Books about 3D movies

[Box for Pee-wee]

Please forgive me and redirect me if there is already a thread for this (I searched and couldn't find anything), but I am looking for recommendations for books about 3D movies. I've come across the work of Ray Zone and I'm going to order one of his books but are there any particular books that are good for learning more about the history and industry of 3D cinema? Thanks!

[petergee]

Originally Posted by Box for Pee-wee

Please forgive me and redirect me if there is already a thread for this (I searched and couldn't find anything), but I am looking for recommendations for books about 3D movies. I've come across the work of Ray Zone and I'm going to order one of his books but are there any particular books that are good for learning more about the history and industry of 3D cinema? Thanks!

I know it's not a book per se, but all you need to know about 3-D can be found here: http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/

Now if only Bob could find some spare time to write a book...

[Box for Pee-wee]

Originally Posted by petergee

I know it's not a book per se, but all you need to know about 3-D can be found here: http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/

Now if only Bob could find some spare time to write a book...

Thanks for this. I've read some of these articles before and they are great! With all of the restoration work the 3DFA does I doubt Bob will have time to write a book anytime soon.

[Lee A Stewart]

3-D Movies: A History and Filmography of Stereoscopic Cinema. By R. M. Hays

ISBN:0-89950-407-8

Mcfarland & Company Publishers
Box 611
Jefferson, North Carolina 28640

Book is green with gold lettering. No dust jacket.

If you can't find a copy, PM me and we can work out a price for my copy.

[br3ttD]

I haven’t read the R.M. Hays book but I’ve heard not all the information in that book is accurate and should be avoided.

I do have this book, Amazing 3-D
https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-3-D-H.../dp/0316582832
It covers 3-D movies from the beginning up to when it was published in 1982 so it’s a bit dated. There’s a good section on Golden Age 3-D movies. Briefly covers 3-D in the 60s and 70s and also a section on 3-D comic books. Lots of anaglyph 3-D pictures throughout the book.

Around the same time Starlog Press put out a book called Fanastic 3-D but I wasn’t able to find it. Maybe check eBay.

Cinefantastique magazine did a 3-D double issue in September 1983. There’s some good articles on Spacehunter, Jaws 3-D, Metalstorm and other 3-D movies that came out at the time. Think I saw some on eBay.

[Jlardonio]

Originally Posted by br3ttD

I haven’t read the R.M. Hays book I’ve heard not all the information in that book is accurate and should be avoided.

I do have this book, Amazing 3-D
https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-3-D-H.../dp/0316582832
It covers 3-D movies from the beginning up to when it was published in 1982 so it’s a bit dated. There’s a good section on Golden Age 3-D movies. Briefly covers 3-D in the 60s and 70s and also a section on 3-D comic books. Lots of anaglyph 3-D pictures throughout the book.

Around the same time Starlog Press put out a book called Fanastic 3-D but I wasn’t able to find it. Maybe check eBay.

Cinefatastique magazine did a 3-D double issue in September 1983. There’s some good articles on Spacehunter, Jaws 3-D, Metalstorm and other 3-D movies that came out at the time. Think I saw some on eBay.

Nice.

[Reg Hartt]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

3-D Movies: A History and Filmography of Stereoscopic Cinema. By R. M. Hays

ISBN:0-89950-407-8

Mcfarland & Company Publishers
Box 611
Jefferson, North Carolina 28640

Book is green with gold lettering. No dust jacket.

If you can't find a copy, PM me and we can work out a price for my copy.

Hayes book is far from the best.

[Box for Pee-wee]

Thanks for these recommendations! I haven't heard of Amazing 3D or the Starlog Press book but both look awesome. I'll definitely check those out! It looks like there are copies of both currently on Ebay.

[bavanut]

Amazing 3-D is very good. It was always a great favorite of mine as a kid. It's a very readable historical overview of all stereoscopic media up to publication date.

Fantastic 3-D also has great merit and is very fun to read. It's a bit like a Whitman's sampler of 3-D articles.

I think very highly of Ray Zone's work. He was a good acquaintance of mine and I wish I'd had the chance to get to know him better. I saw him just two weeks before he passed, and I remember thinking at the time, "It's too bad I have his books on my Kindle and not in print 'cause he can't autograph them." I thought about having him type a note inside them, but that seemed cheesy at the time. I figured I'd have all the time in the world to get print editions for him to sign...

