I’ve just returned from the 10-day World 3D Film Expo II at Grauman’s Egyptian Theater. It sure is strange to not be in downtown Hollywood immersed in 3D and movies every waking moment, walking around in sunny 80-90 degree heat. The first thing I’ve noticed, too, is how early the sun is now setting here in Seattle — about 2 min. earlier each night for 11 nights has made a big difference. Er, I’m still kinda post-vacation shell shocked, so pardon me if I ramble a little. (And do I really have to go back to work tomorrow??)

What an incredible experience. I could hardly have asked for a better time (let along a better 2-week vacation from work.) The film festival itself was fantastic. Every day had at least 2 or 3 features, but about half the days ran 14 hours long and had 6 features each. Rare shorts, cartoons, and even a couple newly-shot video interviews preceeded most shows, and every show had an intermission (as almost all did originally) — a tradition I sorely miss, even if in this case it was due only to the capacity of the theater’s projectors.

No preview trailers were shown, not even as a short early afternoon filler show. This is too bad and a little surprising since event producer SabuCat Productions owns trailers for many (if not all) of the 3D films, albeit in varying states of projectability. But it’s also completely understandable, given the amount of effort already involved just with the shorts and features. Fortunately, no less than 45 of these are included on their 2003 DVD, Festival of 3D Movie Trailers, produced for the first 3D Expo. (It also includes some nice anaglyphic sequences, including the 1934 Lumiere 3D experiments.)

All films at the Expo (with only a few special exceptions) were projected using polarized 35mm dual-interlock, where two projectors are synchronized to run one reel of 35mm film each — literally the left and right eyes. The legends of 3D migraines are grossly exaggerated — although it needs almost constant attention from the projectionists, almost everything I saw at the festival was sharp and clear (though some studios’ 3D cameras were clearly more effective than others). At its best it was completely natural. Most of the prints were either sole surviving prints, or brand new prints rescued from sole surviving negatives and even camera elements. Everyone at SabuCat Productions and the 3D Film Archive deserves a standing ovation.

The projectionists at the Egyptian also deserve the highest praise. Except for a few snafus (and the opening Saturday was a bumpy ride), they did a great and attentive job running 2 projectors in careful sync for 12 hours and more at a time, all the while constantly tuning the notoriously persnickety 3D imaging and coping with some 75 or so films, most 50 years old and in all states of repair, every one of them being a double set of itself. The ovation and cheers they got on closing night were well earned.

I was trepedatious about the legendarily snub-ish Hollywood crowds, but mostly it was a gloriously nerdy crowd. There were a few standoffish people (and I reckon some found me a boor as well), but mostly everyone was friendly and happy to be there, having come from all points. The staff remained friendly, efficient, and helpful even in the face of exhaustion. (Of course, we were all nearly as tired ourselves and easy to herd.) There were about, oh, 100-150 maybe 200 die hard pass holders and over the week people clustered into various squatters camps throughout the main floor and balcony.

Speaking of which, I have to interject: watching movies from the balcony of the Egyptian kicks ass. It’s bar none the best movie balcony I’ve experienced. Stadium seating and not a bum seat in the place (except for the back row). Moreso, the 3D from there was flawless and sometimes even better than on the main floor.

I made fine new friends with Bob Jessopp, a videographer and neighborhood councilman (if I have that right) all the way from Aukland, New Zealand; L.A. locals Mike Hyatt and Micki Sackler — a wonderful couple with long careers in film tech, collection, restoration and presentation; Greg, a video and AV systems guy from Lexington, KY, not too terribly far from my own hometown of Indianapolis. Also Andrew, a media studies professor at a community college in New York was knocking around. 3D historian Bob Furmanek and his assistant Jack Theakston were very friendly and, of course, knowledgeable. (Bob even knew about Captain Milkshake when I asked him about it.) Festival producer Jeff Joseph and technical director (and author) Dan Symmes (pron. “Sims”) were likewise, mingling freely with the crowd dressed in t-shirts, jeans, and their omnipresent radio headets. Jeff’s wife was also very kind.

It being Hollywood and a rare film event in a storied theater, I had a few brushes with celebrity, of course. Director Joe Dante, who is on the 3D Film Preservation Fund’s advisory board, was there for many screenings and also led several Q&As. I sat next to he and his family for one film. I also got to meet Curtis Hanson, the director of LA Confidential who lately has been producing; Bob Swarthe, who did the effects animation for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Trek: The Motion Picture and special effects for One From the Heart (an unjustly slandered film); Schawn Belston, one of the top negative and film restoration guys at Fox. Leonard Maltin (also a 3DFPF advisory board member) was also around. Effects genius Dennis Muren from Industrial Light and Magic attended Dial M For Murder and The Charge of Feather River (though I didn’t get to say hi). Plus any number of actors and film folk, some of whom I recognized and others I did not. Also many of the actors, directors, and stunt men in the Expo’s films appeared for Q&A sessions, as well.

The Egyptian Theater, where the first 3D Expo was also held back in 2003, is just a block east of downtown Hollywood — Grauman’s Chinese Theater (where long-suffering actors in character outfits pimp tourist snapshots from the throngs for $10 a throw), the giant mall built to look like the legendary Gates of Babylon from DW Griffith’s Intolerance, the El Capitan Theater — a landmark theater now now controlled by Disney and ABC (with entrances to The Little Mermaid and Jimmy Kimmel Live mere steps away from each other), the legendary 1927 Roosevelt Hotel (now crappy and too hip for itself), the chotchke shops, the whole works. All within like a 2 or 3 block strip on Hollywood Boulevard. Very surreal, all the more because the area is actually pretty seedy and has only recently begun a clean-up (read: gentrification). The weekend club traffic is bizarre.

