‘STEREO IS MORE ABOUT GETTING THE RIGHT SKILLS IN PLACE RATHER THAN THE TECHNOLOGY’ 3D POST-PRODUCTION, p13


marily a creative one, so a stereographer is using depth as a creative tool to tell the story,” says Chris Parks, co-founder of 3D consultancy Vision3 and a sec- ond-unit stereographer on Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. “You don’t want the audience to necessarily notice convergence. You want them to subconsciously feel it but most directors aren’t aware how to achieve this.” Others do not agree stereographers


are indispensable to the creative out- come of a 3D project. “While a techni- cian is essential to fine-tune the rig, most stereographers just get in the way of the DoP’s need to control the picture,” argues cinematographer Geoff Boyle.


Technical challenges The basic technical approach requires two cameras to capture left and right-


CONVERSION: 2D TO 3D The rise of 3D has sparked industry debate about the pros and cons of converting a fi lm after a 2D shoot. Adrian Pennington reports


The rendering of 2D into 3D pitches proponents who argue it is a necessary creative option against critics who contend that poor-quality conversions risk damaging the 3D brand at the box offi ce. The technique itself is relatively straightforward


but requires extensive manual labour which can push costs up to $100,000 a minute, even if work is farmed out to places such as India or South Korea with lower wage bills. InThree, Prime Focus and Imax cornered the market for a short time with proprietary software but several visual-effects facilities, Mikros Image and Cinesite included, have begun to offer the service using their own code written for existing compositing tools. While each company goes about it slightly


differently, the requirements are broadly the same: the creation of a second identical version (to obtain a second eye view) and the isolation of foreground from background elements by rotoscoping, adding depth and then painting or animating in the gaps. “When you move an image in this way to create two views, the biggest problem is fi lling in and cleaning up the area left behind,” says Vision3 post-production supervisor Angus Cameron. While there are technologies which can automate


the process, doing it well requires attention to every frame. “The studios have to understand this isn’t a ‘press the button’ solution, but a creative process that requires a lot of time and careful decision-making,” says Cinesite managing director Antony Hunt. For this reason, conversions are not necessarily a


cheaper alternative to stereo shoots. Provided fi lms go into production with a view to being converted in post,


‘A stereographer is using depth as a creative tool to


tell the story’ Chris Parks, Vision3


eye images, positioned to mimic the human brain’s stereo vision through seeing two different angles of the same scene. Using 35mm fi lm to record stereo is


problematic since the differ- ences between the two eyes are just too variable. Digital cinematog- raphy can overcome these issues though synchro- nising the twin optics on a rig remains the single most diffi cult aspect of the chain to accomplish, not helped by the fact no two lenses are ever manufactured identically.


P+S TECHNIK’s Freestyle Rig


» Any misalignment at the point of cap-


ture will need to be rectifi ed in post-pro- duction or risk eye-strain as the audience’s eyes are pulled in divergent directions. On-set monitoring is critical to identify errors upfront rather than incur massive costs later. Cameras can be


rigged side by side — ideal for wide or estab- lishing shots — but the


physical distance between the


lenses makes close-ups impracti- cal. A second way is to fix cam- eras at right angles to each other, shooting through a mir- ror so the optical paths overlap. This has the disadvantage of introducing light


Alice In Wonderland was converted to 3D in post-production


and are therefore framed and edited with 3D in mind (for example, Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland), the argument is that conversion can deliver high-quality experiences which match natively shot stereo. Conversion can actually be a better alternative for


CG-intensive fi lms, where stereo capture is hardest, or for certain shots, for example instead of trying to squeeze two cameras and a rig into a moving car. “The cost of setting up 3D rigs for live action and the lack of experienced stereographers and cinematographers are other reasons to use conversion,” says Martin Hobbs, executive producer at Prime Focus London.


Directors might also prefer to shoot on fi lm instead


of digital for aesthetic reasons and post convert. Even Avatar contained some converted shots, suggesting that hybrid productions containing a mix of converted and native 3D will be routine for some time. Most of Europe’s established visual-effects houses


are set to add 2D-to-3D conversion services, though most will only perform a few shots on CG-heavy fi lms. Others such as Reliance ADA and Prime Focus, both with London branches and hundreds of seats in India on which to draw, are looking to capitalise on the nascent market for dimensionalising archive titles.


» European 3D special 2010 Screen International 9 ■


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