Filmmakers discover the lure of 3D but professionals are concerned that it can become just a tool to make more money, rather than enhance story-telling.

FROM the first three-dimensional (3D) film called The Magician’s Adventure to the more visually-enhanced 3D films like Don Quixote, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, Painted Skin: The Resurrection and Taichi, China’s film industry has experienced some major breakthrough in producing new generation pictures.

The Magician’s Adventure, released by Shanghai Film Production Company in 1962, broke away from conventional movies using the new stereoscopic widescreen technology to tell a story of a magician.

The director combined the characteristics of 3D effects with magic and acrobatics to increase realism and comical elements in the movie.

Then came Don Quixote in 2010 which was the first full 3D film produced in China. But the 70 million yuan (RM33.6mil) film fared poorly with a box office receipt of only 32 million yuan (RM15.7mil) six months after its screening.

The more advanced 3D effects in Flying Swords of Dragon Gate and Painted Skin: The Resurrection then followed and caused fresh excitement among viewers. The good reaction to these movies has given filmmakers reasons to make more 3D films.

According to Soulpower Culture Media Co Ltd chief operating officer Shen Hongxiang, who is one of the pioneers of 3D films in China, 36 3D films were screened all over the country last year, accounting for only 11% of the total but their box office earnings made up 40%.

The Chinese 3D films outperformed others, accounting for 28% of them.

“Of the ten films with the highest box office earnings in the Chinese film history, six are 3D films. These include three released in 2012.

“Since the screening of Avatar in 2010, the whole world has been excited and has defined 2010 as the first year of 3D.

“But to me, 2012 is the first year of 3D in China,” he said during the 3rd Beijing International Film Festival held over this week.

(As of April 21, Avatar remains in the No 1 spot in the box office ranking in China, cashing in 1.38 billion yuan (RM672mil). It is followed by Lost in Thailand, A Chinese Odyssey and Transformers 3.)

Shen said the first half of 2012 saw a downturn in the market but the release of 3D film Painted Skin: The Resurrection in June that year brought hopes for the market.

He said that although the movie was then dethroned by others like Lost in Thailand and A Chinese Odyssey, it nevertheless broke 12 consecutive records, including that of becoming the first Chinese film to have earned more than 700 million yuan (RM336mil) within 29 days.

Chuck Comisky, the 3D special effects supervisor of James Cameron who directed Avatar, revealed that he was currently providing consulting services for two film projects in China, mainly on the conversion from 2D to 3D film.

He said this could be done without much hassle if the production crew planned and prepared for the shoot properly and the videographers made the correct placement and movement of cameras and lighting during the shoot.

He said the performance capture technology would also be key to generate information to animate digital character models in 3D computer animation and this technology and its related software had kept developing.

China Film Studio technical supervisor Keith Collea said following the success of Avatar, many Hollywood producers found that 3D films could make more money and blindly changed 2D to 3D films.

“This way might produce 3D films with low quality which is very harmful to the 3D film market. Some experts say publicly that Hollywood makes 3D films because people there are greedy.

“They treat 3D technology as a tool to make money rather than a tool to facilitate story-telling, which our professionals should be concerned about,” he said.

Shen was worried that Chinese filmmakers might blindly jump on the bandwagon as well in producing 3D films due to the trend.

He said if filmmakers were not making a visual-orientated movie with special effects, then they should stick to the conventional 2D movie.

“3D is a technology which serves and adds special elements to a piece of art. To ensure a decent 3D film production, one will need to pre-design the language of the 3D camera lens. Even if you have 3D camera but shoot it in a 2D descriptive manner, it will not turn out to be a good 3D film.

“We feel that the Chinese film industry players should be realistic and not blindly pursue a higher level of things and the perfect combination of visual spectacle and drama,” he said.

He said Chinese 3D films might be unfolding in recent years but the industry was facing major challenges such as unitary of the subject of 3D films, short production period, lack of quality compared with Hollywood production and problems with technical standards.

Unofficial statistics showed that as of the end of last year, the number of cinema screens in China stood at 13,118 compared with 4,100 in 2008.

Of the total, 70% of them were 3D screens and this is about 20% of the world’s total, making China the largest 3D market in the world.

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