additional bits of visual intelligence to an audience's observations about the depth of any scene they are looking at. There is no question, however, about their effectiveness in producing a threedimensional effect. Figure 1 illustrates how (1) and (3) are simulated. When the observer looks at the screen through his special Polaroid glasses, the two images fuse in his mind and the plane of the screen actually disappears; the action seems to be taking place at varying distances behind the theatre proscenium. For example, as the two images of an object move apart (and become smaller) it appears to recede into the distance. When the images move toward each other (and get larger) the object seems to zoom toward the audience. At the point when the two images are on top of one another the object appears to be suspended at screen distance. Finally, if they cross over each other, as shown in Figure 2, the object appears to come through the screen at the observer. In the film programs which I saw, this was done once or twice for shock effect — in Bwana Devil, for example, a spear is hurled at the audience by an angry native. For me, at least, this illusion imposed additional eyestrain; and before the spear got anywhere near me my eyes gave up, so that I saw two separate images of it. This, inevitably, proved to be more confusing than shocking. Probably for this reason nearly all the action takes place at some plane behind the screen proscenium. The result is rather disappointing. For, unlike Cinerama's screen, which engages practically the entire field of view of the observer and gives him a feeling of being "there," the average movie screen is lucky to cover one sixth this amount (depending, of course, on how far from the screen the observer sits). Consequently, the effect is rather like sitting in a darkened room, as you watch action in the backyard through a small window in the opposite wall. The scene is three-dimensional all right; but one hardly has a sense of participating in it. There are important differences between Stereo Techniques' process and Natural Vision from the viewpoint of the audience. Both processes use two cameras. In Stereo Techniques' process, however, the axes of the camera lenses are parallel, just as is the case with stereo still cameras (Stereo Realist, et al.) and with stereo attachments for amateur movie cameras — although the latter use a single camera and lens system, to put two vertical images side by side on the horizontal film frame. With Natural Vision, however, the lens axes of the two cameras are made to converge on the center of interest in the scene, just as do our human eyes. While this sounds good in theory, it results in the unhappy phenomenon of "reverse parallax" on all background objects behind the center of interest; that is, since the lens axes intersect on the center of interest, the left and right images of all objects behind this point will be reversed — the left eye image falling to the right of the image seen by the right eye. While this same effect exists in our observation of real-life objects, we unconsciously ignore it. In Natural Vision movies, however, we are forced to rivet our eyes on that same center of interest which the camera picked out for us — or we become hopelessly confused. (You need only a few wandering gazes at objects off in the distance before your eyes hurt!) While this kind of autocratic audience control is not too unacceptable in dramatic films, where there usually is a strong center of interest, its use in travelogs would soon become disastrous. For the audience here would have no way of knowing what the center of interest was intended to be; and they would have to find therefore the right distance for each new scene by trial and error. To me, this would seem to forecast better business for the optometrist than for the box office. The visual results of Stereo Techniques' process are somewhat better. Being filmed with parallel lenses, the images are easier on the eyes. Included in the program I saw was a travelog about England, which had been shot almost entirely from a boat on the River Thames. Thus, the film takes excellent advantage of binocular facility No. 4 (relative motion), as the nearby shore sweeps along, rotating about the horizon to produce a striking three-dimensional effect. By far the most pleasing item on the program, however, was a fascinating abstract film called Around is Around is a Film, by that artful Canadian cinemagician, Norman McLaren. Those who have seen his Fiddle-Be -Dee, Begone Dull Care and other abstractions set to music, know how he makes his animated lines, polygons and blobs of ink fairly drip with personality. In Around is Around is a Film (shades of Gertrude Stein ! ) his amusing little figures have another dimension to cavort in — space. For his circles and lines chase one another out over the heads of the audience, as diaphanous solids writhe and twist in front of kaleidoscopic backdrops — all to the accompaniment of an "out-of-this-world" sound track. Otherwise, however, both programs leave much to be desired. There are a good many distractions; for example, the two films (left and right) being projected simultaneously are not always printed to the same image density. 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