3D royal wedding plans ruled out

3D - not royal enough for royalty
3D - not royal enough for royalty

The upcoming royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton will not be shot in 3D, it has been revealed.

The press secretary to the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, Patrick Harrison, quashed rumours that 3D would be used in the filming of the ceremony for TV, explaining in an email: "I'm afraid I have to say that we have decided not to progress with 3D coverage of the service on this occasion.

"There are a number of reasons for this, most notably the additional camera footprint in the abbey, the relatively small (albeit growing) audience for 3D, and our desire to not be distracted away from negotiating and facilitating the optimal 2D, radio, photographic and online coverage of the day."

3D disappointment

It's interesting that Harrison cites a "small audience for 3D" as one of the factors, given that the creators of the Olympics want to shoot some of the games in 3D so that the format is in the archive for future use.

Harrison's email continued: "I know you have all become increasingly enthusiastic about 3D and I'm sorry that this will come as a disappointment.

"I hope you feel the process we have gone through will be helpful for other live events and of course we do not rule out facilitating 3D at some point in the future."

This 'point in the future' could well be the filming of the Queen's speech in 3D. As Sky is now in partnership with the BBC and ITV with the production of the Queen's speech, it may be that the satellite giant will use a 3D camera to film what Her Maj has to say.

If this does happen, it won't be the most riveting use of 3D but it will bring the format that little bit closer to the mainstream.

Via the Guardian

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.