3D

Some ideas on 3D:

If James Cameron was really a genius (and frankly, thank goodness he isn’t), and he knew he was sitting on a multi-billion dollar blockbuster that would change movies and TV and media forever (much to my own chagrin), then why wouldn’t he make the (assuredly meager by comparison) investment in an ownership interest in a 3D-glasses manufacturing company? Consider how many theaters (and soon, home theaters) are now employing 3D glasses regularly (Here’s Wikipedia’s list).

Too bad, really, because he probably could have used more money.

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Here’s commercials for ESPN 3D. This doesn’t seem like a horrible idea to anyone else? Don’t you have a hard enough time keeping track of where you left the remote? Weren’t we all laughing about the humorous prospect of folks wearing glasses to watch TV like a decade ago? Or do we think this looks cool now?

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Why 3D flops, summed up in one poorly-shopp’d image:

Note: this image also viewable in 3D

“This 3D is pretty great. Wonder what this part looks like in 2D, though?”

This is what happens to you every 30 minutes of every 3D movie you’ve ever seen. Doesn’t happen to you when you’re watching HDTV. And I’d imagine it didn’t happen to anyone back when the first wave of color TVs were making rounds. Either 3D augments your total immersion in entertainment, or it’s a gimmick that’ll get boring before you know it.

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Here’s a bonus business idea: Lasik Surgery. The committee in charge of the doctors trained to perform Lasik should be having a field day with this 3D glasses stuff. Aren’t people spending thousands of dollars on surgery just so that they don’t have to wear glasses in order to do basic, normal stuff?

If you ask me, there should be parody commercials going off after every 3DTV commercial about how Lasik surgery lets you see in 3D without glasses. That’d be hilarious. The cost comparison is probably pretty close (think, “You could spend $2,000 to wear more glasses, or $2,000 to wear less glasses”). It’d go viral. And most importantly, we’d help put a halt to this whole 3D trainwreck that prompted the commercials in the first place.