FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: San Francisco, California — 3D Filmmakers Shine at SD&A 2015
The producers and judges of the 3D Theatre session at the 2015 Stereoscopic Displays and Applications (SD&A) conference are pleased to announce the winners of Best of Show prizes. The purpose of each year’s 3D Theatre session is to showcase the wide range of 3D content being produced and exhibited around the world. This year’s show took place on February 9 and contained a broad selection of 41 entries, ranging from independent artists to major studios.
And the winners are:
1) Best of Show – Live Action category:
“The Whitewashing of 5 Pointz (3D)” by Ben Schwartz (USA).
Synopsis: On November 19, 2013, 5 Pointz – the iconic aerosol art center in Long Island City, Queens – was whitewashed. 5 Pointz curator Meres One and director Ben Schwartz take a look back at that fateful day and consider the legacy of street art’s most famous public canvas.
2) Best of Show – Animation / CG category:
“Cochemare (3D)” by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Canada).
Synopsis: Blending animation, live action and stereoscopic 3D, Cochemare is an immersive, tactile and sensory experience. As the user journeys from the mystical forest of storms to the orbiting international space station, the film forces us to confront our notions of voyeurism, femininity, and the separation of body and mind.
Each of the winners received a copy of the “Stereoscopic Displays and Applications: 20-Year Retrospective” DVD-ROM which contains over 1500 stereoscopic-focused technical manuscripts.
We thank all of the contributors who kindly allowed their 3D content to be shown at this year’s event. An audience of around 150 attendees enjoyed this 2-hour session held as part of the 26th annual Stereoscopic Displays and Applications conference located at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square Hotel.
There has been a noticeable improvement in the quality of 3D content being shown at each year’s 3D Theatre session, and this year was no exception. This is a reflection of the maturing of the industry and the improvement in the available stereoscopic hardware and software. Lenny Lipton, one of the show judges, explained that, “the films in the competition show far more imagination than that which is being exhibited in the theatrical cinema and I am happy to see people exploring the medium.”
The judges at this year’s SD&A 3D Theatre Session were Lenny Lipton (Leonardo IP) and Eric Kurland (3-DIY), both well-known 3D experts. The producers were: John Stern (Intuitive Surgical, retired), Chris Ward (Lightspeed Design Group and DepthQ Stereoscopic), and Andrew Woods (Curtin University). Management and playback of 3D content was expertly handled by Dan Lawrence of DepthQ Stereoscopic.
The full list of 3D content exhibited is as follows:
Competition Category:
1. “Luigi’s Pizzaride 3D” — Florian Werzinski (Germany)
2. “The Depths” — Jordan Dowler-Coltman (Writer/Director) (Canada)
3. “Safety Geeks SVI trailer” — Lumen Actus Productions (USA)
4. “My Robot” — PARAN52FILM (CEO: Choi Yang Hyun) (South Korea)
5. “Geometry of Numbers” — San Base (Canada); music by Ugo Altamore (Italy)
6. “Northern Lights over Mount Halde” — Morten Skallerud (Norway)
7. “Mr Hublot” — Laurent Witz & Alexandre Espigares (Luxembourg)
8. “The 3D-Machine – the series – Episode 3” — Ka-Ching Cartoons (Netherlands)
9. “Hyperlapse – Scenic in Japan #1” — Takashi Sekitani (Japan)
10. “Frames” — Emmanuel Albano (Canada)
11. “Gravitational Lensing” — Ralf Kaehler (KIPAC/SLAC), Carter Emmart (AMNH), Tom Abel (KIPAC/SLAC) (USA)
12. “The Whitewashing of 5 Pointz” — Ben Schwartz (USA)
13. “Snakes 3D” — Wild Earth Media (South Africa)
14. “Intermission” (from 2003) — Don Hertzfeldt and Robert Howell (USA)
15. “Compromiso: ALA 15 (Commitment: 15th Wing)” — Alfredo Gonzalez / Sergio de Uña / José Luis Roig (Spain)
16. “Cochemare” — Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Canada)
17. “Airground” — Sylvia Nicolaides (Cyprus)
18. “Grami’s Circus Show” — Studio Gale Co, Ltd. / KBS Media (Korea)
19. “Elysian Fields” — Ina Conradi Chavez (Singapore)
20. “Red White Black and Blue” — Nicholas D’Agostino (USA)
21. “Maidan Today” — Stéphane Dalmat (France)
22. “Trail Riders of America Double Cross and Dirt Jump Contest” — Nat Bartholomew (USA)
23. “Temple of Zen 3D” — Tsz Shan Monastery (Hong Kong)
24. “The Chaperone 3D” — Fraser Munden (Canada)
25. “Dzignlight Studios Timelapse 2015” — Eric Deren (USA)
26. “Yili” — Digital Magic Limited (China)
27. “Cosplay Dreams 3D” — Passage Productions and Drama House Productions (USA)
28. “One Night in Hell” — Jason Jameson & James Hall (England)
Demonstration Category:
29. “Maleficent” — Walt Disney Pictures (USA)
30. “The Bubble” (from 1966) — 3-D Film Archive, LLC (USA)
31. “Austin, Texas 3D Time Lapse” — Landon Gaus (USA)
32. “Pequeñas Voces (Little Voices) trailer” — Jairo Carrillo (Colombia)
33. “Fanfare Intro Foxtrot” — Chris Casady (USA)
34. “Later, in the Restaurant…” — Karel Bata (England)
35. “Being there; Mauritshuis The Hague – Vermeer – Girl with a Pearl Earring” — René van Gageldonk (Netherlands)
36. “Friskies 3D” — Brash 3D (Colombia)
37. “Frozen” — Walt Disney Animation Studios (USA)
38. “Dragonfly Squadron” (from 1954) — 3-D Film Archive, LLC (USA)
39. “Austin Surhoff, UT Swimmer” — Patricio Elizondo (USA)
40. “Oceans” — Maria Juranic (USA)
41. “Ratatouille” — Pixar Animation Studios (USA)
The session was a visual feast and served well to illustrate the diversity of 3D content produced by stereoscopic professionals and enthusiasts alike. Another impressive aspect of the show was the large number of countries represented, 17 in total – from USA to South Africa to China and many more in-between.
We are grateful for the support of our projection sponsors who supplied equipment key to the success of this event: DepthQ Stereoscopic, Christie Digital, and Tekamaki. Our 3D Theatre partners for this event were: LA 3-D Film Festival, 3DContentHub, and 3-D Film Archive. It is great to see a strong network of 3D film makers, festivals and content aggregators develop.
Further information about the SD&A conference is available at: http://www.stereoscopic.org
About SD&A
The annual Stereoscopic Displays & Applications (SD&A) conference is the world’s premier conference for 3D innovation. It is the largest and longest-running technical conference dedicated to the discussion of technical stereoscopic imaging topics. The next conference, the 27th annual event, runs February 15–17, 2016 in downtown San Francisco.
The 2015 SD&A conference was held part of the Electronic Imaging Symposium held in San Francisco, California organized by the technical societies IS&T and SPIE. The SD&A conference series gathers together a host of professionals with a common passion for stereoscopic imaging techniques to discuss topics including autostereoscopic displays, 3D cinema, 3DTV, human factors, 3D image processing, visual comfort, 3D image quality, and everything stereoscopic 3D in-between. Special sessions at the conference include keynote presentations, live demonstrations of stereoscopic equipment, and the ever-popular SD&A 3D Theatre Session.