Ridley Scott Talks 3D

Ridley Scott talked a bit about his Alien prequels over this past weekend, but most of what he said is just reiterations and rewordings of info we've already had. But he's also talking a bit about 3D, and how he'll put the tech to work for the Alien films without sacrificing the atmosphere that made Alien such an experience.AICN talked to Scott briefly while he was at the Hero Complex Film Festival, and much of the conversation centered around 3D. Amusingly enough, the conversation kicks off with Scott expressing a bit of surprise that Alien fans aren't thrilled about the prequels being in 3D. He goes on to say that at this point there are no particular technical limitations to shooting a 3D film, and that " I could show you 2D to 3D and you wouldn't know the difference."

In general, he sounds enthusiastic about the format. Check the original interview for some tech details about lighting the Alien films in such a way that there's both a proper image for 3D and dense enough shadows to provide appropriate atmosphere. And there's this generally enthusiastic quote:

You know, what's happened is the scientists have gone in the room... because it is complex. The beam-splitter, the this and the that and blah, blah, blah... it all sounds very complex...I always (camera) operate. I operated entirely on Alien, for instance. Because I'm an operator I think lenses. If you think lenses then the crossover to 3D honestly is nothing.

I was told it was going to slow us down... it didn't slow (Michael) Bay down. Bay is moving like lightning. Once he realized, "Oh, Jesus... there's no difference, really. Except I'm adding dimension."

Sadly, AICN did not ask about the report that Scott is buying a controlling interest in a 3D technology company, so we don't yet have more word on that.