Sony’s 3D Blu-ray of “The Smurfs” ($45.99) offers a very good 3D representation of the computer-animated movie that generated more than half-a-billion dollars in theaters worldwide last summer. Once again the 3D on the home version is perhaps even more vibrant and visually dynamic than in theaters.

<Story continues following the 3-minutes of video highlights below from a Sony Pictures Home Entertainment media day at Sony Pictures Animation in Culver City to demonstrate the many bonus features, especially those accessible via the Internet and mobile devices…>

Oddly not included in the 3D Blu-ray set is an original new half-hour cartoon on the other Blu-ay sets called “The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol” that cleverly resurrects the original TV-style animation to distinguish the dream sequences from the present-day scenes in the new computer-animation.

– By Scott Hettrick

Mick Hocking, Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, will be a featured speaker on Thursday, Sept. 20, at the second annual 3D Gaming Summit: 3D Gaming and Beyond.

Keynote and featured speakers at the 3D Entertainment Summit include RealD chairman, CEO & co-founder Michael V. Lewis, Samsung Electronics America senior VP, home entertainment product marketing John Reyne, Sony Pictures Digital Production president Bob Osher, and Cinedigm chairman and CEO Chris McGurk.

LA Mobile Entertainment Summit is presented by Ortsbo, and both are presented in association with Variety. All three conferences are produced by event management company Unicomm, LLC, and The Bob Dowling Group.

Attendees will gain practical insight into technology developments, market considerations, adoption rates, creative and production strategies, content aggregation, talent and licensing issues.
Hocking is also Director of the Worldwide Studios 3D Team supervising the development of 3D games across Sony’s entire platform.  He has been largely responsible for the creation and development of some of PlayStation’s leading racing brands and has won numerous awards.

“Similar to HDTV and Blu-ray, 3D adoption will be led in large part by gamers,” Hocking said.  “One of the most important factors in the continued growth of the 3D market is the need for the games industry to produce high quality 3D experiences. This will certainly bring more consumers in and it’s clear that once they experience true stereoscopic 3D, the feedback is overwhelming positive.”

3D Gaming Summit will feature the latest in gaming technology as part of the Entertainment Technology Showcase, an exclusive exhibits/tabletops area within the event venue.  The conference will explore how videogames, aided by new technologies like stereoscopic 3D and augmented reality, are bridging the gap between interactive and linear entertainment.

“With Sony pushing stereoscopic 3D with top releases like “MLB 11 The Show,” “Uncharted 3″ and “Resistance 3,” coupled with Nintendo’s recent $80 price cut on Nintendo 3DS, and Market and Research forecasting the global 3D TV market will reach $100 billion by 2014; 3D gaming isn’t going away,” said John Gaudiosi, Senior Content Advisor to the Summit and co-founder of Gamerlive.tv, a partner with this 3DHollywood.net site.  “Companies like Sony, Nintendo, NVIDIA, Sprint, LG, AT&T, and HTC are investing heavily in 3D games. But the game industry is also growing at a record pace with Gartner Research forecasting global video game sales reaching $74 billion in 2011, which is why this year’s conference is expanding to include some key growth areas like cloud gaming, augmented reality gaming, mobile gaming, and social gaming.”

Speakers and sessions at the 3D Gaming Summit: 3D Gaming and Beyond® will include:

■  Mike Chase, CTO, dinCloud

■  Matt Costello, President, Polar Productions Ltd.

■  Ethan Einhorn, Creative, Director, Sega America, Inc.

■  Loren Lanning, Co-Founder, Odd World Inhabitants

■  Rick Marazzani, Director of Content and Programming, Exent

■  Matt Norton, Studio Director, Bigpoint

■  Chris Petrovic, GM GameStop Digital Ventures, GameStop Corp.

■  Matty Rich, Hollywood 3D Director and Game Creator

■  Neil Schneider, Executive Director, S-3D Gaming Alliance
and President/CEO, Meant To Be Seen

■  Mike Schramm, Contributing Editor, JoyStiq

■  Brian Selzer, President/Co-Founder, Ogmento, Inc

■  Shane Shatterfield, VP, Content, MTV Networks

■  Bruno Uzzan, Co-Founder & CEO, Total Immersion

■  Jay Wright, Senior Director, Business Development, Qualcomm

■  Careen Yapp, Vice-President, Acquisitions and Franchise Development
Konami Digital Entertainment

Social Gaming
Companies like Zynga and Facebook have changed the face of gaming, while introducing millions of new fans to the hobby. Social games are also attracting sizable female demographic as well as older gamers. And the new line-up of smartphones and tablets are opening up social gaming beyond the PC. A panel of experts will explore what’s next for the evolution of social games.

