Youtube Changing The YT3D Tags

***ANOTHER EDIT*** Most of the info below is out of date, since you can now set up YouTube 3D videos without the use of tags.

While uploading, go to the "Advanced Settings" tab, under 3D Video select "This video is already in 3D", and then choose from either side-by-side or top/bottom. I recommend prepping your video as side-by-side squeezed with the left eye on the left. It's more commonly used than all the other options, and given YouTube's multiple reinventions of their 3D player, you might find in a few months that your top/bottom or side-by-side full videos don't work.

***EDIT*** - Despite Youtube posting this info earlier this month, it looks like these tags don't all work yet. Based on our quick test of a side-by-side full left/right video, changing yt3d:aspect=16:9 to yt3d:aspect=1.78:1 fixed the aspect ratio problem. The yt3d:swap tag was also still necessary to get the player to recognize the left eye frame was on the left. No word yet on when the switch to the new tags will be fully implemented, but keep these handy for when it happens. If there's some magic to these new tags that we're missing, please let us know in the comments.

From the help page:


YouTube recommends that you upload video in side-by-side squashed Left/Right. We also currently support the following formats:

• yt3d:enable=LR: Side by side squashed left eye frame on left, right eye on right -recommended
• yt3d:enable=RL: Side by side squashed, right eye frame on left, left eye frame on right - old format but no longer recommended
• yt3d:enable=LonR: Top frame is left eye, bottom frame is right eye
• yt3d:enable=RonL: Top frame is right eye, bottom frame is left eye

Note, we no longer support these tags and they should not be used:

• yt3d:enable=true
• yt3d:swap
• yt3d:left
• yt3d:right
• yt3d:aspect

Those of you posting your own 3D films on Youtube have likely been as frustrated as me by the recent random aspect ratio changes on Youtube 3D videos. It sounds like they're eliminating support for side-by-side full left/right videos.

With the widest user base of any video service delivering 3D content, and the ability for anyone to upload content that can be watched in a dozen different formats, Youtube has done a great service to the 3D community by creating this 3D player, and a disservice by not announcing the changes to their player, or continuing support for early adopters.

Thanks to Greg Penn for sending us this info!

3D Nazi films?! Not really...

Unrelated trench-hopping Nazis, courtesy of the Italian Stereoscopic Archive. 

It was revealed yesterday in Variety that two 3D short films produced by the Nazis have been conveniently-just-discovered.

In what could be described as a publicity stunt for Philippe Mora's upcoming documentary on how the Nazi regime used images to manipulate reality, the director has announced he unearthed two 3D shorts, produced for Goebbels' propaganda company. Except, both are described in Ray Zone's Stereoscopic Cinema and the Origins of 3-D Film, 1838-1952, which was published in 2007, and neither were produced for Goebbels. Despite what the headlines might lead you to believe, neither of these are a top-secret 3D Triumph of the Will with stereoscopic Hitlers marching out at you.

"So Real You Can Touch It" (Zum Griefen nah, aka Close Enough to Touch, aka You Can Nearly Touch It) premiered in Berlin in May 17, 1937, and was not shown in the US. It is a "short commercial film promoting insurance", according to Zone's book, and a musical set at a carnival featuring close-ups of a barbecue, according to Variety. How manipulative!

"Six Girls Roll into Weekend" (Sechs Madels rollen ins Wochenend), was a 12-minute promotional film produced by Zeiss Ikon in 1939, prior to the outbreak of the war. It was intended for internal use, never screened in the US, and the only public screening on record was in 1941 at a meeting of the German Society for Stereoscopy in Tobis-Haus, Berlin. Variety describes the content as "what may be UFA studio starlets living it up". Oooh, I can just sense the propaganda oozing out of this one.

Despite what the article implies, the Germans weren't the first producers of 3D films. Audioscopiks was a popular 3D featurette around the same time, other 3D shorts were produced sporadically in the 20's and 30's, and 3D photography dates back to the mid 1800's. 

Know any more about these films? Post a comment!

LA 3-D Movie Festival - Call for Entries

The LA 3-D Movie Festival is back again and now accepting entries. The festival is an annual event devoted to screening independent stereoscopic 3D films, organized by members of the Los Angeles 3-D Club (Stereo Club of Southern California), which has united 3D enthusiasts to advance the science and art of stereoscopy since 1955.

Eric Kurland, President of the LA 3-D Club, is also a 3D filmmaker - he recently won Best of Show – Live Action at the Stereoscopic Displays and Applications Convention 3D Theater for his stereography on "White Knuckles 3D" by OK Go.

See their press release below for details on entering.

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The Los Angeles 3-D Club (SCSC) is now accepting entries to the 8th
Annual LA 3-D Movie Festival. The Festival's mission is to showcase the
best independent stereoscopic 3-D filmmaking from around the world. The
festival will take place on May 14-15th, 2011, at the Downtown
Independent Theater in Los Angeles. A jury of celebrity and film
industry judges will award prizes to the top entries. In addition, an
award will be given for the audience favorite.

Entries will be accepted in three categories:

Shorts under 10 minutes.
Shorts 10-40 minutes
Features over 40 minutes

Submission deadlines and entry fees are as follows:

$25 Early Deadline: March 18th, 2011
$30 Regular Deadline: April 1st, 2011
$40 Late Deadline: April 15th, 2011

Entry information is available at the festival website, www.LA3DFest.com