Shooting a 3D documentary: review – Film Factory 3D Beam Splitter Indie Rig

Our crew’s spent the last week testing the B cam system we hope to use to shoot our first 3D documentary.

Here’s what we’ve learned about the Film Factory 3D BS Indie Rig:

Pros

1) Relatively affordable: rings in at $3,895 US plus shipping and handling (we also bought an extra mirror in case the first one smashes in the field. Don’t think we’ll find a second lying around at the condemned sports stadium slated for explosive demolition in Salvador, Brazil, where we’re going to be filming, and shipping one in would surely be a nightmare).

2) Robust but adjustable: the rig’s sturdy, so I think it will stand up well in the field. But luckily the structure isn’t rigid – we’ve had some difficulty lining our Sony EX1 and EX3 up properly (see: large and cumbersome … it’s a problem), so we’ve disassembled the rig, manually repositioned parts, and tightened them to try and accommodate the cameras.

Specifically, the aluminum rails are locked in with screws that can be loosened, adjusted, and locked back in. Without this flexibility we’d have no hope of effectively adjusting the heights of the cameras relative to the base rail (which we’re still working on. Argh).

Cons

1) Manual operation: It doesn’t have all the fine, automated controls that the higher-end feature film rigs do. It lacks motorized components, so factors such as interaxial distance and convergence have to be adjusted manually. In feature film production, it’s often one person’s job just to operate the remote to make these adjustments on automated units.

2) Heavy load: This is just something the crew’s going to have to get used to – 3D shooting demands so much more gear. But it’s still a downer. Total tally: the rig, a tripod, two mid-sized cameras, the nano3D recorder, the Transvideo Cineform 3D Monitor, all the sync cables, and battery. We think it may take two extra bodies in the field just to move all of these components around.

And the cameras are a whole other story … more to come on the Sony EX1/EX3 issue.

Video: must-have gear for 3D documentary filmmaking

Filmed our stereographer Sean White and 3D technician Rory Lambert as they took on a bunch of 3D gear we’re testing to film our first documentary in stereoscopy.

Details: the B cam system we’ll use to film our first 3D documentary

The new run and gun: what it takes to get stereoscopic content in the field

How to: sync two cameras using a Transvideo Cineform 3D Monitor

Speedbumps are plentiful. But it feels great to finally be working with the gear.

Rock on.

Canon 7Ds – why they don’t work for our 3D documentary filmmaking

Argh! The Film Factory 3D Indie Rig we purchased for our B cam system to shoot our first 3D documentary has arrived and the Canon 7D DSLRs don’t work with it!

Here’s the problem: beam splitter rigs are extremely sensitive – anyone who works with them has undoubtedly discovered that you have to have perfect alignment of the two cameras to each other, and to the mirror.

To make sure they’re aligned, we need to use a 3D monitor – so we can see both cameras on the same grid.

The model we’ve purchased (and as far as I can tell the only one that fits our field requirements, tech demands and budget) – the Transvideo Cineform 3D Monitor – takes an HDSDI signal from both cameras and combines them.

The Canon 7Ds aren’t built to send this signal … so there’s no way to see them on the monitor.

Even if we could somehow convert the signal they do send to HDSDI, the monitor also needs these two signals to be genlocked – impossible with these models.

So yeah. We need new cameras.

Looks like we’re onto plan B – Sony EX3s. This system’s been tried before, so I have no reason to think it won’t work for us.

But the EX3s are heavier than the Canon 7Ds – more weight for our already-overburdened field crew.

Excess baggage is a necessary evil in the third dimension, to be sure.

Still, it would have been nice to take a bit of the load off.

Onwards and upwards.

Canon 7Ds – why they don’t work for our 3D documentary filmmaking

Argh! The Film Factory 3D Indie Rig we purchased for our B cam system to shoot our first 3D documentary has arrived and the Canon 7D DSLRs don’t work with it!

Here’s the problem: beam splitter rigs are extremely sensitive – anyone who works with them has undoubtedly discovered that you have to have perfect alignment of the two cameras to each other, and to the mirror.

To make sure they’re aligned, we need to use a 3D monitor – so we can see both cameras on the same grid.

The model we’ve purchased (and as far as I can tell the only one that fits our field requirements, tech demands and budget) – the Transvideo Cineform 3D Monitor – takes an HDSDI signal from both cameras and combines them.

The Canon 7Ds aren’t built to send this signal … so there’s no way to see them on the monitor.

Even if we could somehow convert the signal they do send to HDSDI, the monitor also needs these two signals to be genlocked – impossible with these models.

So yeah. We need new cameras.

(more…)