Shooting a 3D documentary: differentiating left from right

In the world of 3D filmmaking, keeping left and right straight can be a mega pain. We discovered just how confusing it can get while prepping to shoot

We discovered just how confusing it can get while prepping to shoot our first 3D documentary.

From cameras to lenses to batteries to cables to monitor ports, we struggled to keep everything straight in-house.

So avoiding this headache in the field – the implosion of the Fonte Nova Stadium in Salvador, Brazil – seemed difficult at best, impossible at worst.

With so much at stake for this groundbreaking episode of the explosive demolition series Blowdown, we seriously needed a system.

So we colour-coded everything.

Left is red, right is blue … and it doesn’t end with the gear.

We’re also colour-coding our data files so the editor can instantly recognize which footage corresponds to which eye.

Now when there are excavators crunching, drills grinding, and chaos everywhere, the crew will have one less thing to wrap their heads around.

Shooting a 3D documentary: differentiating left from right

In the world of 3D filmmaking, keeping left and right straight can be a mega pain. We discovered just how confusing it can get while prepping to shoot

We discovered just how confusing it can get while prepping to shoot our first 3D documentary.

From cameras to lenses to batteries to cables to monitor ports, we struggled to keep everything straight in-house.

So avoiding this headache in the field – the implosion of the Fonte Nova Stadium in Salvador, Brazil – seemed difficult at best, impossible at worst.

With so much at stake for this groundbreaking episode of the explosive demolition series Blowdown, we seriously needed a system.

So we colour-coded everything.

Left is red, right is blue … and it doesn’t end with the gear.

We’re also colour-coding our data files so the editor can instantly recognize which footage corresponds to which eye.

Now when there are excavators crunching, drills grinding, and chaos everywhere, the crew will have one less thing to wrap their heads around. 

Shooting a 3D documentary: stereo kill cams

One of the types of cameras we’ll use to shoot our first 3D documentary will be kill cams.Though some of our systems will be used the entire month we’re down in Salvador, Brazil filming prep and implosion of the Fonte Nova Stadium for the explosive demolition series Blowdown, these six units won’t be called on until shot day.

Here’s how it works: we’ll mount them in various locations in the stadium right before the implosion – based on story points and/or high-octane visual potential.

After Controlled Demolition Inc. pushes the button, these cameras (12 in all) will go down with the structure – and hopefully capture gold before they’re annihilated.

Here are two kill cam shots from a previous show – the implosion of Ocean Tower condominiums, on South Padre Island, Texas, late last year:

 

 

Our stereographer, Sean White, will rig twice the number of kill cams, fixed on  on a side by side rig, to capture these moments in stereo.

Shooting a 3D documentary: stereo kill cams

One of the types of cameras we’ll use to shoot our first 3D documentary will be kill cams.Though some of our systems will be used the entire month we’re down in Salvador, Brazil filming prep and implosion of the Fonte Nova Stadium for the explosive demolition series Blowdown, these six units won’t be called on until shot day.

Here’s how it works: we’ll mount them in various locations in the stadium right before the implosion – based on story points and/or high-octane visual potential.

After Controlled Demolition Inc. pushes the button, these cameras (12 in all) will go down with the structure – and hopefully capture gold before they’re annihilated.

Here are two kill cam shots from a previous show – the implosion of Ocean Tower condominiums, on South Padre Island, Texas, late last year:

 

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Our stereographer, Sean White, will rig twice the number of kill cams, fixed on  on a side by side rig, to capture these moments in stereo. 

3D documentaries in the news: Parallax Film Productions in the Vancouver Sun and Victoria’s Times Colonist

As the crew gets the lay of the land in Salvador, Brazil to film our first 3D documentary, two stories about the mission have been freshly pressed here in Canada:

Film production firm Parallax forwards 3-D vision

The Vancouver Sun’s Marke Andrews spoke to me about our 3D vision, and the challenges of getting stereoscopic material from capture to broadcast.

 

 
President Ian Herring and stereographer Sean White (left) test custom-made equipment that will be used to shoot Parallax Film Production’s first 3D documentary

Quotable quote:

“So when I contact Ian Herring, founder and president of Parallax Film, the obvious question is: Given that it will cost as much as 50-per-cent more to make the show in 3-D, why bother?

‘It’s a bit of a cart before the horse, I guess. But this is a creative industry with vision, and if somebody doesn’t do something visionary, we’re never going to advance,’ says Herring.”

Read the full Vancouver Sun article here.

Documentary director experiments with custom cameras as TV filming moves into a new dimension

Mike Reid, reporter for Victoria’s Times Colonist, also interviewed stereographer Sean White, focusing on what it’s going to take to master this 3D crash course in the field, shooting the implosion of the Fonte Nova Stadium for the explosive demolition series Blowdown:

Stereographer Sean White hones two Canon 7Ds on a side by side rig – gear that will be used to shoot elements of Parallax Film Production’s first 3D documentary

Quotable quote:

“Their first challenge was finding the ideal 3-D camera to capture such footage for TV.

‘What do we use? Oh, let’s just use the 3-D camera that doesn’t exist,’ recalled White, laughing. ‘It’s a major investment on Parallax’s part to be so pioneering and at the forefront of this technology.’

White and his collaborators at the firm, which specializes in production of science and history programs for Canadian and international broadcast, have spent a long time researching and developing ‘stereoscopic’ systems to pull it off.

During the event, 40 cameras — each a customized system — will roll simultaneously.”

Read the full Times Colonist article here.  