Eddie Sammonds' book The World of 3-D Movies can be had for free online. It has its share of rough edges, but one has to acknowledge the passion, the sincerity, and the dogged determination to gather information at a time when that just wasn't easy to do.

Bob's website is really the gold standard. Start there before you do anything else!

I dearly wish I could add another title to this list at this time... but whatever you do, either acquire Hayes cheaply or not at all. His heart was in the right place, but that's really the most I can say.

[Lee A Stewart]

The Hayes book has a lot of 3D movie lobby cards and lots of photos of 3D camera rigs.

[globalimages2]

Yeah, the go-to book for the history of 3-D films would be the R. M. Hayes one, which I don't find as bad as people say. The problem is that he doesn't properly quote sources and some times makes stuff up to fill-in the gaps, which then makes it harder to find the truth when properly researching the subject.

3-D movies : a history and filmography of stereoscopic cinema by R.M. Hayes

Most of his stuff seems based on other prior books, such a

Introduction To 3-D
by H. Dewhurst

Also one of the best in the subject of 3D films' history is: Four aspects of the film
by Limbacher, James L

During the 80's "3D revival" there were several articles and magazines dedicated to 3D movies, such as:

Starlog Photo Guidebook: Fantastic 3-D

and many others. Check the special issues of "American Cinematographer" dedicated to the subject of 3D films.

A couple of books from roughly the era are "Amazing 3-D", by Daniel Symmes, "The World of 3-D Movies" by Eddie Sammons and "Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema" by Lenny Lipton, the last two available for free download:

http://www.stereoscopic2.org/library/sammons.php
http://www.stereoscopic2.org/library/foundation.php

More recent books on the subject by author Ray Zone:
3-D Filmmakers: Conversations with Creators of Stereoscopic Motion Pictures
3-D Revolution: The History of Modern Stereoscopic Cinema

Some websites have useful info on the subject, such as:

http://www.3dfilmarchive.com
http://www.3dmovingpictures.com/
http://www.3dmovielist.com/
IMDB list of 3D films

And if you can follow the foreign languages or have a way to get translations, there are many books out there that also deal with the history of 3-D films:

-Der 3-D Film by Peter A. Haggerman (german)
-3D Century - Wonders: 100 Years of Three-Dimensional Cinema and The New Century by takayuki oguchi and others (easier to locate in japanese 3D世紀 -驚異! 立体映画の100年と映像新世紀 )

There are a few other german ones I'm aware of, such as "Raumdeutung: Zur Wiederkehr des 3D-Films (Metabasis - Transkriptionen zwischen Literaturen, Künsten und Medien)", a couple in French, such as "Le cinéma 3-D : Histoire, économie, technique, esthétique" ...

I know I'm forgetting an important one I used to reference a lot, but can't think of it now. Perhaps I'm thinking about the research by Michael Starks, who studied the subject during the 70's but only published some loose articles and papers around.

https://independent.academia.edu/htt...MichaelStarks2

But, of course, none of the books and sources are quite perfect when it comes to describe the history of 3D films, so we are all still hoping Bob Furmanek, the current highest authority in the history of 3D films, takes on the job of writing the definitive one one day, perhaps as a retirement project -- hint-hint <3

[bavanut]

Originally Posted by globalimages2

Yeah, the go-to book for the history of 3-D films would be the R. M. Hayes one...

I respectfully disagree. But even if the point is conceded, sooner or later, Hayes is liable to be completely eclipsed by a massively better book.

Originally Posted by globalimages2

Most of his stuff seems based on other prior books, such as

Introduction To 3-D
by H. Dewhurst

I'm curious to learn what Hayes derives from Dewhurst, as Dewhurst's book is mostly concerned with optical means of getting stereo pairs onto one band of film, preserving a proper sense of stereoscopic scale, and advocating for a fixed, "normal" interaxial. It is not really a historical survey. But maybe you have noticed something I have not.

Originally Posted by globalimages2

A couple of books from roughly the era are "Amazing 3-D", by Daniel Symmes...

By Hal Morgan and Dan Symmes. I've read enough of Dan's standalone articles to have a real sense of how much Mr. Morgan must have contributed to the usefulness and readability of that book, which I dearly love. I make a point of always, always acknowledging Hal Morgan.

[globalimages2]

Originally Posted by bavanut

I respectfully disagree. But even if the point is conceded, sooner or later, Hayes is liable to be completely eclipsed by a massively better book.

