The much-anticipated Disney 3D movie “Tron Legacy,” the sequel to the 28-year-old groundbreaking film about a videogame developer (Jeff Bridges) who got zapped into his own machine by a controlling program, was back for the third year in a row to whet the appetite of fans once last time before the Dec. 17 release.

Cast and crew were holding press conferences, an opening day 90-minute panel in the famed Hall H of the convention center, and walking the red carpet. On the show floor was an eye-catching exhibit featuring brand new exclusive Tron merchandise and a full-scale light cycle as depicted in the movie.

(Story continues below the following video highlights of Comic-Con, including a prominent seat at the “Tron” press conference.)

When asked about Blu-ray plans for the original 1982 movie and the new film, Disney producer Sean Bailey said to look for a special edition of the original movie soon — no specific release dates yet — and that the studio will be anxious to release a home 3D version of “Legacy” as soon as more homes get 3D TVs.

During the “Tron” panel in Hall H, Disney took the opportunity to give the 6,500 in the room a surprise peek at the 3D fourth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean” and to introduce filmmaker Guillermo del Toro to announce work on another movie inspired by a Disneyland ride, “Haunted Mansion,” this one surely to be quite different than the previous flop comedy starring Eddie Murphy.

Probably the most heavily promoted 3D movie was “Green Hornet,” with interactive exhibits and the Green Hornet car parked near the front of the convention center. Also prominent on the floor were exhibits for the new 3D chapter of “Resident Evil” and the upcoming “Priest,” also in 3D.

As for Blu-ray, Fox had a huge exhibit with interactive pods for attendees to promote its upcoming “Alien Anthology” in October, Paramount was promoting its September release of “Iron Man 2″ with a producer showing clips of bonus features, a billboard of “Clash of the Titans” stood on the lawn between the Hilton and the convention center in front of a tent with a giant head of the Hydra, and Anchor Bay was touting its TV series “Spartacus” on Blu-ray with an exhibit and prominent ads on bicycle taxis outside.

Blu-ray producers at Bill Hunt’s annual Digital Bits panel revealed a few tidbits during the session and afterwards to HollywoodInHiDef.com/3DHollywood.net, including Charles de Lauzirika mentioning that he was already working on the Blu-ray and DVD versions of “Transformers 3,” just one of three 3D movies for which he is producing the disc version.

– By Scott Hettrick

Hands-on demos from leading technology companies will be available.
Refreshments will be served after the presentations.

“3D-Focus: 3D Blu-ray Authoring” is hosted by DTS, presented by MESA, THX and 3D@Home Consortium, and sponsored by DTS and Netblender

Pre-Register Now!

Preliminary program:

* Video Masters > Compression > MVC Encoding – Tools and Processes
* Authoring – Tools and Processes
* Menu and Subtitle Creation – Tools and Processes
* Human Factor and Physiological Review
* 7.1 Surround Audio for 3D
* Testing and Verification – Tools and Processes

The home entertainment industry promotional group will present four “Home 3D: Solutions and Strategies” panels on the second day two of the Summit, which is co-produced by The Bob Dowling Group and Unicomm, LLC, and presented in association with Variety.the 3D Entertainment Summit.

A screening of several minutes of footage from the Aug. 20 “Piranha 3D,” including the objectionable scene, will be held from 10 p.m. — 11 p.m. Thursday at the UA Regal Horton Plaza theater (475 Horton Plaza) near the San Diego Convention Center.

A Q&A panel will follow with Aja (”The Hills Have Eyes”) and other cast members as well.

– By Scott Hettrick

Actually, there were a couple of hits like that that caused everyone from the director inside ESPN’s production truck in the parking lot to those watching on the first 3D TVs at home to jerk their heads back to avoid the ball that was surely coming out of the screen. I’m certain that thousands of people from Anaheim to Annapolis simultaneously yelled “whoa!” Only upon reflection did any of us realize that ball could not have hit all of us in the face at the same time.

(Story continues below the following video highlights of ESPN’s 3D production from inside the truck to the field and insightful comments from four ESPN producers and executives.)

While the ballplayers were putting on a display of power, the guys at ESPN came prepared to put on quite a display of their own for the first 3D broadcast of the Home Run Derby and first national primetime 3D telecast of a Major League Baseball program. Two production trucks separate from the regular HiDef production trucks, the expertise of 3D guru consultant and producer Vince Pace, twelve 3D cameras — one to shoot super slow-motion at a whopping 1,000 frames per second — and the first or at least most elaborate 3D on-screen graphics. They also had a completely separate trio of announcers who wore glasses to watch a 3D monitor in their booth, same as the guys in the truck.

