The third dimension

From Avatar to Gatsby and the ads in between, in a feature that first appeared in Encore, Lee Zachariah looks at the state of the 3D market.

When sound came in,they said it was a gimmick,” says director Baz Luhrmann. “It’s early days, and the [3D] tool is still being explored. But look at what Ang [Lee] did with the beautiful Life of Pi. And Dial M For Murder is just drama in a room.”

When Alfred Hitchcock’s 3D Dial M For Murder was released in 1954, it marked the crest of Hollywood’s first attempt to make 3D a permanent cinematic fixture but by the end of the year, exhibitors had begun turning their backs on the format.

It’s hard to imagine now with 3D’s strong foothold in mainstream cinema. Since cinema’s inception, 3D has been Hollywood’s white whale. As sound, colour, and visual effects were all gradually honed and perfected, 3D spent most of that time tantalisingly out of reach, only flaring up for brief periods of faddishness.