Glasses-Free 3D Gaming is Officially a Trend
A look at how autostereoscopic devices like the Nintendo 3DS, the Sprint HTC Evo 3D and the AT&T LG Thrill are opening up new audiences to glasses-free 3D gaming and entertainment. A panel of some of the leading game developers from THQ, Gameloft, Ubisoft and EA Mobile discuss what 3D opens up to them creatively. They’ll also explore the cross-over effect of glasses-free gaming to the living room.

A New Augmented Reality
New tablets like Apple’s iPad 2 and Motorola Xoom, smartphones like the iPhone4 and LG Mobile Optimus 2X, and gaming devices like Nintendo 3DS and Sony PSP are opening up a mainstream audience to augmented reality. Game makers, advertisers and technology experts will discuss the ramifications of this new technology, which combines real-world objects with virtual characters for unique user interactions.

Gaming in the Cloud
Video game companies like Gaikai and OnLive are bypassing traditional retail stores and serving games to consumers through TVs, laptops, tablets and other devices. The age of gaming in the cloud, where servers host the software and allow any device to run high-end games, is here. A panel of experts will discuss why gaming in the cloud will change the business of video games.

– By Scott Hettrick

The Society’s 3D Technology Awards honor technological achievement in the stereoscopic medium; mainly cinema, television, cellular and portable devices, special venue, themed attractions, video games, computers and other media. The Society announced today (Tuesday, Aug. 9) that it is accepting entries from the 3D professional community to be voted upon by a blue-ribbon 3D Technology Awards panel.

“For the second annual awards the International 3D Society will honor the contributions of engineers, scientists, and inventors whose products and technology have advanced the art of stereoscopic displays,” stated Lenny Lipton, CoChair of the 3D Awards Committee. “We want to single out the work that has been done in the last few years.”

This year marks the Society’s second annual 3D Technology Awards. The program will recognize individuals and organizations that have made a significant impact on the advancement of stereoscopic arts and technologies from January through December 2010. All entries are due by September 30, 2011.

International 3D Society Chair and Head of Production Planning, DreamWorks Animation (DWA), Jim Mainard added, “Technology development continues to be an essential component in the evolution of 3D content creation, and the Society encourages those developments by recognizing those who are making a difference.”

“As 3D content moves from movie screens to tablets, TV’s, phones and game consoles, these awards shine the spotlight on the technologies, people and organizations driving these breakthroughs with impact and innovation,” said Jim Chabin, President of the International 3D Society. The organization is a professional community dedicated to advancing the arts and technologies of Stereoscopic 3D.

The 3D Technology Awards Show will feature MasterImage3D passive glasses and technology. Rules, regulations and entry forms are available online at www.international3dsociety.com. There is no entry fee for submissions. The submissions deadline is September 30, 2011. Nominees will be announced prior to the show.

International 3D Society sponsors include Signature Sponsors Panasonic and Korea Telecom, as well as Founding Sponsors Dolby Laboratories, DreamWorks Animation (DWA), IMAX, MasterImage 3D, PIXAR, The Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and XPAND 3D.

Link to download Official Entry Form

http://www.international3dsociety.com/International_3D_Society/AWARDS_TECHNOLOGY.html

The line-up of exhibits, seminars, conferences and previews will once again include the preview and introduction of some of the studio’s biggest new projects at Walt Disney Studios theatrical and home entertainment divisions, The Disney Channel, ABC, and Disney Parks and Resorts.
<Story continues following video below of 2009 D23 Expo…>

There will also be an advance screening of the 3D version of “The Lion King” presented by Real 3D and screenings and panel discussion of Pixar shorts, including “For the Birds,” “One Man Band,” “BURN-E,” “Partly Cloudy,” “Day & Night,” and “La Luna.”

Show floor exhibits will include Walt Disney Studios Animation Pavilion; Walt Disney Studios In-Home Entertainment Pavilion; and Inside Tides: Pirates of the Caribbean Film Prop Collection.

And where the first Expo featured a  screening of a documentary about The Sherman Brothers and an evening discussion with one of them, this year’s event will feature a Friday evening program called Dick Van Dyke & The Vantastix, featuring songs from Van Dyke’s varied entertainment career and various Disney hits.