If you think all of that sounds like a lot of extra expense, it is. And that has not escaped ESPN executives. “We can’t do this for every game,” said Anthony Bailey, ESPN’s VP, emerging technology. In addition to the enormous extra cost, logistics are a bigger immediate concern. Most stadiums don’t have as big of a production compound as Angels stadium and therefore cannot accommodate four trucks just for ESPN.

Logistics and expense are big challenges and question marks for live 3DTV sports. When ESPN was making the transition to HiDef, it was basically only a matter of switching out the SD cameras for HD cameras and getting used to a wider image. Still just one director in the same truck. In the early stages of the consumer transition to HiDef TVs (and still to a certain extent, but less so every day), cameramen and directors were careful to keep primary action and graphics in that portion of the screen that could be seen by non-HD TVs.

But with 3D, everything must be separate. 3D cameras cannot double as HD cameras (for the most part, though sometimes a signal can be pulled from one of the two lenses to use for a standard HiDef feed), and 3D cameras almost always have to be positioned in unique locations in order to create the best perception of depth (in most cases, the lower and closer to the action, the better). An exhibition like the Home Run Derby is well suited to 3D because producers had the flexibility to position cameras in places they could never be placed during a game — that one on the pole by the pitcher and two more small ones right in front of the batter’s box above the ground (not in-ground “lipstick” cameras as Fox uses for 2D games).

But regular baseball games are more challenging, as are football games that require lots of high-angle and wide shots showing a large part of the field but which provide the least perception of depth.

While the camera angles are production challenges that will surely be worked out with time, the financial and logistical hurdles of producing two completely separate productions of the same live sporting event appear to be here to stay, at least for the next year or two, says Chris Calcinari, ESPN’s VP of event operations. Or until the vast majority of consumers convert to 3DTVs.

In the meantime, Phil Orlins, ESPN coordinating producer, says that 3D productions must not only deliver exceptional added value to sports fans through unique 3D camera angles and graphics, but must continue to deliver every production element the viewer currently enjoys in the 2D HiDef broadcast, and at the same high quality, including the separate announcers, a sports ticker, etc.

ESPN executives are still living through the conversion to HiDef since they broadcast their first game in HD seven years ago. But there is reason for optimism. In addition to strong positive response from consumers who have seen the few live sporting events in 3D so far, including recent broadcasts of The Masters and this month’s World Cup carried on ESPN 3D, programming is much more widely available and advertisers are jumping on board more quickly than at this stage of the HD development cycle, according to Sean Bailey, executive VP of Disney and ESPN Media Networks. While only a few regional cable systems carried ESPN’s first HiDef broadcast, ESPN 3D is already offered to nearly 50 million homes through DirecTV, Comcast, and AT&T U-verse. And Bailey noted that four advertisers created 3D spots specifically for the network’s World Cup and Home Run Derby broadcasts. Granted, one was ESPN’s own “SportsCenter” and one was from ESPN sister company Disney Studios for “Toy Story 3.”
ESPN VP, strategic business development, Bryan Burns, says advertisers understand the added value of a commercial in 3D because of the extra visual impact and increased attention the viewer is giving to the 3D spot. There are also unique opportunities for 3D ads that could draw premium prices — think about 3D versions of those ads that pop-up on the bottom of your screen and with graphics such as tickers.

All that’s needed are eyeballs. For that, Bratches says it’s critical that the entire industry work together to create as much 3D programming and as many networks and TV displays as soon as possible for the good of everyone involved. It will be impossible for ESPN to shoulder the entire cost of building the market, he says.

But ESPN has an important proponent in its camp, the president and CEO of ESPN parent The Walt Disney Company, Robert Iger, who told 3DHollywood.net while standing at his seat a few rows behind home plate moments before the All-Star game the following night, “Having seen a lot of ESPN 3D, I’m a believer.”

At least for one night, the network did its best to showcase what is possible with live 3DTV sports.

