Digital Has Come Along Way: Death to a Career, Re-Birth of 3D Cinema

This week, I have found two significant articles focused upon the careers of two distinct filmmakers within Hollywood: James Cameron and Uwe Boll. If the latter name does not ring a bell, consider yourself lucky. Both men seem to inhabit highly contrasted positions in Hollywood as writer/producer/directors. James Cameron has won three Oscars over his illustrious career, having notably created the (arguably) most successful film to date: 1997's Titanic, for which he also received Best Picture and Best Director. Uwe Boll, on the other hand, has received two dissimilar, yet significant nominations in his career. Both were Razzies and both were for Worst Director in 2006 and 2007. He failed to win those awards for, what else, failure and has since cultivated a cult of hatred in the online film fan community. What becomes significant in my exploration of these two men is their relation to the contemporary digital film industry: Cameron, at the forefront of a potential 3D cinema revolution, and Boll who may quit filmmaking if an online petition receives one-million signatures. Ultimately, these two segments come to reflect current trends within the digital film community, and aspire to provide my personal insight on the status of both 3D cinema and the director/audience relationship.

(Please note: most links will take you a film's official website. However, some movies do not have official sites, and therefore you will be redirected to the film's IMDB page instead).

Uwe Boll Claims He is “The Only Genius in the Whole F’N Business”
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It has become, without a doubt, a new age in digitally modernized cinema when a filmmaker can put his career on the line based upon a web petition calling for his retirement. As a result, the filmmaker, Uwe Boll, has become a character as ridiculous as his own (mostly video-game adaptation) films. The German director of such cinematic atrocities as Alone in the Dark and BloodRayne has, for some time, become the laughing stock of the movie news blogosphere to those who must admit that Michael Bay, while far from becoming the next Elia Kazan, still shows talent in blowing up cars. Having never received above a 11% freshness on the premiere movie review site RottenTomatoes.com, Boll has been branded by film fans as one of the greatest hacks in the industry since Ed Wood. It must be noted here, that while none of Boll's films have received over an 11% freshness rating on RottenTomatoes, two have received a 4% (House of the Dead, BloodRayne), and his most negatively received film to date, Alone in the Dark has garnered Boll an astounding 1%.

Needless to say, the public remains astounded that Boll continues making numerous films. His IMDB page alone lists seven films which he has yet to release or will soon direct which range from the inspirationally entitled Zombie Massacre to the less than necessary BloodRayne 3. As a result to the harsh criticism Boll likely faces on a day to day basis, the German filmmaker took a stand and by way of the internet announced he would quit making movies if a recent internet petition received one million signatures. As of this morning, the petition has received 194,662 signatures. After threatening the future of his career to the excitement of film fans around the world, Boll followed up with a video response stating: “Look, I’m not a F**king retard like Michael Bay or other people running around in the business… or Eli Roth making the same shitty movies over and over again. If you really look in my movies you will see my real genius. You have to really wake up and see me what I am, the only genius in the whole f**king business.” That fact has yet to be proven.

What becomes most notable from this entire situation is that the internet has come so far and become such a significant resource to so many movie fans that one man's poor excuse of a directing career may ultimately end as a result of this online petition. Obviously, the film industry has changed with the digital revolution, and in time will continue to evolve, but there is something to be said when a man's career falls within the cross-hairs. Perhaps this is living proof that some miracles can come from a magical place called the world wide web.

James Cameron supercharges 3-D: Avatar Helmer Reveals the Art & Science of Stereo
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Thank you for this insightful post, which only confirms that the future of theatrical cinema will be (at least partially) in 3-D. I had previously written a post on my blog titled, "Immersive Entertainment: Tapping the Third Dimension," in which I approach this new 3-D renaissance from the business side. The juxtaposition of both articles reveal a significant investment both financial and creative factions of the film industry are willing to take with a new chapter of film production and exhibition. Not since the introduction of sound and color to motion pictures nearly eighty years ago have audiences and filmmakers alike stood affront the threshold of something as new and exciting as motion pictures in flawless 3-D. An experience of which filmmaker James Cameron has stated: “When you see a scene in 3-D, that sense of reality is supercharged. The visual cortex is being cued, at a subliminal but pervasive level, that what is being seen is real. All the films I've done previously could absolutely have benefited from 3-D. So creatively, I see 3-D as a natural extension of my cinematic craft.” As one of the most respected and technically savvy storytellers in Hollywood, Cameron has been on the cutting edge of 3-D since 2000, developing and filming “stereoscopic cinema” – a movement so fresh within the industry, that audience members have yet to experience it at the high frame rate level and picture resolution that Cameron views as a necessary standard of the future.

As long as the film medium has existed, its greatest artists have been able to straddle two worlds at once: that of the artistic and the technical. An art form driven by technology (unlike painting, a film needs machines to record and exhibit sound and image), digital modernization of motion pictures redefine the role of storytellers to one of not only great power, but great responsibility. James Cameron is of the latter – a man behind (arguably) the most successful film of all time, “Titanic,” who has made his career in pushing the technical envelope and now attempts to breakout of his twelve year fiction filmmaking hiatus with Avatar. If Cameron can recreate the wheel with his investment in the future of 3-D cinema, then Avatar (a sci-fi action epic right up Cameron’s alley) could be stereo cinema’s model T Ford.

Obviously, in an age where the average film production cost has risen to nearly sixty million per feature, it would be impossible for 3-D cinema to gain significant ground and become a theatrical exhibition standard without support from both groups. While my article focuses on Real D CEO Michael Lewis and his corporate penetration of the film industry from the point of exhibition, James Cameron’s interview becomes both technically complex (when he discusses the role a filmmaker may have on reconfiguring an image’s depth based upon convergence) as well as conscious of the limits to which 3D should be used (as a storytelling tool that envelops the audiences) rather than pure spectacle.

The eloquence of James Cameron throughout this interview, in both technological and filmic terminology, provides a reader with insight into both the physical science behind capturing performances in 3-D, and his own philosophy behind the filmmaker's relationship with this new technology. Cameron states: "The point here is that just because you're making a stereo movie doesn't mean that stereo is the most important thing in every shot or sequence.” Rather, Cameron knows, great storytelling of the future should never be an afterthought of 3-D cinema, but rather a partner of technical achievement, that, when left in the right hands will enhance the movie experience.