3-D production specialist 3ality Digital will produce the country’s first nationally televised 3-D awards show on Feb. 9 for the International 3D Society’s Creative Arts Awards Show, which will be broadcast on 3net (the recently launched joint venture between Sony, Discovery Communications and IMAX). The theme of this year’s program is “Your World in 3-D.”
The two-hour special will honor the year's best 3-D movies, TV shows, videogames and advertising, and the society’s Lumiere Award will be given to recipients in 15 categories. The broadcast will also feature highlights of upcoming 3-D productions and the red carpet arrivals of celebrities at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
Jim Chabin, the society’s president, said that the telecast will serve as the organization’s annual preview for 3-D content coming to consumers in the year ahead.
“We are building an exciting annual tradition that showcases 3-D not only to the moviegoer, but also to consumers who enjoy 3-D in the comfort of their own living room,” Chabin said.
The telecast, supervised by 3ality Digital CEO and executive producer Steve Schklair and 3ality digital telecast producer Ted Kenney, will employ the services of 55 production and lighting staffers. A number of 3Ality stereoscopic 3-D rigs, including the TS-2 and TS-4 models used both handheld and on pedestals, will capture the ceremonies.
“The society's core mission is to educate, demonstrate and celebrate world-class 3-D,” said Buzz Hays, society chairman and executive stereoscopic 3-D producer at the Sony 3-D Technology Center. “(Televising) our annual awards show on 3net is another historic first in reaching audiences with the world's best 3-D.”
As part of the 3D Creative Arts Awards Show, Lenny Lipton will receive the organization’s Century Award for Lifetime Achievement. Lipton founded StereoGraphics International in 1980 and was the CTO of RealD. He has been granted 50 patents with more pending. In 1996, Lenny received a Smithsonian Award for his invention of CrystalEyes, the first shuttering eyewear product for stereoscopic displays. Lipton also invented the ZScreen and created the first flicker-free, field-sequential 3-D display technology, the basis for much of stereoscopic cinema and TV. He is a fellow of the SMPTE and SPIE.