– By Scott Hettrick

You can experience some of the new King Kong 360 3D ride yourself in the following 3 1/2-minute video, though you can’t possibly sense the feeling of being enveloped in the environment without being on the tram car, wearing the 3D glasses, and feeling the wind, slobber, and jolts and swaying of the car as the beasts use the tram for stepping stones.
(Story continues below the video.)
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On the red carpet prior to the media presentation and preview, Universal Studios president and COO Ron Meyer said the company is just entering the 3D cinema arena with its first such release next week on July 9 with the animated family comedy “Despicable Me.” The studio, which has no specific plans yet for the home 3D Blu-ray market, will be selective about what movies it releases in 3D, working with its filmmakers to determine what productions warrant the process to enhance the story.

Even though the studio simultaneously announced the release of the “Back to the Future” trilogy on Blu-ray, Meyer said there were no plans to convert the movie or the popular BTF giant-screen ride-film attraction at Universal Studios parks to 3D. And that’s just fine with BTF star Christopher Lloyd, who told 3DHollywood.net while attending the event on Tuesday (June 29) that he felt the original movies are fine just the way they are, but then he admitted not being much of a fan of new technologies, including HiDef Blu-ray, etc.

Universal Parks and Resorts president and CEO Tom Williams says 3D has proven to be a valuable enhancement with park customers who feel it allows them to become more immersed and interactive in the experience.

– By Scott Hettrick

It’s been quite a year for Harryhausen, whose 1981 film “Clash of the Titans” was remade after a Blu-ray re-release of the original. He was also recently feted for his contributions to film with a special award by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Harryhausen also worked on the original movies featuring King Kong, the character on which Universal Studios Hollywood’s newest tram tour attraction is based.

Harryhausen is best known for seamlessly blending stop-motion puppetry with live-action footage, such as the battle scene between seven articulated skeletons and Jason in the 1963 film.

The Sony ceremony will include a reception, a screening of “Jason and the Argonauts,” and the unveiling of a sign heralding the Ray Harryhausen Theater which recently got a state-of-the-art technical upgrade to allow projection in digital 3D stereoscopic with Sony’s 4K CineAlta projector system and RealD Z Screen technology and a modernization of the THX-rated theater’s audio reproduction system for 7.1 Surround sound.

“It’s an incredible honor to have this theater named at the studio I called home,” says Harryhausen. “It means as much to me as my Academy Award and the BAFTA honor I just received, especially knowing that it is a working theater where visual effects artists and animators work every day.”

“Jason” was originally produced and released by Columbia Pictures (now part of Sony Pictures Entertainment). Its release on Blu-ray by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the fifth Harryhausen Blu-ray title from SPHE, the most of any filmmaker from the label, and features new commentaries by Harryhausen, Peter Jackson, film historian Tony Dalton, and visual effects expert Randall William Cook, as well as a new interview of Harryhausen by filmmaker John Landis.

The theater, located on the Culver City, Ca. campus of Sony Pictures Digital Productions, is the screening theater of Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Imageworks Interactive. Used on a daily basis in the creation of modern visual effects and animated features, the theater represents the living legacy of Harryhausen’s lifelong career.

After being inspired by the work of Willis H. O’Brien, the stop-motion photography pioneer of 1933’s “King Kong,” Harryhausen eventually found himself working alongside his mentor for 1949’s “Mighty Joe Young.” In the mid-1950s, he moved on to Columbia Pictures, where he created groundbreaking special effects for such films as “20 Million Miles to Earth” (1957), “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” (1958), “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963), and, later, for M-G-M, “Clash of the Titans” (1981).

Sony Pictures Imageworks’ Creative Head, five-time Academy Award-winner Ken Ralston (the original “Star Wars” films, “Back to the Future,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”) met Harryhausen when Ralston was 14 and has enjoyed Harryhausen’s mentoring for decades.

“What’s amazing – and unique – about his work is that he often brought a sympathetic quality to the creatures, especially during their demise,” said Grover Crisp, Sony Pictures’ Sr. VP, Asset Management, Film Restoration and Digital Mastering. Crisp, a film archivist and restoration specialist, and his team did the restoration of “Jason and the Argonauts.”

– By Scott Hettrick

IMAX Filmed Entertainment chairman and president Greg Foster warned studio executives during the day’s first panel at the Radisson Los Angeles Westside about undercutting the credibility of 3D by giving in to the temptation to use 3D as a factor in deciding whether to greenlight a movie for production.
(Story continues following the 2-minute video below featuring highlights from the conference and sponsor tables and products.)

