1983 crucial year for acceptance of 3-D films: Quintano
This will be the year that makes or breaks 3-D, predicted Gene Quintano, who with Tony Anthony produced 1983's first 3-D release, "Treasure of the Four Crowns." Quintano said he and his partners, Anthony and Marshall Lupo, are determined to take 3-D out of the "R-rated chop-em-up realm" with "Treasure."
"We consciously set out to make a PG movie, so everyone could go to the theatre and see it," he recalled, "and we wanted to integrate the special effects with the structure so that you don't have to be throwing things at the audience all of the time. Instead, you create an aesthetic 'window effect' so that the viewer thinks he could step up on stage, through a window into the action."
Budgeted at $3.5 million, "Treasure," which Quintano described as an action-adventure story, was shot in Spain. In order to accomodate the effects and the depth of field potential offered by 3-D, the production team constructed a 160-foot-long and 60-foot-high temple where the climactic action scenes that place, Quintano said.
Ironically, Lupo-Anthony-Quintano's initial 3-D effort, 1981's "Comin' At Ya!" was "guilty" of the very things the trio tried to get away from in "Treasure." Quintano said, however, the first film was essentially an experiment to show that the public would go out to see a 3-D movie.
"In 'Comin'' we had gratuitous things like the yo-yo and corn shucking, to show the effect. We had gone to all the majors and nobody thought 3-D had value anymore," he said. "Forgetting artistic consideration for the moment, we showed that it is a viable commercial product."
The film had a "domino" efect, Quintano added, pointing to the current wave of 3-D projects.
One side effect of breaking the ice with "Comin' At Ya!" was that the technology for exhibiting a 3-D film was not easily available.
"The distributors (Filmways) did a terrific job, but their hands were tied in that there were not enough projection devices, theatres didn't have the silver screens and the requests for glasses far exceeded the supply. The 3-D industry was not prepared," Quintano said.
"Comin'" never played in more than 205 theatres, he added. The film, which cost about $1 million to make still grossed over $11 million. By contrast, "Treasure" will be in about 700 theatres by February 11. In just 113 in its first week and a half, it's taken in $2,002,825, and its distributor, Cannon Releasing, has estimated it will hit $30 million hased on these early results.
Halfway through "Treasure's" shoot, the film became a co-production with Cannon Films due to a financing snafu, Quintano said. The money package that Lupo-Anthony-Quintano put together for the film was from Mexico, and the peso was devalued during filming, reducing their production fund to a third of its original size. Cannon was approached long distance and then shown the footage already shot. The company made a decision within 24 hours to come in on the production, Quintano said.
Since "Comin'," 3-D technology has progressed rapidly, with Quintano and his associates in part responsible, he said. The system used to shoot "Comin'" was literally held together with scotch tape by the end of the shoot (in Italy), he said. Through their experience, they had a list of 50 improvements they wanted to make to the system. The filmmakers returned to the United States and put their heads together with Marks Polarized Corp., which had the prototype Marks 3-Depix camera, and Aeroflex, to develop a new system, Lupo-Anthony-Quintano financed the work, Quintano said.
One of the chief advantages offered by the new system that resulted was the mobility, Quintano said. Though still needing more light to shoot in 3-D, the cameraman had more options because he could do hand-held shots.
THe work is continuing, Quintano added. "It's still a small family, and people are spending money to develop its potential. We're going to see more growth in 3-D technology in the next year than we say in the last 25," he predicted.
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