Warren, you and others have done some good, clear thinking about the ins and outs of stereography, a subject many of us here find fascinating. Let me lay out my understanding of the various terms and concepts:
Some people use "interocular" and "interaxial" interchangeably, but I happen to think this is imprecise. Interocular is the same as "interpupillary distance." It is the distance between a pair of human eyes. Interaxial is the distance between camera lenses. This is sometimes abbreviated as I/A.
Parallax is the apparent horizontal disparity between the left and right views in a stereo pair. (Vertical parallax is a different thing, and is itself distinct from vertical misalignment.)
Convergence refers to the condition of "centering" the two lenses at a given point in space. The left and right lenses are said to be converged at that point where their imaginary axes cross.
As you rightly observe, reducing the distance between camera lenses can effect a sense of increased scale when one is filming miniatures. Reducing the distance between camera lenses when filming things other than miniatures—say, a dialogue scene or a landscape—does not always necessarily impart a sense that the subject is larger, but merely makes the scene appear shallower and objects within it flatter.
Increasing the distance between lenses can cause a proportionate increase in the apparent depth and roundness of a given scene or subject. Sometimes still photographers get creative and increase the interaxial when photographing distant landscapes, for instance. If you increase the I/A far enough, a city, a prairie, or even a mountain range can look like a tabletop model!
It is entirely right to think that, ordinarily, one might wish to film a Kaiju-type giant monster with a reduced I/A to try to create an illusion of tremendous size. But A*P*E was filmed with a lens system having a fixed separation. But, oh, what a lens system! Maybe the best of the best.
I happen to think a realistic illusion of a giant monster was not necessarily what the filmmakers were aiming for, especially considering their limited resources. I think they were looking to bring us an incredible yarn with strong echoes of King Kong, while making very energetic and enthusiastic use of Space-Vision. Me, I can't wait to own it!
OK, Bavanut, I'm glad to have brought the subject up as it looks like I started some informative explanations and discussions. In the future I will consider "interaxial" and "interocular kinda like the same thing, just human or machine.(LOL) A decrease will simulate increased subject sizes and distances and/or decrease the 3D effect. Whereas increasing interocular/axial would have a tendency to do the opposite. I sometimes feel in some 3D movies the cinematographer has deliberately increased the I/A in order to artificially increase the 3D effect. That seems particularly true at times in "Inferno". What do you think?
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