The 3-Ds

The hottest new Hollywood trend --three-dimensional films -- got a supercharged boost, calculated to make TV owners dissatisfied with their cramped little 30-inch screens. Announced 20th Century-Fox: beginning in October, Fox's entire production output will be converted to 3-D color pictures. Unlike the 3-D method used by the Natural Vision Corp. in Bwana Devil (TIME, Dec. 15), the new process, called Cinemascope, gets its effect with only slight changes on the ordinary one-camera-and-one-projector system. Moreover, audiences will not be required to wear special polarized glasses. A curved screen, about 2 1/2 times bigger than the usual screen, will allow moviegoers to see Cinemascopepics without distortion from any seat in the house.

Cinemascope uses a distortion and rectification principle: a wide-angle distortion lens fitted to a regular 35-mm. movie camera produces distorted images on the film; a compensation lens, fitted on a " regular out the 35-mm. images movie on the projector, screen. "straightens" out the images on the screen. The picture is synchronized to loudspeakers placed around the theater. The system is much less expensive than Cinerama (TIME, Oct. 13), which uses three cameras, three projectors and a larger curved screen. Cinemascope, said Fox, will be made available to other film companies.

Other moviemakers' 3-D plans:

P:Paramount is shooting Sangaree, using its own system, Paravision.

P: Columbia is shooting a . Natural Vision 3-D, called Fort Ti, plans two more.

P: M-G-M will shoot Arena, using either Natural Vision or a process of its own.

P: Warner Bros, is producing a Natural Vision 3-D thriller, House of Wax.

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