On one of those rare 'days off' moments - I decided to take the kids to see a 3d movie, kind of busmans holiday! Nevertheless we turned up at the local multiplex which had recently had its main screen converted to 3d.Infact, it was using the new Dolby 3d system which I had read was vastly superior to the Real D system, so I was keen to hand over my hard earned and get into the cinema... We took quite a load of kids with us, as our kids brought their friends who brought their friends! We ended up with 12 kids and 3 adults.The first thing I noticed was that the glasses were duly handed out, beautiful shiny mirror look lenses and deep wrap around sides. I later discovered this is to maximise light the coming into each lens. During my stereography training I was told that the Dolby 3d system uses a combination of filtering to very finely control the colour information to each eye, so that although the channel separation is slightly less than the Real D polariser system the final result is better overall colour reproduction. I was looking forward to this screening, probably more than the dozen kids I was sat with!
I noticed there was a lot of activity pre-movie as the audience kept popping up and down to the attendant getting 'wipes' for their 3d glasses, getting them cleaned. I had to for some of our kids.
As the lights went down and the opening title sequence began I noticed I could see something in my lenses.
Again I cleaned them but it wasn't on the lens. What I could see was the reflection of my eyes and eyelids and lashes in the lens, as they were so shiny. Also the ambient light in the auditorium was very high, not helping the situation. In the UK they have strict regulations governing light levels in cinemas, and generally the cinemas have 3 levels. The walking in / walking out level well lit 'house lights' - then the next level of dimming is the spot reel or the adverts before the main presentation, I assume they have that lighting so that we can juggle our popcorn and kids, and get settled for the main movie. Finally, darkness for the main feature.
However, in my cinema trip, the lights never dimmed down to full darkness for the movie. You could extend your hand out and clearly see a shadow cast on the floor from the lights above. This caused problems with the 3d viewing because the images I could see through my lenses were overlaid with reflections, also the movie itself had a fairly 'dark' feel to it (being set in Winter in Dickensian London).
And therein spoilt what should have been a great 3d experience. The trouble is these multiscreen movies have very few people involved in their running. It's all done by computers... as they say. A Christmas Carol started and I went off like Scrooge trying to track down the projectionist. I went to the front of house area, to find a couple of students selling popcorn and coffee, they told me the projectionist had 'gone home' and would be back later to turn everything off... I asked for the manager, there was none. So the next day I'm on the internet and phone trying to find someone from the Vue Cinema chain to talk to... No luck. I sent an email to their customer services team who eventually reply with some brush off corporate letter about local planning regulations on light levels in public buildings... And didn't take on any of my points about 3d needing more careful light control than 2d so that the viewer can properly extract disparities and depth information for proper 3d viewing. I think they were worried about me trying to get my 50 quid back from them for the trip, but I made it clear I just wanted some technical dialogue on their procedures and spec for 3d cinemas... Bah humbug!
I noticed there was a lot of activity pre-movie as the audience kept popping up and down to the attendant getting 'wipes' for their 3d glasses, getting them cleaned. I had to for some of our kids.
As the lights went down and the opening title sequence began I noticed I could see something in my lenses.
Again I cleaned them but it wasn't on the lens. What I could see was the reflection of my eyes and eyelids and lashes in the lens, as they were so shiny. Also the ambient light in the auditorium was very high, not helping the situation. In the UK they have strict regulations governing light levels in cinemas, and generally the cinemas have 3 levels. The walking in / walking out level well lit 'house lights' - then the next level of dimming is the spot reel or the adverts before the main presentation, I assume they have that lighting so that we can juggle our popcorn and kids, and get settled for the main movie. Finally, darkness for the main feature.
However, in my cinema trip, the lights never dimmed down to full darkness for the movie. You could extend your hand out and clearly see a shadow cast on the floor from the lights above. This caused problems with the 3d viewing because the images I could see through my lenses were overlaid with reflections, also the movie itself had a fairly 'dark' feel to it (being set in Winter in Dickensian London).
And therein spoilt what should have been a great 3d experience. The trouble is these multiscreen movies have very few people involved in their running. It's all done by computers... as they say. A Christmas Carol started and I went off like Scrooge trying to track down the projectionist. I went to the front of house area, to find a couple of students selling popcorn and coffee, they told me the projectionist had 'gone home' and would be back later to turn everything off... I asked for the manager, there was none. So the next day I'm on the internet and phone trying to find someone from the Vue Cinema chain to talk to... No luck. I sent an email to their customer services team who eventually reply with some brush off corporate letter about local planning regulations on light levels in public buildings... And didn't take on any of my points about 3d needing more careful light control than 2d so that the viewer can properly extract disparities and depth information for proper 3d viewing. I think they were worried about me trying to get my 50 quid back from them for the trip, but I made it clear I just wanted some technical dialogue on their procedures and spec for 3d cinemas... Bah humbug!
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