SANTA MONICA, CA (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) —
Interscope Geffen A&M Records and Academy Award-winning director James Cameron have developed new breakthrough digital technology and are set to produce 3-D presentations of everything from music videos to concerts, commercials to stage musicals.
"This is revolutionary and very ambitious," said Gene Kirkwood, the renowned film producer heading the partnership's efforts. "There are people who stand in line and people who make the line, and Jimmy Iovine and Cameron are about to start a new line outside movie theaters."
The venture is all-encompassing from 3-D commercials to be shown before concert films to a circuit of 600-1,000 movie theaters that will regularly show the productions and from selling subscriptions to a series of 3-D concerts to merchandising that includes music artists designing their own 3-D glasses that viewers may take home with them to use for subsequent screenings.
3-D content will be shot using the Fusion digital stereo camera system developed by Cameron with Vincent Pace. The cameras duplicate human vision putting the audience on stage with the performers. Music concerts in particular will be experienced in theaters like never before. The first concert is expected to be released theatrically within six months.
"We're always looking for ways to improve the experience of music," said Iovine, chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records. "When I saw what James Cameron was doing with his dedication and wizardry to the 3-D platform, it seemed like the perfect combination for us to do some groundbreaking work."
The project was launched last year after Gwen Stefani's "Wind It Up" video was filmed in 3-D alongside the released version. That unreleased test video so impressed Iovine that he decided to join forces with Cameron, who will provide 3-D production expertise as well as proprietary equipment, while Interscope offers its artists and music expertise.
"Jimmy Iovine and I instinctively gravitated together on this because we both believe that music and media are changing, and we want to be at the cutting edge," said Cameron. "We want to provide audiences with a more intense musical experience. 3-D amplifies everything, it puts you closer to your favorite artists than you ever imagined. What we're doing can redefine the relationship between music and visual media."
Cameron wrote, directed and produced such blockbuster, technologically advanced films as Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Titanic, the highest-grossing film in history.
"To bring people back to movie theaters you have to do something different," said Kirkwood, who has produced such films as Rocky, The Idolmaker, The Pope Of Greenwich Village and Get Rich Or Die Tryin' as well as, with Iovine, the current HBO music interview series "Off The Record" hosted by Dave Stewart. "Ticket prices, for movies and for concerts, are high. You have to give people their money's worth. This new 3-D format gives them both an amazing concert experience and an amazing film experience. This really is a new form of entertainment." — Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen
