Wim Wenders in 3 Dimensions

There was a wonderful conference in Toronto that began on Saturday, June 11 and ended on the 14th of June. Entitled 3D FLIC or Toronto International Stereoscopic 3D Conference the conference was centred on new developments in Stereoscopic 3D Cinema. Wim Wenders kicked off the meeting and among other things gave the speech of his life about his new 3D film on Pina Bausch the great dance choreographer who died in 2009. 

The speech was filled with his profound reaction to Bausch’s dances and dancers, to her theatre as he put it. His decision to translate those feelings into 3D was monumental largely because what he has done is reinvent the medium. Stereoscopic 3D has never looked like this with depth, added volume and most importantly the primacy of the dancing body coming to life. Wender’s film marks the dawn of a new era in the cinema and the people who attended the conference from IMAX pioneer Graeme Ferguson to Peter Anderson who has worked in mainstream 3D production for decades to Emily Carr University’s Maria Lantin whose research into 3D is leading the way to new forms of expression, all contributed to an exciting discussion of this new age of image creation.

Ocean breath from Maria Lantin on Vimeo.

There were many other presentations including one from Catherine Owens who was responsible for bringing U23D to the screen in 2008. This amazing film of a U2 concert in Argentina produced in both IMAX 3D and 3D Digital was path breaking. Her presentation about the making of the film revealed not only the challenges but also the kind of detail in production that is necessary to achieve a creative outcome.

3D is not easy and requires a profound rethink of conventional moviemaking methods. 3D changes not only how viewers interact with screens but also how stories are told. We are at the cusp of a transformative moment in the history of the cinema.