James Cameron may have made 3D more profitable than ever before, but he was hardly the first one to use the advanced filming technology. In fact, thanks to some newly uncovered Nazi footage, it looks like 3D filming may have begun even earlier than originally believed.
Australian filmmaker Philippe More claims to have discovered two 30-minute clips of Nazi propaganda for the Third Reich, dated 1936. One of the videos is entitled “So Real You Can Touch It,” and features shots of a barbecue, making it appear as though viewers are comfortably right there.
Mora discovered the films while working on a documentary about the Third Reich.
While 3D technology did exist in other countries at that time, hardly anyone was using it, and no one had been using it to the scale that it’s not believed the Nazis were.
“The quality of the films is fantastic. The Nazis were obsessed with recording everything and every single image was controlled – it was all part of how they gained control of the country and its people,” said Mora in an interview with ninemsn.com.
The first commercially successful 3D movie in America is regarded to be the original House of Wax starring Vincent Price. That came out in 1953, more than 15 years after people in Nazi Germany would have begun watching the same kind of eye-popping effects.
Mora believes there is likely more 3D films from the Nazi era hidden away somewhere, and some may even be well known but not known for being shot in 3D.
