3D Summit: Katz blasts critics

3D Summit: Katz blasts critics

Jeffrey Katzenberg opened the 3D Entertainment Summit with his usual provocative verbal flare, defending 3D successes against the recent growing tide of critics claiming it is already dying — “It seems there are some in Hollywood who are determined to seize defeat from the jaws of victory. Six of the top 10 movies this year are 3D; I guess we have to have 10 of 10.” — and lambasting filmmakers and studios who convert movies to 3D after they are produced in 2D, calling them “downright ugly” and claiming they are endangering the technology that is single-handedly responsible for the industry’s growth in the past year.

Panelists who followed shortly after Katzenberg during the first of the two-day conference Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 15-16, took a less polarizing position in regards to 2D-to-3D conversion. Corey Turner of Sony Pictures Imageworks, Barry Sandrew of Legend 3D, Greg Passmore of Passmore Lab, and Yusuf Broachwala of BSAT Labs agreed that conversion can be done well, especially if it is planned in advance. And Katzenberg said during a follow-up Q&A with conference founder Bob Dowling that conversion actually works well for home 3D since the picture is smaller.

(Story continues below the following video highlights from the 3D Entertainment Summit.)

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John Lowry of TrioScopics had one of the only bits of news during the show, that his company produced an anaglyph 3D edition of “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaur” for Fox to be released on DVD Tuesday, Sept. 22.

The large conference hall was near capacity Wednesday morning and throughout most of the day.

The second day featured a morning of speakers and panels about home 3D, from Blu-ray to TV, sposnored by the Digital Entertainment Group.

— By Scott Hettrick