Now, a 3D film without the glasses

Mirror peeks into the magic factory and introduces you to the wizards who craft your favourite silver screen moments
If you hold up two pencils in front of you, one 12 inches from your face, and the other 24 inches away, and you stare at one, you will think you are looking at three pencils. But if you look past them into the room, it'll appear as if you're holding four pencils.If you put on 3D glasses, because of optical illusion, the pencils multiply," explains London-based inventor James Ashbey.
James, along with Miles Adams, Head of Technology at the Ying Group, has been working on a unique EDS ­ Enhanced Depth Solutions ­ technology which promises a 3D feel without the glasses. The duo has used the Anglo-American technology in Rudhramadevi, a Telugu-Tamil Malayalam trilingual, being produced by Guna Teamworks and is also being dubbed in Hindi.It is directed by Gunasekhar who won the National Award for Ramayanam, adjudged Best Children's Film in 1998.
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Set in the 13th century, Rudhramadevi features Rana Daggubatti, Anushka Shetty, Allu Arjun, Prakash Raj and Baba Sehgal as members of the Kakatiya Dynasty.
The film was initially shot entirely in 2D. Miles sighs as he recalls the action sequences with really fast movements. “It was extremely difficult to con vert them into a cognitive EDS illusion,“ he says. “We had to work on each frame twice, one eye at a time, so that the viewer could enjoy the sequences without the niggling headache that comes with 3D glasses."
It was a challenge for his team which had earlier worked on Hollywood films like King Kong, Kung Fu Panda, Inception and Avatar, because with the focus being on enhancing depth, the images tended to lose colour. “So then we began to concentrate on colour temperatures to match the original footage so the director could have the cinematic experience he wanted," Miles points out.
The film has been shot at the Thousand Pillar Temple in Warangal and Miles had to develop some specific algorithms for effects like blurring the background, effective conversion from 2D and nondetectable illusion visible in every scene. “It was an intensive process which took over eight months," he says. But will EDS give the same feel as 3D? “The quality is the same but EDS does not have the sharp edges that you see in 3D or HD.Detailing is less but we are not working towards sharpening the images because 3D gives a digital feel while EDS is more lifelike," informs James. He points out that Indian films have as much detailing and professionalism as any Hollywood film and there is a huge market for competing technologies here. “With the influx of 3D films, we have realised that the stereoscopic system is too difficult to handle. It's labour intensive and the technology is expensive,“ says James. “We wanted to create a more life-like imaging solution that gave the same 3D feel, not just in theatres but also on home video. When was the last time you heard someone say, `Hey, I just bought a 3D TV?'"
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