Best Uses of 3D?

I'm not much of a 3D viewer, partly because of the jacked-up cost and the fact that a lot of movies are post-converted.

Just yesterday I saw Guardians of the Galaxy (in 2D). I had heard that it's not a good movie for 3D, and now I can kind of see it (too many medium shots, not much depth-of-field or perspective...)

After seeing it, a question popped into my head: What is 3D actually good for? What techniques (camera, action, etc.) work best with 3D?

Also, keep in mind that this isn't about whether or not 3D movies are good, or if they're too high-priced. This is about "What are the best ways to make 3D work?"

This is the greatest 3-D movie ever made and nothing can convince me otherwise:

3D is good for contrast. If you want to make something look more important, powerful, otherworldly or such, you would film the part where it shows up in 3D while the rest is in 2D. Otherwise it is a pretty worthless gimmick. Remember the virtual boy?

One film I feel made an outstanding use of 3D is undoubtably Transformers Dark Of The Moon. Seriously, not only did it force Michael Bay to steady his camera movements for a change, it also made the action sequences that much more engaging and breathtaking to witness.

The wing suit sequence especially rivaled or even exceeded Avatar's flying scenes in 3D. While I can only post the 2D version, you can just imagine how good it looked in 3D.

edited 5th Aug '14 4:39:34 PM by LDragon2

This. A good example for me would be Prometheus, because it allowed me to notice some elements that I wouldn't have otherwise noticed.

It can't be just about "throwing objects" onto the 3D space, you have to take into account what you're going to show and how (taking into account camera angles and so forth).

edited 5th Aug '14 4:38:53 PM by Quag15

Weirdly for me, the movie I felt made the best use use of 3D wasn't a 3D film at all: Inception. The film made me very aware of the space the protagonists occupied, and seemed to have real spatial depth as opposed to things just popping out. Despite Nolen making sure it was in 2D, I think it could have made a fine 3D film.

So what are some specific techniques that work best for 3D?

Just throwing out a few potential examples, I'm thinking: wide shot, pan, zoom, Epic Tracking Shot...

Flying scenes seem to work really well.

On that note, both How to Train Your Dragon movies and Avatar had amazing 3D flight sequences.

edited 6th Aug '14 9:52:22 AM by Willbyr

How to Train Your Dragon was eyepoppingly beautiful enough in 2D for me to think that 3D in the film may just have been a bit of a gimmick.

I haven't seen the sequel yet, though I was tempted to go Imax it this week. I went to Guardians of the Galaxy in 2D instead because I was a bit short of cash.

I went to see Edge of Tomorrow at the Imax earlier on in the summer but I didn't really think that that film used 3D of any kind to such great an extent that not having it would have ruined my enjoyment. I was just agog at how big the screen was since I was a complete Imax newbie.

Speaking of IMAX (since it's somewhat related), what's the deal with that? Why is everyone so excited about it? The way I understand it, it's just a higher-resolution image.

I know about Omnimax (a similar technology using a dome-shaped projector screen), but that's apparently not the same thing.

edited 6th Aug '14 4:02:30 PM by AwSamWeston

It's just so humoungously big that once you see a film in it you never forget it. The 3D aspect I can do without as it tends to give me cripplingly bad headaches, but the size? Yeah, most definitely worth the odd and rare purchase of a ticket.

Definitely. I saw Desolation of Smaug in IMAX, and I'm really glad I did. The climax alone was worth the ticket price.

Back to the main subject, one of the better 3D movies I've seen was, of all things, the Titanic re-release. It added a lot of depth to the image, and for the most part, you could actually tell it was there.

edited 6th Aug '14 4:07:46 PM by Mort08

Dredd used 3D really well. Though some would argue it also underused the 3D.

I don't understand what IMAX in a regular movie theatre is supposed to deliver. I've been to a couple and haven't noticed any difference from non-IMAX films except that they cost an extra $7.

But watching feature films in a genuine, giant-size IMAX theatre (the one in my city is about 18.5 x 26m) - the ones they attach to museums to screen nature and science documentaries - is incredibly fun, because everything is so overwhelming.

edited 6th Aug '14 5:17:22 PM by WarriorEowyn

I saw the first How To Train Your Dragon movie in 2D, but the second in 3D. The 3D was beautiful. The big fight scenes in particular had an incredible depth, and of course the flying scenes were gorgeous.

The IMAX here Sydney is supposedly the biggest screen in the world.

I saw pacific rim and gravity in 3D there and I like 'em. They certainly wouldn't be half as good on the small 2D screen.

After hearing Nostalgia Critic sing praises of the first HTTYD film's 3D presentation, I was prompted to see the sequel in IMAX 3D. It was pretty good. I don't know if it was quite worth paying extra for, but I had a good time regardless.