Avatar: La Voie de l’eau has a not-so-unusual link with Brittany! It is particularly a question of 3D. Explanations.
Between Pandora and Brittany, there is only one step, which James Cameron has crossed cheerfully! Avatar 2 has just exceeded 12 million spectators in France and 2 billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Unusual fact: this phenomenal success benefits a Breton company specializing in 3D glasses!
Located in Plouzané in Finistère, Eyes 3 Shut is a pioneer in the manufacture of high-end 3D glasses. The technology put in place by the firm seduced the director James Cameron in person.
“Today, the 3D of Avatar 2 is at 96 frames per second. There is a very great fluidity of movements. You need a technology behind that follows. James Cameron was looking for this quality”says Jean-Louis de Bougrenet, scientific director of Eyes 3 Shut, at the microphone of France Info.
The technology developed by Eyes 3 Shut is different from the one-euro glasses that cinemas can make available to spectators. Here, we are talking about “active” models.
“With our glasses, the feeling of immersion is much stronger. Liquid crystals offer great fluidity in 3D visualization”, explains Jean-Louis Bougrenet. His company is the first in France to offer high-end 3D glasses. 150,000 pairs are now circulating worldwide.
“These glasses use a technology that was a little ahead of the time, which offers superior quality to the classic 3D glasses found in the majority of cinemas today. Our first active 3D glasses were first marketed in 2009, for the release of the first film Avatar“details Jean-Louis Bougrenet in the columns of West France.
The fanfare return of the Avatar saga to the cinema with La Voie de l’eau has revived the activity of this company based on the campus of the IMT Atlantique engineering school, near Brest.
“In France, 10% of theaters are equipped with these high-end glasses. Film distributors, large groups such as UGC, Pathé were looking for 3D glasses at all costs to meet the demand of spectators. We were very much in demand, since we are one of the last companies in this field”says Jean-Louis de Bougrenet.
“It’s a big transformation in cinemas. We’re going to go from screen projector mode to an LED screen mode. What we knew before – that is to say anaglyph glasses, passive glasses – will disappear because it is not compatible”specifies Samir Bentahar, technical director of the company.
“Some cinemas are equipped with LED screens, which are like giant televisions. This allows them to gain in image quality but also in energy consumption. It is still confidential but in ten years it could become commonplace. And our 3D glasses technology is the only one compatible with these new screens”, adds Renaud Van Lith, CEO Eyes 3 Shut. A great French success if ever there was one!
THE REPORT WITHIN EYES 3 SHUT