– By Scott Hettrick

The following 3-minute video features interviews with Disney parks executives and archivist Dave Smith…

The following 2-minute video features interviews with Disney Co. President and CEO Robert Iger and Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney…

– By Scott Hettrick

That’s because this was a crowd of die-hard Foo Fighters fans who are used to sitting far longer for a live concert, and that’s what this was, a live concert experience broadcast by Cinedigm Digital Cinema to 80 digital theaters, and delivered for the first time in 3D.
<Story continues below the following video highlights of the event in Hollywood.

>

The evening began with producer Nigel Sinclair (“No Direction Home: Bob Dylan”) of Exclusive Media’s Spitfire Pictures, and Oscar/Emmy-winning documentary producer/director James Moll introducing the commercial premiere of the profile of the evolution of the band’s ever-changing line-up, “Foo Fighters: Back and Forth.” The film then runs at 10 p.m. ET/PT Friday, April 8, on VH1 Rock Doc, VH1 Classic, and Palladia.
The film was co-financed by Exclusive Media Group and RCA Records and produced by Spitfire Pictures in association with Allentown Productions.

After a brief intermission following the film’s cinema presentation Tuesday, the Foo Fighters introduced themselves from a undisclosed location in Northridge, Ca., where they performed their entire new album being released April 12, “Wasting Light,” with little more than a couple seconds in between each song, and almost no comments or acknowledgment of the live audience watching except for a hello and a goodbye.

– By Scott Hettrick

<Story continues along with a complete list of winners following the video.>

While it was a disappointment to everyone that James Cameron informed the Society the day before the event that he would be unable to receive his special Harold Lloyd Award, his producer Jon Landau of Lightstorm Entertainment filled in quite well as always with a gracious acceptance.
Lloyd’s great granddaughter looked elegant in serving as the evening’s on-stage trophy presenter, and Lloyd’s granddaughter Suzanne Lloyd, described Lloyd’s love of 3D photography and his unrealized dream to bring it to cinema before she presented the iconic scene from Lloyd’s most famous silent black-and-white comedy film “Safety Last,” converted into 3D and colorized by Legend3D.

Landau also presented 3D Society’s Executive Board Member Lenny Lipton the Century Award for Lifetime Achievement. Noting Lipton’s 50 patents and 50 pending, including the ZScreen, which is at the heart of today’s 3D theatrical projection, Landau said, “Without Lenny Lipton, there would be no 3D today.”
Although Lipton did not answer Landau’s question about the true meaning of the lyrics to “Puff the Magic Dragon,” Lipton said that the 1963 hit by Peter, Paul & Mary, for which he wrote the lyrics at age 19 in 1959, has become the “best venture capitalist ever.”

In Cameron’s absence, perhaps the biggest celebrity was a pleasant surprise to most, Brian May of rock super group Queen, who accepted the 3D Television Award: Entertainment/Music, for BSkyB’s “Dance, Dance, Dance.”
May said he is working on a passion project about the history of 3D for Sky 3D in the U.K.

Tom Cavanagh, who starred in the 3D movie version of “Yogi Bear,” was host for the program that will be broadcast soon — date to be announced — on the new 3net channel of Sony/Discovery/IMAX launching Sunday (Feb. 13). 3net is a Member Sponsor of the Society.
More than 800 people were in attendance, mostly from the 3D industry, to see the winners selected by voting among more than 400 Society members. XPAND, another Society Founding Sponsor, provided the 3D projection system and glasses, and hosted the after-party across the street at the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

The IMAX film “Hubble 3D won Best 3D Documentary, just as it was so honored by 3DHollywood.net last month. IMAX is also a Society Founding Sponsor.
The People’s Choice Award: Favorite 3D Live Action Movie was another surprise: “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” (Walden Media/20th Century Fox – neither a sponsor of the Society).

Universal and Paramount, neither of which is a Society sponsor, were shut out completely. Universal’s “Despicable Me” was one of the top 10 movies last year with more than $200 million. Paramount had a few 3D entries, including “Jackass 3D.”
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Sony shared two awards, one in which the company’s Sony Imageworks was honored with Disney on “Alice in Wonderland” for Outstanding Achievement of 2D to 3D Converted Feature. The other was a joint award for Sony Electronics and ESPN for the 3D commercial “Impressive” that debuted for the World Cup last summer and featured dazzling slow-motion soccer kicks. Sony is a Founding Sponsor of the Society and Sony exec Buzz Hays is the Society’s chairman.