Shooting a 3D documentary: wiring a ContourHD POV system

One of the issues we ran into while getting ready to shoot our first 3D documentary was controlling our POV cams on without knocking them out of alignment.

We chose two ContourHDs to capture POV footage on this shoot – the implosion of the Fonte Nova Stadium in Salvador, Brazil for the explosive demolition series Blowdown – over the two GoPro HDs because the ContourHD’s shape (round) allows for a smaller interaxial distance than the GoPro HD’s (boxy).

The ContourHD’s lasers also allow the crew to confirm the cameras are aligned horizontally after they’re placed on our custom-made aluminum side by side rig and before they’re mounted on a Magic Arm or tripod.

The one problem with these cameras is that the switches are big and cumbersome – our stereographer, Sean White, was concerned about knocking the cameras out of alignment when it’s time to record.

So we’ve had a single switch hardwired into both camera’s circuitry.

Now we can turn both on at the same time without having to worry about alignment issues.

Sean with the wired ContourHD POV system, and some other 3D gear:

 

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Shooting a 3D documentary: crew packs for Brazil

Big day today: our stereographer Sean White and 3D technician Rory Lambert packed up all the gear we’ll need to shoot our first 3D documentary.

They fly out tomorrow morning for Salvador, Brazil. More of the field crew will head down later this week and, as mentioned, I’ll be joining them next week.

Together, we’ll capture the prep and implosion of the Fonte Nova Stadium for the explosive demolition series Blowdown.

Managed to get video/stills of some of the gear before it was boxed/bagged, including our POV cam, one of the kill cams, and data management components – will share in the next few days.

Mini beam splitter is among the gear, but boxed and separate from the cameras – want to wait until it’s all set up in the field to snap pics of it.

For today … it’s all about the anticipation.

Sean and Rory pack the gear:

Rory on the great unknowns:

Sean on the next steps:

Adeus, crew.

3D documentaries in the news: Parallax Film Productions on CBC Radio

Our stereographer, Sean White, spoke with CBC Radio earlier this week about the challenges him and the rest of the Parallax Film team (myself included) will face shooting our first 3D documentary:

Sean speaks about the implosion of the Fonte Nova Stadium in Salvador, Brazil that we’ll be filming for the explosive demolition series Blowdown, how 3D event-based documentary filmmaking differs from 3D feature film production, and how we’ve rigged gear, planned data management and hammered out a work flow taking these differences into consideration.

Quotable quotes:

“The tools exist for making feature films like Avatar, or we see a lot of animated 3D films, but now with this emergence of 3D television there’s a thirst and a demand for content but the tools don’t quite exist to be able to go out there and do filmmaking like we’re used to doing it for television.”

“Together with a team here in Victoria we’ve actually taken other cameras and sourced components from other places and assembled them in a way that certainly in B.C. and Canada and probably in the world these systems don’t exist.”

“Our hope is that as 3D becomes more prolific that a Canadian broadcaster will catch on to this stuff … it’s more than the future of television, this is the future of how we consume content, whether it’s on the Internet or on whether it’s on TV this is what future generations are going to be demanding and we’re on the forefront of creating it for television.”

Gear roundup tomorrow, Crew ships out Monday.

Ready to roll.

Compositing a 3D documentary: converting 2D to 3D

Even though we’re going to shoot our first 3D documentary entirely in the third dimension, our visual effects will still be generated from stills.

Our compositor, Jakub Kuczynski, has been converting 2D VFX from previous episodes of the explosive demolition series Blowdown as he preps to work with photos from the implosion of the Fonte Nova Stadium in Salvador, Brazil.

He’s working in 3D space in Adobe After Effects. So to convert shots, he:

1) Generates a second camera in the 3D space, so there’s a camera for the left eye and the right eye.

2) Positions the second camera being aware of the same elements as shooting on location: how close objects are to the camera, etc.

3) Goes thorough the shot, key frame convergence depending on where the camera is in relation to objects.

4) Creatively decides where the depth cues will work best.

5) Renders both eyes.

6) Hand over to edit, then check the shot out on our polarized monitor.

Go through the shot, key frame convergence, spit out a left eye and a right eye.

It’s great to see some of the shots of 2D past converted into 3D – prominent, big and impressive.

Here’s the anaglyphic version of one of the shots, a bunker fly-in from Spyship: sinking the Hoyt S. Vandenberg – now the second-largest artificial reef in the world – off the coast of Florida.

Making a 3D documentary: 3D TV penetration stats

Fun with numbers … 3D TV style. As we get ready to shoot our first 3D documentary, I’ve been curious about what the future holds for 3D TV.

It’s tough to find stats on this, but I did come across a report from the International Television Expert Group, released in May 2010.

The report forecasts:

1) Over 20 million TV homes globally will be watching 3D TV within five years.

2) 3D TV is expected to be in 1.6% of all homes by 2015.

3) North America will lead the way in terms of number of 3D TV homes with 9.2 million.

4) Western Europe will be the second largest region with 6.8 million.

5) Asia Pacific third with 4.6 million.

It predicts growth will be constrained by:

1) Absence of a glasses-free system of watching 3D TV.

2) Lack of content.

3) High production costs.

4) Scarcity of channels.

5) Bandwidth constraints.

6) High cost of 3D sets.

Obviously, the more people who get to watch this next episode of the explosive demolition series Blowdown we’re about to shoot – the implosion of the Fonte Nova Stadium in Salvador, Brazil – in 3D, the better.

Has anyone else come across stats on 3D TV penetration?

It would be great to see more …