The trend is growing across America, of putting on those silly looking glasses and sitting with your bag a popcorn and a soda and watch the next generation of 3D movies spring to life at your local movie theater. The trend is even growing in the small resort town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado where I got a chance to go into the booth and see what makes this next generation of 3D movies worth the price of admission.
| To know where we have come it always helps to know where we have been. Gone are the days of the Blue and Red 3D paper glasses that looked like they came out of a happy meal. The old projectors of 3D and 2D required film, and lots of it. With 24 frames running every second (3 feet or so), the old projectors were a feet of precession to run. The standard projectors also use gigantic 4000K xenon bulbs. These are a $700+ bulb each to you and me. The Old projectors were clunky and huge, and using the same principles used by early theaters.
Now flash forward to the next generation of projectors, recently installed at the Wildhorse Stadium Cinemas, the CHRISTIE CP2220. This system is truly the next generation. Now the movie distribution companies send the feature length movies encrypted on to a 2+ terrabit (2000 Gigibit) hard drive to the theater. When the theater receives the hard drive and is scheduled to run the movie, they receive a two week access key from the distributor that unlocks the digital copy of the movie. For longer runs, the theater must get updated keys ever two weeks to make the movie playable in the theater. So none of this tells us how they make movies look 3D. Well the simple answer here is passive polarization and here is how it works… “Two images, left eye and right eye, are projected superimposed onto the screen through a set of polarized filters. The left and right eyes are polarized in opposite directions. The viewer wears eyeglasses which also contain a pair of polarizing filters. As each filter only passes the light which is similarly polarized and at the same time, blocks the opposite polarized light, each eye only sees one of the superimposed images and the 3D effect is achieved. Linearly polarized glasses require the viewer to keep his head level, as tilting of the viewing filters will cause the images of the left and right channels to bleed over to the opposite channel. Circular Polarizing Systems allows the viewer to tilt their head without any image bleed from the opposite eye.” -Steward FilmScreen By using a spinning polarizing filter, like the MASTERIMAGE: MI2100, in front of the the camera lens, a 3D effect can be achieved. It is the circular polarization effect that sends different color wave lengths to the the screen that are then filtered by those new fancy 3D Polarized Glasses you are given when you come to the theater. Now the final piece to all of this is the screen. In order to make this polarization work, standard white projection screens just won’t do. Instead you must install a silver coated, semi-reflective screens, like the Stewart FilmScreen 150. These screens allow for the polarization effect to be received by your fancy glasses.  Working Principle So what will one of these systems, without the Sound cost? Well to buy all of this new equipment can range from $125,000 to $150,000 per projector depending on the size of the 3D Silver Screen used. There is also the ongoing cost of 3D glasses. This price is usually rolled into the cost of the movie ticket, anywhere form $2.75 to $4 per ticket up-charge. Although you can buy some high end Oakley 3D glasses, this will not get you a discount at any theater at this time. The glasses the theater provide to you are designed to work with the polarizing effect being used in that theater. Also, the glasses at all theaters are recycled. This does mean that they go back to the manufacturer, are cleaned, repackaged and sent back to another theater for future use. 3D movies are everywhere these days and with the current price of a 3D TV, it is one of the few affordable options for today’s movie lover. A special thanks to the crew at Wildhorse Stadium Cinemas for the back stage look at your theater and your technology! |
 Xenon Bulb  Movie Film Reel  Standard Movie Projector  Christie CP2220 Projector  Movie Hard Drive  Christie Replaceable Hard Drive Slot  MasterImage Polarizer  Full 3D Projector System |