Watching a 3D documentary: 3DTV study shows that seeing is believing

I’ve come across an interesting experiment that captured consumer reaction to the 3DTV experience.

I’ve come across an interesting experiment that captured consumer reaction to the 3DTV experience.

The Nielsen Company invited consumers in Las Vegas, Nevada to watch a 30-minute 3D reel featuring sports, nature, comedy, a music concert, movies and video games and then weigh in on the content.

No surprise – the majority said it was better than 2D. But what’s really interesting is why. They didn’t only like what they saw … they liked how the 3DTV experience made them feel.

Here’s what they found:

-6 out of 10 participants agreed the 3D content was better than their current 2DTV viewing

-48% found 3DTV more engaging

-57% found 3DTV made them ‘feel like they were part of the action’

-48% felt ‘closer to the characters’

These reactions speak to the immersive nature of 3D television. The journey into the third dimension is not only visual – it’s emotional.

For example, our editor Brian Mann and I were checking out a 3D stock footage demo of a waterfall a week or so ago. As I sat in my chair and watched the water flow over the rocks, it was like I was sitting in the middle of a forest right next to it, about to toss a rock into the stream.

I’ve seen a lot of waterfall B roll in my life … but I’ve never felt like that.

More and more people are demanding this superior experience from their home entertainment.

Here’s what the Las Vegas participants wanted to see more of:

File 171

Nielsen study: participants were exposed to 30 minutes of 3D content in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Another Nielson survey asked 27,000 online consumers from across 53 countries if they currently owned or will purchase a 3DTV in the next 12 months.

The good news for 3DTV:

-15% ‘probably will purchase’

-9% ‘definitely will purchase’

-4% already own a 3DTV

But there’s a ways to go:

-21% are still undecided

-19% ‘probably won’t purchase’

-33% ‘will definitely not purchase’

Many consumers are still skeptical about 3DTV. It’s a fact. And it’s a fact that we shouldn’t ignore.

But look at how far we’ve come in just a year.

Last January it would have been next to impossible to purchase a 3D TV for your home. Fast forward to the 2010 holiday season, when 3D home entertainment systems popped up in every major electronics store.

And availability isn’t the only thing that’s improving: the technology out there is getting better and cheaper.

What the future holds…

As 3DTV evolution and accessibility continues to grow, so does the opportunity for great storytelling in a whole new dimension.

And the more people who experience how meaningful this experience is, the more momentum 3DTV will gain.

Ian Herring, President

@ianherring

Editing a 3D documentary: where to find high-quality stereoscopic stock footage

Yet another sign that 3D entertainment is gaining momentum – an expanding library of high-quality stereoscopic stock footage is available online.

This is great news for 3D production houses like ours.

We can only include a certain amount of 2D footage in the 3D shows we’re delivering. It can range from as little as 2-3 per cent per show, depending on the broadcaster.

For our visual effects, this isn’t an issue – we can convert 2D VFX shots into 3D. However, stock footage is a completely different matter.

Where to find it:

Our editor, Brian Mann, recently came across Artbeats, an online source for royalty-free stock footage in high quality stereoscopic 3D. This type of footage could allow us to fill visual gaps and transition between scenes while keeping the show as 3D as possible.

We tested Artbeats free download of a waterfall in S3D. It looked fantastic and lived up to their promise of high quality 3D stock footage.

File 166
Still image of Artbeats waterfall download. View with Red/Cyan glasses for full 3D effect.

3D stock options:

Artbeats’ clips are available in S3D HD and S3D 4K formats. Predominantly, their footage has been shot on RED ONE or RED MS using a stereo rig. There is not an extensive range of categories… yet. Mostly they feature aerials, animals and nature.

On the upside, new content is added monthly and will soon include pyrotechnic, new city scene, establishment, winter scene and additional aerial collections shot on RED Epic cameras using a beam splitter rig.

Metadata provided by Artbeats:

– positive parallax percentage (the customer has the option to position and crop to set convergence)

– interocular separation measurements

– maximum screen display size (anywhere from 42” televisions to 42’ movie screens)

– frame rate (24p, 25p and most in 30p)

– clip length (5-60+ seconds)

What it will cost you:

Prices range from $449-$799 USD for left/right and side-by-side formats. Some rights managed clips have a higher sticker price, so be sure to check the fine print. They also sell the RAW (.R3D) file of a RED clip for an extra $100.

Artbeats is right on the pulse of 3D accessibility. We haven’t purchased anything yet, but we will certainly keep them in mind as we move forward.

Ian Herring, President

@ianherring

3D documentary filmmaking: To buy or not to buy? Why Panasonic AG-3DA1 sensors don’t make the cut

3D camera test update – I’ve had a chance to check out the footage from our recent Panasonic AG-3DA1 test shoot.

The verdict: a renter, not a keeper

Bottom line … it’s a great idea – but a couple incarnations short of buying.

On the plus side, the body is super lightweight at 2.4kg. Compared to rigs like this:

File 162

Parallax Film Productions uses 3D camera rig to shoot Dover Castle in Kent, England.

… it’s no small difference.

But now that I’ve seen it in post, it’s painfully clear the sensor size is a dealbreaker. This camera is a great choice to rent if you’re doing lower-end picture work – but that’s as far as I’d go.

What would make it a keeper:

Panasonic needs to increase their 1/4.1” 3MOS image sensor to a 1/3” minimum before I’d buy. The 3DA1 just doesn’t make the cut for the caliber of shows we produce.

I’m going to wait and see what changes and hopefully upgrades to the sensors go into the next version – I suggest you do the same.

Right now this camera comes close to a solid B-cam. But until Panasonic increases the sensor size we won’t be adding this pony to our stable.

