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Show Blocks Making i Real Movies HOLLYWOOD Three-dimensional movies. that pry actors away from the scenery and make Lana Turner's curves look curvier. are ready to hit the screen. But their inventor wails that no studio will dish out money for his trick. Joe Valentine. one of movie-lnnd's movie-lnnd's top cameramen, developed" a gadget that brought depth tcF the screen back in 1940. It'sJ gathering dust. No studio will cough up dough to back the project. "Two-dimensional movies we have now look flat flat actors against flat scenery," explains Valentine, who's up for an Oscar for photographing "Joan of Arc," a movie that cold've used a few more dimensions. i 'i Lighting Now Used "We use lighting now to try to. bring them away from the scenery. scen-ery. Colors of costumes and sets are chosen carefully so actors won't melt into the background. "In three-dimensional movies the actor stands out with natural roundness. He appears to be right in the theater." Miss T. looks twice as whistle- able, and Humphrey Bogart ap-I ap-I pears to dash with his gat right into the audience. Trees look rounder and people look like people, which would be a change. And the moviegoer who gets stuck in a side seat won't have to squint at long thin men on s!t distorted screen, either. Miss Turner looks round, no matter where he sits. Needed Special Glasses . Years ago one company billed "a three-dimen'sional movie" in thea:'. tres, but that was a fluke. You had to wear special spectacles to see curvier curves. The new dimension comes from a prism that's inserted behind the camera lens. That costs about $500. The camera then gets two images instead of one. Prisms would have to be installed in every, theater-projection machine in ths country, costing another $500 per. "Not half as expensive as sound was to install," snorts the cameraman. camera-man. "And it would bring change and greater scope to the screen as sound did. Bring customers back to the theaters, too." |