International projectionist (Jan-Dec 1951)

Stereoscopic Motion Pictures By J. A. NORLING President, Loucks & Norling Studios, Inc., New York A comprehensive summary of the present status of a technical development which has been receiving increasing attention and exploration by the motion picture industry — although mostly on the "thinking" side. The writer is an outstanding authority on the art, his various threedimensional movies having received world-wide acclaim. NO GRAPHIC means, beside the stereogram, can substitute for the re-creation of the "real" in a stilllife, and in stereo movies realism reaches the ultimate, for they can include movement, color, and action as well as depth. The principles employed in photographing and projecting stereoscopic slides also apply to stereoscopic motion pictures. The same fundamental requirement that each eye sees only the picture intended for it also applies to the moving stereogram. 35-mm Movie Stereoscopy It seems incredible to many of us who have worked with three-dimensional pictures that the vast motion picture industry does not have a stereoscopic engineering and development research program. The only joint engineering gettogethers are the meetings of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, and it is at a very few of these meetings that three-dimensional photography processes are presented. But whenever the subject of threedimensional films comes up, there is a remarkable response from the members present, and also from the press. The art of stereoscopy has "sex appeal," but it seems to have escaped the concentrated attention of most of the people in the Hollywood area. The men in the drivers' seats of the movie industry have, for the most part, failed to have a vital personal interest in and understanding of threedimensional movies. Formidable Competition to Tv That the industry could use something to combat television's capture of more and more of the theatre audience is undeniable. Stereo movies might well induce people to return to their former favorite amusement. But the return is likely to come about in the mass only if the film theatre gives them something they can't get on a 17-inch Tv tube, namely the ultimate in photographic realism, the stereoscopic movie in full color, with all the dramatic possibilities that are only waiting to be appreciated. The enthusiastic public reception given some earlier stereo movies and the dollar profits from these movies are a matter of record. Newer, better stereo techniques are now available, and the reason for introducing them was never more pressing. Will the motion picture industry take action? Early Anaglyph Process Films One of the early and noteworthy theatrical exhibitions of stereoscopic motion pictures occurred in 1924, when J. F. Leventhal produced a few "shorts" utilizing the anaglyph process. There followed an eleven-year lull in the use of stereoscopic films. Then, in 1935, Loucks and Norling Studios and Mr. Leventhal jointly produced a series of short films again employing the anaglyph principle, this time in talking picture form. These films, which were called "Audioscopiks," were released by Loews, Inc. and proved to be some of the most successful short subjects ever issued, winning not only domestic acceptance but an unprecedented play in the foreign field, notably in France, Spain and Great Britain. That their success should have indicated further pursuit of the anaglyph process seems logical. But the producers had, from the beginning, realized the inherent limitations of the anaglyph process and concluded that films exhibited by that process would only be adequate as novelties and would never be tolerated for full-length feature releases. 'Retinal Rivalry' Induced This conclusion was arrived at by a recognition of the visual "insult" resulting from the projection of one color to one eye and its complementary to the other. This sort of delivery of images, one color to one eye, another to its mate, produces "retinal rivalry" and brings on physiological disturbances that may induce nausea in some observers if they look at the anaglyph longer than a few minutes. Since this process — the anaglyph — has played an important role in the advance of the stereoscopic art, it would be well to describe it here briefly. Its invention is credited to Ducos du Hauron, who applied it in 1895, although there is some evidence that its possibilities had been explored many years before that. The Viewing Process In one form, the anaglyph images are on two separate films. One member of the stereoscopic pair is projected through a filter of one color, the other through a filter having a color complementary to that of the first. In another form, the one that was used for "Audioscopiks," the anaglyph images are printed in complementary colors directly on film and The Norling three-dimensional camera for stills. It has provision for variable lens interaxial and . convergence. 12 INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST August 1951