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Cinematography: Easy as 1, 2, 3D

Stereoscopic 3D comes with a particular set of challenges and requirements. Cameras, rigs… what do productions need to take into consideration to create their own 3D solutions? Martin Cayzer, managing director of Panavision Asia Pacific discusses the impact of 3D on cinematography.

3Dis a good thing. Good in many ways, but primarily it’s causing people to slow down, think and plan more. As 3D pushes people into digital capture it also helps identify the strengths and issues that will make or break a good 3D production.
Real time stereo monitoring is critical and key to 3D production. Viewing convergence is also as big factor that needs to be addressed, as is making stereographic and interocular decisions with live images on stereo screens.
With a digital setup these decisions can be made live and on set, something that is much trickier with film. Hence, the vast majority of 3D production will be captured with digital cameras – vast rather than all, as it’s certain that someone will always want to shoot 3D with film cameras.

Stereoscopic 3D is also challenging the most experienced DOPs, some of whom have only ever shot on film and are now being asked to go down the 3D HD route. It’s a big learning curve and one that we are helping more and more DOPs understand, especially where choosing the right equipment for the job is concerned.
DOPs are now having to understand interocular and convergence issues, where there is good convergence and bad convergence and the effect of both on an image.

It has been openly said that there is good 3D and bad 3D, just as there are good VFX and bad VFX, so this is very important to get right. DOPs are now working with and understanding better the role of a stereographer in a similar way to the early days of colour where there was often a colour advisor on set. It’s a whole new language and they are being asked to learn fast.
Some DOPs work closely with the stereographer and director whilst others are choosing to let them handle that part of the shoot themselves. A question being asked on sets is whether stereographers will eventually become stereo directors.

Something many people were not expecting is the fact that every 3D job is different. There are very few conventions whether it’s a movie, TV program or TVC; the rigs, cameras, monitoring and set up will essentially be in a unique configuration.

A production’s drivers will remain the same – namely budget and the size of the production. 3D adds another layer of required flexibility and complexity to a production, especially in the areas of monitors, cameras and lenses.


THE EARLIER, THE BETTER

Panavision’s recent experience with 3D has shown us very clearly that every production has to start from the ground up as 3D production is a whole new world. There is the budget to consider, and the fact that you will have, at the very least, two lots of equipment – including cameras, lenses and the rig to be operated by technicians, stereographers and interocular focus pullers, to name a few of the additional crew required.
There is far more planning involved, and companies in the systems integrator role have to be consulted far earlier in the process than with normal productions. Discussions need to be had about how it is going to be shot, what kind of rigs, types of cameras and on-set monitoring is going to be used. Testing is critical, as is being able to source and put together all of the right equipment. Getting the right
people with the right technical knowledge for the job will make or break a production.
If it’s a sports production, it’s not possible to always predict the action on the field, so that makes it much more difficult to process stereo images on the fly. You have to manage the depth of the image consistently, so that viewers find it easy on the eye and on-screen graphics can also be generated to fit into the action. All of this is possible, but it needs an integration of people and technologies fully tested and proven to work to make sure that the production is a success.
DOPs and production companies now more than ever, need technology partners and systems integrators to help them navigate through the digital and 3D spectrums. Film workflows have been very well established for years both in production and post production. New 3D workflows are being established all the time.

NOT CREATED EQUAL
Stereoscopic 3D has had a major impact on cameras and rigs creating a massive expansion in different models and a huge amount of choice. Again, caution is advised as not all 3D cameras and rigs are created equal.

Before committing to our partnership with Element  Technica, Panavision tested most of the reasonable 3D rigs available. The Element Technica rigs were better than all the other rigs we tested in many ways.
Primarily they are more rigid and built more solidly. With 3D rigs mechanical flexibility is your enemy; there is a considerable amount of precise calibration involved in setting the rigs up properly and this can all be undone very quickly if the rigs flex. These rigs are also camera agnostic and very easy to set up, align and calibrate. Critically they are off-the-shelf and not custom rigs, which means they are all the same and if you need to bring extra rigs in from overseas, as we did with for recent Australia versus New Zealand soccer game, all the rigs match and work together perfectly. They have been designed by camera technicians with considerable experience of what’s required for the rigs to work properly in the field and on set. All of these factors are important.
Panavision has also tested many of the available cameras including the Genesis, Sony F23, Red MX, SI-2K, Sony HDCP1, Sony F900R, Phantom Gold and Sony HDC1500, on both Element Technica Neutron and Qasar rigs to make sure all worked perfectly. Comprehensive testing really does pay dividends in the 3D world.

Our advice to DOPs is to talk to a systems integrator who can help you assemble all the right equipment and get the best people together for the project. This includes having experience and knowledge in hardware, mechanical engineering, electronics, system design and integration. It’s a tough call to find the right company because, in truth, many are still learning and it takes a lot of money to test all the cameras, rigs and accessories to make sure they’ll work exactly the way you want them to.

Anyone wanting to shoot 3D should, above all else, talk to people who have successfully used 3D rigs, have a high level of knowledge and expertise in-house and start talking with them early on. Planning, testing and on-set monitoring are absolutely critical – there is little room for errors down the track once a production has begun and if they occur they can be very costly indeed.

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