Session 5: A Case for Quality in Production and Post-Production
Speaker(s):
Buzz Hays, Executive Stereoscopic 3D Producer, 3D Technology Center, Sony Corporation of America
(Buzz produced the 3D version of G-Force and Monster House)
What constitutes ‘high quality?’
– technical considerations; resolution, artifacts, (mis)alignment (can damage the people working in Post!)
– aesthetic values; the artistry must be very high-quality. He has sent effects back to be improved. It can have a lot to do with understanding parallax and stereography.
– effect on the viewers; some people are seeing it for the first time and don’t yet understand what they are looking at. The audience will become more critical over time. There is also concern over fatigue and eyestrain. This is especially important now that it is coming to TV and people will be watching more 3D for longer periods.
Buzz received the completed version of Open Season and was asked to convert it to IMAX. It had scenes that didn’t work well in 3D. He used this to make the point that 3D must be considered in the pipeline regardless of plans to make it in 3D or not.
With Beowulf, Zemekis had a lot of experience in 3D, but was now telling a 2 hr. story to an older audience. How to sustain 3D moments without causing eye fatigue was a key concern. Phil McNally says that we’ve spent the last 200 years trying to convert the world to 2D. It has now become its own art form. We need to discover the fundamental language of 3D. Motion may tell the story much better than cutting does in 3D. Perhaps in 3D every shot is a point-of-view shot.
At the Sony 3D Technology Center they’ve started an educational program. Working with the Local 600 Guild they are focused on the Cinematographers. They will soon offer the program to Film and TV Directors as well. They are working with Live Events people to retrain them to instinctively work in 3D. In addition, they are reaching out to Game Developers to provide them with the education they need to optimize 3D game play experiences. Later in the year they will be producing an educational program for Editors.
Stereoscopic 3D Terminology and Techniques
– Basic Terms, physiology, good vs bad, examples of 3D content, 3D camera systems, storytelling in 3D, lighting (back to the notion that lighting is used for sculpting), shooting 2D for 3D, production and post-production, practical shooting experience (Sony Pictures sound stage with a 3ality camera where they offer a 1 day class and 2 days of hands-on shooting).
Terms
– interocular distance – distance between the eye centers, about 2.5”, dictates the scale at which we see the world. Our eyes don’t work like cameras. We usually shoot at a 1” or less interaxial distance.
– convergence – rotate the cameras inward, but not so much that you produce keystoning on the chip. It helps push infinity to the right distance. The keystoning produces vertical misalignment. Shooting 720p using a 1080p gives you enough information to fix the vertical misalignment in post.
– vergence accommodation – this is a key issue.
– negative parallax / positive parallax – negative is in front of the screen,(right -ye image is to the left of the left-eye image), positive is behind the screen (right eye image is on the right of the left-eye image)
– divergence – eyes point away from each other to fuse the object. At 1920 pixels on a 40’ screen, a 2.5” interocular distance means that more than10 pixels will cause divergence. Viewing the content improperly on a small monitor will produce massive divergence when the content is projected onto a big screen.
– orthostereoscopy – we now have a chance to create a condition that we couldn’t any other way. We can create a life-size experience with the audience. It can simulate sitting in the front row of a theatre because we know something about where people sit when they watch TV.
Techniques that can work differently in 2D and 3D: focal length, framing, blocking action, camera motion (it may be a better way to tell 3D stories), depth of field
Q&A
What one rule would you recommend? For home viewing, respect the personal space and push the 3D into and behind the screen plain.