I stayed at the Highland Gardens, just northwest of the hubbub by a block or two (at Sycamore and Franklin, right next to the Magic Castle Club and Hotel). I was very happy with the place — reasonably priced, especially for the location (a 15 min. walk to the theater), and I had a gas kitchenette stocked with basic dishes, pans, etc. There were some problems with my first room (which was also a little dark and cavey and right next to the only courtyard entrance). I wasn’t playing the heavy at all, but before I knew it they upgraded me to a huge suite away from the rest and overlooking the pool, for the full 11 days, at no extra charge. Now that is service! Although the building is overall a little old and worn, the maid service was great and everything was clean and (mostly) functioning.

Jeez, so much more to say about the trip, but for now I’ll close with my current short list of 3D Expo II highlights. (And do I really have to go back to work again? Did I ask that already?)

Wings of the Hawk. Directed by Budd Boetticher; Clifford Stine, director of photography. Man, what a great 3D flick, and a good movie besides. I’d like to see it again flat, but I think I’d chalk this up as one of the classic ’50s westerns. In 3D, the photography has some of the best and most enveloping depth of all the features I’ve seen. Part of it is the genius of setting the action on steep hillsides and inside small canyons, with the frame staged not only laterally but vertically as well, in 3D space. But that’s only part of the formula, because both the director of photography (Clifford Stine) and the camera optics themselves were obviously superior. I remember thinking when it ended that not one single shot of the film had felt like a throw-away, and the big 3D gimmicks — things thrown or poked at the inevitably tittering audience — were actually done in context so they remained part of the story experience instead of being a clownish aside. Boetticher’s direction is confident and steady, and his sense of action and how to use depth with it were bang on (pun intended). I definitely want to see more of his films, which are unfortunately hard to find on DVD. …By the way, the title of the film has absolutely nothing to do with anything. The story is supposedly based on a novel of the same title, it would seem perhaps only the title and few other pieces remain.

Cease Fire! Directed by Owen Crump; Ellis W. Carter, cinematographer. Filmed on location near the war zone in South Korea in the months just before the cease fire of the Korean War. Crump persuaded producer Hal Wallis to back taking 3D cameras there to film a story with actual soldiers there cast in all the parts. Although there was a basic script, Crump encouraged the men to create their own dialog by improvising with what they would normally say in a situation. The 3D (a new print from the camera negatives in pristine black and white) was absolutely some of the best 3D photography ever. Beautiful depth of field and almost always very well framed. Staged footage and battle recreations were combined with extensive location B-roll and at least some of what looked an awful lot like actual combat footage. The battle recreations involved US Army sharpshooters and ordnance instead of Hollywood effects rigs. The pacing lagged at a few points, but as a film Cease Fire definitely holds its own as a war flick let alone that rarer breed, the Korean War flick. And oh that great 3D. More on this film later.

Inferno. A great Technicolor noir with Rhonda Fleming with outstanding outdoor photography of a central character crawling through desert canyons and cliffs.

The Diamond Wizard (USA), The Diamond (UK) – a very well done and unjustly obscure British detective noir with techno-sci-fi tinges. It was beautifully shot in black and white 3D, but never actually printed for it. In fact, the final 3D negative was never actually completed until the last elements were recovered in Britain only a few years ago. SabuCat Productions and the 3D Film Preservation Fund managed to complete the 3D negative and create the first dual 35mm print ever. The Expo II screening was the world premiere.

The Stranger Wore a Gun with Randolph Scott playing a mercenary cowboy with a heart of gold who becomes embroiled in an enticingly dark and twisted plot of double and triple crosses. A good film with very good 3D, this remains in my top-most favorites of the festival. Alas, its one-of-a-kind negative means it will soon be lost forever.

The Charge at Feather River with Guy Madison and Frank Lovejoy is an absolutely classic conservative ’50s shoot-em-up western set in the Indian wars and the costly rescue of two settler girls abducted by a tribe five years earlier. Well paced, full of constant well-staged action, some very intriguing social subtext (both intentional and not), and excellent 3D photography to boot.

The Glass Web. Director Jack Arnold’s nearly-lost third 3D film, and a very good one at that. An above-average noir murder suspence thriller set behind the scenes of a hit weekly TV crime show. Being the early ’50s, TV shows were produced live to air, and there’s great footage of that. Edward G. Robinson is at his sociopathic best in a role that evidently got him off the Hollywood “grey list” of the time.

And of course the Rarities show on the afternoon of closing day was outstanding and literally history making. Among the delights — about which more later — was a miraculously restored print of the earliest known surviving 3D footage, shot circa 1922 – 1924.

Unfortunately, the SpaceVision prints of Paul Morrissey’s demented Frankenstein (1974, in a literally brand new print from the original neg being run for the very first time) and Arch Oboler’s snoozy and over-long The Bubble both suffered from issues with the lens system at the theater. This was very much to the chagrin of the producers. Apparently they were not able to obtain the proper rig and had to make do with a last-minute substandard replacement of some kind. The small projected image was further marred by lens-induced shadowing in the right eye and cropping too large for the actual aspect ratio of the image. My recollection of The Bubble when I saw it in the ’80s was the image was dark, the 3D eye straining, and other issues. These screenings were not really a fair representation, either, but I can’t say I found it much better than the ’80s.

More later I’m sure, especially once I figure out how to get the photos off my cell phone…

So…do I really really have to go to work tomorrow?