James Cameron: 3D vital to TV
April 17, 2012
By Chris Forrester
James Cameron and technology partner Vince Pace used the NAB show to state bluntly that the future of TV and 3D were firmly linked. His message was to the point: “I’m so tired of talking to filmmakers and studios about why they should be shooting native 3D as opposed to converting, that I’m actually much more interested in talking about broadcast. Because in broadcast there’s no time to convert. You have to shoot native.” Cameron was speaking to trade mag Variety ahead of his conference presentation.
“So I’ve sort of stopped proselytising in Hollywood about native 3D. You either get it or you don’t. You can have Avatar and Hugo, or you can have Clash of the Titans. You guys pick. What do you want to do? So my focus with Vince is on broadcast.”
Cameron Pace Group (CPG) is showcasing a so-called ‘5-D’ camera set-up (handling 3D and 2D from the same rig) plus associated workflow technologies.
He urged programme-makers to adopt 3D for episodic dramas. “Episodic scripted on-hours and that sort of thing, there’s not a lot of visual effect. Take the visual effects out of the equation we can shoot 3D for exactly the same cost as 2D, it’s dead easy. That’s going to be our message here. Hey guys, you’re missing the low-hanging fruit. You’re going around the low-hanging fruit to the harder stuff.”