Forget Avatar, it was just the tip of an ice-cube. In comparison, the three-dimensional iceberg that’s drifting in its wake towards the entertainment industry is far bigger than the effect James Cameron’s $2.7-billion grosser has wrought. It looks set to change the course the industry till the visible technology horizon.

The technology that Cameron’s film is credited to have breathed life into has been around in some way or the other since the 1890s, when a 3D moviemaking process was first patented in Britain. Over the next century came technologies that failed on the cost-benefit scale. What Avatar did was to show the marketing possibilities of 3D — marking the second coming of the old magic.
Filmmakers at home, too, want to ride the wave. India’s first 3D movie was in 1998 — Jijo Punnoose’s Chhota Chetan. Then came a few animation films, but not much more. Now Pooja Bhatt wants to make a Jism sequel in 3D. Ram Gopal Varma has announced an adventure flick and a horror movie in the format. The animated Bal Hanuman 2 has just been released on 3D. Call it the Avatar effect.

It’s not just about films. Last month Samsung, Sony and Panasonic launched 3D television sets in India. Taiwan’s Acer has launched a 3D laptop. Computer games such as Avatar, Batman: Arkham Asylum and G-Force are available across the country on the format. This year’s football World Cup will be the first one to be telecast on 3D. Much of these must have been in the works for years. What has brought about their releases now?

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3D FLIC was officially launched on April 23rd 2010 at Toronto’s Cinespace Film Studios.

Over 100 industry and government delegates were on hand to learn about 3D FLIC’s unique convergence of academia, industry, art and science. Demonstrations included the 3D Camera Company’s new Hawkeye S3D camera with a live 3D footage feed; a demo of 2D to 3D conversion by Communications Research Centre Canada in association with Cinespace Film Studios and Creative Post Inc.; a demo reel from Starz Animation Toronto; and a presentation of Side Effects Software Inc.’s procedural 3D animation software Houdini.

Left: From left, Stan Shapson, vice-president, research & innovation at York; David Choat, vice-president of human resources at the Ontario Centres of Excellence; Laura Albanese, parliamentary assistant to the minister of culture and MPP for York South-Weston; Karen Thorne-Stone, president and CEO of the Ontario Media Development Corporation; and Jim Mirkopoulos, vice-president of operations at Cinespace Film Studios

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After losing traditional Hollywood film and TV shoots to rival U.S. states like Louisiana and New Mexico, the Ontario provincial government is looking to lift its local production sector by luring 3D flicks and 2D-to-3D conversion work up north.

In the wake of “Avatar,” the Ontario Media Development Corp. on Friday unveiled a two-year $1.4 million 3D Film Innovation Consortium (3D FLIC) to expand Toronto’s 3D film expertise.

OMDC president and CEO Karen Thorne-Stone said her agency, which markets the province as a film location in Hollywood, is looking to build out Ontario’s 3D infrastructure to entice Los Angeles producers with next-level 3D projects to complete.

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In the wake of the success of Avatar and Sherlock Holmes, virtually every media commentator agrees that the future of the film business is in 3-D. But as the industry attempts to explore the storytelling potential of what is essentially a new medium, the local film industry finds itself facing an adjustment to a new type of production.

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