The other three awards for Disney/Pixar, both of which are Founding Sponsors, were:

• “Tangled” (Disney): Best 3D Scene of the Year – the lantern scene
• “Tron: Legacy” (Disney): Best 3D Stereography – Live Action
• “Day & Night” (Pixar): Short 3D Motion Picture/Narrative

Not all the awards were presented during the program, with some category winners unable to attend or provide 3D clips with proper clearance for TV broadcast, as did the others.
Among those not included in Wednesday’s program:

• 3D Talent Award: Jay Baruchel, as Hiccup in “How to Train Your Dragon” (DreamWorks)
• 3D Video Game: “Call of Duty: Black Ops” (Activision/Blizzard)

Two TV category awards listed in the program — sports and documentary — were not presented this year, the first of which is especially surprising given the numerous “firsts” in live 3D sports broadcasts in 2010r, from The Masters and the 2010 World Cup to the MLB All-Star Game, NASCAR and the U.S. Open.

The third award for “How to Train Your Dragon” was for Best 3D Stereography — Animated.

The only other award was for AEG Live’s “Black Eyed Peas 3D: Live,” which won for 3D Live Event.
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The other Founding Sponsor of the Society is MasterImage 3D. Other Member sponsors: Autodesk and Quantel. The other 3D Creative Awards Platinum Sponsor: Planar/Runco; Gold Sponsors: Deluxe and MadM3dia Entertainment.

– By Scott Hettrick

<Story continues below the following 2 1/2-minute video interview about the Star Wars release with Fox Home Entertainment exec vp and general manager Simon Swart.>

Stone said Blu-ray is “a dream… even better than having a film print… like having a movie theater in your own home.” With everything going digital, Stone said Blu-ray will be the last physical format for movies, so we should all start collecting as many as we can.
Luhrmann said he also loves Blu-ray and the bonus features that provide so much insight, but that it also creates artistic challenges for restoring older films because it is so vivid and brings out elements never noticed before.
Mann said Blu-ray is the premier showcase for the color and depth nuances that he and other filmmakers spend so much time creating. It does a better job by a factor of 12 or 13, he said. Mann embraces new technologies and said he would like to shoot a dramatic dialogue-driven movie in 3D.

Fans can pre-order the Star Wars Blu-ray sets now, choosing either “The Complete Saga” 9-disc set with all six films and three discs of bonus features for $139.99, or either three-disc trilogy (original or prequel) for $69.99 each.
The more than 30-hours of extras will include previously unseen deleted and alternate scenes.
Also on Thursday, industry org DEG presented the Year-End 2010 Home Entertainment Report, noting that the adoption rate of Blu-ray hardware has increased dramatically over the last two years, including a soaring 62% gain last year, resulting in a U.S. installed base of 28.5 million.
While overall home video spending declined again by 3.3% to $18.8 billion, off a peak of $21.8 billion in 2004, Blu-ray software sales were up 68% to $1.8 billion and rental was up 34%.
Among the other sales highlights in 2010:
* Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment sold 15.3 million copies of “Avatar” in North America, with 5 mil. of those on Blu-ray, making it the #1 Blu-ray title of all time.
* A number of titles saw initial sales on Blu-ray in excess of 30% of total sales including Universal’s “Despicable Me,” Lionsgate’s “The Expendables,” Paramount’s “Iron Man 2,” Sony’s “Salt,” Warner’s “The Town,” and Disney’s “A Christmas Carol.”
* Blu-ray Disc catalog sales are up 52% year over year.
* Six million Blu-ray devices sold in fourth quarter alone.

With Blu-ray 3D launching in 2010, the DEG estimates that 100 Blu-ray 3D titles will be at retail by the end of 2011, in addition to dozens of 3D video games and hundreds of hours of 3D sports.
The DEG estimates that more than 91 million HDTV sets have sold to consumers bringing the number of HDTV households to nearly 56 million. The DEG further estimates that nearly 39% of these households have more than one set.
According to figures compiled by Swicker & Associates on behalf of the DEG, in calendar 2010, more than 170 million Blu-ray Discs shipped to market. In the fourth quarter, some 73 million discs shipped to retail.  Since launch, nearly 350 million Blu-ray Discs have shipped.

– By Scott Hettrick

Many top experts in the field presented information to attendees during the morning and early afternoon program in West Hollywood on the topics of choosing a 3D process, authoring, glasses, producing in 3D and more.

