Wrath of the Titans, Madagascar 3: Europe’s most wanted and The Amazing Spider Man — what do these movies have in common?

You have to wear glasses to watch them! And these are no ordinary glasses, mind you; these are anaglyph glasses which are specially worn when watching three-dimensional movies, popularly known as 3D.

Of course, we all know about 3D movies. These are the movies that bring all our favourite, and sometimes not-so-favourite, characters right inside the theatre, giving the movie-watching experience an entirely new definition!

Let’s understand how this ‘anaglyph’ technology works. An anaglyph image is created when two pictures are filmed or photographed from two different angles. Two cameras — or two lenses in the same camera — are placed at a distance of two-and-a-half to three inches of each other. The lenses are in opposite colours, for example, red and blue, or, cyan and a 3D image is created.

When we look at the picture wearing these special, coloured glasses, our brain begins to work overtime: it sees the areas that are filtered red as white, and the blue or cyan, as black. Then it blends the two images as one, and creates an illusion of depth. This is why, when we watch Titanic sinking, it looks as if it’s right in front of us!

Did you know that the concept of 3D has been around since the late 18th century? People had been working on it for a long time, but the first ‘official’ 3D movie was documented in 1915. On June 10, 1915, movie-goers in New York got their first taste of the 3D experience when they were shown parts from documentaries and a movie. They had to wear red and green coloured spectacles and the creators used coloured filters to produce left eye and right eye images which were photographed two-and-a-half inches apart — more-or-less the same distance between our eyes.

This was an experiment to judge the audience’s reaction to 3D; unfortunately, it did not receive an encouraging response since the images came out looking very fuzzy and blurred.

Seven years down, it was time to test waters again, and in 1922 the first 3D feature film was released in the US. Titled, Power of love, this movie used the following technique to create 3D images: two film strips were used — one red and the other green — that were kept one over the other. These images were viewed using anaglyph glasses. Again, the response wasn’t very good.

By late 1940s and ’50s, television had become quite popular, so people did not have to rely on cinema to provide them with entertainment. The cinema industry had to come up with something new to attract the audience, and this is when 3D movies came to the rescue. A few years ago, a gentleman called Edward H. Land had introduced a technology in which polarising sheets were used to create a 3D image.

This is how it worked: two images were projected at the same time, one over the other, on the same area using polarised sheets which are placed at 90 degree angles to each other. The audience wore disposable glasses with similar coloured filters. The effect was created because each eye received only a selected part of the image, and lo and behold, a 3D images was born!

The 1950s also witness the first feature-length colour 3D movie, Bwana Devil, which is considered a milestone in the history of 3D cinema. Although the movie itself failed, it paved way for sparking a 3D boom in the US.

We’ll now fast-forward through the 1960s and zoom into 1970s. The ’60s saw the invention of Trioptiscope lens (used in space vision system), a technology that did away with two-strips used to create a 3D image. With only one strip to work with, the making of a film became less costly, which helped the 3D industry to grow. Then came Stereovision, which gave birth to movies like Dial M for murder. Slowly and gradually, the cinema industry in the US was beginning to understand the importance of 3D, and was actively working on improving it. Ever heard of Star Wars? A milestone, indeed.

By 1980s, Hollywood was bringing out lots of 3D movies, one of the most famous being Jaws. Ask your parents, and they’ll tell you how realistic the movie looked — and equally scary. By now, a lot of people had jumped on the bandwagon and the industry saw a constant trickle of new and innovative developments in the 3D arena. Stereovision gave way to Stereospace, which in turn had to make place for Dynavision. All of these technologies continued to improve the 3D experience.

Eventually, 3D came to be known as we enjoy it today: the iMax. The hi-definition pictures have become larger-than-life, the impact a bit too realistic — especially if you’re watching movies like Jurassic Park. And now there’s no dearth of some fantastic 3D collection in cinemas that will definitely bowl you over.