During a later panel at the sold-out conference with more than 300 attendees, Prime Focus president Rob Hummel said studios trying to save costs are handing over 3D work to companies unfamiliar with the nuances of 3D and then coming back to Prime Focus in panic mode asking them to fix it when it turns out to be disastrous.

In response to moderator and iHollywood Forum CEO Michael Stroud, 3ality CEO Sandy Climan said that his company and others are trying to train filmmakers how to do 3D right and avoid just the kinds of problems Hummel described. He referred to his company’s work on a 3D episode of the TV series “Chuck” last year as being done in the inferior anaglyph format, but noted that it still resulted in a ratings boost for the show and that TV series fitting the early adopted demographic should consider producing new episodes in the new 3D technology.

Sony 3D Technology Center senior vp and general manager Buzz Hayes, one of three keynote speakers, said learning to produce high quality 3D is important for everyone involved in the industry.

DirecTV senior VP Steven Roberts said his company, which launched ESPN 3D only three days earlier, said it was important for DirecTV to be the leader in 3DTV as it has been with HD and with sports programming. With the morning’s keynote speaker Eisuke Tsuyuzaki, CTO of Panasonic North America, returning to the stage just before lunch to join Roberts in discussing sports 3DTV programming, Roberts said DirecTV and Panasonic would produce original 3DTV programming in the near future to fill out the three 3D channels offerings by DirecTV and supplement ESPN 3D, the coming Sony/IMAX/Discovery joint venture, and other 3D programming.

– By Scott Hettrick

The company’s 3D-capable Bravia HiDef TVs are finally available for pre-sale at Sony Style stores; new integrated Blu-ray 3D devices will be in stores next month; a free firmware update that activates Blu-ray 3D capability for player models BDP-S470 and BDP-S570 players and home theater systems BDV-E570 and BDV-E770W, and the studio’s first Blu-ray 3D title, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” will be released on June 22 for $39.95. “Cloudy,” along with the IMAX 3D title “Deep Sea” will be bundled with Sony Bravia TVs. “Cloudy” is also the first Blu-ray 3D title available in retail stores, to be followed “Monster House” and “Open Season.”

(Story continues below the following 4 1/2-minute video highlights from the Sony 3D event.)

“3D is revolutionizing the entertainment industry and only Sony is involved in every stage of the ecosystem,” said Chris Fawcett, vice president of Sony’s television business.

Sony Bravia 3D KDL-HX800

Sony’s 3D Bravia TVs range in size from 40-inches to 60-inches and in price from around $2,100 to about $5,000, and each includes a copy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Blu-ray 3D titles “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” and “Deep Sea,” and a voucher to download stereoscopic 3D games for the Sony PlayStation3 videogame system, including “WipEout HD” and “Super StarDust HD.”
Sony active shutter glasses, required for 3D viewing, cost $150 per pair.

Sony 3D Blu-ray player BDP-S470

The company’s new BDP-S770 Blu-ray 3D player coming in July for about $300 offers built-in Wi-Fi (802.11n). Sony’s BDP-S470 and BDP-S570 Blu-ray Disc players and Blu-ray theater systems BDV-E570 and BDV-E770W can be upgraded to play Blu-ray 3D with a free online firmware update that is now available.
Also coming next month is Sony’s new full HD 1080p 5.1 channel Blu-ray 3D-capable home theater system (model BDV-HZ970W) for about $800 that features wireless capabilities via the included USB wireless LAN adapter (802.11n) and two HDMI inputs with 3D pass-through, HDMI repeater function, and a universal remote.

The Blu-ray 3D version of “Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs,” mastered at Colorworks and authored at Sony Digital Authoring Center (DAC), will include a 2D HiDef version of the film and sneak peeks in 3D of “Open Season” and “Monster House.”

The new Sony/IMAX/Discovery Channel will feature 3D programming from all three companies and third-party providers. Cosgrove will oversee all business and creative areas, reporting to the board of directors of the joint venture which was finalized only last week.
Sony Pictures Entertainment will lead Sony’s involvement with the network. SPE chairman and CEO Michael Lynton said, “We’re at a turning point in entertainment history, not unlike the transition from silent movies to ‘talkies’ or black-and-white to color. This is the start of something really big, and we’re excited about delivering high-quality 3D entertainment to people every day, all day.”
Rebecca Glashow, senior vice president of digital distribution for Discovery Communications, will oversee distribution for the channel, with Sony Pictures Television providing ad sales-related services under SPT ad sales president Amy Carney, president.

– By Scott Hettrick