Due to interest in this  3-D posting, we have decided to leave it up a second week. The next essay (Part Three : Last Man Standing in Toxic Town) will appear Monday July 12

Is this camera rig the future of American filmmaking?

 If you agree with the predictions of some of our most successful studio executives, producers, and directors—the answer is an unequivocal YES. And it is an affirmation that resonates through the multiplexes and into the offices of movie exhibitors who are newly flush with wondrous grosses from the hugely successful 3-D movies bursting off their screens and into their coffers. Movie writers and pundits crank out articles after TV news clips, brimming with glosses on the imminent demise of flat screen movies and the elevation of deep screen space into some kind of digital cinematic empyrean. If it’s in 3-D it’s gonna be a cash cow. Damn the ticket price increase (those plastic glasses must be way more expensive than those old paper ones— nice try, guys). The number of admissions may be down, but the per-screen average is in high orbit compared with those of the earthbound 2-D screens. This is not solely an American phenomenon. Several weeks ago, I listened to a Brazilian exhibitor in Sao Paolo wax on about how much more lucre he was raking in at the multiplexes he owned, at least the ones where he had installed 3-D screens. His only problem was the difficulty he was having with the too long lead time in receiving 3-D hardware from foreign manufacturers, the shipping and customs delays essentially robbing him of greater profits.

Click www.ascmag.com for the whole story.