You should be truly scared out of your wits… coz’ horror films in India have just become spookier than ever! The eerie theatrical of B’Town’s first ever Stereoscopic 3D film, ‘Haunted 3D’, helmed by the master of suspense, Vikram Bhatt, was recently unveiled to the media.

 

The entire cast and crew was present at the event, including leading man Mahakshay Chakraborty, who’s reverted back to his real name after his stint as Mimoh proved disastrous. (Remember ‘Jimmy’?) Looking dapper sans his trademark mane, Mahaksay commented on the terrific and terrifying times he had on set.
He said, “My experience was out of this world. Because the film is in 3D, we had to take every shot in detail. It was a very hectic job. We had to do a lot of retakes. But it was amazing. Vicky Sir would scare me by just explaining the shot. It was mind boggling.”
When asked if the legendary ‘Disco Dancer’ had any words of advice for him, Mahakshay replied, “My dad hasn’t given me any tips for this film. In fact, he didn’t even come for the shooting as he was very busy with his own schedule.”
Joining Mahakshay in this spine chilling adventure is singer turned actress Tia Bajpai, who must have had quite a tough time on sets, considering she gets the scares easily. She told members of the media present at the event, “Even if I see a horror movie, I sleep with the lights on.”
With ‘Haunted 3D’, Vikram Bhatt returns to his favourite genre. The scribe tribe questioned Vikram on what phantasmal power draws the director of hair raisers such as ‘Raaz’ and ’1920′ back to horror. His reply? “I feel safe with spirits, because you know they’re scary. What scare me are people, because you don’t know what they are.”

A picture of German choreographer Pina Bausch hangs, in memoriam, in the spartan hallway of Wim Wenders' Berlin office.Bausch, or Pina to everyone who knew her, died in 2009, just as Wenders was about to begin shooting a movie about her and her work.

 

What was planned as a documentary became something else: the world's first 3D art house film and Wenders' true testimonial to the woman many credit with revolutionizing the art of dance.The film, which will screen out of competition in Berlin, is the culmination of an obssession with Pina's work that Wenders says began the moment he saw Bausch's Tanztheater in 1984."I saw the first piece of Pina's and immediately saw five more -- I saw everything she did," he says. "I'd seen some classical dance, but I was always bored. Here was something completely different. Even calling it modern dance is inappropriate. She created the word tanztheater, dance theater. What she does is plays where the acting is done by dancers."Bausch's work is, on the surface, worlds away from the films of the German auteur. Although her pieces often contain snatches of dialogue -- itself scandalous for classical-dance purists -- there is no discernable narrative. Wenders had done documentaries, but the subject -- in Buena Vista Social Club and The Soul of Man -- was always music. In his huge body of work, there are no overt references to dance.But from the moment he saw it, Wenders knew Bausch's Tanztheater belonged on the big screen. The only problem was, the director of Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire had no idea how to do it."It became a running joke," Wenders says. "She'd say, 'Wim, when are you doing that movie on me?' and I'd say, 'Pina, I don't know how.' "The problem was space. Imagine shooting a dance performance: Where do you put the camera? Do a close-up of a single dancer, and you miss what's going on behind, in front of and beside them. Pull back for a wide shot, and the scene flattens out; you can see everyone, but the emotion is gone. And Pina's dances are emotional to the core."The more I got to know her work, the less I thought I was able to shoot it in a way that was valid," Wenders says.Then, in 2006, he saw an early cut of the groundbreaking digital concert film U2 3D in Cannes."It was the first 3D film, the first to use this new technology," Wenders says. "I called Pina from the screening. I said, 'Now I know how.' "

In a landmark event in Indian cinema history, BVG Films (BVG), a division of ASA Productions and DAR Motion Pictures (DAR), the filmed entertainment division of DAR Media Private Limited (a DAR Capital Group Company), today unveiled the first look of India's first Stereoscopic 3D film ‘Haunted 3D'.

