On the day that James Cameron and his producer Jon Landau were in Beverly Hills extolling the virtues of the new Extended Collector’s edition of “Avatar” coming to Blu-ray Nov. 16, it was announced in Europe that the 3D Blu-ray version of the movie is available this week in Europe with the purchase of Panasonic 3D products. That was one of many topics discussed formally and informally at Tuesday’s Blu-Con 2.0 conference at the Beverly Hilton (separately, see video here of Cameron bashing Warner Bros about 2D-to-3D conversion and talking about future of 3D in general):
<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