Film makers have been including the 3D technology into almost all possible movies in the market nowadays, hoping to enhance the viewers’ movie experience. Since the introduction of 3D technology into movies, end users like you and I, were make to believe that the ridiculous looking glasses is able to improve the viewing experience.
Researchers at the University of Utah have published a study recently to validate many claims that 3D films are offering a more vivid and life-like experience compared to 2D films. However if you are like me, who always opt for a 2D movie in the cinema because watching them in 3D makes you a dizzy, the research findings states that you are not losing much.
The study carried out on 408 subjects between aged 18 to 64, revealed that nearly in all cases 3D technology did not enhance the viewing experience, insofar as evoking emotional responses go. In another words, it is a waste of money to spend on 3D movies since it gives the same emotional response as watching the movie in 2D.
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“Both 2D and 3D are equally effective at eliciting emotional responses, which also may mean that the expense involved in producing 3D films is not creating much more than novelty,” one of the authors Sheila Crowell was quoted by Mail Online.
She said the team was set out to study whether technological advances enhance the study of emotion, especially the younger generations who are constantly expose to high-tech devices.
“Further studies are of course warranted, but our findings should be encouraging to researchers who cannot now afford 3-D technologies.
“This could also be good news for people who would rather not wear 3-D glasses or pay the extra money to see these types of films,” she added.
All the participants were shown five-minute clips of four films in both 2D and 3D. Without have to watch the full movie, each chosen film clips prompted one discrete emotion intensely and in context. The four movies are 1. My Bloody Valentine (fear), 2. Despicable Me (amusement), 3. Tangled (sadness), and 4. The Polar Express (thrill or excitement). Several measures of emotional state which include palm sweat, breathing and cardiovascular responses (eg: heart beat) were then taken into consideration.
“Among the four film clips and five physiological measures tested, we observed only one difference between 2D and 3D format – the number of electrodermal (skin conductance) responses during ‘The Polar Express’, which was intended to elicit a response of thrill/excitement.
“Although a single finding should be interpreted with caution, there are many reasons why ‘The Polar Express’ 3D should evoke a stronger psychophysiological response. This clip was one of the highest quality 3D films and included a larger variety and number of 3D effects,” the researchers stated in their paper.
So other than that, the next time you head to the cinema and you wonder if you should watch a certain movie in 3D instead of 2D, you might want to reconsider and save some money instead.
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