To fully appreciate the fact that we are currently in the very early days of stereoscopic 3D movies it helps to have the perspective of some of the most talented filmmakers of the era. With that in mind it was fascinating that the second annual CinemaCon held last month at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas again featured a luncheon during which major filmmakers discussed their work and the state of the motion picture business. Last year it was James Cameron and George Lucas with Jeffrey Katzenberg moderating. This year it was Martin Scorsese and Ang Lee two filmmakers who seem to have very different approaches with as moderator Todd McCarthy the Hollywood Reporter’s chief film critic. The overriding topic at both events was 3D and for me one of the most interesting exchanges of the Scorsese-Lee conversation occurred when McCarthy asked the veteran directors to comment on what he called the 3D learning curve. Part of what made the conversation fascinating is that while both men are talented and multi-award winning filmmakers Scorsese seemed more comfortable with the idea of 3D. Some of this is surely because he’s completed a 3D production the wildly successful Hugo for which at the luncheon Scorsese received the RealD Innovation in 3D Award. In contrast Lee is currently in post-production on his first 3D movie Life of Pi a fantasy adventure based on the Yann Martel novel of the same name about Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel a boy who survives 227 days stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger. There is also Scorsese’s encyclopedic knowledge about the history of movies and moviemaking. Scorsese said that 3D is not new. He said the great silent era Russian director Serge Eisenstein was working on a 3D project at the time of his death. He called the current era “a progression.” Scorsese said he has always been fascinated by wide-angle shots and made the case that cinematographer Greg Toland’s work in the Thirties and Forties notably in Citizen Kane were like 3D. As a child he said he was given a 3D Viewmaster and said “that transported you to another room.” After that he began to collect everything he could find about 3D. I had a fascination with 3D that goes back to the View-Master. I'd always dreamed of making a film in 3D. It's like a combination of theatre and film. There's something 3D gives to a movie that takes you to another land. On Hugo he made meticulous storyboards for every shot and was also aided by the fact that the movie was shot largely on a giant sound stage which made set-ups easier. He said the single biggest challenge on the movie was working around British Child Labor Laws which restricted to only four hours a day the time his star Asa Butterfield who was in virtually every shot could perform. As he prepared to shoot Hugo Scorsese said he told his crew “I’m crazy” when it comes to 3D and he said he gave them free rein to experiment with the 3D effects. When his crew asked Scorsese how he wanted to handle the inter-ocular setting on the camera which determines in part how extreme the 3D effect is he told them “We’ll keep pushing it. When you think we’ve gone too far we’ll stop.” For him that led to some happy discoveries. For example he said the idea that the image of the station guard (as played by Sacha Baron Cohen) and his dog would break the plain of the screen was discovered on set; Scorsese liked the effect and left it in. Scorsese said he saw many differences between 3D and 2D during the costume check. The clothing was more vibrant. He called 3D a real “combination of theatre and film.” Of Hugo in 3D he said it helped audiences immerse themselves in the life of the train station: “We liked being in that world. It took us back to the Viewmaster.” Ang Lee is different in virtually every way. Where Scorsese is New York brash and blunt Lee is quiet and circumspect; Scorsese gives an audience too much information; Lee has a tendency to hold back. Lee’s reticence could stem from how high the stakes are these days for directors of major film projects. As an example there was a lot of Internet chatter over the size of the production budget for Life of Pi which was reportedly more than $50 million. More than once during the conversation Lee referred to how expensive movies have become – in particular for directors such as Scorsese and him – and I had the strong impression that he might be a happier man making lower-budget movies like his first success The Wedding Banquet made for a million dollars. When Lee was asked by McCarthy to describe his learning curve when shooting 3D Lee said for him there has been a significant one: “We’re all novices when it comes to 3D. My curve is pretty big.” Lee said that 3D budgets are currently about 25 percent higher than 2D – so the pressure intensifies – in part because most crews still think in terms of 2D which adds to uncertainty on the set. One of the lessons he said he learned was that he had to tone down performances in 3D because he found that some scenes that worked beautifully in 2D came across as too broad in 3D. Lee said his decision to shoot Life of Pi in 3D was “simple curiosity.” It was that curiosity that initially drove his decision to make the movie. He was attracted by the intellectual quality of the book but could not quite get a handle on how he wanted to film it. For him 3D became the answer. “It has a different impact ” he said “a very different mind set” and he felt 3D would add a visual quality to the movie that could enhance the intellectual aspects. “I do believe 3D is the future ” Lee said. Both Scorsese and Lee made the points that 3D is simply a natural progression in film language; is definitely a new art form; and is definitely here to stay. “I think we have to accept [3D] as a tool for storytelling ” Scorsese said. He spoke of the progression from black and white to color and said 3D will be very much like that. Lee said “Don’t compare 3D to 2D. It’s a different art form. It’s a new film language. It comes down to the filmmaker’s vision.” Photo of Scorsese and Lee by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
