Marinhood: How did you come up with the idea of the 3D Sideshow?
Robert Bloomberg: I’ve been involved with the National Stereoscopic Association (NSA) for decades and was the Northern California director for over 20 years. Each year the NSA hosts a convention called 3DCom, and a main feature of the convention is the Stereo Theater, which showcases the works of both amateur and professional photographers and filmmakers. I thought it was a shame that the general public, especially kids, had little opportunity to see these innovative 3D films. So I had the idea to put together The 3D Sideshow.
Can you tell me more about the variety of shorts a family will experience?
Included in this collection you will see innovative shorts showcasing both big budget films as well as low to no budget films. There is a wide variety of distinctly different approaches to 3D, including computer generated imagery (CGI), hand drawn animation, stop motion, time lapse, as well as live action. There are different genres including music videos like OK GO’s “All Is Not Lost” and “White Knuckles” and Jeff Boller’s “A Geek Like Me”, two submissions from Disney, “Get a Horse” and “Feast”, an amazing historical film by Georges Méliès, an incredible 2D to 3D conversion of the classic sequence from Harold Lloyd’s “Safety Last”, a Simpson’s short “The Longest Daycare”, and the world premiere of “One Night in Hell” from Queen guitarist, Brian May’s London Stereoscopic Company.
What were some of the challenges you faced in bringing this culmination of short films together?
Deciding which films to include in the program was a big challenge. There are so many great films out there, and I wanted to choose not only my favorites, but ones that complimented each other and made for a good program. It’s like planning a dinner party where you want all your guests to get along and have a good time.
Then there was making sure all the films were in the proper format to show on the theater’s projection system. This DCP (Digital Cinema Package) system usually requires expensive conversions by a large production house. Fortunately, there are now several free shareware programs online, such as OpenDCP, which I used to convert those films that were sent to me in other formats.