It’s an area that is still largely unexplored, but 3D seems to pose a number of possibilities for scene transitions and layered effects that 2D just can’t accomplish. For one thing, there’s the 3D titles and subtitles that are able to float above the action of the movie. This is a small thing but it seems so intuitive and appropriate. It’s not part of the image, but provided for us separately from the world of the movie. So the words float way out in front. This is an aesthetic touch that movies have been waiting a century for.
Then there are other layered transitions and effects that can counter the inherent realism of good 3D images by introducing some unreality into the mix. If you take Life of Pi, for instance, the scenes involving the Piscine pool and the big chested man are taking place in a kind of flashback, but the 3D layering incorporates this imagery into the present in a completely new way. It looks terrific, and again, fits in with what the film is trying to convey, formally and expositionally. Even something like the dissolves in a movie like The Green Hornet show some inspired techniques that 3D is compelling people to try out, and they’re enriching the way people tell stories visually and pace and compose a movie.
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Published: Apr 18, 2013 10:51 am