 

The producers also announced that UFO Moviez India Limited (UFO), the world's largest satellite delivered digital cinema network, has come on board this path breaking project as the technical and Digital 3D Partner. Helmed by leading Indian film-maker and master of Horror, Vikram Bhatt, the film is all set to hit the theatres on 15th April 2011. 
The spine chilling theatrical was released in the presence of director Vikram Bhatt, Arun Rangachari, Chairman - DAR Capital Group, Kapil Agarwal, Joint MD - UFO Moviez India Ltd, Amin Hajee the writer of the film, the entire cast Mahakshay Chakraborty, Tia Bajpai, Achint Kaur, Arif Zakaria and Sanjay Sharma, leading film trade figureheads and the media.
Speaking at the Haunted 3D First Look unveiling event, Vikram Bhatt said "Haunted is my most challenging and fulfilling movie. The challenge began from the scripting stage itself because we had to visualise the country's first next generation stereoscopic 3D film. It was all new. The style was new, the technology was new. We had to acquaint ourselves with the technology, learn it, adapt to it. That was a major feat and I must thank the entire technical team. They were brilliant. We would never have been able to achieve this unique milestone in Indian cinema without them."
Haunted 3D is a compelling story, set in the misty mountains of Dalhousie that revolves around Glen Manor, a sprawling mansion with a secret past and a haunted present. The protagonist ‘Rehan' visits Glen Manor to complete a transaction, involving its sale that his father had initiated and which is now under a cloud due to certain mysterious incidents. What he does not bargain for is that while he is trying to do so he discovers a Secret and falls in love with it. What he does not bargain for is that the Secret catapults him to the biggest challenge and question of his life.

'Sanctum' directed by Alister Grierson is loosely based on true events.  The film tells the story of Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) a tough, take no prisoners, master diver intent on being the first person to explore the Esa-Ala cave system in the South Pacific.
Shortly after Frank descends into the caves, along with a team that includes his 17 year old neglected son Josh, (Rhys Wakefield) who spends most of the film complaining to his dad that he was a lousy father,  the expedition's obnoxious bankroller Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd) his annoying girlfriend, Victoria (Alice Parkinson) and several others, a flash flood seals off the cave exit trapping everyone. The explorers must now find an alternate way out.
Frank tells them that their only hope of survival is to plunge deeper into the cave system...venturing where no one has ever gone before. Okay, so that's basically the premise.  And it's an exciting one.  The problem lies with the script.  It's filled with wooden, expository dialogue.  What were the writers (John Garvin and Andrew Wight) thinking? And why didn't any one stop them. Unfortunately the acting performances aren't much better.
This is definitely a film that should be seen...not heard.  'Sanctum' is a very thrilling, terrifying edge of your seat experience.  And for that reason...'The Two Jews On Film' recommend it.   Thanks to Jules O'Laughlin's 3D camera (the same one used to shoot Avatar) the great production design, and underwater photography,  you can't  help but feel as if you are one of those divers fighting for your life inside those deep vast underwater caverns. Just put your hands over your ears when the characters start to  speak. 'Sanctum' opens in theaters, Friday, February 4, 2011.  

 

3DFF set to provide 3D camera rigs and stereographers for documentary exposing the giant crocodiles of Costa Rica and their unusual relationship with locals.

 

