"This will be one of the best 3D experiences that I think you can have," promises film producer and writer Alex Low of the CN Tower's newly upgraded Maple Leaf Cinema. For decades, the national landmark has used the theatre at the base of its tower for short films and interactive rides. But now with the addition of a state-of-the-art 2K resolution Christie projection system, the CN Tower aims to make itself Toronto's premiere 3D movie house.

"It's the size of the theatre, the quality of the projector system, and the amount of light that's being thrown onto the screen; all things that are vital for a really great 3D experience," explains Low, who, combined with his brother Stephen and father Colin, has decades of experience both making 3D films and premiering them at big-screen theatres around the world. "You're not going to find that, I suspect, anywhere else in this city and possibly in the country," he enthuses.

Alex Low is a movie producer and writer, and the person behind The Ultimate Wave Tahiti 3D, the first 3D surfing film ever created, which is playing at the newly upgraded theatre in Toronto's CN Tower: "The challenge with filming surfing in 3D is that you have to get really close to the surfers with the camera, and we were never really sure that was possible to do. If you want a good 3D experience, the camera has to be as close to the subject as you can get it."

The 144-seat theatre may not be able to put as many bums in seats or offer as large a screen as the IMAX rooms used by national chains. But it's because of that intimate space that the CN Tower's theatre can close the distance between the audience and the 3D image being created, using a brighter, high-gain screen to display a better-defined 3D image from a 21,000 lumens-bright projector.

While several theatres still use a two-projector system with 3D glasses designed around filtered lenses, the CN Tower has invested in a single Christie Digital CP2220 digital projector system with active shutter XpanD 3D glasses, offering 2K resolution (2,028 x 1,080) at 24 fps per eye and 144 Hz.

Putting that system to good use is The Ultimate Wave Tahiti 3D, the first 3D surfing film ever created. It is a staggering demonstration of 3D filming technique. Through his earlier films, The Last Buffalo, Titanica, and Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, Canadian director Stephen Low has long passed the period of learning the language of 3D. And now that he's fluent in its use, Low is tackling the bigger opportunities presented by the technology.

"The challenge with filming surfing in 3D is that you have to get really close to the surfers with the camera, and we were never really sure that was possible to do," explainsAlex Low, who wrote and produced the film. "If you want a good 3D experience, the camera has to be as close to the subject as you can get it."

The film features nine-time surfing champion Kelly Slater and yes, as the posters suggest, it does capture him riding the legendary "demonic" waves of the Teahupo'o reef. But it doesn't repeat that theme ad-nauseam as many surf films do. Instead, it offers a charismatic and very playful exploration of the 3D possibilities that an island paradise full of volcanoes, coral reefs, lagoons, and people steeped in an enchanted island culture can offer.

Low led a crew of top surf cinematographers into Tahiti with every experimental camera rig available, balancing 3D rigs on the noses of surf boards, floating them off of the ocean floor, and swimming them through arcs that manage to capture traveling shots from below, above, and through the water as it swells into powerful waves that extend off into picturesque 3D horizons.

Many scenes feature six or seven planes of depth, extending both in front of and behind the screen. With the front of the surfboard reaching to the back of the theatre, a paddle extends out sideways towards the middle of the audience while the surfer behind powers it and the back of the surfboard reachesinto the water behind the screen,with a looming wave forming even farther behind it. Just when you think you've seen all the layers, the paddle splashes the camera and water dribbles down your face, just inches before your eyes.

The film finds dramatic shots in the simplest of moments. A small jeep driving through a stream creates a shelf of water that extends out of the bottom of the screen to fall over the audience.A fish swims out of the screen in curiosity, turns and then flashes its side, displaying its fins and striped back in such glinting detail that you can see every scale. When a young girl paddles out towards the camera on her board, she breaks through the screen for such an intimate face-to-face, you can almost feel her lips brush against your own. During a Polynesian night festival, dancers spin batons alight in flame, pushing the wheels of fire out through the screen and over the faces of the audience. None of these scenes stand out as being separate from the story. The camera seems to simply pick up choice 3D moments as it follows Slater and his surfing companions while they playfully explore the island, bantering and teasing each other while waiting for wave conditions to arrive.

Special computer graphics, created using computer interfaces that float in the air so animators can draw them in 3D, are integrated into the movie to bring tribal masks and legends to life. At one point, a native canoe emerges from the land as a line drawing to float out over the ocean and swing its bow into the audience. Large, rendered waves, bristling with surface detail and immense might swirl the theatre as they envelope the screen in a lesson on wave dynamics. One shot of the Earth's surface fills the camera and powerfully makes the entire screen itself hover as a large, convex 3D image, its surface swirling with clouds. The Ultimate Wave is more than just a surf movie in 3D, but a diverse catalog of different 3D experiences.

While the draw of the new Maple Leaf Cinema will be its 3D films, the CN Tower has kept its 2D projection system and has addednew systems that will allow the theatre to display a wide number of video formats including Blu-ray, standard definition content, and computer presentations. A special wireless system can allow operators to leave the booth and sit amongst the audience, controlling and switching between projection systems through a laptop, changing over from 2D films loaded in by reel to digital content loaded intoa server from300 GB hard drives.

"We can turn our theatre into pretty much anything that's required," says Tom Mellon, Operations Manager, who plans to continue to extend the theatre out for use in corporate functions and product launches. "We've designed the theatre to take any kind of media and play it."

Mellon says that the CN Tower is always looking for innovative ways to add to the experience of visiting the national icon. And 3D is the perfect complement to the tower's real world thrills of a view from 160 km above the ground.

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