3D craze hits Canterbury's Cinema

"3D...the technology of the '80s, but hey, it's now!" - rants Wooldor Sockbat, a fictional character in the popular "old school" 2D animated series Drawn Together.

To a certain extent, the statement is true as early 3D technology has been existing in the motion picture industry for over 20 years. Today, the big difference is that movies are no longer converted to a three-dimensional format, but shot with the help of special 3D cameras and watched with the new polarized glasses.

With his blockbuster "Avatar", James Cameron paved the way and 3D re-entered the mainstream cinemas across the world. UK's Odeon chain informed that they have installed 3D projectors in many of its cinemas. The new project will deliver 3D images at a resolution of 2K (2,048x1,080 pixels).

If up until now movie fans had to take a trip to cinemas in Ashford -or even London- to watch a 3D motion picture, Odeon is the first movie theatre in Canterbury that offers this great visual experience.

Joanne Holmes, the cinema's duty manager talked to me about the major shift to three dimensional movies.

How did your clients receive the news that Odeon will be screening movies in 3D? Have you noticed a significant increase in ticket sales?
Yes, definitely. It is perceived as being a very good experience, everybody knows about it in Canterbuy and our attendance has shot up. We struggled a little bit, as we got our 3D screens installed this year, at the end of March, so we missed out on all the Avatar crowd. We played it in 3D for only a week but even so, it was performing very well, if you consider it's been released for 3 months.
Do you think 3D movies represent merely a trend or, soon, every cinema across the UK will have embodied the technology?
I am positive it will take over the world, because it's a totally new visual experience and totally unlike the traditional red and green 3D. You can't even compare it to that. The new real 3D is fantastic to watch, things are flying at you, everything is a completely different dimension than what it used to be.

Besides movies, is Odeon screening any sporting events?
Other cinemas in the chain are, but not in Canterbury. It's quite difficult for us because there are only two screens. Showing sporting events means that we would have to lose a film.

Some cinemas inform people beforehand that headaches or nausea might actually occur while watching a 3D movie. Have you received any complaints about this so far?
None at all, no one ever complained about being unwell afterwards or during a movie.

Environmentalists have expressed their worries towards millions of plastic 3D glasses having been distributed worldwide. What is your policy on recycling them?
Up until very recently we had recycling bins. We also show ads on the screen encouraging guests to recycle their glasses. As of today, we're moving towards guest ownership glasses whereas they own them and will be encouraged to bring them back for further showings and pay a reduced ticket, which is the ultimate option in recycling.

Can you give us a tip on the 3D movies that are to be screened in this cinema, in the future?
Well, a lot of animated features. Toy story 3 is going to be huge, massive! Other that that, we'll be playing Shrek in 3D towards the latter part of the year and the new Resident Evil that I expect to be a quite similar experience to Avatar.