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The evolution of visual media such as
cinema and television is one of the major hallmarks of our modern
civilization. In many ways, these visual media now define our
modern life style. Many of us are curious: what is our life style going to be in a few years?
What kind of films and television are we going to see? Although cinema and television both evolved
over decades, there were stages, which, in fact, were once seen as revolutions:
1) at first, films were silent, then sound was added;
2) cinema and television were initially black-and-white, then
color was introduced;
3) computer imaging and digital special effects
have been the latest major novelty.
So the question is: what is the next revolution in cinema
and television going to be?
If we look at these stages precisely, we can notice that all types of visual media
have been evolving closer to the way we see things in real life.
Sound, colors and computer graphics brought a good part of it, but
in real life we constantly see objects around us at close range,
we sense their location in space, we see them from different
angles as we change position. This has not been possible in
ordinary cinema. Movie images lack true dimensionality and limit
our sense that what we are being seeing is real.
Nearly a century ago, in the 1920s, the great film director Sergei Eisenstein said that the
future of cinematography was the 3d motion pictures. Many other cinema pioneers thought
in the same way. Even the Lumière brothers experimented with three-dimensional (stereoscopic)
images using two films painted in red and blue (or green) colors and projected simultaneously onto the
screen. Viewers saw stereoscopic images through glasses, painted in the opposite colors. But the
resulting image was black-and-white, like in the first feature stereoscopic film "Power of Love"
(1922, USA, Dir. H. Fairhall).
The better stereoscopic films using the principle of light polarization were invented in 1930s
and appeared to the public in the early 50s. After huge initial excitement, nevertheless,
stereoscopic movies have not enjoyed broad application or great success. Though the polarization movie
technology has been improved in every possible way (like in one of the best in the world system "Stereo 70",
developed at NIKFI in Moscow) and in some variations has been used till now (for example, at the IMAX theaters), the stereoscopic
cinema actually has no future. Put the reasons in simple terms, these stereo-films require wearing special polarized viewing
glasses and they cause visual fatigue.
A talented inventor in the USSR, Semjon Ivanov, worked on eliminating
the need for special glasses and developed a system of raster
3D motion pictures, which could be viewed without them. The only 3D
movie theater in the world based on his system was constructed
in Moscow in the 1941. In this theater the 3x4 meters mirror-raster screen created a 3d film "stereo-zone" for each and everyone
of the 200 seats. Several documentary and short feature films were shot and
shown there with long lines at the box office. Nonetheless,
this system had a different technical flaw which was also a
major inconvenience for viewers – the audience had to sit motionless
in stereo-zones while watching these films. Ivanov's attempts
to solve this problem were cut short by his death.
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However in the middle of the century a new innovation in physics brought great optimism to many filmmakers – holography.
Holography was "invented accidentally" in 1947 by the Hungarian scientist
Dennis Gabor in Great Britain while he was working on an
electron microscope. He coined the word and received a Nobel
Prize for inventing holography in 1971. The holographic
image is true three-dimensional: it can be viewed in
different angles without glasses. This innovation could be a new revolution – a new era of holographic cinema and of holographic media in whole.
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But the first holograms were of very poor quality. 3-D holograms
of remarkable quality became possible only after invention
of the laser and work done by Y. Denisyuk, E. Leith, S. Benton
and other scientists during the 1960s and 1970s. The idea of
holographic moviemaking began condensing in the air. The first
holographic filming was made by M. Lehmann in the USA in 1966.
Several holographic films were produced by a couple of French
filmmakers C. Eizykman and G. Fihman, English sculptor Alexander,
Japanese engineers and filmmakers J. Ishikawa, S. Hiyama, K.
Higuchi and others.
But the scientists and artists soon realized that holographic
films showed more the limitations than its potential, which was
attributable to the immense technical difficulties involved
in this technology. For example, in France the holographic movie
must be seen inside an apparatus that was 7 feet high,
24 inches wide, and 28 inches deep. These holographic
films were on lifeless objects, and they could be seen merely
by one or two viewers simultaneously, which was not suitable
for the public movie shows. That is why until recently, not many
people have ever seen it and experienced the magic of a holographic movie.
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Research in holographic cinematography was also started in the
former Soviet Union in 1974 at the National Cinema and Photo
Research Institute (NIKFI). It was funded by the State and led
by Professor Victor Komar, the Director of this Institute, who developed
the new principles of making holographic motion pictures, based
on a totally innovative public-oriented approach. The major goal was:
a holographic movie should be seen by the multiple viewers simultaneously in a
movie theater without any inconvenient personal accessories, in full color and
with better picture quality than the best current 35 mm films.
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After extensive research and development the world's first true-public
two-minute holographic film with a monochromatic image was produced
by Komar's team in 1976 and it was shown in October
1976 at the XII congress of the International Cinematographic
Associations Union (UNIATEC) in Moscow. The participants were
amazed: the three-dimensional moving images could go out of
a screen into any direction and even go around the screen.
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The scientific community around the world responded to the Russian
achievements in this area with high praise and splendid reviews.
