The Birds (3D)

I was fortunate enough to visit Universal Studios in Florida during the 1990s and tour the “Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies” attraction on more than one occasion. One of the main features of this attraction was a screening of “The Birds (3D)” and it was truly the stuff of nightmares. Now when I first started to write this post, I was relying on a faulty recollection as I remembered the 3D sequence in the attraction to have been from the actual film but upon screening a Youtube recording of the attraction (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgX48jX3gPA), it became clear that “The Birds (3D)” was only a 3D special sequence that was made for the attraction. This realization was truly a pity because it would have been fantastic if Hitchcock had filmed “The Birds” in 3D as he did with “Dial M for Murder”.

I did a little digging on-line and was able to determine that a company named 3-D Image Tek Corporation, which, “was founded in 1988 by Craig Crawford and Steve Hines…”¹ consulted on the Universal Studio's Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" (3D). It is unclear as to whether they actually were the company hired to create the 3D sequence but their website is worth a look. However, back to “The Birds 3D” which sadly is no longer as the “Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies” attraction closed in 2003 and was replaced by “Shrek 4D”. I wish I were able to visit the attraction again but to give you another glimpse of some of the fantastic behind the scenes experiences that were part of the attraction, here is a press video from the ‘90s that breaks down how the shower sequence in “Psycho” was shot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hk17-0VnZM&feature=related&noredirect=1).

I hope you enjoyed this stroll down my 3D memory lane, I only wish that the video quality of “The Birds (3D)" was higher so that you may appreciate what a unique 3D experience it was.

Until next time, cheers-

Russell McGee

¹  3-D ImageTek Corporation, Company Overview, WWW Document, http://www.3dimagetek.com/overview.htm