New York 3D

Dear Mr. Gillis; I'm an actor, but not writing to you as one. I recently saw the above film, "Across the Sea of Time," that you wrote in 1995 and just wanted to tell you that I absolutely loved it. It was a beautiful film and you should be very proud of it.Too bad more people haven't had the opportunity to see it. Loved seeing the old photos of New York in the early 1900's, the young boy actor and the theme of the story. After seeing it I called the casting director to see if I could get some kind of a work address to send a "thank you" to you, but they would not give me anything which, I guess, is the right thing to do! Wish there were more films like this today. Thank you!

Best wishes, A fan

I went along to this one in the now defunct Adelaide cinema just to try out the IMAX experience and was blown away by the brilliance of this piece. Not only was it my first visit to this particular theater, but also my first experience at 3-D IMAX. What a breathtaking introduction.

The New York images were stunning, and beautifully presented around the story of the Russian boy's adventure. In particular, the historical shots of daring construction workers, dangling hundreds of feet in the air to put together New York's skyscrapers were gut wrenching. It's historical value, presenting the beginnings of one of the most exciting cities in the world, is immeasurable.

A genuine, chance-viewing - I'm grateful for my good fortune at discovering it. I only wish I could get a copy for my collection.

I was left on the cutting room floor when they edited this film. In October, 1995, I brought my parents and aunt to visit New York City for a week. Either Wednesday or Thursday of that week, we went to the Natural History Museum on the Upper West Side. Mid-afternoon, we finished up there and walked down to see Lincoln Center. When we got there, they were filming a sequence where the Minton character was to walk along the retaining wall of the fountain. While they were setting up the shot, someone came up to my father and asked if I would like to be an extra. I said yes and was brought over and placed with a group of three other men. Our duty as extras was to walk around behind the fountain while Minton walked on the wall that faced Broadway. It took four or five takes before we were done. During the set up for one of the takes, the group of us were standing next the young actor playing Minton. One of the group asked him where he was born and he answered "St. Petersburg." The person asking responded "Oh, in Florida?" and the little guy barked back "No, Russia!"

I eventually rented the movie and that entire sequence had been abandoned.

A grand scale IMAX 3D mini-epic blending state of the art monochrome 3D still photography from 1916, with stunning full-colour 3D motion and surround sound from 1995.

The story is obviously contrived to make optimum use of the archival material: a young Russian boy, Tomas Minton, travels "blind" (i.e. in a room with no view) by ship to New York, and jumps ship to search for a relative who emigrated early in the century. That man had found paid work as a specialist 3D photographer and had sent home a viewer and a set of his slides which showed many aspects of 1916 New York life. Tomas routinely refers to this collection of pictures as he wanders the city trying to find recognisable landmarks in the modern skyline.

(N.B. The World Trade Centre doesn't get any special attention, if it appears at all.)

The 1916 images are extraordinarily detailed, fully justifying the IMAX big screen and we see a lot more than just the facade of skyscrapers, or the tinsel of Broadway. I am never likely to see New York in person, so I was impressed by all of the visuals.

Director Stephen Low takes advantage of opportunities to push people's 3D response buttons, but it's not done excessively. The overall impact is of a very big city, with a personal history of endurance in the face of hardship, and with many elements of true beauty in its landscape and architecture.

There's a rather natty but very unlikely happy ending, instead of the most likely event of Tomas being grabbed by Immigration and thrown on the first plane back to Russia (proving that this really is a work of fiction).

Brisbane's IMAX theatre closes down this month, after consistently losing money since it opened. I feel especially privileged to have been able to experience this film in the world's biggest and best of movie theatre environments.

Isn't it crazy? While a Sony official declares 3D nearly dead, Sony Pictures seems to refuse bringing Across the Sea of Time on the market in 3D Blu-ray. Indeed, eventually general public will loose interest in 3D TV, but only because of the lack of good movies like this one. Finally there is a good system which can bring us quality 3D, but from our wish lists we can buy only a handful. Also the continuous flow of 3D rubbish will make it hard to find the really good stuff. When you have bad luck and have bought a few bad 2D to 3D conversions and have seen buildings with an interesting interior, but only taken from the outside with a cheap camcorder thru the window while driving... Yes, I can imagine this will make a person think twice about buying another expensive 3D Blu-ray. I sure hope this situation changes in time and people will see that 3D at home can be great when 4k and OLED are combined in passive 3D. I think this is the way to go.