Dolby 3D raises “Cane Toads”

Dolby 3D raises “Cane Toads”

One of the most high-profile films to be screened during the opening days of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival was an unlikely documentary about cane toads in Australia, in 3D.

With no 3D theater set-up in town, Dolby 3D Digital Cinema came to the rescue (as they did with the “U2 3D” presentation at Sundance in 2008) to help create what became a highly-publicized world premiere event at Park City, Utah’s Eccles 1200-seat auditorium of Mark Lewis’ “Cane Toads: The Conquest” in Dolby 3D and Dolby Digital Surround Sound.

The Participant Media, Discovery Studios, Screen Australia, and Radio Pictures presentation is the first specialty documentary produced in 3D.

Dolby Production Services teamed up with Barco to provide two DP-3000 digital cinema projectors, dual stacked (side by side). The Barco projectors are Digital Cinema Initiatives compliant and feature Texas Instruments’ Digital Light ProcessingTM digital cinema technology to deliver the best combination of brightness, image sharpness, and color accuracy to every seat in the auditorium.

Dolby 3D uses a unique color filtering technology that provides realistic color reproduction and extremely sharp images without the use of a silver screen; delivering a fantastic 3D experience. The Dolby 3D filter wheel is inserted into the light path before the image is formed, providing a stable and sharp picture. Furthermore, the Dolby 3D filter wheel inside the projector easily moves out of the light path allowing the Sundance Film Festival the flexibility to show both 2D and 3D movies in the same auditorium.

— By Scott Hettrick