San Diego, CA – 3D Film Factory, in cooperation with Foster Brothers Productions, is set to provide stereoscopic 3D camera systems and stereographers to follow Roger Horrocks into the remote, unexplored jungles of Costa Rica in search of man-eating crocs. 
The 3D production team will be on location for a total of 12 days, filming with the 3D Film Factory’s 3D-BS Indie (beam-splitter) and 3D-SS Pro (side-by-side) rigs. The crew will equip the 3D rigs with a pair of Sony Hi-Def EX3 video cameras and use the Davio real-time 3D viewing system. In addition, they’ll employ the use of modified jib arms, 3D underwater housing units, as well as, specialty 3D support gear.
Roger Horrocks, a veteran photo-journalist and World explorer, has heard of a people far away in the jungles of Central America who praise the crocodiles as a sign of good luck. Such locals actively choose to live in close proximity to these ancient predators, as their presence ensures that the waterholes will not dry up during the hot summer months. The down-side — these same people, are often preyed upon and eaten by the hungry beasts. 
Yet there are stories of men “calling” these wild crocodiles and a mythical legend of one native man who has formed a special bond with one such 5 meter animal. Horrocks intends to uncover this unusual relationship between one of earth’s most ancient predators and a unique man, a relationship that seems to defy the boundaries of the natural world.
“I’m excited. Shooting animals in live-action 3D is great fun and this team is great to work with, as long as I’m not the one getting into the water with the crocodiles, I’m happy,” stated the company’s lead stereographer Keith Driver. “In the last few months we’ve shot 3D projects in Africa, Peru, Washington D.C., Mexico City and LA, so we keep growing in our experience and technical knowledge of 3d filmmaking.”
About the 3D Film FactoryBased in San Diego, California, the 3D Film Factory is the leader in affordable, professional 3D camera rigs (beam-splitter and side-by-side), as well as, real-time 3D viewing systems. Additionally the company provides a full range of 3D production and postproduction services, along with monthly hands-on, 3D training workshops

We had the opportunity to speak with ‘The Mechanic’ director Simon West about possibly doing ‘Con Air 2′ and other movie projects (many of them in 3D) he’s dreaming up.

Simon West’s remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson hit-man opus The Mechanic opens this Friday, and the filmmker hopes to grab an audience ready for an all-boy-action-thrill-ride, in what is otherwise, a relatively mellow month for movies.

We had the chance to sit down and talk with the director about the The Mechanic, and will have the full interview in the days to come. In the interim, our conversation yielded some updates on several of West’s future projects.

The Mechanic arrives in an era in Hollywood that is dominated by remakes, reboots, adaptations of existing properties, and sequels (which are sometimes decades in the making) – so it was only natural, and in many ways expected, to inquire about West’s plans to return to the film that really put him on the map as a director: Con Air.

3D cinematic technology is very interesting, but even more interesting is why people get excited about it.
Why do people crave things popping out of movies, TV programs and even our video games? Did all these things really become so boring they needed this little extra dimension? In some cases, yes; in others, no but that does not mean they cannot be fun.
Of all the films released in 3D in 2010, only “Tron: Legacy” used the technology to its full potential, both for visual and story purposes. The beauty of the film was that it only added the technology to the scenes that take place within the computerized world of the GRID.
Not the single greatest, or necessarily most fun (I am looking at you “Scott Pilgrim”) film of 2010, Tron brought us ’80s-born nerds back to the world that first truly utilized computer graphics for good in a whole new way. Long live the users.
Probably one of the most unnecessary, yet super-fun, titles to be thrown off the screen was “Piranha 3D.” With possibly more fake blood than a Tarantino film, and a nude underwater ballet sequence that would make Russ Meyer blush, this film had something for almost no one. Those in on the joke and with an appetite for things like “Piranha-vision” had to appreciate this remake of the Joe Dante classic.
The best film to be put out in the new medium, yet with no necessity for it, would have to be

3-D action-thriller from Sanctum, from executive producer James Cameron, the team in a cave diving expedition more insidious, the most beautiful and least accessible cave on earth.

Master diver Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) has explored the South Pacific Caves Esa-ala for several months. But when its output is split into a flash flood, the team of Frank, whose 17 year old son, Josh (Rhys Wakefield) and the financier Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd)-are forced to radically alter plans.

With dwindling supplies, the crew navigate a maze underwater make it out. Soon they are faced with the inevitable question: can they survive or will they be trapped forever?

Tyre is in Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, Sanctum uses photography techniques developed in 3-D lens Cameron’s Avatar. The device is designed to operate in extreme conditions, the technology used to shoot action-thriller that points out of breath the audience through the rocks and in the most remote corners of the underworld.