Technology Filmmaker discovers Nazi 3D movies from the 1930s

From Wired.com:

Decades before Hollywood shlockmeisters rolled out their gimmicky spectacles in the mid-'50s, Nazi filmmakers made 3D propaganda films using their own versions of the format.

Stored in an obscure corner of Berlin's Federal Archives, two black-and-white shorts shot in 1936 were discovered by Australian director Philippe Mora as he researched a project on Third Reich cinema.

Mora told Variety the 3D Nazi movies, evidently filmed with a prism in front of two lenses, "were made … for Goebbels' propaganda ministry and referred to as raum film -- or space film -- which may be why no one ever realised since that they were 3D."

The half-hour films include a musical, So Real You Can Touch It, featuring close-ups of sizzling bratwurst. Six Girls Roll Into Weekend follows a group of Nazi starlets.

"The quality of the films is fantastic," Mora said. "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."

Mora, who believes there are more Nazi 3D films waiting to be unearthed, is already digging into his next project: a 3D biopic about Salvador Dali.

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From  Variety:

Third Reich 3D movies unearthed


Documaker Philippe Mora finds unknown pre-war pics

Films shot on 3D in pre-war Nazi Germany have been unearthed in Berlin's Federal Archives.

Two 30 minute black and white propaganda films in 1936 were found by Australian director Philippe Mora, who is prepping a feature length documentary on how the Nazis used images to manipulate reality.

Mora broke new ground with his first film "Swastika" when it was released in 1973 featuring previously unseen color footage from Hitler's "home" movies shot on a 16mm camera by his mistress Eva Braun at the Berghof mountain retreat at Obersalzberg in the Bavarian alps.

Now he has discovered that the Nazis were decades ahead of Hollywood in developing a medium first popularized in the 1950s and now enjoying an international renaissance.

"The films are shot on 35mm -- apparently with a prism in front of two lenses," Mora who is at the Berlinale for his planned $13 million 3D biopic on Salvador Dali, starring Alan Cumming and Judy Davis that he plans to shoot in Germany, Australia and Spain.

"They were made by an independent studio for Goebbels' propaganda ministry and referred to as 'raum film' -- or space film -- which may be why no one ever realised since that they were 3D."

One film, a musical set during a carnival entitled "So Real You Can Touch It" features close up shots of sizzling bratwurst on a barbeque; the other "Six Girls Roll into Weekend" has what may be UFA studio starlets living it up.

"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," Mora said.

He plans to incorporate the material in a 3D section of his documentary -- working title "How the Third Reich Was Recorded" -- and is convinced there is more vintage 3D footage out there to be found.

From http://www.s3dcentre.ca/news/nazi-3d-philippe-mora-and-me:

The Search For 3D in The Third Reich.

Mora told the audience about two Nazi stereoscopic films (shot using a process that the Nazi’s called Raumbild) that he discovered last February. Yet, what was even more unbelievable was the fact that German scientists had employed the 3D film and projection medium during the 1936 Berlin Olympics

“We subsequently discovered that a Technical unit of engineers working with Zeiss Ikon at the Technical and Physics institute in Braunschweig in 1935 and 1936 built special 16MM high-speed stereoscopic units to film certain events at the Olympics. Why? We believe they had determined that in a close race a still photo may be an inaccurate image of who won, depending on the position of the camera.

They built two stereoscopic rigs to film the events in 16MM at 50 frames per second from a special tower over-looking the finishing line. The cameras were triggered by the starter’s pistol. Even more enterprising they developed the film within seven minutes of the races finishing, and projected them with two projectors to examine the races in 3D. Many results were corrected when the judges viewed the stereoscopic films”

From  http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/feb/16/nazi-3d-films-discovered