Smashing the glass: JAWS 3-D and the return of the third dimension
Hello, Islanders!
With this month’s celebration of JAWS 3D, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the history of the 3D process and why it became so popular in the 1980s.
Believe it or not, the first 3D film debuted in 1922. Released in Los Angeles and titled The Power of Love, it was not only the first 3D feature film shown using red/green anaglyph glasses, but it was also the first feature film to utilize dual strip projection. For the next thirty years, 3D made sporadic appearances on the big screen. It may have remained that way if not for the invention of television.
Once television became an affordable form of recreation, movie theatre owners began to panic as their customers opted to stay home and watch the tube rather then spend money at the box office. The so-called “Golden Age” of 3D bean in 1952 with the release of the film of the first color stereoscopic feature, Bwana Devil, which was produced, written, and directed by Arch Oboler, a prolific writer with a great imagination. Even today, I enjoy listening to a lot of radio plays Oboler wrote on satellite radio. Other films, including House of Wax, fueled the love for the new process. However, after only two years, the problems associated with 3D caused Hollywood to stop making the films. In order for the 3D process to work properly, each theatre was sent two prints of the film.
In order for the process to work properly, the films had to be threaded up in the projectors exactly the same way. Here’s a little “inside baseball” information for you. When a film is “threaded up” in a projector, the projectionist first “sets the gate,” which mean he threads the film in such a way that it will come on screen in frame. Both prints had to be threaded up in exactly the way, with the same individual frame of film on both prints set in the gate. Even a one frame difference would cause the process to become almost unwatchable. This also meant that if there was a film break on one print, the exact same number of frames in the exact same spot on the other print had to be removed. As you can imagine, this could become very time consuming. It also became more expensive as you often needed two projectionists in the booth to start the film properly. You have to remember that this was in the days before platter systems or today’s hard drives. Films were run reel by reel.
It took nearly another thirty years before 3D returned to prominence with moviegoers. Films like Comin’ at Ya! and Parasite became box office hits. Aware of this success, JAWS and JAWS 2 veteran production designer Joe Alves approached Universal with an idea. Why not make a third JAWS film, utilizing the newly re-popular 3D process. We can call it JAWS 3D! Universal was sold. Armed with an $18 million budget and the largest shark to appear in the series, Alves and company went to Orlando. While the finished project receives mixed reviews from fans, JAWS 3D remains the highest grossing 3D film released in the 20th Century, bringing in over $88 million.
Forty years later, 3D is still prominent in theatres. With the invent of the Real 3D process, older films, including JAWS, have been re-issued in the process, to both big box office and rave reviews. If you didn’t make it to cinemas last fall to catch JAWS in all of its 3D glory, I suggest you keep an eye out for a random screening near you. You really haven’t screamed until Ben Gardner’s head seemingly lands in your lap!
Words by Michael A Smith. Michael is co-author of Jaws 2: The Making Of The Hollywood Sequel. You can order the book by contacting Michael at OsFanMike@aol.com.
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