The eminent English scientist, Bernard Happe, editor of the British
Encyclopedia of Television, who attended this congress, wrote:
"delegates who saw the actual results were left with the sense
of having been present at a historic occasion, comparable with
the classic demonstrations of past pioneers in film and television
and having equally vast and perhaps unrecognized potentialities".
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The journal "Laser+Electrooptics" (November, 1978, Germany)
analyzed the R&D in holographic cinematography
which had been done by various researchers around the world
(Hains, Brumm, Leith, Hsiao, Pole and Denisyuk). The journal
noted that all this work had not yielded positive results and
that "only V. Komar was able to demonstrate for the first time
a short holographic film using his method in October 1976, and
that this date now has become historical". And the American Society of
Motion Picture and Television Engineers conferred Prof. Komar its annual award
for outstanding achievements in movies technology.
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A few years later Komar's group solved the problem of color.
And several short holographic films with color 3-D images were
shot and projected in 1984. Now the holography had demonstrated
its potential. It was unprecedented in public film and the effect
it created upon those who saw it was absolutely stupendous.
After this major achievement the idea of the holographic movies
started becoming popular among filmmakers. Such as in a speech
at a conference of Italian movie-makers in 1985, the renowned
film director Andrei Tarkovsky said that "the most important
thing for cinema is for it to become holographic".
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In further pursing their research, Komar's group created a working
experimental system of holographic motion pictures. In 1986,
the Gorky Film Studio in Moscow started shooting the first 20-minute
holographic movie. Simultaneously the USSR government approved
plans for the construction of the first holographic movie theater with 50 seats.
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But with the beginning of perestroika, state financing of holographic
cinema R&D (as well as the majority of R&D in science and engineering
fields in the USSR) was terminated.
Nevertheless, Komar's team didn’t give up. Being cut financially from the holographic movie-making,
they developed the technology of static holographic projection for multiple viewing zones, which opened up new
means for advertising and show-making: new types of holographic advertising, presentations and holographic shows.
Now such a rather simple and inexpensive static holographic projector can be used for advertising, exhibitions,
show making, education and so on—just as usual slide-projectors are used—but thus we receive a 3d color image.
In 1991 the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded NIKFI an Oscar for Technical Achievements
in the field of 3-dimentional filmmaking. It was stated in the Oscar diploma that "no other group or individual
has shown such sustained dedication to the 3-D system". This Oscar certainly became one of the highest
world's recognitions of the work of Victor Komar who headed all NIKFI's R&D in three-dimensional cinematography
during several decades.
In the meantime the technology of holographic cinema was getting better and better and a possibility of its
commercial application was becoming more obvious. Roland Bykov, a very prominent
film maker in Russia, perfectly understood it. In late 90s he became interested in filming the first
feature holographic movie in the world and began negotiations with Komar's NIKFI laboratory. Bykov had
already begun raising money to build a commercial holographic theater, but his sudden death put a stop to
his project. There were other attempts, however until now building the world's first holographic movie
theater remains a major challenge and a major investment opportunity.
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The 90s became a revolution of digital technologies in the field of media. It could not leave aside
Victor Komar and his colleagues. In the middle of 90s Komar's group together with the South-Korean
Institute of Science and Technology developed a new experimental 3d television system with holographic
screen, using no glasses. This development opened remarkable horizons not only for TV, but also for the
new ways of computer modeling of 3d virtual reality. And it opened horizons for a new digital system of
3-dimensional cinema as well.
Komar's group has been intensively working on the new system of digital 3D cinema from 2001 till today
and now this system is ready for commercial application too. It is based on other principles, rather than the holographic
one, but it also does not need glasses and provides the high quality of picture required at the modern movie theaters.
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In 2002 the Russian Academy of Cinematographic Arts awarded Prof. Komar
the Russian national film award called the "Nika", which is the Russian equivalent of an Oscar, for his
outstanding contribution into cinematography. One of the leading US experts in holography Professor Stephen A. Benton
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote in 2002: "I am a big fan of Prof. Komar's work ever..."
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Now the holographic project has become much more complex and promising than its original concept of mid-80s.
In 1986 the Gorky Film Studio was going to shoot a simple doll-animated 20-minutes film. Recently
Prof. Komar's team has developed the technology to shoot on locations, where the large objects
cannot be illuminated by lasers. Then the set of views is calculated by means of a special computer
program and is transferred onto holographic film stock. Thus the last major obstacle
holographic cinema technology faced has been removed.
For the other cases, when the holographic celluloid film stock is not applicable for any reasons
(for example, when the record of film is done on digital media such as DVD), the 3D digital
cinema can be an excellent alternative. The production of the holographic and 3D digital feature films can now begin.
These technologies of holographic and 3-D digital cinematography are ready and they are completely revolutionary.
Today the capabilities of holographic and 3-D digital movies far outstrip
ordinary cinema – they are in a completely new league all by themselves. And everybody knows –
holographic and 3-D digital movies are the future in filmmaking. This is a whole new era in the world of media.
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