Ian Herring, President

@ianherring

2D/3D camera equipment for sale: Meuser Optik lenses up for grabs on eBay

parallax photo

Heads up – we’ve listed 2 Meuser Optik lenses for sale on eBay.

Specs:

– 2x Meuser Optik 3.4mm C-mount lenses for 3CCD 1/3″ sensor

– compatible with Iconix camera system and Toshiba IK-TU53H, for shooting 2D or 3D

– fast, small and lightweight

– manufactured in Germany

– used for one shoot only

– f2.2-f16 with manual focus

For more about the lenses in action, check out this 3D blog post.

Ian Herring, President

@ianherring

3D camera review: how the Panasonic AG-3DA1 stands up to 3D documentary filmmaking

Normally my team and I use rig-based camera systems to shoot our 3D documentary material.

So far these custom-designed units have gotten the job done.

But to stay in this crazy 3D game you’ve got to try it all … last week it was time to play with a new toy.

We took the shiny Panasonic AG-3DA1 for a test drive.

Here’s some footage of the indoor shoot:

 

 

 

Here’s some footage of the outdoor shoot:

 

 

 

What you need to know:

-There are distance limitations as with any side by side camera rig. For instance when we were shooting in a room approx. 3m x 3m the closest we could get is about 1.2 meters to the subject. When we zoomed in we had to move to about 2.5 to 3 meters – we were out the door before we got a clean and well converged shot of the subject.

-To get anaglyphic 3D press the “mix” button.

-Both the viewfinder and LCD screen use anaglyphic as convergence guide.

-The LCD screen is soft when in “mix” mode – so focus needs to be continually checked.

What you’ll like:

-It’s lightweight.

-It shoots decent EXT.

What you won’t:

-The small sensor means that the image shows noise in low light.

The call:

Jury’s out for now. I’ve sent the footage into post, and will make the call on if it’s worth it to add to our 3D arsenal when I see the goods.

More to come …

Ian Herring, President

@ianherring

3D documentaries in the news: how to settle the 3D TV debate? Less talking, more watching

I was interviewed for a story that appeared in the Globe and Mail over the holidays.

The topic? The future of 3D television, of course.

The article opens with the inception of my journey into the third dimension – a trip with the Parallax crew to see Avatar at the end of 2009 – then goes into an industry snapshot.

One of the most interesting parts of this piece: the comments – people weighing in, giving us a feel for how our audience is reacting to this new world of entertainment.

From “The future of 3D home television? Thud, flop, disappear” to “I have a lot of techie friends, yet I still only know one person who had spent the double cost to buy a 3d TV”, it’s clear that some doubt it will take off

My challenge to you: find a way to watch some 3D television in a non-retail setting.

This is the same stuff that wowed millions of people all over the world as they spent billions of dollars to watch Avatar – now in the comfort of your living room.

It’s how people are experiencing 3D programming in a meaningful way. “Watched 3D underwater scene at Wacky Wheatleys in Fredericton, NB on Sony TV , very impressive”, another Globe and Mail reader commented.

And don’t worry that there will be nothing to watch – the content is coming. Popular Science had a great roundup article earlier this week – Sony, Discovery, IMAX, ESPN, Vudu …. and of course, Penthouse.

These big players know their industry, and their audience – they‘re confident this unprecedented immersive experience will leave people smacked for more.

I’ve been in their boardrooms – they see 3D content and get inspired. And like me, they want to share.

Get in the game. We experience the world in 3D – it’s time to demand the same from our entertainment

Ian Herring, President

@ianherring

Shooting A 3D documentary: How to record 1080P to a Nano3D drive using Sony EX3s

We recently shot a show that will be delivered to broadcasters in 1080i.  Our 3D camera system choice for this shoot was a beam splitter with two Sony EX3s gen-locked, recording a 140mb to Nano3D drives.

Because of the large amount of VFX work and the convergence needs of 3D, we wanted to capture native 3D in 1080p – this makes it possible to work with a full frame of information.

When our DOP camera-tested native 3D he found that it was only possible to shoot 1080i as that’s what standard the Nano3D drives record to – even though the genlocked EX3 system was set to record 1080p. Annoying, but I decided we’d make it work.

So we got the footage in as 1080i – and loaded it into the off-line FCP and Cineform 3D edit system. That’s where we ran into a problem.

What was going on?  The native files were playing back fine in FCP – but when we brought it over to Cineform to do convergence and 3D adjustments we got visual tearing and had interlace issues.   When we did our adjustments the fields no longer matched.

We identified the source of the problem was within Cineform First Light, and it was the interlaced files that didn’t match – in interlaced footage the shot was broken up into two fields, top and bottom.  Our problem was with our adjustments  – the order was being mixed up so the shots looked terrible.

So went back to the source file – and figured out we had to add another step and de-interlace it and then re-input the 1080p frame back into Cineform and then it would work  – making it 1080p, the frame file we wanted to shoot it in the first place.

Bonus: as we problem-solved the above interlacing issue with Cineform we also found out that the Nano drives can record 1080p – if you tell them that the signal is in fact 1080psf.

PSF stands for Progressive Segmented Frames and it is how the camera delivers video down a single SDI cable.   1080p is so large it has to broken up into smaller pieces – called, packets.   It doesn’t change the video, just reformats the video during transmission down the cable.

One has to tell the Nano drives that the signal is coming as a 1080psf – and it will happily record 1080p.   So now we don’t have to de-interlace the file and can work in 1080p right off the drive.

After the 3D and VFX work is done and the final on-line completed we can re-interlace the files and deliver final output to the broadcaster.

So on future shoots we can shoot 1080p – we just have to tell the Nano drives that it’s coming IN as 1080psf – not 1080p.

One less step to take in our post work flow – and now we can work in 1080p.

Ian Herring , President