Oh, I've been waiting for that for a long time. I just meant that if you could only choose one single book for reference in the "historical subject", well, I guess that could be the most complete one in spite of all the shortcomings.

Originally Posted by bavanut

I'm curious to learn what Hayes derives from Dewhurst, as Dewhurst's book is mostly concerned with optical means of getting stereo pairs onto one band of film, preserving a proper sense of stereoscopic scale, and advocating for a fixed, "normal" interaxial. It is not really a historical survey. But maybe you have noticed something I have not.

You are asking for too much, I've last read any of those books some 30 years ago lol. I just remember Hayes borrowing a lot of drawings and such from some previous book(s), as well as the sequence of inventions and such. I was also perhaps thinking of Lenny Lipton doing the same on his book and got them both a bit mixed up, I bought and read both of those "at the same time". Again, some 30 years ago Yeah, I think I'm forgetting about another important book on the subject that later authors borrowed quite a bit from, not just Dewhurst.

Originally Posted by bavanut

By Hal Morgan and Dan Symmes. I've read enough of Dan's standalone articles to have a real sense of how much Mr. Morgan must have contributed to the usefulness and readability of that book, which I dearly love. I make a point of always, always acknowledging Hal Morgan.

Absolutely !!!!

Also I just dug up some more of the starlogs magazine articles when looking for references to answer this thread:

https://archive.org/details/starlog_...e/n27/mode/2up


https://archive.org/details/starlog_...e/n15/mode/2up

[bavanut]

Originally Posted by globalimages2

Oh, I've been waiting for that for a long time. I just meant that if you could only choose one single book for reference in the "historical subject", well, I guess that could be the most complete one in spite of all the shortcomings.

Fair to say, for sure.

Originally Posted by globalimages2

You are asking for too much, I've last read any of those books some 30 years ago lol. I just remember Hayes borrowing a lot of drawings and such from some previous book(s), as well as the sequence of inventions and such. I was also perhaps thinking of Lenny Lipton doing the same on his book and got them both a bit mixed up, I bought and read both of those "at the same time". Again, some 30 years ago

It may astonish you to learn I read Dewhurst for the third time about four or six weeks ago. I think any thoroughgoing history of stereo cinema has to include mention of Dewhurst and his theories.

Originally Posted by globalimages2

Absolutely !!!!

Also I just dug up some more of the starlogs magazine articles when looking for references to answer this thread:

https://archive.org/details/starlog_...e/n27/mode/2up


https://archive.org/details/starlog_...e/n15/mode/2up

Fantastic 3-D from Starlog Press was one of my great favorites as a kid, and I still have a soft spot for it.

[Cusion]

What a lot of recommendations here that I hadn't even thought about, but now I definitely want to see. Probably the last book I read was about ancient Greece when I was writing an essay finding a topic on https://studydriver.com/ancient-greece/ about the architecture and structure of the city. I have this hobby of looking for ready-made ideas and trying to come up with something new inside them.

[stellajonnes]

nice

[RoderickBank]

If you mean this book by Ray Zohn - Stereoscopic Cinema and the Origins of 3D Cinema, it explores the history of stereoscopic cinema from the early 19th century to the popularity of 3D films in the mid-20th century.
Another book, can't remember the title, by Benoit Michel. About modern technology and the workflows required when making 3D movies. And I'm writing an essay on women in leadership - https://www.college-universities.com...leadership.php and I'm looking for different information now too.
I would also recommend - “3D filmmaking: techniques and best practices for stereoscopic filmmakers” by Celine Tricar. This book explores the technical aspects of 3D filmmaking and provides tips and advice for stereoscopic filmmakers and cinematographers.

[the13thman]

Since this is the 3D books thread...

Originally Posted by heavyharmonies

My apologies if this is inappropriate for this thread, but it seems on-topic to me and I couldn't find any references to it anywhere on the forum. It's been making the rounds in some of the Facebook 3D groups so I felt that folks here should know about it as well.

I just ordered my copy tonight, but have no idea how many of the 100 copies have been spoken for.

Per Mr. Janzow, the book set weighs in at a hefty 22 pounds. The book dimensions are 11 x 9.5 and the box is 5.5 inches deep.

Shipping costs will vary by destination (all in via media mail was US$276). I do not know whether international shipping is an option.

Seems like a must-have for the vintage 3D fan!