Now is the time (to put on your glasses): 3-D film exhibition in Britain, 1951––55

Johnston, Keith M.

doi:10.2979/filmhistory.23.1.93

“…It is the contention of this article that this alternative narrative is a necessary step to challenge and understand the stories found in those programmes, which presented British 3D as a shambolic, quaint and naive cottage industry subsumed by America and forgotten by history. While that reclamation and revision has begun elsewhere, notably around exhibition (Johnston 2011) and the aesthetics of 3D landscape (Johnston 2015), this article's focus remains on the personal and industrial context of British stereoscopic filmmaking: the men who helped set the 1950s 3D boom rolling, the companies they established, and the films they produced. While these materials are dominated by men, it is not the intention of the article to replace the existing partial narratives with a 'Great Man' theory of history, but to suggest ways in which these historical sources necessarily complicate the linear histories that exist.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

3D UK? 3D History and the Absent British Pioneers

Johnston

¹

2015

Open Library of Humanities

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The recent television 'rediscovery' of a small cohort of 1950s British 3D films (and the producers who made them) has offered a new route into considering how the historical stories told about 3D film have focused almost exclusively on the American experience, eliding other national contexts. This article challenges both the partiality of existing academic histories of 3D and the specific popular media narratives that have been constructed around the British 3D pioneers. Offering a rebuttal of those narratives and an expansion of them based around primary archival research, the article considers how the British 3D company Stereo Techniques created a different business and production model based around non-fiction short 3D films that stand in contrast to the accepted view of 3D as an American feature film novelty. Through an exploration of the depiction (and absence) of these 3D pioneers from existing media histories, the article argues for a revision to both 3D studies and British cinema history.

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“…Hence the second wave of 3D cinema in the 1980s lies outside the scope of this work, and I will refer to it only in passing. It should also be acknowledged that the focus of this dissertation is Hollywood and global Hollywood 3D cinema, and hence 3D cinema productions from outside the US will not be engaged with (for a discussion of 3D cinema in the UK for example, see Johnston 2011Johnston , 2012Johnston , 2015.…”

Section: The Stories Of 3dmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biskind argues that while the creature in Creature from the Black Lagoon can be read as the Other, and thus, following Sontag, equated with the Atom bomb, the film is a "centrist" film which favours technology, as its theme is "nature run amok" (Biskind 1983:107-108). 9 Biskind further finds that the film delivers a warning "not to go poking for utopian alternatives. Home was safe; danger lurked out there [...] the USA circa 1955, was utopian enough for everyone" (Biskind 1983:115).…”

Section: Cinema Reacts To Wwii and 9/11mentioning

confidence: 99%

Incredible but Very Real: 3D Cinema and Trauma in the Wake of WWII and 9/11

Fadlon¹

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<p>This thesis investigates Hollywood and global Hollywood 3D cinema at the height of its box office success, the early fifties, and from 2009-2014. Discourse surrounding 3D cinema in both periods is governed largely by technological and economic arguments. While this discourse holds some merit, it overlooks the cultural and historical background against which 3D cinema rose to prominence. Shifting research focus from the technological and economic to the cultural, this project uncovers the presence of trauma in 3D cinema of the fifties and D3D of the new millennium, and argues 3D cinema to be a privileged form to engage with traumatic themes. As trauma is uncovered in 3D cinema, connections are drawn between the narratives and poetics of the films discussed and post-traumatic themes prevalent in the US post WWII, and post September 11 respectively. Focusing on questions of representation, embodiment and temporality, which hold a central role both in 3D cinema and trauma theory, this project finds that 3D cinema narratives and poetics of each period resonated with the cultural trauma that preceded it.</p>

show abstract

“…Hence the second wave of 3D cinema in the 1980s lies outside the scope of this work, and I will refer to it only in passing. It should also be acknowledged that the focus of this dissertation is Hollywood and global Hollywood 3D cinema, and hence 3D cinema productions from outside the US will not be engaged with (for a discussion of 3D cinema in the UK for example, see Johnston 2011Johnston , 2012Johnston , 2015.…”

Section: The Stories Of 3dmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biskind argues that while the creature in Creature from the Black Lagoon can be read as the Other, and thus, following Sontag, equated with the Atom bomb, the film is a "centrist" film which favours technology, as its theme is "nature run amok" (Biskind 1983:107-108). 9 Biskind further finds that the film delivers a warning "not to go poking for utopian alternatives. Home was safe; danger lurked out there [...] the USA circa 1955, was utopian enough for everyone" (Biskind 1983:115).…”

Section: Cinema Reacts To Wwii and 9/11mentioning

confidence: 99%

Incredible but Very Real: 3D Cinema and Trauma in the Wake of WWII and 9/11

Fadlon¹

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

<p>This thesis investigates Hollywood and global Hollywood 3D cinema at the height of its box office success, the early fifties, and from 2009-2014. Discourse surrounding 3D cinema in both periods is governed largely by technological and economic arguments. While this discourse holds some merit, it overlooks the cultural and historical background against which 3D cinema rose to prominence. Shifting research focus from the technological and economic to the cultural, this project uncovers the presence of trauma in 3D cinema of the fifties and D3D of the new millennium, and argues 3D cinema to be a privileged form to engage with traumatic themes. As trauma is uncovered in 3D cinema, connections are drawn between the narratives and poetics of the films discussed and post-traumatic themes prevalent in the US post WWII, and post September 11 respectively. Focusing on questions of representation, embodiment and temporality, which hold a central role both in 3D cinema and trauma theory, this project finds that 3D cinema narratives and poetics of each period resonated with the cultural trauma that preceded it.</p>

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Now is the time (to put on your glasses): 3-D film exhibition in Britain, 1951––55

Cited by 6 publications

References 2 publications

3D UK? 3D History and the Absent British Pioneers

3D UK? 3D History and the Absent British Pioneers

Incredible but Very Real: 3D Cinema and Trauma in the Wake of WWII and 9/11

Incredible but Very Real: 3D Cinema and Trauma in the Wake of WWII and 9/11

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