There was quarterback Tim Tebow, lifelike on the big screen, in all his three-dimensional glory, leading Florida to the national championship last week against Oklahoma.
In 82 theaters across the country, rabid fans and curious techno-geeks donned 3-D glasses and watched college football jump out at them.
This was not your father’s — or your grandfather’s — 3-D movie from the 1950s, with aliens popping off the screen, their tentacles reaching for your popcorn.
This was in-your-face, live-action football, a prelude to what many are betting is the next wave in sports entertainment. This evolution will, eventually, be televised.
“Three-D is the next great innovation in sports broadcasting,” David Hill, chairman and CEO of Fox Sports, said last month at a 3-D entertainment conference in Los Angeles. “HD (high definition) is merely a steppingstone on the way to 3-D, and when it comes, it’s going to be incredible. I can’t wait.”
Today, live 3-D sports playing to theatergoers is a testing ground. It is a prelude to 3-D screens at sports bars, and eventually, 3-D TV sets in your home. Industry predictions are it could happen in five years.
“I think what you are going to see is an increasing number of events, like the BCS (title) game between Florida and Oklahoma,” said Sandy Climan, CEO of 3ality Digital Systems, a company in Burbank, Calif., that produced last week’s title game. “That is going to be the place where the public is immersed in the wonders of digital 3-D. But first we are going to have to show people that this is not their grandparents’ 3-D. When that happens, live-action 3-D will make it into the home.”
Climan’s company also produced a Raiders-Chargers NFL game in 3-D on Dec. 4. to a limited test audience on both coasts. Last year, 3ality Digital helped create the IMAX rock concert film “U2-3D,” a show that drew rave reviews.
Three-dimensional images are more than a century old, but 3-D has made huge advances in recent years through the application of digital technology. Digital techniques allow near-perfect synchronization of left- and right-eye images, which gives viewers the perception of depth. That’s a quality missing from even the sharpest high-definition screens.
“In some ways, this is better than high-def,” said Loveland’s Paul Martin, 49, who watched the BCS title game at the Carmike Cinema in Fort Collins. “I think the 3-D works really well; you feel like the players are coming right into the audience.”
But Martin, and many of the others in the audience, had complaints. In some cases, fast action on the field got blurry. There were numerous problems with camera angles, too. On several plays, on-field action was blocked by players on the sidelines, and, in one instance, by the goalpost.
Missing, too, were graphics and other bells and whistles fans take for granted when watching a game.
“You have to remember that it took decade after decade to learn how to perfect shooting football in 2-D,” Climan said. “Making this work right in 3-D is going to be a similar evolution. Part of it is the technology, so it’s going to have glitches. Part of it is the techniques with what you shoot. It’s learning how to work with these cameras. During the BCS game, we even switched up and tried different things from the first half to the second half.”
Also, attending a football game at a movie theater takes some getting used to. First of all, the 3-D experience requires donning Wayfarer-style glasses.
The new glasses are much more fashionable, comfortable and effective than those used 30 years ago. But will having to wear glasses in a sports bar, or even at home, dissuade people from 3-D?
“I don’t think it would matter,” said Caroline Bragg, 29, of Laramie, who ventured to Fort Collins to watch the Florida-Oklahoma game. “If people really like watching the games in 3-D, they aren’t going to mind the glasses.”
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
3-D 101
In its simplest form, and in layman’s terms, live 3-D video works this way:
• The image is produced by two separate cameras (inset) or by a high-tech camera with two lenses spaced about as far apart as a person’s eyes.
• The signal is sent to a specially equipped receiver, and then the signal is projected onto a screen.
• Viewers wear polarized glasses that filter light so each eye sees exactly what the camera saw originally.
• In the recent football broadcasts, the signals were converted to 2-D before being sent via satellite to movie theaters, where a special device converted them back to 3-D. Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post
