Someone In Hollywood Finally Gets That 3D Movies Are Rubbish

3D movies are the sort of thing you love, hate or, on the extreme end of the scale, want to crush out of existence by flinging them into the super-massive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. Although The Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan doesn’t harbour universe-sized levels of angst about the format, he’s hardly entranced by its wiles.

In an interview with the Director’s Guild of America, Nolan explains why 3D has never been a big thing for him:

…I find stereoscopic imaging too small scale and intimate in its effect … The thing with stereoscopic imaging is it gives each audience member an individual perspective. It’s well suited to video games and other immersive technologies, but if you’re looking for an audience experience, stereoscopic is hard to embrace.

I prefer the big canvas, looking up at an enormous screen and at an image that feels larger than life. When you treat that stereoscopically, and we’ve tried a lot of tests, you shrink the size so the image becomes a much smaller window in front of you. So the effect of it, and the relationship of the image to the audience, has to be very carefully considered. And I feel that in the initial wave to embrace it, that wasn’t considered in the slightest.

Nolan, of course, doesn’t rule out jumping on the 3D bandwagon at a later stage, but it’s nice to hear someone in the business speaking intelligently of its downsides, rather than fluffing egos or dishing up nice-speak.

Image: Rodrigo Denúbila.

[DGA, via Blastr]