Bad digital / Good digital

[MovieStuff]

Okay, just returned from vacation. Long train ride down the west coast and then went to the Universal Studios Theme Park. Two different rides; one new (King Kong) and one old (Simpsons Ride).

First, let me just say how incredibly sucky the new King Kong 3D ride was. Holy crap. The idea was cool, though. A screen that goes 360 degrees around the tram you're riding in shows a scene of Kong fighting dinosaurs and they jump over and around the car, making it shake. But the 3D was just terrible. The absolute worst I have ever seen in my life. And the images were soooooooo soft and fuzzy, I kept taking my glasses off to see if the images were, in fact, in focus.

But the most amazing thing was that there was no need for 3D. Having done tons and tons of 3D, I can tell you quite accurately that our sense of stereoscopic vision pretty much drops off to near zero at about 25-30 feet (10 meters). Anything further than that and our eyes are simply not far enough apart to "see around" the target. That is why mountains in the distance look flat. For all practical purposes, our eyes are in exactly the same position relative to things at 30 feet or beyond. You do get a sense of paralax shift if you move relative to the target but you would get that even with only one eye.

In fact, anyone that has seen non 3D IMAX nature films with motion can attest to how dimensional it looks without the need for special glasses. That is because the subject matter are all targets that would normally be about 30 feet or beyond in real life. And since the projection screen is about 30 feet or so away, then our eyes are converging at a relaxed point exactly where the subjects would be if we were right there on location with them. So, in essence, anything "big" enough that it would have to be 30+ feet away to be photographed in real life really does not benefit from 3D. While it is true that you can separate the cameras by more than our eyes normal 2.5 inches, that results in "hyper stereo" which makes large things look small.

And this is the problem with the new King Kong ride. Kong is supposed to be big and so is the environment surrounding him. But when the 3D actually does work for a few seconds, everything ironically looks quite small because, in real life, he and the environment would naturally be 30 feet or more away. So the whole 3D thing is pointless, badly done and a gimmick to sell the ride. I have to imagine that, at some point, people involved looked at each other with their funny 3D glasses and said, "This doesn't really work, does it?" But no one was going to tell Peter Jackson that and, more importantly, they needed his name to sell the ride and protect the investment. But I'm here to tell you it sucks fetid pond water.

On the other hand....

The Simpsons Ride totally fucking rocks and is an example of how it should be done and, in fact, was done several years before the Kong ride was even designed. The Simpsons Ride uses the old Back to the Future building and motion movers for the ride cars. But the Future's older 70mm IMAX projection was replaced by four 4K projectors that overlap each other to create a hyper-sharp image at 60fps on a domed screen. It looks unbelievably real (or as real as a cartoon environment can look). But it is just pin sharp and bright, bright, bright and very NOT digital looking. We went on this ride repeatedly during the day we spent in the park. Just incredible.

Why the Kong ride didn't use the same technology is beyond me because the Simpsons ride is nothing short of amazing and a great example of good use of digital tech.

Roger

[MovieStuff]

I should add that while the Simpsons Ride was not in 3D and required no special glasses, it looked more "real" than the Kong ride. Because all the subject matter in the Simpsons Ride was supposed to be 30+ feet away and was projected on a domed surface that was also 30 feet away and the point of view kept moving to create parallax, your brain really bought the illusion. Again, how the Kong people missed the boat on this I really do not understand.

[aj]

Okay, just returned from vacation. Long train ride down the west coast and then went to the Universal Studios Theme Park. Two different rides; one new (King Kong) and one old (Simpsons Ride).
.
..

Roger

Was the reallife trainride good? I suppose this was from Seattle to LA or something. Several days onboard a sleeper with a panorama coach? Or more a mountainous route?
Always seemed like a good idea at end or start of a US journey.

[Andreas Wideroe]

I don't like 3D. I don't need 3D. It's a commercial hype. I hope 3D will be dead (again) in 3 years.

I saw Transformers 3 in 3D yesterday. I asked for the 2D. I wanted 2D, but they only showed 3D that night. It was the only night in about a month we've had babysitters and I really wanted to see this film (being a big fan of Transformers since I played with the toys in the -80s).

Sitting in the Cinema wearing glasses that dims the brightness, reflections on the frames, getting dry eyes and giving my eyes and head a strange feeling when I walk out of the room. I wear glasses when I'm at the beach. I don't want to wear glasses at the Cinema.

Anyways, great to hear you had a nice vacation. I followed you on Facebook and saw lots of nice pictures! I really would like to go back to California again. It's a very nice place. I especially like Santa Barbara and La Jolla/Hoya (just north of San Diego).

Andreas

[nickrapak]

Was the reallife trainride good? I suppose this was from Seattle to LA or something. Several days onboard a sleeper with a panorama coach? Or more a mountainous route?
Always seemed like a good idea at end or start of a US journey.

I can't speak for Roger, but I have taken the Coast Starlight from LA to San Francisco (the train itself goes up to Seattle). That particular train is one of the best trains in the entire country, both in terms of scenery and the service crew that works the train. If you ever want to take that ride, I recommend you get a sleeper, as you get access to the first-class lounge car only for sleeper passengers. There is nothing similar on any other train in the country.

[MovieStuff]

Was the reallife trainride good? I suppose this was from Seattle to LA or something. Several days onboard a sleeper with a panorama coach? Or more a mountainous route?
Always seemed like a good idea at end or start of a US journey.

I can't speak for Roger, but I have taken the Coast Starlight from LA to San Francisco (the train itself goes up to Seattle). That particular train is one of the best trains in the entire country, both in terms of scenery and the service crew that works the train. If you ever want to take that ride, I recommend you get a sleeper, as you get access to the first-class lounge car only for sleeper passengers. There is nothing similar on any other train in the country.

The train ride ended up very nice but didn't start that way. We had been planning this trip for about 6 months. We had gone online to the AMTRAK site to purchase our tickets where you can click on a photo of the actual type of cabin. We decided to splurge and go with the most deluxe cabin they had so we'd have a lot of room for 4 people to be seated at the same time, if we choose. So we booked two of them, one for my wife and myself and the other for our daughter and her best friend. But when we got to the train in Portland, they put us in a tiny little sleeper cell, which is basically like two chairs that face each other with a sliding glass door. Not a pleasant way to spend two days on a train.

Anyway, apparently when AMTRAK overbooks, they downgrade you to the next level but you really don't know until you get on the fucking train! They told us this is a known problem with the website. But we made the best of it and the dining car and food was outstanding and the whole observation car, bar, etc was totally cool. Beautiful views of water falls, snow and forests that you would otherwise never see from a drive in a car. I'd do it again.

Roger

[BAC]

Portland!! You missed one of the best parts of the trip along the Puget Sound and the Columbia river. I assume you shot some film on the train.

Seattle to Portland is the only portion that I have done and I really enjoyed it. I've made that drive by car hundreds of times so it's nice to see some different scenery from the train.

[CHAS]

Sounds like a great trip, Roger, sans the King Kong 3-D crap. One of these days we'll take the train ride from LA to Portland with Miles...