CaT conference panel: The future of 3-D media

At the 2010 Creativity and Technology conference in New York, AICP President Matt Miller presented a discussion about creating 3-D content for TV. Joining Miller was John Collins, President of VFX company Framestore, and Ed Ulbrich, President of Digital Domain’s Commercials Division and Corporate EVP. Miller framed the discussion around misconceptions about producing 3-D content. Not all of Miller’s questions yielded productive discussion, but the audience was able to glean a handful of insights from the session.

Learning to do 3-D isn’t like learning HD

One misconception is that learning the 3-D process is no more intricate than learning the HD process. Ulbrich pointed out that 3-D is a highly specialized field and that attempts to compare it to HD are misguided. Collins agreed that modern 3-D is very different even from older 3-D technology, but admitted that HD is helping with the new wave of stereoscopy technology.

Cost of 3-D still unpredictable

When people approach Ulbrich about doing 3-D, they aren’t usually very concerned about degree of difficulty. Rather, clients focus on how much more it will cost. But modern 3-D is still too new and specialized to make general claims about price compared to 2-D. There’s no formula or one-size-fits-all pricing difference. “Anyone quoting prices on doing 3-D is at best wrong; at worst they’re lying,” Ulbrich said, adding that there is a substantial capital investment to film in 3-D because you can’t use the your usual vendors for production, post, or editorial.

Collins made the only overarching statement about price, suggesting that sports broadcasts may end up being cheaper per unit to produce in 3-D than TV shows or commercials. But it wasn’t clear what aspects lend themselves to potential savings. Presumably the live nature of sporting events means lower post/editorial costs given that a 3-D post crew would eat up more budget.

Video games and film will drive 3-D adoption

Ulbrich sees 3-D content growing the most in video games. In fact, he predicted that 2011 will be “the year of the 3-D video game.” Given Nintendo’s recent 3-D announcment, Ulbrich may be right.

As for commercials and regular broadcast, there are just too many barriers to overcome. According to Ulbrich, there are still a limited number of people with the expertise, as far as using the equipment and setting up shots, to execute 3-D at a quality level. Commercials are usually shot in a day or two, which leaves no time for on-the-job training. Ulbrich sees opportunity for 3-D TV shows, but not until gaming and films help drive adoption.

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