Mike Scott on FD4

Local 3-D production at leading edge of film trend

Posted by Mike Scott, movie writer, The Times-Picayune May 27, 2008 4:30AM

Built out of stacked metal cargo containers skinned with a veneer of Hollywood magic, the race-track grandstand rising out of the weeds and warehouses of the Almonaster Avenue industrial corridor in the shadow of the Interstate 10 high rise is easily the most striking feature of the eastern New Orleans set of the horror-thriller "Final Destination 4."

It might not be the most significant feature, however.

For that, you'd have to look past the green screen that will permit the digital extension of the grandstand, past the racing cars lined up nearby, and past the dozens of oh-so-expendable extras who -- in "Final Destination" tradition -- are about to see their screen lives snuffed out en masse.

Ask anybody on set -- or anywhere in the movie industry, for that matter -- and they'll tell you the real story here has to do with the cameras -- the 3-D cameras.

Forgetting the insider geekspeak -- the $30 million-plus film marks the first deployment of advanced high-definition PACE cameras employing the latest in Fusion 3-D technology, blah blah blah -- "Final Destination 4" is at the leading edge of a forthcoming flood of big-budget 3-D films set to hit theaters.

It all starts this summer, with the fantasy adventure "Journey to the Center of the Earth," starring Brendan Fraser and based on the Jules Verne novel, and it continues with at least 10 digital 3-D features set for next year, according to a recent tally by The Hollywood Reporter.

And that's just the beginning. Partly in an effort to give audiences, with their multiplex-caliber living rooms, a reason to keep going to movie theaters, Disney/Pixar recently announced that with the release of "Up" next year, all of their animated features will be released in 3-D, including re-releases of "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2." Animation rival DreamWorks will follow suit. George Lucas is still working on 3-D-ifying the original "Star Wars" trilogy.

Keep in mind, these aren't your father's 3-D flicks. You'll still need special glasses to avoid going cross-eyed, but gone is much of the reliance on gimmickery used in, say, Vincent Price's 1953 horror-thriller "House of Wax," or even in more recent 3-D fare, such as 1983's "Jaws 3-D."

Today's 3-D equipment is several generations removed from those earlier films, which allows for more seamless effects. "Final Desination 4," the first 3-D movie shot primarily on location, producer Craig Perry said, includes not only those snazzy Fusion cameras but also a one-of-a-kind mobile post-production facility capable of instant playback in 3-D.

In addition, "Final Destination" director David R. Ellis said filmmakers' and audiences' sensibilities have changed.

Ellis ("Snakes on a Plane," "Final Destination 2") said the goal with his film, scheduled this week to wrap its 60-day local shoot before going into post-production, is to use the 3-D technology not merely as a means of startling audiences, but more subtly, as a way of creating an immersive environment that draws them into the story.

"Traditionally, directors have been overusing the 3-D element and making a gimmick out of it, so they kind of throw things in your face all the time," he said during a recent break in shooting at the grandstand set, near the Crescent Crown beverage distribution center.

"That's cool for its moments," Ellis said, "but for me it's more about the depth you're giving a 3-D film, where you just feel like you're there. It puts the audience in the environment."

At the same time, though, he and his production team are taking steps to make sure the story -- the heart of any good film -- doesn't become an afterthought, lost in the focus on whiz-bangery.

"We're shooting this like a 2-D movie and concentrating on the story, the performances, the action, great shots, and not expecting the 3-D elements to carry the film," Ellis said. "If it's good in 2-D, it'll be great in 3-D."

It makes good sense to focus on story when, because the exhibition industry lags, most people still are going to be watching a 2-D version of the film, and don't want to be reminded what they are missing from the 3-D version.

The upcoming spate of 3-D movies requires expensive projection equipment that the vast majority of theaters don't yet have. Many people likely won't have the option to see Hollywood's 3-D offerings in anything but 2-D until theater owners shell out big bucks for retrofitting -- and who knows how long that will take? Complicating the matter is the fact that competing 3-D technologies require proprietary projection systems incompatible with one another, creating for theaters the equivalent of the late, great Blu-ray versus HD-DVD dilemma.

Locally, only the IMAX theaters at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas and at the Holiday Square Cinema 12 in Covington have 3-D projection capabilities (and then only in the IMAX format), and the aquarium doesn't often show Hollywood films.

New Orleans-area movie buffs often have had to travel to Baton Rouge or beyond to get their 3-D fix.

One way "Final Destination 4" -- which stars Mykelti Williamson ("Forrest Gump," "August Rush") -- is like the earliest 3-D films is that it is a horror flick. And like the other three films in the popular franchise -- all of which were shot in traditional 2-D -- it involves a group of young people who, after narrowly avoiding being killed in a massive accident, find themselves hunted by a horribly inventive Grim Reaper bent on correcting fate.

In addition to shooting at its newly constructed Almonaster grandstand, the "FD4" crew has shot at, among other places, a spit-and-polished New Orleans Shopping Centre next to the Superdome, which has been shuttered since Hurricane Katrina.

By shooting locally, the production was able to save a bundle of cash via the state's tax incentives, but local officials weren't the only ones happy to have "Final Destination 4" come to town. When it came time to assemble a local crew, resumes came flooding in.

"A lot of people took this movie because it was a 3-D movie," Perry said. "They were like, 'I want to be one of the few people in Louisiana who've worked on a 3-D movie.' It is an asset when added to the resume."

That would put them ahead of the curve if Hollywood's rapidly escalating flirtations with 3-D takes root -- though to hear Perry talk about it, there's little question that a peek at the "Final Destination 4" set is a peek into a future in which 3-D films are par for the course.

"If, or I should say when, 3-D takes hold the way I think it will," he said, "people will buy their own 3-D glasses and take them to the movies.

"This is the future right here."

All pics by Jim Sheldon, a very, very good and cool guy: