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Topic: DRAGONFLY SQUADRON 3-D. (1954)

Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 10-16-2014 06:08 PM

I just received my copy of DRAGONFLY SQUADRON from Best Buy online yesterday and I concur with all of the very positive reviews about the Olive Film release of a film released in 3-D for the first time in almost sixty years. DRAGONFLY SQUADRON was photographed in 3-D but because the format was considered dead when it was time to release the film, Allied Artist (Monogram Pictures) chose to release the film only in 2-D to theatres. After all these years 3-D Archive headed by Technical Director, Greg Kintz and Film Tech member, Robert Furmanek executed a remarkable chore of almost perfectly restoring 35mm film elements that were in pretty bad shape into a film that perfectly retains the 3-D imagery that was created in 1953 when the movie was created.

DRAGONFLY DRAGON was a very low budget film and the movie is considered a B film but it is still entertaining. The cast includesJohn Hodiak, Barbara Britton, Bruce Benett, Fess Parker and Chuck Connors The story is set at a US Air Force base in South Korea before and during the start of the Korean Conflict and is about a AF Major and his assignment to train South Korean fighter pilots.

After watching the movie last night,I was very happy Robert Furmanek and Greg Kintz and now are fully committed to release more more movies in 3-D from the Golden Age of the fifties. I am already looking forward to THE BUBBLE next month and a collection of rare 3-D shorts next year on Blu Ray

Thank you for the fantastic presentation I enjoyed in 3-D of DRAGONFLY DRAGON, Robert.

-Claude

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 10-16-2014 06:16 PM

You were so excited you just needed to open two identical topics [Wink]

.

What kind of setup are you using for 3D movies at home?

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 10-16-2014 06:22 PM

I am enjoying my 3-D movies at home on a brand new forty inch Samsung HDTV, Marcel. It is LCD set and the format is Active requiring glasses that need batteries.

-Claude

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 10-16-2014 06:56 PM

quote: Marcel Birgelen
You were so excited you just needed to open two identical topics

He was posting in 3D. [Wink]

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 10-16-2014 07:00 PM

That's a good one, Mike [Smile]

-Claude

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 10-17-2014 01:22 AM

quote: Michael Coate
He was posting in 3D.

It must be one of those badly post-converted 3D posts then, because both posts were exactly the same [Wink]

quote: Claude S. Ayakawa
I am enjoying my 3-D movies at home on a brand new forty inch Samsung HDTV, Marcel. It is LCD set and the format is Active requiring glasses that need batteries.

And you're sitting rather close to it I guess? My problem with 3D at home is that the still limited screen size makes objects look extremely small. I've recently watched a few minutes of Gravity in 3D and those astronauts feel like some action figures floating in front of me, at least to me [Wink]

.

Also, the issues at the edge of the screen become even more problematic. What I've found out, for me, 3D on those sets somehow looks better with a lot of ambient light present, than in total darkness.

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 10-17-2014 03:37 PM

I have no problem watching 3-D movies on my forty inch set, Marcel. My set is not in a large room and I am about eight feet away from the screen when I watch movies. I did as you said yesterday and watched a few minutes of DRAGONFLY DRAGON in 3-D with the room lights on and watched and than watched in the dark and I can can hardly see the difference.

My Samsung set gives me 3-D image quality of a movie that is comparable to the way I saw it in a theatre and many times, better!

Regarding DRAGONFLY DRAGON, I forgot to mention how fantastic the image quality looked on my display. Unlike today's 3-D movies that are digitally created, DRAGONFLY DRAGON was photographed on B&W 35mm film and I enjoyed the image quality because of the film like quality due to the fact that the film grain was retained when the movie was restored. Also, most of today's 3-D movies does not have forward depth like the fifties 3-D films had with images that pop out from the screen. DRAGONFLY DRAGON DRAGON, DIAL M FOR MURDER, HOUSE OF WAX and CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON does on the Blu Ray of the movies.

-Claude

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Robert Furmanek
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 113
From: Clifton, NJ, USA
Registered: Jun 2012

posted 10-20-2014 01:32 PM

Thank you very much, Claude. I'm so happy that you enjoyed it!

Here's an article on the production history and restoration of this lost 3-D gem: http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/home/dragonfly-squadron

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 10-20-2014 04:50 PM

You're welcome Robert.

After enjoying DRAGONFLY SQUADRON, I am now looking forward to THE BUBBLE next month and 3D RARITIES next year and already know they will be great.

I am also looking forward to more great offering from 3D Archives beside the above two titles and hopefully they will include pictures like THE MAZE And BWANA DEVIL that were also released by Allied Artist along with DRAGONFLY SQUADRON . Another picture I would like to see in 3D is ROBOT MONSTER. I saw this movie in a theatre but only in 2D but from what I saw it llooked like it would be a lot if fun to watch in 3D. Yes, I know the movie is included in a list of 50 worst worst movie of all time but it is one of those movies that is "So Bad, it is Good" Another movie I would like to see is William Castle's DRUMS OF TAHITI. With Dennis O'Keefe and Patricia Medina. I also saw this in 2D in a theatre and like ROBOT MONSTER, it also looked like it would great to watch in it's original 3D format.

BTW, I also commented about DRAGONFLY SQUADRON on my Facebook page

-Claude

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 10-21-2014 02:36 AM

quote:
I have no problem watching 3-D movies on my forty inch set, Marcel. My set is not in a large room and I am about eight feet away from the screen when I watch movies. I did as you said yesterday and watched a few minutes of DRAGONFLY DRAGON in 3-D with the room lights on and watched and than watched in the dark and I can can hardly see the difference.

My Samsung set gives me 3-D image quality of a movie that is comparable to the way I saw it in a theatre and many times, better!

You're using active glasses, so that's a win for left/right separation. Besides limited brightness, the biggest remaining issue for cinema systems is still ghosting. Have you ever watched a 3D cinema presentation with active glasses or Dolby 3D glasses? I usually find those to be superior to polarization based solutions.

I've heard other people complaining about how "small" things look in 3D, not only at home but also in the cinema. It primarily happens with objects in negative parallax (those in front of the screen). It will probably differ from person to person, but your brain is made to believe this object is "right in front of you", if it doesn't measure up with the expected size of the object, you might perceive the object as being smaller than it should be.

For example, I watched Gravity on a rather large screen of about 70ft and I sat rather close to the screen. The astronauts and other objects floating around had a considerable size. Stuff looked great (although a bit soft) and proportions seemed realistic, probably one of the best 3D presentations I've seen.

Now, at home, those same scenes looked like watching at miniatures, but the 2D version looked just fine. Probably, because there was no "depth" information, my brain had no reference as to the size of those objects.

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Robert Furmanek
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 113
From: Clifton, NJ, USA
Registered: Jun 2012

posted 10-22-2014 12:13 PM

Thanks, Claude.

We're negotiating right now to license some other titles. Hopefully we'll be successful.

Please keep an eye on our website and Facebook page for updates.

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