Thanks so much for this post.

There should be a traveling interactive exhibition, based on Ray’s History of 3-D Film, that could engage and educate audiences on the possibilities and strength of 3-D Film. I think film festivals should consider working with Ray on creating an exciting way to have audiences participate and understand the various forms 3-D has gone through over the years.

I’m so glad that you were able to link Gregg Toland tests and 3D because deep focus cinematography has always pushed for a pure and often fascinating cinema. So many of us don’t know this early stereoptic history and are only familiar with the crude gimmicks. This is unfortunate because audiences are much more intelligent and willing to go further with filmmakers that can parallel experiences of living and breathing in a stereoscopic world. It is the power of that illusion that satisfies our need to experience pure images.

Your section on Dr. Susan Barry was the most heartening for me and her presentation was remarkable. Filmmakers should pay attention to what she says because the only thing that is an ordained inevitability for storytellers is the human experience. I would not have known about Susan Barry’s journey without this post.

I must have read your section on the first snowfall several times over because of how clear an experience you were describing. Seeing snow fall for the first time feels like an illusion even as the flakes brush past your face. What an experience it must have been to see the “dancing curtains of light” during that shoot in Nashville! I hope they didn’t lose or discard the piece of film that has those shots of the snow falling. An experience like that captures the imagination and it’s difficult to forget that pure an image.

A filmmaker cannot neglect the rest of the arts because they make his work organic and relevant to the human experience. If we avoid learning about the other arts then we risk losing our ability to seek out and shape images and stories that would otherwise remain hidden to our senses. We need to be conscious of recognizing experiences like that snow falling at night. It defined a hidden space in the universe that all of us seem to forget because we’ve grown to accept the black flatness of night.

The 3-D stereo-realist camera was a terrific thing to mention! It is a curiosity and I would love to be able to see what it can do one of these days. I wonder if any of those Karl Struss 3-D movies are still available.

No matter how elusive a pursuit it becomes I feel strongly that you should continue to talk about the capturing and finishing on 35mm film. Photo-chemical answer printing is something that any aspiring filmmaker should understand but unfortunately many of them don’t seem to care as much about the process. I know it is because they lack experience in that part of the process, but what worries me is the carelessness with which a filmmaker can disregard what is a time tested process.

Watching Sons and Lovers for the first time was one of those unforgettable experiences for me at the movies. I still remember the power of the scene when the accident occurs at the mines and Dean Stockwell is running through the countryside. The long-lens work in several of those shots is just stunning because of the emotion it creates for the character. I was just amazed by the work Freddie Francis and Jack Cardiff did on that film and how they were able to achieve such muscular camerawork in those small interiors sets. I’m glad you highlighted their work and Cardiff’s Magic Hour is a very fine memoir!

Essentially I’d take my “happy snap” Olympus 35mm pocket camera with motor drive and loaded with Kodachrome and I would take 2 photos per view – one where my center of gravity was over my left leg and another immediately following and about 4-6 inches to the right. The motor drive helped in not having to remove your eye from the viewfinder.

I always tried to keep the same horizon and plane and did not pan – I just shifted my weigh about 4 inches to the right.

The slides were processed, mounted, and numbered as usual.

Then, using a home made 3D viewer, consisting of two plastic slide viewers mounted side by side on a wooden mount and hand grip, I inserted the first slide on the left and the second slide on the right. The view was in glorious Kodachrome AND in amazingly accurate 3D.

The remarkable thing is that one did not have to worry about registration or framing – the brain made those adjustments instantly.

No special cameras. No special lenses. No special glasses. Just beautiful color 3D photos.

for us baby boomers who remember those cheap 3D paper and plastic glasses for a few silly films in the 1950′s, AVATAR was clearly a push into new visual dimensions and your post here is amazing for bringing in everyone from Ray Zone to Eisenstein to a bevy of other sources that help us realize the carnival of visual possibilities that are out there beyond simple 2D! Thank you!

Andy Horton