Shooting a 3D documentary: testing the green screen

Green screen action!

Writer Nicole Tomlinson stands in for a 3D green screen test

We’ve taken the Film Factory 3D BS Indie Rig Sony EX1/EX3 B cam setup for a full test run.

The mission: to see if the system can capture green screen footage for our first 3D documentary the way we want it to.

Stereographer Sean White mans the 3D beam splitter rig

We need these shots to create several of out our in-house visual effects, a style we prefer to classic documentary CGI because it allows us to explain extremely technical concepts in a photo-real atmosphere.

This means our transitions in and out of our footage are much more seamless … viewers can stay more immersed in the environment and focused on the story.

Here’s an example of our Blowdown VFX style:

Controlled Demolition Inc. President Mark Loizeaux outlines his demolition plan

The green screen footage we’ll need to include effects like this comes with an entirely different set of issues than the field shots we’ll have to tackle.

This environment is the most “studio” our event-based filming gets – the interviews aren’t scripted, but the lighting is set, the frame is stationary, and there’s opportunity for multiple takes.

But what we capture has to work in our compositor’s virtual environment or it’s completely useless.

Jakub Kuczynski, Parallax Film’s VFX artist, details these challenges:

We’ve thrown the footage over to post – we’ll see if it flies.

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.

Shooting a 3D documentary: Sony EX1’s genlock issue and how to get around it

I’ve turned to the Sony EX line to shoot B cam for our first 3D documentary, after we discovered that the two Canon 7Ds we planned to use can’t send an HDSDI signal to our Transvideo Cineform 3D Monitor.

Two Sony EX3s seem to be an intuitive choice, since this model has genlock in capability.

But we’re shooting an event-based explosive documentary series, Blowdown, in a derelict sports stadium in Salvador, Brazil, so having our gear as light and portable as possible is top priority.

Our stereographer, Sean White, hit the blogosphere to see if there was any way to lighten the load. He found a lead on DoP Alister Chapman’s blog.

It looks like we can pair one Sony EX3 with a Sony EX1: the EX1 lacks a genlock in, but according to Chapman only one of the cameras needs to have it … we can send signal from the EX1 into the EX3 and then send both to the monitor.

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The nano3D recorder and documentary filmmaking: a match made in stereoscopy?

With our B cam system in transit, I’ve focused back to the A cam setup for our first 3D documentary.

Our A cam equipment will have to capture all of our B roll, etc. for the next episode of Blowdown – the implosion of a massive sports stadium in Brazil.

We’ve nailed down the basic footage-capturing plan – two Iconix sensors with Fujinon lenses on a side-by-side rig.

But the Iconix aren’t like normal video cameras – no tapes, hard drives or flash cards. They “see” the footage and then spit it out.

So where are we going to store it?

If this were a scripted production, shot in a studio or on a controlled set, a tape or digital recording deck with a large array would be the way to capture the footage at the 100 MB/S or more, the minimum bitrate we need to satisfy broadcast requirements.

But because the Fonte Nova demolition is event-based and will take place in an industrial worksite, we need a recording system that’s cordless, portable (not too heavy, cumbersome), and hearty.

I think the nano3D will satisfy these criteria for us – it’s a just-minted twin drive designed to record stereoscopically and keep everything in sync between the two cameras.

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3D documentary filmmaking – the great splitter rig DSLR experiment

I’ve chosen cameras to test with our 3D Film Factory BS Indie Rig, two main parts of the B cam system we’ll need to shoot our first 3D documentary.

We plan to mount two Canon 7D DSLRs on the Indie Rig, a mid-sized model that’s currently being shipped to our production house.

Our stereographer, Sean White, chose the middle-of-the-road rig because he was worried that a small one wouldn’t allow for enough coverage when using a wide-angled lens, that the cameras would “see” the inside of the beam splitter box.

And a large rig was out of the question for the event-based, run-and-gun industrial-worksite shooting that’s required Blowdown, the explosive demolition series we’re going to shoot. Our stomping ground will be a huge, condemned sports stadium in Brazil!

But there’s a huge potential downside to our mid-sized, non-refundable rig – if the Canons don’t work, logistically or qualitatively, we won’t be able to mount larger, higher-calibre video cameras because the rig’s not big enough.

But it’s a gamble we have to take – as far as we can tell, there aren’t any other systems like this … no documentary has been filmed this way, using a hand-held self-contained unit.

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