The following is 2 1/2-minutes of video highlights of the introductory market update on Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D by Jeannine Patton, vice president and general manager of the Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory Advanced Authoring Center, and a presentation on distributing 3D content to the home by Michael DeValue, Director of Advanced Technology at Walt Disney Studios.

<Topics below the following video highlights of Cameron, Landau and studio execs:>

• “Avatar” 3D Blu-ray: As first reported here at 3DHollywood.net Sept. 1, that 3D Blu-ray edition of “Avatar” now available in Europe, will be available in the U.S. Dec. 1, according to sources (Fox and Panasonic are still not confirming). In both cases the “Avatar” 3D Blu-ray is bundled exclusively with Panasonic 3D products, and will only be available that way for a year, sources say.
  Clips from the 3D version, authored and produced at Panasonic’s Advanced Authoring Centre, Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory (PHL) in Universal City, Ca., looked more impressive on the Panasonic plasma demo than anything I’ve seen on far on 3DTV. Cameron, speaking at the conference, said that when viewed on a TV of at least 50-inches while sitting close to the screen, the image and 3D effect is just as good as in theaters. Although there were some snickers in the audience, I agree with Cameron — the demo looked as good or better on TV without even having to be all that close to the screen.
  “We were proud to… use our authoring centre to deliver “Avatar” in 2D and we’re even more proud to… deliver it to consumers in 3D,” said James Mercs, Managing Director at Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory. “By delivering it in 3D on Blu-ray disc, it is guaranteed to be a driver for 3D entertainment in the living room.”
• “Avatar” 3DTV setting: The 3D Blu-ray edition is to include a special “Avatar setting” insert that guides viewers to manually adjust the color settings preferred by Cameron for viewing “Avatar” in 3D on a Panasonic plasma display, according to sources.
• 36 3D Blu-ray movies this fall. 24 at retail (12, including “Avatar,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Shrek,” exclusively bundled with 3D TV and Blu-ray products). 10 of the 24, including “Clash of the Titans,” “A Christmas Carol,” and “The Polar Express” to be released on Nov. 16 (about half of them IMAX documentaries).
• Autostereoscopic (glasses-less 3D) still 8-years to 10 years away. Cameron says because of the higher resolution required to see 3D from many different viewer positions, autostereoscopic 3D is still at least five years away and probably more like 8-10.
• Bundling strategies differ among studios.
  – Even though DreamWorks founder Jeffrey Katzenberg is perhaps the industry’s biggest cheerleader for 3D in theaters, the studio is not releasing 3D Blu-ray to retail yet — only bundled exclusively with Samsung 3D products, including all four “Shrek” movies this fall — since DreamWorks hasn’t even fully embraced Blu-ray yet. That’s because the demos of its movies are primarily kids and moms, who are still mostly watching DVDs. But DreamWorks production technology head Jim Mainard says the studio believes 3D Blu-ray will “invigorate” the DreamWorks consumer and believes in the potential of both Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray.
  – Warner will release its first 3D Blu-ray titles this month and is putting out most of what is has available to retail, according to Kris Brown, VP worldwide HiDef market expansion.
  – Sony believes in supporting both electronics bundling and retail, which it has been doing with its first couple of releases, “Monsters vs. Aliens” and “Monster House.” But Brian Siegel, Sony Electronics VP of home audio/video Group, says the company is concerned about undermining the premium value of 3D Blu-rays by giving them away free with 3DTVs and 3D Blu-ray players.
• 5 million “Avatar” Blu-ray discs purchased. DEG VP and Universal Studios Home Entertaiment president Craig Kornblau says one in five 5 Blu-ray owners have already purchased “Avatar” on Blu-ray. Blu-ray is now in 25% of U.S. households and nearing mass market level, he says.
• Theatrical re-release of “Avatar” to pay for Blu-ray: Cameron said every minute of new footage can cost up to $1 million to produce, so in order to help pay for the 16-minute extended edition for Blu-ray, a version with nine extra minutes was released to theaters last summer.
• Why 47-min. of deleted scenes not on first “Avatar” Blu-ray?: Producer Jon Landau said effects house Weta didn’t have the scenes ready for release yet — they still are not fully produced like the 16 extra minutes of scenes in the movie.
• Performance capture bigger deal than 3D. Cameron said that with his extensive background shooting 3D theme park attractions and documentaries, 3D was no big deal heading into production on “Avatar,” but he spent two years on research and development of previously non-existent tools for the performance capture element of the movie to make the CGI versions of the actors’ performances look real.

– By Scott Hettrick